Disclaimer: This article is based on my research and insights from industry leaders, along with my own assessments and predictions. While some of the predictions are speculative, others are based on likely or obvious outcomes. AI Overviews is a newly launched and evolving SERP feature, with ongoing testing and refinement. Given the volatile nature of the AI search space and limited data on its impact, these predictions may or may not be accurate, and future updates from Google could significantly alter the search landscape. Therefore, these insights should be taken with caution, as new developments may shift the landscape.

These developments raise four crucial questions.

• What is the potential impact of AI Overviews on traditional search?
• Will traditional search survive?
• What is the potential impact of AI chatbots & other AI-driven search engines on Google and traditional search?
• Will Google’s dominance in search eventually come to an end?

Let’s analyze and find answers to the first two questions in this part of the article series.

AI Overviews – Trends to Date

Let’s look at some conflicting stats and some opinions about the impact or possible impact of AI overviews on traditional search and organic traffic before I move on to discuss my opinions and assessments.

Here are some interesting and conflicting viewpoints, stats and reports on the impact of AI overviews:

• Publisher’s report ‘negligible’ traffic impact of Google AI overviews: Google AIOs haven’t significantly impacted their traffic. It is also to be noted that the rollout of AI Overviews has been limited and volatile. In July 2024, AIOs appeared only for 7% of the queries (which peaked at 15% in May).
• AI Overviews, which showed for only signed-in users, have started showing for signed-out users as well in the US: (expected to rollout for other markets as well) This shows that Google is determined to roll out AIOs fully and but it’s also doing it with a lot of caution given the criticisms and backlashes it has faced.
• Google AIOs appear with new citations and links: One of the biggest criticisms of AIOs or answers provided by AI chatbots in general was the lack of citations. Another concern was that the lack of links to the sources meant less traffic to the original sources and the ethnical concern regarding the use of original works of the publishers/authors for LLM training and not giving them due credits when the AI answers are inspired by their works. Though publishers work used for LLM training is an unresolved ethical (and legal) issue which may result in multiple legal battles eventually, for now, it seems Google is making efforts to show more citations and links to sources which may address two issues – publishers’ concerns regarding the potential loss of traffic and lack of reliability on the information provided without citations. This decision may also have come as a step to counter the upcoming OpenAI’s SearchGPT (refer to the discussion about it in part II of this article series).
• 99% of the time citations overlap with Google top 10 results: A recent analysis finds that 99% of the time, one or more of the cited sources in AI Overviews are from top 10 Google results in contrast to early days when Google usually cited sources that were not from top 10 Google results. This in a way indicates the continuing significance of blue links (that are powered by various ranking factors) and appearing in blue links increases your chances of appearing in AIOs.
• According to a survey conducted by annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Search and Social Media Study 2024, American are more satisfied with Google Search than a year ago (read after the launch of SGE) which is in contrast to the reports about Google losing the trust of users, SEO and advertisers and AIO’s launch has supposedly led to more searches and less satisfaction. Here the objective is not to question the authenticity and credibility of either the study or the reports but to present the contrasting views.

AIO (AI Overview) has been a disruptor in search landscape and a big change is always scary. In addition, with the AIOs going through multiple phases of rollouts and rollbacks (scaling up and scaling down of the visibility of the AIOs across results) after the backlashes and criticisms it faced because of the search quality issues and with the rising publishers concerns over the impact of AIOs on CTRs and traffic to their sites have all added more to the uncertainty and chaos.

Moreover, there’s no clear data available to measure the impact of AIOs on CTRs, clicks and traffic to the sites (for example, GSC, for now, doesn’t provide the data related to AIOs separately) adding more to the unpredictability. The good part is that SEO tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs have added AI Overviews as an SERP feature filter which can get you data related to your site’s or competitor sites’ visibility in AIOs and the keywords for which AIOs appear. This may help in broadly understanding the impact that AIOs may have in search related to specific niche or segment but the impact on CTRs, clicks and traffic may not be accurately measured, at the moment.

Understanding Google’s Objectives with AIOs

One of the core objectives of Google is to help users find the right content/information in shortest possible time (shorter search time) and thus user satisfaction can be achieved.

Managing User Satisfaction and Engagement to Stay Ahead in the AI Race

User satisfaction is achieved by serving quality search results (including content served in the search results) and they find quality content on the websites they visit via the search results.

On top of that what Google primarily wants is that, like any other website or platform, it wants users to spend more time on search results – find the answer/information right there or when the right information is not found, go for query refinement (or AIO repeat search) or wiggle through the multi-format search results to find what you are looking for in the search results as much as possible rather than moving away from the search results to other websites in search of answers or information they are looking for. Though it can never be 100% possible, but ‘as much as possible’ is the keyword here.

This may be contrary to the trust and understanding between Google and the publishers and this may also, at some level, be contrary to or work against one of the objectives of Google, i.e. to help user find the right information in the shortest possible time because AIO and multi-format results may also in many cases overwhelm the users, and prevent them from reaching the right web page for answers instead they may end up wiggling through the rabbit hole called AI overviews-based refinements and multi-format search features; however Google has its own compelling reasons to push its search landscape in this direction – let’s discuss those.

In the early days and for many years, Google-publishers relationship was paramount and sending traffic to the publishers that deserved the traffic (due to the quality of their content) was important for Google and for the ecosystem to thrive. The relationship was mutually beneficial. Has anything changed now? Yes, publishers are still important for Google’s ecosystem to thrive however Google has gained more bargaining power now compared to the publishers in this relationship due to the power of their knowledge vault (that they have built over time) and with integrated Generative AI – they are less dependent on publishers to provide the kind of information that the users are looking for – Google has turned into an answer and conversational engine in it’s true sense with the arrival of AI Overviews (AIOs). Yes, there are a lot of inconsistencies and gaps in the AI-generated results which will be resolved over time.

Rise in Zero-clicks, On-platform Content Consumption

Another big reason for this shift is that with various platforms like social media platforms, AI chat bots etc competing with Google for more user ‘engagement time’, it’s important from business perspective for Google to showcase increased user engagement on the search results rather than just acting as a platform that facilitates user navigation towards other websites. Google will have to retain and grow that user segment that prefers on-platform (zero-clicks) answers and recommendations where Google is in direct competition with social media platforms and AI chat bots.

Since on-platform content consumption is on the rise, Google has no option but to move in that direction and thus giving rise to the era of ‘zero-clicks’ in search results. It also makes sense to serve more direct answers (as much as possible) in the era of short attention span and impatience to cater to that segment of the audience.

Adapting to the Trend to Sustain and Grow Ad Revenue

The third possible reason maybe to pick on the opportunity and leverage the changing landscape to give a real boost to ad clicks and bring down the organic clicks. Remember, Google, at the end of the day, is a commercial entity, it won’t spare any opportunity to generate maximum revenue possible through all possible means – it’s a pure speculation – Google may find ways to lead users to click more on ads when AIO starts featuring ads. AIO-based ads are going to be interesting where the ads maybe presented as relevant recommendations along the user’s search journey vis-à-vis the traditional search ads. We are certain that Google will roll out ads in AIOs sometime sooner or later and in fact the testing ads in AI overviews is currently underway.

Another argument made is that Google now, with the changing trend and sensing the opportunity, may be testing with AIOs to shorten the search-based purchase journey – quickly guide the searchers through the top and middle stages of the funnel with tailored content and recommendations and help them reach the bottom of the funnel to make the final purchase. More users reaching the transactional search phase, more the opportunities to show ads – remember, with AIOs guiding the searchers during the transaction search phase as well, there is an opportunity to show back-to-back ads in the AI Overviews with refined search and follow-up questions.

If this works the way Google may want and succeeds at making shoppers’ job easy with the right recommendations and guiding them through the purchase journey, will Google be able to recover a good percentage of product search volume that it has lost to Amazon and alike over the years?

Well, it will be interesting to watch how the AIO-based ads are going to disrupt the organic search and clicks, searchers’ journey and the paid search space.

Does this all mean that Google wants to do away with the traditional search in favour of AIOs gradually and become a full-blown conversation aka recommendation engine that only shows answers?

The short answer is that the traditional search is not going away anytime soon and we will discuss the reasons behind the same in the later part of the article, however given the fact that Google is competing with multiple players in the search landscape (read the second part of this article series where I discuss about the big bang changes in the non-Google search landscape and the strategies that Google has adopted to compete better with its competitors), particularly when the AI race is getting intense day by day, the launch of AIO was inevitable and Google wants to bring the best of both the worlds – AI-driven answer and recommendation engine plus the traditional search that will cater to the different segments of the audience.

While the Google-publishers ecosystem and traditional search, being Google’s core search model till now, is still important for Google, the push to enable users adopt and get used to the AIOs as well along with the traditional search is important to prevent the AI-awed users from completely switching to and become habitual to AI Chatbots like ChatGPT and alike.

Potential Impact of AI Overviews (AIOs) on Traditional Search: Implications for Publishers and Website Owners

Impact on Click Through Rate (CTR):

With the raise of zero-clicks trend and with AIOs appearing on top with the option to ask follow-up questions and query refinements, and on top of that ads occupying the top spots, it’s a no brainer to predict that there will continue be a decline in CTR for the blue links (considered as traditional search). Trends already show decline in CTR.

However, the magnitude of the impact depends on many factors like the SERP construct in your niche, percentage and frequency of the appearance of the ads and AIOs in search, your site’s position in the SERP for the given keywords that you rank for and more importantly how soon and what percentage of searchers/users get used to AIOs and change their search/clicking habits vs percentage of searchers/users stick to and prefer old ways to search/clicking (remember, it’s hard to change habits particularly with the older population which is a factor to be considered here).

Sites holding top positions in traditional search will be on the losing side however the good part is that the top-ranking websites usually enjoy high authority and thus, their chances of appearing in AIOs also go up and this may mitigate the loss to an extent.

Moreover, Google has already moved to a multi-format search result with filters and users get overwhelmed with options and with AIOs, searchers are spoilt with options thereby the visibility and attention followed by clicks get divided among multiple options. The decline in CTR has already been happening but with AIOs, we may see a bigger impact.

Callout: Anna Crowe predicts that AI leads to 60% decrease in average CTR however I don’t see such a drastic decline in CTR happening across, rather such drastic decline in CTR may happen in certain scenarios only. For example, for a Tofu keyword where user may get satisfied with a short or summarized answer, the decline in CTR may go beyond 60%.

Another interesting perspective from Microsoft Bing’s Fabrice Canel is that while AI Answers or recommendations with links may lead to less click volume but more qualified clicks. Will AI answers or AIOs lead to better results served that precisely match user intent and thereby sending more relevant traffic to the websites? Well, if that happens eventually, it may turn out to be a win-win situation for all the stakeholders involved!

Impact on Ranking:

Searches where traditional blue links get pushed down by ads and AIOs and depending on how much space does AIO occupy, you lose positions and thus your visibility goes down. So, top positions in traditional blue links are no more the same as it used to be. Appearing in AIOs and other top performing SERP features in your niche (for potential keywords) should be your primary goal along with securing the top positions in blue links.

Impact on Organic Traffic:

A study conducted by Gilad David Maayan, CEO and Founder of Agile SEO, based on analysing 23 websites concluded that the aggregate organic traffic drop as a result of SGE (now AIOs) was 18-64%. Anna Crowe also predicts that the organic traffic loss could be 30%.

While we all know and agree that with AIOs, emerging Zero Clicks trend and growing combination of SERP features impacting the impression share and click share, the organic traffic to websites will continue to see a decline however percentage of the loss in organic traffic to websites may widely vary and will depend on multiple factors and that’s the reason why you see a wide outcome range from the study done by Gilad David Maayan. On the other hand, you may also experience a surge in organic traffic to your site if you get featured well in AIOs across your target keywords.

New Opportunities:

Initially, it looked like direct AI-generated answers may become a nightmare for publishers, however with the increase in citations in AIOs and that too appearing like the traditional blue links in a listed format, it looks like traditional search overshadowed by another traditional search in a different format. Though, CTR may still be a concern because unlike traditional search, in case of AIOs, answer is already served in a neat and summarized format and links are just for further reading only plus the ranking in AIOs may be very volatile and dynamic however AIOs with rich citations still open new opportunities for publishers to get featured and be visible on top.

So, it’s not all bad, there are many bright spots too. To answer the question, will traditional search survive? If we consider only blue links as traditional search – yes, the traditional search as we know maybe fading into the background – however, there are some strong factors (discussed below) that may help it survive and if we consider all the clickable results on the search results as traditional, then we should rather say that the traditional search is evolving! As long as links continue to appear in search results, clicks will continue to happen. As long as links appear and clicks are happening, the traditional search lives on! Google Ads VP, Shashi Thakur, also ascertains that how AI Overviews appearing with links result in users clicking on the links which supports this argument that I make.

Impact on TOFU (Top of the Funnel) searches/keywords:

It is a no brainer to say that AIOs impact the informational queries the most. With quick answers and option to ask follow-up questions to get a refined and updated answers, AIOs are likely to impact the CTR significantly and traffic to informational pages/websites.

AIOs will also change the search query patterns as people are most likely to ask more specific questions and use conversational queries.

However, while AIOs may increase zero click searches, there will be a saturation point beyond which clicks will continue to happen as there are many scenarios where people want to click and move to the web pages to read further about the topics. A few of the scenarios are strong habit to read comfortably with focus on the web page, need additional information, which is not provided by AIO, need to gain additional perspective or to read expert commentaries, reading a multi-format content on a web page gives you a different experience compared to reading long-form answers on a search result etc.

Reputed websites with high quality, interactive and engaging content that brings first-hand experience and perspectives from the experts will continue to enjoy high visibility and grab a high share of the clicks.

On top of that, if your site gets featured in the AIO citations, the CTR and clicks maybe on the higher side.

If your website has high visibility for informational queries and you are dependent on informational traffic, then it’s high time you started auditing your content if it lacks the format required to survive in the AIO era and if it lacks quality, first-hand information, unique opinions or perspectives from experts and overall if it doesn’t offer something new, it’s time to go for a massive content revamp.

Impact on MOFU (Middle of the Funnel) searches/keywords:

MOFU, being the consideration phase, the research gets more serious, and users would ideally get more cautious about where the information presented is coming and thus, credibility of the sources matter more and so is the brand awareness.

Unlike the AIOs for TOFU keywords which may cause significant zero-clicks, the AIOs for MOFU keywords, I believe, may have a moderate to low impact on clicks and CTR. In other words, people may prefer to visit websites to get detailed comparisons, reviews and opinions from experts. Here are the reasons with some examples:

Here’s an example of a TOFU search/keyword (refer to the above screenshot) for which you have the answer on top. Many people may not want to read it in detail but may want to just know what it is. So, for queries like these, zero clicks may happen. Having said that there are many TOFU keywords for which users may want to deep dive and learn further (there is a segment of users who always have the tendency to deep dive and research).

For MOFU keywords/search, my assessment is that a significant segment of users may not be okay with the quick answers and rather would want to deep dive and understand what the experts say as it’s the consideration phase.

In this example, the AIO lists out the best fitness apps however it’s not clear on what basis these apps have been listed out as the best vs. checking this list on a fitness blog managed by fitness experts makes more sense. Secondly, I may want to read more about these apps and their features and compare to see what makes them the best and which one is suitable for me. Don’t you think the citations appearing at the right are tempting enough for the users to click and read further; particularly the one that says (see the screenshot) – “we’ve tested the best workout apps 2024 for at-home training”.

Here’s another example below where the users may want to go to a blog post authored by a subject matter expert in the consideration phase rather than a compilation done by AIO which may lack the context that the users may want.

Should I trust the AI-generated answer here or click the Forbes article (see the screenshot) and read the full post written by an expert in the field?

Google, as mentioned before, has also started experimenting with the idea of shortening the user journey from discovery to purchase by disrupting the MOFU phase; product results or product card display in AI Overviews for MOFU keywords is already happening.

Image source: SERanking.com

If product grids start appearing in AI overviews across TOFU and MOFU keywords along with ads in AI Overviews, will that shorten the purchase curve? Well, it’s highly possible that a segment of searchers may get attracted towards the products and end up abruptly abandoning the research phase and move to the purchase phase. So yes, there’s a possibility of a considerable click share maybe taken away by the AI Overview results. It is to be noted that the CTR of the MOFU results leading to MOFU content/pages may get impacted. However, on the other hand, a significant segment of the searchers that prefer to complete their research will not abandon the research phase abruptly. It also depends on the industry, nature of the product and the pricing. For ex: for low value products, the research phase matters less compared to the kind of research required before you make the decision to purchase high value products.

Impact on BOFU searches/Keywords:

As far as our research goes, AI Overviews are not appearing for purchase keywords rather shopping ads, regular search ads inconsistently, followed by popular products/product grids dominate the top results, however sooner we’ll most probably see AI Overviews with product recommendations and product ads in the search results for BOFU keywords.

How will AI Overviews impact the BOFU searches/keywords? The product grids, the recently rolled out SERP feature may already be affecting the CTR of the blue links. So, no wonder, with additional SERP features appearing in search results, the click share gets further divided which will have an impact on CTR.

The click share will get divided however it’s obvious that the percentage of zero clicks will be lower compared to TOFU or MOFU searches as the clicks must happen for shopping and transactions to happen and that’s the user intent behind BOFU searches.

The probability of zero clicks is comparatively lower (though scenarios like follow up questions or query refinement may contribute to the same) and the AI Overview for BOFU searches may merely act as a recommendation section which may point to a mix of category, product and review pages along with tailored recommendations. Since the user intent is to make a purchase at this stage, the clicks to reviews maybe considerably lower compared to the clicks to the category and product detail pages.

AI Overviews for BOFU Searches will not cause as much zero clicks that TOFU followed by MOFU searches will, but it will take away a share of clicks and thus it will impact the CTR of product grids and the blue links for sure.

The interesting thing about AI-driven AI overviews for BOFU keywords is that it has the potential to bring the exact products that the searchers are looking for, for niche and specific queries and thereby the AI Overviews results may attract better share of clicks. For example, for a query like ‘buy waterproof leather hiking boots for women with arch support size 8’. Well, with users getting habitual to AI driven search, complex and niche queries like these will become more common.

Another question that needs to be asked is what percentage of users will click the AIO links or ask follow-up questions and wiggle through the AIO guided results vs the percentage that will skip through the AIOs and end up clicking any of the product grid results or the blue links (mostly category pages)?

Well, my assessment is that it depends on the audience segment; in this scenario, I would like to segment shoppers into two types – casual shoppers and meticulous shoppers. For example, exceptions apart, men are usually casual shoppers and women are meticulous shoppers – they tend to do thorough research, ask a lot of questions, go through reviews, consider multiple options before zeroing in on one product. AI Overviews guided purchase will be helpful for meticulous shoppers vs casual shoppers may straight away do a Google search and end up clicking on any of the top 5 blue links. I personally like to Google and head straight to Amazon by clicking on the Amazon link from the search results when I find Amazon ranking on top (Note: sometimes I head straight to the Amazon app and sometimes I may head to Google as I want to explore the options and most of the time I prefer to click on any of the top ranking blue links)  and if I don’t find the right product on Amazon (which is very unlikely), I may end up considering other reputed e-tailers ranking on top. There are two reasons for me to do that; I’m usually overwhelmed by the multi-modal search results that get generated by Google (too many options to consider) and secondly It saves my time.

So, a segment of the audience will get adapted to the new-age shopping search powered by AI Overviews (mostly women and Gen-Z) and a segment of users who find it hard to change habits or they are more of casual shoppers who want to save time and don’t really bother to explore multiple options (mostly men and millennials and older generations) will continue to stick to the traditional search. There will also emerge a messy middle from both the segments and other segments which will overlap and oscillate between multi-format results that Google throws up for purchase queries. It is to be noted that personalization, query type and real-time factors will also impact searchers behaviour.

Callout: here is another contrary and interesting perspective from Danny Goodwin that the blue links may completely disappear from the All search which will be replaced by AIOs only and thereby paving the way for search to become like the computer from “Star Trek”.

He quotes former Google Chief Technology Officer Craig Silverstein (2003).

“When search grows up, it will look like Star Trek: you talk into the air (“Computer! What’s the situation down on the planet?”) and the computer processes your question, figures out its context, figures out what response you’re looking for, searches a giant database in who-knows-how-many languages, translates/analyses/summarises all the results, and presents them back to you in a pleasant voice. I think this technology is about, oh, 300 years off.”

He goes on to write that links will now live in Web Filter.

My take: with the pace at which AI advancements have been happening in the last few years, nothing can be ruled out however I strongly see that links will not disappear from the mainstream search results (All) anytime soon because of multiple factors: links are sources and credits. They are strongly the need and support of the current search behaviour and habits which will remain consistently for a very long period. Google strongly favours multi-modal search, and links are integral part of the same (also refer to Sundar Pichai’s quote mentioned below on the importance of links). Multi-modal search result is a great differentiator (at least as of now) from AI Chatbots. To address that user segment which may want AI Overview only screen, Google may encourage them to use Gemini standalone App (as they pit it against ChatGPT alike) but killing traditional search (aka links) will not happen for a very long period. The final big reason for Google not to do that so is that their multi-billion dollars advertising business heavily relies on traditional search and link clicks.

Summing up

Yes, there is no doubt that AI Overviews (AIOs) will have a significant impact on changing SERP user behaviour and thereby impacting your clicks, CTR, organic traffic and your search visibility however does that mean traditional search (SERP links) are going to become graveyards eventually and users will mostly consume content on SERPs only?

The short answer it no and here’s why I think the traditional search will survive, evolve and thrive in different forms but will continue to keep crushing it.

My definition of traditional search is that you search, you are shown the results and then you click on a link to move to a web page or app page to further read, see, watch or consume content there and not on the platform itself.

The traditional search of the past i.e. 10 blue links has already been changing drastically even before AIOs came into existence  – featured snippets, local pack, sitelinks, top stories, image pack, videos, discussions and forums, knowledge card, knowledge panel, people also ask, related searches and more – the search results have been muti-format for a very long time now and the search results have been overwhelming the users with options including many click options (including the clicks that take you to another result within Google) – so, for the sake of our discussions going forward in this article and technically speaking, the traditional search is not the 10 blue links anymore – so, when we say traditional search, we are referring to the modern day SERPs minus the newly launched AIOs that may contribute to the rise in Zero-clicks.

Yes, the rise of Zero-clicks is evident, and the statistics are out there and yes, there will be a considerable decline in clicks (majorly I believe for informational queries) however once the dust settles, the traditional search will thrive and evolve as it has always been.

7 Reasons Traditional Search Will Survive, Evolve, and Stay Relevant

• 1. Hard to Change Habit – The Google users of today are habitual to traditional search, clicks and visiting the websites and apps from the search results. As the saying goes, habits are hard to break. Adapting to and engaging with new SERP features will be slow among the millennials and the older generations vs the Gen Zs. Yes, AI Overviews and Zero clicks trend will grow at the cost of traditional search (impacting clicks and traffic to the sites/apps) however there will come a saturation point beyond which both AI Overviews and traditional search will continue to coexist. 
• 2. Hard to Consume Long-form Content on SERP – we have always seen featured answers appearing on top of Google results for a long time now for many informational queries however they are short and crisp and easy to read. It provides the basic quick information that the users are looking for and for any further reading if required, we click and proceed to read the content on the page. However, AIO Overviews many a times create long-form answers.
• In the world of short attention span and short-form content trending, a large segment of users still prefer to consume long-form content (which is evident from the fact that long-form content continues to attract a lot of traffic) and others who generally prefer to consume short-form content, also prefer to consume long-form content in various scenarios such as when they are in the research phase for example.
• The point being, long-form content is better viewed and consumed on the web pages compared with consuming it on SERP hence my assessment is that to consume long form content, people will continue to click and visit web pages.  
• 3. User Segments that Prefer to Click will continue to Exist – no matter what being said about links losing importance, Internet cannot exist without links and as long as there are links, clicks will happen. Google, to align with the trend, is inclining towards on-SERP content, but modern-day SERPs compared to the past have more links (against only 10 blue links) and hence there’s no sign of us moving towards a complete zero-clicks, on-SERP content consumption scenario. 
• 4. Google is not Instagram – with the rise in social search, on-platform content consumption and on-platform purchase increasing on social platforms, this trend is often cited these days to argue that similar on-SERP content consumption is on the rise on Google and thus traditional search is gradually losing its importance. 
• There’s no denying that on-SERP content consumption is an emerging trend, and zero clicks is on the rise, and this has already started impacting the traditional search however what is to be understood is that beyond the saturation point, traditional search will effectively coexist with on-SERP content.
• Instagram and other social media platforms are discovery platforms, and yes – Google also helps in discovery however being a search engine at its core, users visiting Google have a different objective compared to Instagram alike. Google attracts users (pull driven) with clear intent vs social media platforms attracts users who visit the platforms for entertainment, to spend their leisure time and for content discovery (push-driven). Thus, on social media platforms, users tend to stay on the platform and consume on the platform itself. The intention to click is low and that too on Instagram content is not clickable whereas on Google, inevitably it’s impossible to meet the user intent always with on-SERP content. The depth, expertise and experience that web pages offer is unmatched and thus click-based content consumption will not cease to exist.
• People not only visit Google to find and consume content but also to discover websites and apps and many a times Google is a mere navigation platform through which they navigate to the websites (for example, they already know what websites they want to visit but instead of typing in the URLs, it becomes easier to use Google search for navigation).  
• 5. Website Experience is a Differentiator – shopping on a website or an app is quite an experience so is consuming content on web pages. There will always be audience who prefer on-platform consumption, so will there be audience who prefer to discover websites/apps through these platforms but consume content on the websites and apps. This experience is a huge differentiator which will continue to motivate people to click on the search results and navigate to the websites.
• eBooks couldn’t finish off printed books, stats don’t lie! When Chatbots were much talked about as the next big thing many years ago. It was predicted that Chatbots will completely replace by Websites and Apps  and I wrote a counter article arguing how Chatbots will not kill websites and apps.
• What is the primary reason? Experience! The detailed information, the browsing and shopping experience (many people prefer to browse and shop – more than purchasing, they enjoy the process of shopping) and the visual experience that websites and apps provide in a format that cannot be matched neither by a Chatbot window (at least in the current form) nor by the search engine result pages.
• 6. Expert Opinions Matter and so does brand power of the websites – I would rather like to read about ‘heartburn’ on Mayo Clinic or WebMD (trusted websites where articles are written by qualified medical practitioners) than reading an AI Overview answer (which may not be always reliable). I would read a gadget review on Tech Crunch rather than on SERP.
• This is not to say people don’t read about heartburn or a product review on SERP, a segment of users does and so does another segment of users that prefers to hear it from the experts directly and they tend to consume content from trusted websites. People may Google a topic to get a wider perspective and to find the sources and then choose to pick websites where they actually want to consume content.
• 7. Trust Issues with AI Answers – AI answers are not always reliable and hence a considerable user segment that is cautious may not rely on AI generated on SERP content rather they would prefer to consume content created by experts on trusted websites however they use Google as a platform to find those reliable sources. This pretty much adds weight to the previous point.

AI Overviews is undoubtedly a disruptor and is impacting the traditional search to a considerable extent. AI Overviews is contributing to the rise of Zero-clicks and thereby impacting CTR and traffic to the websites however the percentage of Zero-clicks that is continuing to raise now will stabilize at some point (another possibility is that the decline in CTR and traffic may not remain the same, this could well possibly be the initial surge in interest to check it out or test it out by the users which may come down and stabilize eventually) and the clicks will continue to happen as long as links appear in search results and as long as links continue to appear, traditional search will live on, evolve and stay relevant in different formats.

I quote Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai on the importance of links and thereby implying how traditional search will co-exist with AIOs which pretty much summarizes the arguments I’ve made above.

“I think part of what makes Google Search differentiator is while there are times we give answers, it’ll always link to a wide variety of sources. We’ve had answers in Search now for many, many years. We are just now using generative AI to do that.”

“I think [links will] always be an important part of Search.”

“There will be times when they want quick answers. My son is celiac, so we did a quick question to see whether something is gluten-free. We just want to know. But often it leads to more things, and then you want to explore more. I think understanding that, meeting all that needs, is part of what makes Search unique.”

Source: Search Engine Land

Having said that, it is not to say that the emerging trend of Zero Clicks or the dominance of AI Overviews is to be ignored, many thought leaders have already started talking about the emergence of On-SERP SEO and the importance of building the brand presence in the SERPs by focusing on building and optimizing Zero-click content. There are tons of articles already published on strategies to build zero-click content and build your brand presence in zero-click results. Go, Google it!

More than Zero Clicks, the bigger concern is about the multiple click options that search results continue to serve with a growing number of SERP features which is likely impacting your CTR and click share depending on where you rank on the SERPs.

Multiple refinement in queries, follow up or query stacking resulting in increase in searches (It is predicted that the searches per day may increase by 6X due to AIOs which is actually contrary to Google’s core idea to help users find answer or information faster) and the rise in new keywords plus the search query length (the long tails/Q&A type queries), due to AIO driven search habits are the other trends and their impact that we need to keep a watch on.

In this part (third-part) of the four-part article series, we focused on analysing the possible impact of AI Overviews on traditional search across clicks, CTR, organic traffic, keyword type-based search results and impressions however we didn’t discuss the impact of AI chatbots and other AI-driven search engines’ impact on Google search and how these factors may in turn have an impact on organic traffic coming to websites and Apps from Google.

In the final part of the four-part article series, we shall discuss, analyse and find answers to the following questions:

• What is the potential impact of AI chatbots and other AI-driven search engines on Google and traditional search?
• Will Google’s dominance in search eventually come to an end?  

Stay Tuned!

The post The Potential Impact of Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) on traditional search. appeared first on TheiMarketingCafe.

For a long time now, many of us in the SEO community have been saying this on various platforms that it’s time SEOs started looking at search beyond Google as search happens on various platforms like other search engines, app stores, e-commerce platforms like Amazon, chatbots and social networks and more. Omni channel search is both implicit and explicit in nature and thus it’s important that we take a holistic approach towards optimizing our content/web assets across platforms. In addition, emerging technologies such as Physical Web, BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) and IOT (Internet of Things) are going to disrupt the search landscape in a bigger way, and last but not the least, with the AI integrated capabilities (the AI disruption in search has already been in full swing) that will drive these technologies, the search landscape is going to be highly dynamic in the future like never before.

Now, reread the definition of SEO that I proposed long back (mentioned in the part I of this article series) considering the holistic and ever-growing nature of the search landscape and go through this article written by me as well that captured these emerging trends way back in 2016.

Now, let’s discuss the recent developments in the non-Google search landscape that has led Google to speed up the AI move and other significant changes that we see in the Google search landscape related to it.

The recent developments in the non-Google search landscape and Google’s strategies to stay ahead in the game.

Amazon’s growing dominance over product search

Amazon has been a quite a threat to Google in the product search space for a long time now. It was reported in 2018 that Amazon surpassed Google for product searches for the first time and last year it was reported that 50% of the product searches start on Amazon.

Google also has competition from many other ecommerce platforms including platforms like Alibaba, eBay, Walmart, Shopee, Flipkart and Lazadaa etc. that have strong local presence in some markets.

Google Shopping has the reach, however Amazon growing as a dominant force in ecommerce search is a big threat for Google to deal with.

Not to mention about Amazon’s recent partnership with TikTok and Pinterest which will facilitate Integration of these platforms with Amazon and the users can make purchases through Amazon without ever leaving the respective social media platforms. This is the best of social commerce and Amazon coming together!

So, here are some of the key steps that Google has taken so far to counter Amazon and similar competitors.

Free Product Listings: Google introduced free product listings to show up in Google results in 2020, and the listings are eligible to show on Shopping Tab, Google Search, Google Images and YouTube.

Introduction of Product Grids: Google displaying product listings in search has evolved and gone to the next level with the introduction of product grids in the form of popular product carousel or grids, Deals product grids and fast pickup or delivery grid. The roll out of the same has happened in the US and a gradual roll out in testing phase has been happening in other markets as well. If you want to understand how product grid ranking works, I recommend reading this brilliant article from Brodie Clark.

Google Results Evolving into Category Pages: The significant part of this development is that Google which has always dominantly ranked category page listings in regular search results, has started showing more PDPs (Product detail pages) in the search results in the form of these product grids turning the search results for ecommerce keywords look pretty much like ecommerce category pages.

 Source: This point is inspired by a LinkedIn post (prediction 2) by Chris Long, VP of Marketing at Go Fish Digital.

On top of it, Google has topped up the ecommerce related results with enhancements like faceted navigations and filters, visual treatments (aka images and videos), rich snippet data like pricing, delivery, discounts, return policies etc. This can be termed as a clear move to take on Amazon and alike. Moreover, showing mixed results that include product reviews and buying guides may truly enrich the consumer journey from search, explore to purchase.

Source: This point is inspired by a LinkedIn post (prediction 2) by Chris Long, VP of Marketing at Go Fish Digital.

Think about this: Google results turning into category pages displaying the products with all the category page filters and enhancements you can think of and taking you directly to the respective product detail pages for purchase.

Google Shopping Graph: Just like knowledge graph, Google has unmatched data on the products and sellers that they leverage to their advantage via it’s Google Shopping Graph.

AI Overviews: AI based product recommendations may turn out to be a big disruptor in the ecommerce space which I’ll discuss in the next part of this four-part article series.

The Emergence of ChatGPT and the AI Race

The emergence of ChatGPT and a wave of other AI chatbots that entered the market within a short period and became powerful answer engines in the hands of the public set the alarm bells ringing at Google. (we will discuss the impact of this development in the fourth part of this article series). Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai declared “Code Red” and Google’s founder Larry Page and Sergey Brin were called in for help.

How did Google respond to this threat that took them by surprise? Google hurriedly launched Bard, a ChatGPT alternative which later became Gemini. The first mover advantage and it’s continuous improvisation, integrations and upgraded product launch like GPT-4o has kept ChatGPT ahead in terms of popularity than Gemini so far, though no one knows what the future holds.

Google came under fire for the hurriedly launched product (which was already under development) and some of the poor answers it generated and similar issues continue to still emerge with Gemini.

The other big step that it took to counter ChatGPT was the launch of SGE, now AI overviews – this was logically the best step that they could have taken; with the ChatGPT like AI-based chat feature and the capability to provide follow-up answers, powered by Google’s massive knowledge vault, AI overviews is supposed to provide the best of both the worlds.

Let’s discuss about the criticisms on AI overviews and their possible impact on the traditional search in the next part of this article series.

Apart from AI overviews, what else has Google done to counter the impact of ChatGPT and alike?

The launch of Google Perspective, now called Forum – a separate search tab/filter that features long form and short-form videos, images and written posts from forums/discussion boards, Q&A sites, and social media platforms. The best part, the content will have details of the content creators such as their name, profile, and the popularity of the content.

We already know about the feature i.e. Top Stories that feature news-related perspectives from note-worthy voices and sources.

It is also worthy to be mentioned that the hidden gems ranking system launched many months ago is believed to help Google achieve the above objective.

On top of that, the launch of the helpful content system is meant to give a boost to people-first content (content made for people rather than for just organic clicks) that brings uniqueness, user satisfaction, new perspectives (refer information gain score) and most importantly, content vetted by or written by subject matter experts and/or based on first-hand experience (content based on EEAT concept) is ideally supposed to rank better.

Remember the Reddit partnership we discussed about in the first part; since then, Google has started giving a boost in ranking to a lot of Reddit threads across topics. Reddit threads ideally attract experience-based and expertise-based opinions on various topics and being perceived as a strictly moderated platform, the Reddit threads in search is supposed to contribute to Google’s objective of bringing content based on first-hand experience.

[note: please note that there’s a lot of criticism about the deteriorating quality of Google results, particularly, after the rollout of AI overviews however, we have only discussed about Google’s intention behind the above explained steps to combat competition rather than making any claims in favour or against the quality of the results or the effectiveness of Google’s moves to take on the competition].

What is the one major thing (among probably others) that ChatGPT and other similar AI chatbots lack as of now compared to Google? it’s the humane touch, which can be a competitive advantage in the world of AI, which Google attempts to amplify by bringing content created by the people (rather than machine-generated answers with or without sources most of the time) who have first-hand experience or knowledge about the topics that they talk about, for the users.

Note: the above point is partly inspired by a LinkedIn post (Prediction 3) by Chris Long, VP of Marketing at Go Fish Digital.  

As I write this article, OpenAI (that created ChatGPT) threw in a surprise by announcing a product – SearchGPT, which may become a potential competitor to Google. This is an AI-powered search engine (currently under testing) that can access information in real time from across the web. It will have the capabilities to provide summarized answers to the queries with links to relevant sources and can engage in conversations with the users. This may potentially address one of the biggest issues (as mentioned above) that the current version of ChatGPT has i.e. lack of links to the sources many a times. Will SearchGPT emerge as a Google Alternative? We shall discuss the possibilities in the fourth part of this article series.

The Rise of TikTok and Social Search

The trends show that TikTok and other social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram have evolved into powerful social search engines. These platforms are used for search and discovery. Social search is popular among Gen Z and the Millennials are also gradually getting on board with this trend.

40% of Americans use TikTok as search engine. This clearly shows the growing popularity of social search and why SEOs shouldn’t ignore this emerging trend in search.

Having said that, all these reports also highlight the point that Google and other traditional search engines still dominate the search market share and these search engines’ dominance in search will not be impacted in a significant way anytime soon.

Moreover, the rise in social search doesn’t mean that large part of that comes at the cost of traditional search. There may be a lot of overlapping and cross platform search behaviour which these stats and reports may not have captured.

This article written by Lucy Thomas on Eye Killer, explains some of the reasons behind the growing popularity of social search. The younger consumers more actively use social media platform for search, discovery and inspiration.

Here I summarize some of the important points she has mentioned as the reasons behind the growing popularity of social media usage for search and discovery among the young population:

• Personalized feed and contextually relevant results. It’s claimed to take minimal efforts to find the right content compared to traditional search engines.
• Digestible content – short videos and visually appealing content makes it easier for information consumption in the world of short attention span.
• Authentic, real-time user-generated content that brings first-hand experience.
• Social media providing a sense of community and authenticity.

Now, what are Google’s move towards bridging this gap in search?

As the saying goes, “If you can’t beat them, join them! Google decided to actively promote social media content in its search results – as mentioned before, Google launched AI-powered ‘perspectives’ which is now called ‘Forum’ which is a tab in the Google search menu that brings UGC (User-generated content) from across board ranging from videos from social media sites to posts from forum threads. So, how does this move counter social search? – you get to see personalized and contextually relevant results (logging in helps with personalization) from not one social media platform but with multiple platforms and these pieces of content that rank, are in digestible format. These are authentic and user-generated content based on first-hand experience. These results also help you navigate to the respective social media platforms where the related conversations are happening and start engaging with the community.

In the next part of this four-part article series (to be published soon), we shall discuss next discuss the possible impact of Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) on traditional search.

The post Part II: SEO in 2024 and Beyond: Understanding the Chaos appeared first on TheiMarketingCafe.

Key SEO Trends: Connecting the Dots from the past to the Present.

Connecting the Dots from the Past

In 2016, 8 years ago, I argued in one of my articles titled ‘SEO: Redefining Theory, Policy & Practice’ that the definitions of SEO (at that point in time) were too narrow and were not broad enough to capture the essence of the ‘evolving and holistic’ nature of SEO. I also put forth a definition for SEO that could stand the test of time. Here it is:

“SEO is a process that involves practices and activities that directly and indirectly, without violating the guidelines/policies of the concerned search engines/platforms and devices, influence factors that help maximize the visibility of your website, app or relevant content across search engines, platforms and devices for the right audience, at the right time when search happens or when information is implicitly sought.”

After successive onslaught on spam over the years, Google took a significant step forward to combat spam with its aggressive manual penalty drive in 2013-14. Though Google had been fighting spam for many years even before that too, 2014 marked a major shift in the SEO Industry’s (at least a significant section) view and approach towards SEO. Till that point in time, excluding the SEO professionals at the two extreme ends of the spectrum, the strict white-hat advocates and the unapologetic black-hat practitioners, the majority in the middle was happily oscillating between white-hat, gray-hat and sometimes black-hat. Post-2014, the scenario changed, most of the professionals in the messy middle aligned with Google’s version of SEO, though perhaps not perfectly. It’s not to say that spam doesn’t happen now – spam and the quality of search results seems to be a never-ending discussion, however, the mainstream narrative of the SEO and it’s approach saw a big change and since then, the SEO landscape has progressed in the direction many of us expected and on top of that, we have also witnessed some big bang developments recently that we didn’t see coming which has impacted the SEO landscape at a whole new level!

The Predictions in 2014 and the Unforeseen Recent Developments.

Mobile-first approach, voice search, Google becoming a conversational engine, things not strings/Entities, (Hummingbird), context, personalization, user satisfaction, user experience, relevance, trust and authority, great content, featured snippets, link earning vs link building, user intent, Rank Brain (AI/machine learning), social signals and other developments were all the hot topics of discussion around that time. The SEO survey we did in 2014 captured the major conversations that happened in SEO around the time. (you may want to take a look at the successive surveys we did in 2015 and 2016 and a roundup post on SEO trends in 2017 and a post in 2018 that captured the SEO opinions of many of the top SEO experts).

As you may know, all these factors have gained strength over time and, even though many predictions and relevant discussions happened around AI/machine learning, new-age devices and platforms (beyond Google) that seemed like shaping the ‘search’ landscape like Siri, Alexa, Google Home, BLE and others, the big bang disruptions like ChatGPT, Gemini and the latest Meta AI and alike and the introduction of SGE (though Google becoming a conversational engine was predicted by SEOs, the format was probably not visualized that the way it is now) which is now called the AI overviews (still in testing phase and rolled out in some parts of the world) are the kind of  developments, that we SEOs didn’t foresee, in the current form and shape back then obviously.

However, some of the SEO industry veterans did answer some exciting futuristic questions on SEO in this post in 2015 and some of the technologies and developments we discussed about are making progress and may materialize sometime in the future.

Cut to 2024: The Key SEO Trends

If you look at this year’s SEO trends and predictions, most part of them are extensions of the trends that have been emerging over the years (if you refer to the survey reports that we published in 2014 onwards (links given above) with the articles that have been published across the web in 2024 on SEO trends, you’ll understand that most of these are not new developments) .

I won’t delve deeply into all the trends, as many excellent articles already cover them extensively. Instead, I’ll focus on a few prominent trends that have developed or emerged in 2024.

Helpful content & First-hand experience

The concept of EEAT and Google’s helpful content system is well-known, however the importance and focus towards building people-first content that is based on first-hand experience and written/vetted by subject matter experts has gained prominence in 2024, and with the emergence of AI and AI-based content, first-hand experience has become a major differentiator for Google to ensure quality of the content ranking in search results.

Authorship/publisher entities gained important since last year as Google’s massive 2023 EEAT knowledge graph update confirms and so hinted by the recent Google leak document.

User Signals

The importance of page experience, user experience, user satisfaction (IS score, information gain) has been emphasized by not only Google, but the importance of these factors has been discussed and established by the thought leaders in the SEO industry since the past many years.

There has long been a debate within the SEO community regarding Google’s use of various user signals to measure both user experience and satisfaction with search results, as well as the web pages users land on after clicking those results.

Some of the factors that have always been suspected to be ranking factors or signals (but not confirmed by Google or denied to be ‘ranking factors or influencers’ by Google in the past) may actually be ranking factors – the Anti-trust Trial revealed that Google maybe using ‘clicks data’ aka user interactions to serve search results. Additionally, the recent Google search document leak hints that Google is likely using user interactions signals, including chrome data, to evaluate user satisfaction with the content they consume when they visit web pages. It’s worthy to be noted that AJ Kohn wrote a brilliant article on long clicks, short clicks and pogosticking many years ago. Other important revelations in the documents, I believe, have always been suspected to exist, though Google might have not confirmed or denied their role in the past such as ‘brand bias’ (probably because of the brands’ strong signals that establish their authority and trustworthiness. The key takeaway or hint here is that brand building contributes to your SEO performance), ‘SiteAuthority’ equivalent to ‘Domain Authority’ as we call it etc. Google has denied in the past of having overall domain authority or website authority signal or score.

It is also to be noted that the former Google employee, Eric Lehman hinted that user signals like clicks data may become less important over time with machine learning/natural language processing systems like BERT and MUM.

SGE/AI Overviews

Search Generative Experience (SGE), which has been renamed now as AI (Artificial Intelligence) Overviews, has so far been the biggest disruptor in the Google search landscape this year. There have been many predictions and questions arising around how this new development will impact the search landscape and what impact it will have on search user behaviour and organic traffic.

We’ll discuss the potential impact of the AI overviews that it may have on the search landscape in the later part of this article series.

Visual Search

Many years back it was predicted that voice search was going to be the next big thing however it didn’t live up to the hype though it continues to be one of the modes of search (and not to be ignored definitely) however the visual search, with Google lens and AI integration, seems to have the potential to have a big influence on shopping search in the near future.  The feature to perform search by uploading a video is another important step in that direction.

Google Redditt Partnership

This is another significant move from Google that we’ve seen this year. As a result of this partnership, Google has got access to Redditt’s Data API, which has resulted in more visibility for Redditt threads in Google search. As a surprising move (as I write this article), Reddit blocked Bing and other non-paying companies from crawling and accessing Reddit’s content archive.

However, Reddit’s spokesperson gave a statement to The Verge that the move isn’t related to Reddit’s recent partnership with Google and hinted that Reddit is in talks with other search engines too for a similar agreement with Reddit that may get them the access to Reddit’s vast content archive.

What does this mean for SEO? We’ll discuss the reasons and impact of this move in the later part of this article series.

Bonus: Another important trend to watch out for in 2024 that isn’t related to Google or traditional search is the possible launch of SearchGPT (which is still in the testing phase) which seems to be a potential disruptor in the search landscape. More on this in the later part of this article series.

In the next part of this article series, I discuss the big bang changes happening in the non-Google search landscape and Google’s strategies to stay ahead in the game. You can read the full article here.

The post Part I: SEO in 2024 and Beyond: Understanding the Chaos appeared first on TheiMarketingCafe.

Music is an integral part of our lives. The evolution of digital tools and apps has enabled us to embed music in an engaging way to make our primary offering psychologically stimulating for the audience (=motivating them to act favorably). The digital gurus tout this as the age of the digital economy. 

Let us look around us and mull. Your yoga practice video has some kind of soothing music in the background and so does your meditation track. When you are presenting a concept or idea or any report using a slide deck, you naturally reach for some embedded music to break the monotony. If you are making a TikTok video or uploading some pictures or video to Insta, you tend to jazz it up with some audio. Am I right? 

The use of music in advertisements, corporate presentations, pitch videos, team motivational talks, etc. is rife. Almost everyone reaches for customized music to suit the mood, tone, and theme of their activity.   

The audience and market for music ‘users’ and hunt for talent online are growing. Statista’s data shows that the global recorded music revenue has risen from USD 14.8Bn in 2011 to USD 23.1Bn 2020. Consumption of music in various forms has grown due to – 

• Ease of access
• Affordable prices
• Wide variety of choices and formats 

Music and songs are not just about vocals. There is a serious demand for instrumental music too. Talent hunters need ‘music’ resources for movies, streaming series, orchestra, theme weddings, birthdays, and even funerals to exude a sense of personalization and exclusivity. 

If you produce any kind of music, you need to read this post.

As the demand for music is growing, so is the supply. The market space is awash with talent, one better than the other. Competition is cut-throat and like any other form of content, the buyers must ‘find’ the music. It is not enough to be good at your art if you are nowhere to be found by your right target audience. Your talent must be at the forefront. 

If you belong to this industry in any form such that you can be termed as a ‘producer’, you should read this post. 

This post will put the whole ‘promotion and marketing’ thing into perspective. You will have a clear game plan on how to conquer the digital expanse step-by-step and inch towards your niche – the place where your target persona will find you and engage. Because you are not creating music for 7 billion people!

Your Online Portfolio MUST be on these 3 Sites

#1 Soundcloud

Why your portfolio should be on Soundcloud in 5 simple points

1. It is free. There I have grabbed your attention!
2. It is user-friendly. Accessible to both Android and iOS.
3. The UI is easy as pie. (If I can use it, anyone else can!)
4. The site has a global outreach so chances of connecting with a larger homogeneous audience are higher. 
5. And the biggest + is the social networking feature on Soundcloud. Collaboration and co-creation are flexible & breezy.  

Nifty Tip

You must spend some time and read up the information-rich resources on this site. It will help you get your portfolio up and running real quick.

#2 Bandcamp

It is similar to SoundCloud in many ways. One of the things you might find is “It is free”. 

If you look deeply, it is not that free. They will charge a share of your sales. And I think that’s ok because any other mode of advertisement, promotion, and distribution would also cost you. 

When you are a one-person team at the beginning, you are most concerned with sales and revenue. Bandcamp’s emphasis is to generate sales and not build awareness through social media. That you can anyway do through other SOME platforms.  

#3 YouTube

It is the “Google.com” of all things audio and visual. If I want to look up any clip, video, or music; I will go to YouTube and search.

Have you checked this link?

1. Uploading your art is straightforward. 
2. Social share is possible at a single click.  
3. Boasts a massive and diverse user base.
4. Artists have a dedicated “About” tab to introduce, promote and engage using SEO content
5. You can use the Community and maintain multiple channels to segment and serve your art. 
6. In-built Analytics is the best feature to monitor your online performance.

Why wasn’t Amazon Music or Spotify featured? 

If you want to distribute your art using Amazon Music or Spotify you will need the help of Digital Music Distribution. These providers will enable you to upload your music onto these targeted platforms. 

All are not free. Some of the service providers charge a small fraction of fees. 

You should explore this option after you have gained some traction through other online platforms and have a growing audience. Amazon Music and Spotify will be the ideal platforms to create a multiplier effect. 

The 3 sites discussed in the previous section are Phase 1. 

These 2 sites should be your Phase 2.

YOUR COURSE OF ACTION  

The digital strategy to market your art should have an anchor and that is the omnipresent website. Think of your website as the hub of a hub and spoke model. All your digital assets should be connected to your website. 

Try to maintain your name as the domain name. You are the brand. I will advise against using some inspired word or phrase unless you are Led Zeppelin or The Who. Even Elton John’s domain name is www.eltonjohn.com. Keep it simple and easy to remember.

SoMe promotion is indispensable. You are expected to regularly update and post. Set up a content calendar to create content in bulk and post over days or weeks. There are paid subscription tools to automate your social media updates but that’s for later.

Marissa Meyer is a New York Times bestselling author known for her works such as The Lunar Chronicles & The Renegades Trilogy. She also hosts a podcast called The Happy Writer Podcast where she talks to other authors and their work. A podcast is an emerging digital asset to build engagement. Your audience can connect with you as they drive to work or travel by public transport. I listen to podcasts while doing the laundry or the dishes. 

I may sound repetitive but I implore everyone to get a hang of basic SEO. On-page and off-page if not technical SEO. SEO is a building block for online digital strategy success whatever be the scale of your initiative. 

Art in any form is a challenging deal. Competition is cut-throat and talent is overflowing. Digital opportunities are growing exponentially. Your job as an artist is to independently promote and market your creation using a harmonious digital marketing strategy. Create evidence of your talent for your audience. Build a loyal connection. 

The English author A. A. Milne had said “Organizing is what you do before you do something so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” 

Here is a quick checklist for you to organize your digital marketing strategy:

• SoundCloud
• BandNation
• YouTube
• Your brand name website
• Social Media promotion 

What will be your plan of action to harness the power of digital media and create a niche for your art? 

I would love to know. 

—

I write about small businesses, health, and life as I see it on Medium, LinkedIn, and my website.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

The post 5 Ways on How to Independently Boost your Online Music Portfolio in 2022 appeared first on TheiMarketingCafe.

A friend had shifted to a new rental and wanted to liven up the space. I asked her how about a large painting of open seas to give that fresh and calm feel. Good idea but where do we get it from. So with steaming mugs of coffee, we went on an online painting hunt.

As both of us were clueless, we did not waste time on inane searches on Google. She searched through Amazon Handmade and I turned to Etsy.

Have you ever heard of the KievFamilyArt? Most probably not and neither did we. But that afternoon we came across some amazing affordable oil paintings on Etsy that fitted our wishlist – large seascape paintings. Our digital adventure didn’t end there. She bought a bunch of unseen handicraft items from Amazon Handmade. We had never heard of these sellers.

The global arts and crafts market is growing and is estimated to hit a whopping USD 60 Bn by 2026. It is not just scented candles and African masks that we are talking about.

What is driving the potential of this market?

1. The technology is in place to serve a global market using your digital storefront whether it is through Etsy, Amazon Handmade, or a Brand Website.
2. Growth in global travel and tourism combined with TV channels like TLC have broadened the horizon of the masses
3. The growing middle class has higher aspirational values and awareness. People want to do up their interiors with unique items from different cultures.  
4. Many of these products are aimed at the mass market – affordable and aesthetically delightful
5. International shipping and courier has become rapid and cheap

You “the art craft seller” have a decision to make

Furniture to fixtures, metal, mosaic, ceramic art, music instruments, writing material, and garments – you name it and it is there. The choices are mind-boggling. There are products and offerings that I did not even know existed. And they do not cost a bomb.

Opportunities have been unlocked for thousands of sellers from small towns, unknown places. These sellers lack technological prowess and budget of a large handicraft shop. What they have are unique products and offering that people would love.  

Imagine if your product falls in that category, how much revenue and market would you lose unless the products are displayed in front of the right target audience and hordes of prospects.

Do you have an Arts & Craft Small Business then you should read this

If you are here then it is safe to presume you have a new “arts or craft” business. So you have the product. What you need is the proper way of promoting it to watch your sales zoom. 

New small business owners often make the mistake of rushing through things and moving into too many different directions creating a hodge-podge of it all.

In this post, I will suggest the best way to promote your arts and craft business online. The choice to sell on Etsy, Amazon Handmade, or through your Brand Website is a strategic one and not to be taken lightly. Both have strong potential. But either choice will affect your business differently and the paths to growth won’t be the same.

This post will take one critical decision off your plate and enable you to concentrate on growing your business. By the end of this post, you will have learned enough to make a smart and definitive choice.

Stage of your Arts & Craft small business

Every business goes through a natural cycle of birth, growth, maturity, and decline.

Decisions are toughest at the beginning.

1. Priorities are distinctive.
2. Constraints are boundless.
3. Limitations stifle.

Your choice will depend on these 3 factors.

Priority #1 Online Marketing for Traffic

Your business is at its initial stages. Your #1 priority will be to draw attention to your products. Gain eyeballs. Create the right noise. And do it fast to get off the block.

Having a brand website means you need time to build it on your own with all the bells and whistles or engage a contractor to do it for you.

You have to put in a ton of hard work to attract traffic using SEO while competing with the millions of other websites. And we are not even talking of costs and time to do all this.  

Increasing traction is critical at the introduction phase. The more people see your products, the higher the probability of converting the engagement into sales and revenue. You will need to have your online storefront up and running in the quickest timeline.

Revenues will alleviate your primary constraint – budget/ funds.

Constraint #1 Budget

The budget is constrained at the beginning. You have to decide on deploying the scarce funds on activities that give you the best returns in the short term.

• Do I invest in material to make the products?
• Should I invest in packaging?
• Would it be wiser to expend on a dazzling online storefront with the brand name as the website address?

Leeway to invest in frills and fancies at the start of your business is minimal.

A basic brand website will cost enough to affect your budget. The prices can vary based on your choice of features. It will take time to develop it from scratch and make it operational.

Outsourcing it to a contractor will not free up your time. You will be part of the creative process and beyond. It means you have to continuously squander time while managing your core business.

Developing a brand website is not an end in itself. It is just the beginning. Maintaining and continuously updating the website is equally important if it is your digital storefront. Global customers will be visiting it at any time of the day (24 X 7). You cannot afford to have downtime and tech glitches.

Considering the list of constraints, how do you feel about having your brand website?   

Limitation #1 Availability of Human Resource

You are probably a one-person team at the beginning. Almost all of us are. To top it off it is highly unlikely that you have a grasp of digital marketing beyond posting on social media sites. And I am guessing the prospect of you having an idea of the ins and outs of SEO is remote. Don’t worry, you are not alone.

Here is a PROtip for you.

If your business is online (brand website or not), you must get a reasonable hang of SEO. Think of it as the core engine of digital marketing success.

When manpower is limited and the business’ day-to-day operation will be on your shoulders. Managing the digital storefront all on your own will be too much on that overflowing plate.

You have to cherry-pick your battles and that means you should not get involved in maintaining the brand website.

A brand name has a huge marketing appeal only if you are well-known. So brand comes after-sales and not the other way round. Operating a brand website is a cost if you are a novice. Selling your products through online marketing will need a digital storefront but your brand website is not the answer.

5 Reasons Why Etsy, Amazon Handmade trumps Brand Website for Small Arts and Crafts Businesses

Selling your arts and craft products through Etsy, Amazon Handmade compared to a brand website has 5 solid perks. Your blossoming small business needs all the tender love and care to grow. Here’s how.  

#1 Swift Time to Market

Time to market is crucial when your #1 priority is racking up sales. The faster you are off the block the better.

A brand website starts with concerns like registering a domain name, choosing the color schemes and fonts. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  

Your arts and craft shop can be set up on Etsy, Amazon Handmade in a day as soon as you complete the basic formalities. Technology skill needs are minimal. Simply keep your product information, images on hand, and your bank details to connect to your shop.

Once your shop is up and running you can commence marketing through social media channels especially Pinterest and Instagram. And begin selling your products.

#2 Outsourced Technology

Creating and publishing a website means getting off the ground. The real work gets underway after that.

• The website should be up and accessible 24 X 7. It means 100% uptime. Customers will not be forgiving if your site has issues.
• You will need to run routine maintenance activities to keep the site in top shape.
•  And there will be software patches and upgrades to be installed from time to time.

What options do you have?

(a)  Learn to do all this on your own

(b)  Hire an in-house resource (whom you can control) to do it for you

(c)  Hire a contractor to do the tasks for you without any explicit control

OR

Setup your store on Etsy, Amazon Handmade. None of the above issues will be your concern. Prahlad and Hamel had introduced the management concept of core competency. This is probably one of the things that they meant. Focus only on your business, concentrate on what you are good at to make money.

#3 Payment, Privacy, Compliance, and Security

Online business is not as simple as it sounds. Customer privacy, secure payment systems, and compliance with different government privacy laws are complex issues. Non-compliance will attract heavy penalties.

The EU’s GDPR is a stringent law on customer data privacy. If your website fails to comply with it then you will be facing some steep challenges. The sheer size of Etsy or Amazon Handmade gives them the strategic advantage of remaining compliant and guaranteeing the shop owners on the platform remain compliant too. This is one more worry off your plate.  

#4 Focused Search Engine

The biggest advantage of the platforms like Etsy over a brand website is their identity and customer recall. Amazon Handmade is a specialized search engine. Customers know them. No one would know you at the beginning.

What is the likelihood of prospects finding you by your name? Negligible! Do you recall my initial example of KievFamilyArt.

Your chances of attracting traffic and engaging with prospects are way higher when your digital shop is on the platform.

#5 Access to Community Knowledge-base, Best Practices

There is no Gray’s Anatomy available for online marketers and sellers to know everything to succeed. When you are isolated on your brand website, the quantum of interaction is limited.

Setting up shop on Etsy, Amazon Handmade connects you to a global pool of sellers who can help you with best practices. You have access to an amazing community of sellers each having their unique experience and stories. Listening to their experience can protect you from pitfalls and assist you in making effective decisions for your business. 

CONCLUSION

This is what you should do when your business is trying to gain a foothold.

Setup your digital shop on Etsy, Amazon Handmade.

Promote it through social media channels using clever hashtags.

Focus on sales, volume, and revenue.

When you attain critical mass, you will have the necessary funds to build your brand website. You will have a dedicated customer base following you to your website.

So here we are.

What is it gonna be?

Etsy, Amazon Handmade or Brand Website.

I write about small businesses, health, and life as I see it on Medium, LinkedIn, and my website.

Image Courtesy: Business vector created by mokoland - www.freepik.com

The post Etsy, Amazon Handmade or your Brand Website – The Best Way to Promote a New Arts and Craft Business Online appeared first on TheiMarketingCafe.

Social media has never seen such unprecedented growth in its history. Naturally, the marketing strategies surrounding it have changed, closely fueled by the algorithm changes made by the giants. Here is how SMM stands now and should remain so as we move forward.

The big players are no longer that big

Just 5 years back, most of our social media marketing strategies revolved around Facebook and Instagram, and maybe Twitter but 2020 created a new hero that the young crowd embraced with open arms. TikTok saw a staggering 76 million downloads in March 2021 alone and the user base was aged between 16-24 years old. In contrast, Instagram had over a billion users. But the users were much older. No longer could brands just leverage Instagram to attract young customers.

In 2021, diversification is the key. Yes, Facebook and Instagram are still important but we must also prioritise TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube and more.

Trust on social media is a massive issue

As people have started spending more time on social media, the consumer-brand relationship matters now more than ever. Estimates say that almost 75% of active users do not believe in the authenticity of social media advertisements but places more trust in customer reviews, ratings and opinions. And a whopping 90% shop from brands that their friends recommend or they see other people using the brand’s product/service.

Digital marketers should have a second look at Influencer Marketing in 2021. More than paid advertisements, influencer marketing has the potential to bring home better ROI.

Silent brands are a thumbs down

Social media became a platform of expression in 2021 for almost every active user. As people could not take the road and organise gatherings, social and political issues were discussed vehemently on almost all platforms. This caused people to expect brands to participate as well. Studies show that 56% of social media users do not shop from brands that remain silent on social issues that they feel are important.

Customer engagement has changed in 2021. Likes, comments and shares are important but our SMM strategy should include speaking out on issues that people are currently resonating with.

The post How Social Media Marketing Has Changed in 2021? appeared first on TheiMarketingCafe.

Statista says that this year over 2 billion people are expected to buy some goods or services online. They have forecasted that retail ecommerce sales only in the US will be more than $740bn by 2023.

What do these numbers and trends indicate?

1. The dominant place of purchase in 4Ps is now online
2. A strong influence of easy availability of information on buyer characteristics like knowledge, motives, attitude, and perception
3. A sizable shift in buyer/ consumer behavior irrespective of the degree of difference in brands or the level of involvement (high to low)
4. Stages 2 to 5 of an average consumer decision and buying process has gone digital

Why?

The technology is ready and commonly available to transact online.

How does it affect your manufacturing sector SMB?

The same people who are buying online in the retail segment are the ones who are either buyers of your industrial product, recommending solutions, key decision-maker, or the end consumer.

Buying behavior does not necessarily change for B2B or B2C. The need to seek information, and evaluate alternatives is the same. Rather in the case of business buying, the level or degree of involvement is higher, wider, and deeper. B2B buyers are keen to transact in the international market if their needs are met and the problem is adequately resolved.

Here lies the incredible opportunity for manufacturing sector SMBs like yours to connect with the enlightened and involved group of buyers, engage with them online and watch your revenues swell.

What is in this post? Who should read it? Why?

In this post, I will share with you 7 workable digital marketing ideas that you can put into action today. You should read it if you are an SMB owner who is trying to gain good customers, and increase revenue from newer markets. If you are reading this then I am assuming that you have a website with the bare necessities. You probably have some social media presence but nothing is structured.

This post will inspire you to start implementing the ideas using in-house resources or digital marketing agency services to generate higher ROI from your marketing budget.

What this post is NOT about?

It is not about “what is digital marketing?” There are terabytes of information on the topic if you type just 4 words in a Google search engine tab. I like this one.

Know Your Customer

Stephen Covey says “Begin with the end in mind.”

What are you trying to achieve through digital marketing?

• Creating an online presence?
• Building brand awareness?
• Generating leads for marketing your products?
• Enabling customers to buy?
• Providing services to customers and end-users post-sales?
• Some of the above or all of the above

Whatever is your digital marketing goal; it is a means to an end. You are after volume, sales, revenue, and profit. Simply having a company website like everyone else is not going to cut it.

You must know who your buyer and end-consumer are to communicate the right customer value. The majority of your business buyers assume that you will know what they need or want.

Here’s what you should start with.

Define your customer personas

Your product is either used in one industry or multiple others. Often there are two or more sets of advisors, influencers, and decision-makers. It varies between industries or the type of companies within the industry.

No one offers their products to everyone. You cannot say the same thing to everyone and expect similar results. You have to define a target audience whom you aim to delight. You need to speak to them directly.

Who is your buyer? Is the person different from the end-user? Is there anyone else who influences the decision to choose your offering? What is that person’s role or motives?

Your communication through digital means will be effective when you address questions like – How is your offering different from the competitors’? Why can your offering simplify their lives?

Defining different customer personas will help you know your customers intimately. What are their problems or challenges? What kind of a solution will be optimum (best is not always desired or needed) for them?

If you wish to succeed in your business and make the most of what digital marketing has to offer, start by knowing your customers well.

What type of problems will lead them to you?

When solving problems, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves. ~ Anthony J. D’Angelo (Author)

Customer personas will indicate the type of problems encountered by them. You have to identify the root cause to be their trusted solution provider. If you know what bothers them, you can do two things

1. Use the inputs to design the features of your product to solve them.
2. Effectively communicate these features and benefits to your audience. It will draw them to you.

The pull approach to marketing your product is sustainable compared to the resource-intensive push ones.

Why is your company the best solution?

Choosing the right segment for your product is the key to succeeding in your marketing efforts. Before you go ahead with carving your digital marketing image in the virtual world, there is just one more thing.

Competitor analysis.

It will tell you where your 4Ps of marketing stack up against theirs. You can craft your USP based on your strengths and weaknesses compared to what the others are offering in the same space. You may not be the best in your segment but with clever use of various tools of digital marketing, you can become an opinion maker, an expert that people turn to. All these organically transform into leads and sales.

The challenge is how you digitally connect with your extensive mix of customers, consumers, buyers. The next section of the post will explain the 7 workable digital marketing ideas that will effectively help you grow your manufacturing SMB across geographies.

7 Workable Digital Marketing Ideas

Your company probably has some of the following (or all of them).

• There is a company website with all the basic information
• Your website has a blog too
• Your company has a social media presence

Website is the bare necessity. You can create it in-house or through an agency. It depends on your skills, resources, and budget. If you still do not have it, make it your first point on the agenda. Think of your website as the sun around which all the planets (=other digital marketing efforts) and their moons revolve.

The objective of the 7 workable ideas is to expand your online presence. It will connect you to prospects and customers.

Begin with one idea if you find 7 too overwhelming. If I have to choose, I would start from Idea #1.

#1 Content Calendar

Return on investment in digital marketing depends on the regularity and value of the information. How often do you post content to keep your audience engaged?

I recommend using a content calendar as your route map. It serves 2 purposes.

1. You have a clear idea of what to post when
2. You can plan your content to follow the calendar.

Try this out for 6 months. You will be surprised at the volume of valuable content that you have amassed.

There are a lot of online templates available for free. Just pick anyone. Start by filling it up. Do not try to be too ambitious.

For example:

A blog post/ week

1 Tweet/ day

1 LinkedIn engagement/ day or 1 Quora response/ day

#2 Power of Free Content

You must have a blog if you still don’t. And you should post meaningful content regularly. B2B buyers need reassurance that they are making the right choice. A large billboard will not do the job. You can use your blog posts to instill that confidence. The power lies in education through free content.

Average website content is static. You do not change your home page, about us, products, services, and certification pages every few days or weeks.

The blog posts keep the website dynamic and signal the search engines to rank the website higher.

Keep them short (~1000 words), focused and informative.

#3 Join LinkedIn Industry Groups

Create your company page on LinkedIn. Post the links to your new blog content whenever you publish them on your website.

Search for industry groups that are either connected to you or those of your customers. Join them. Listen to what people ask for or say. What are the key issues, words, or problems that are recurring? What are the others in your industry posting? You can get good content ideas by observing these groups.

And once you do, you can post informative content on those topics. Publish them in your blog. Share the link of the post in these groups. People will soon start engaging.

#4 Social Media

You cannot be on all top SoMe sites because it is a waste of resources. Just because it is there, you do not need to be on it.

Choose the social media channel that is most appropriate for your business. If you are garment manufacturer, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest would be a better fit. If your product is a machine, posting on YouTube and LinkedIn will get you more mileage.

The good thing is you can post on one social media app say Facebook and then link it to Twitter and LinkedIn with minimal effort.

Where will you get the content ideas for your social media posts?

Repurpose content from the blog posts.

One blog post can generate content for 10 social media posts if you use them cleverly.

#5 Create Small Videos

Videos are everywhere.

Instead of writing a 1500 word blog post on how your product or equipment works, you can make a small 3 – 5 min video and post it on YouTube. Share it on LinkedIn and Tweet about it on different days. Do not forget to embed the videos on your website too.

You do not need high-end equipment for that. The smartphones and accessories are good enough to produce decent quality videos.

#6 Guest Blog

Your website or company might be little known. You may not get enough views on your blog posts.

How do you build traffic to your website? Try contributing as a guest blogger.

Guest blogging is a terrific way to build your audience. Your guest blog site will has a following and presence in the digital world. People scan the site for information or expert advice. When your guest blog is published, it pulls you out of your anonymity and offers you a platform to connect.

This is how you expand your digital footprint and build digital real estate.

#7 Identify your Hashtags

My list will be incomplete without the “Hashtags”. It is nothing but keywords (except without space). When people search for information, they will not use the name of your company (unless you are Nike, Schlumberger, or Evonik). They will search using a certain set of words.

If you post your content and include those words in your hashtag, there is a greater chance of the content being found, read, and shared.

If you circle back to #3, you will find a variety of keywords and hashtags used in your industry. Make a note of them and use them in your content.

CONCLUSION

Try the ideas suggested in the post. You will see the difference. Digital marketing efforts will not produce overnight results. Think of it as constructing a tall building. It will take time, patience, plan, and a fixed routine.

Two things that are a must to help you move forward:

• A website
• A content calendar

Armed with these, you can make giant strides in a shorter time.

I will continue to talk about other interesting digital marketing options in my upcoming posts. Meanwhile, let me know what you think of this one. What is your product or service? Where are you in your digital marketing efforts? What kind of results do you desire? What challenges are you facing and how are you overcoming them? I am eager to listen and learn.

—

I write about small businesses, health, and life as I see it on Medium, LinkedIn, and my website.

The post 7 Workable Digital Marketing Ideas to Grow your Manufacturing SMB appeared first on TheiMarketingCafe.

• Customer experience is a very old marketing phrase/concept, but it has got a new meaning now and is rapidly changing the way we do marketing.
• Today, delivering customer experience has become complex with the changing consumer behaviour and the arrival of new digital platforms & technologies.
• Shockingly, many businesses around the world are ill-prepared for the on-going marketing paradigm shift which has the potential to make or break businesses in the future.
• Understanding the on-going marketing paradigm shift is the first step towards preparing for the upcoming challenges.
• Given the current scenario, taking delivery of customer experience to the next level can be a great competitive advantage and a contributing factor to practicing purple cow marketing.

According to a Digital Trends Survey report (latest from Adobe) released by Adobe in partnership with Econsultancy, all the top marketing priorities of modern-marketers/businesses are pointing towards one goal – delivering better customer experience.

Customer experience is not a new term in the marketing world, but it’s certainly has gained importance and attention in the recent times with the changing customer and user behavior and also the newer platforms & technologies that are making entry into the digital ecosystem which are fueling the change in customer/user behavior.

Though, in the recent times many marketers and businesses have been taking efforts to step up their CX efforts, a large share of businesses have not taken enough steps to adapt to the upcoming challenge i.e. simply put, businesses that become successful in delivering remarkable customer experience may grab large market shares of their competitors or even put them out of business.  Forget small businesses, even many large corporations or big businesses suck when it comes to delivering great customer experiences.

As per the survey, only 10% of responding companies regard themselves as very advanced at CX. If you are a CEO of a company, business owner or a marketer, this is the time to think about CX seriously and make steps to ensure that your company or business kick-starts CX initiatives NOW.  This is a golden period for those early movers that they can build eco-systems in their organizations/businesses to deliver remarkable customer experience which can turn out to be their competitive advantage in the market. Delivering remarkable customer experience can help you distinguish your marketing initiatives from your competitors’ –   it creates synergy and helps you to do what I call the ‘purple cow marketing’ (borrowing the term ‘purple cow’ from Seth Godin’s book ‘Purple Cow: Transform your Business by being remarkable) – Marketing that STANDS OUT.

Now, before we discuss about the paradigm shift and what it takes to deliver great customer experience, let’s discuss the basics.

Let’s Start with the Basics

[Note: if you already understand the below given terminologies, please skip this section and scroll down to continue to read further]

User Experience (UX) is fundamental to Customer Experience (CX). Simply put, UX is all about the experiences of the user while using a product, platform or service and CX is all about the experiences of a customer interacting with a company or brand at all touch points.

CX is Getting Bigger like Never Before

The Early Signs

Take an example of any tech giant, be it Google or Facebook, what is one of the primary things that they have been working on maniacally in the last several years – delivering great user experience and thereby also building processes around their products to enhancing the experiences of all their stakeholders interacting with the brand and products. The constant hunger to upgrade their products and processes and thereby delivering great experiences to their customers across board is there to out in the open for anyone to see.

If you are an SEO or someone who understands the SEO landscape, you know this already – all the Google updates back-to-back have had one primary objective i.e. increasing the quality of search results. They are not only working on to increase the quality of search results but have also been taking efforts to enhance the search results with various SERP features with an objective to deliver great user experience. With a superior product in hand, they have been sustaining and growing users on one hand and on other hand they have been constantly working on enhancing their ad platforms and related processes to deliver great experiences to the advertisers. Overall, there has been a long and sustained effort from Google to build ecosystems to deliver a great customer experience consistently and the efforts have paid off!

Many thought Facebook may not survive in the long run but it’s their maniacal focus on delivering great customer experiences with their innovations and products that have helped them survive and grow.

Current Scenario

These are only a handful of companies that have built great CX programs – despite the fact that CX has been gaining momentum for a long time and is likely to take the business landscape by storm, many of the companies are ill-prepared (as per the Adobe’s survey, As only 10% of responding companies regard themselves as very advanced at CX) and unfortunately a large share of companies (of various sizes) are not aware of or not bothered about the upcoming challenge that could change the rules of the game.

Why CX Matters Now More than Ever?

It is so cluttered out there both offline and online – consumer is constantly bombarded with marketing messages, advertisements, plenty of products and services resulting in consumers spoilt for choices. STANDING OUT in the market is not enough anymore YOU NEED TO STAND OUT ALL THE TIME, IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY, WHEREVER YOUR CUSTOMERS INTERACT WITH YOU BY DELIVERING AWESOME EXPERIENCES THAT ARE USEFUL, VALUABLE, INTERACTIVE, ENTERTAINING, EDUCATIVE, MOTIVATING, INTERESTING, TIMELY AND POSITIVE. The experiences you deliver should definitely be awesome but not necessarily include all the attributes mentioned above – depending on the context; delivery of experiences may include any one or combinations of these or even all of them. Non-negotiable deliverables are timely response, context, personalization and surpassing customer expectation whenever there is an interaction or transaction.

Now, is this an ideal scenario? Well, there is no upper limit or ideal scenario that you’ll achieve and that then it’s done. It’s all about setting new benchmarks and keep competing and surpassing the benchmarks set by your competitors. Those players, who are ahead of their competitors when it comes to delivering awesome customer experience in any given market, win. Hands down!

CX as Competitive Advantage – The Underlying Opportunity!

You know the old concept of having a competitive advantage or USP, where in you, as a business or a brand, have a unique advantage at one or two fronts that makes you compete better in the marketplace. A great CX could be advanced version of that – being awesome at almost every front gives you an unfair advantage in the marketplace (at a time when delivering great CX as a concept is still gaining momentum and many of the brands are nowhere near building ecosystems to deliver the same). It’s complex and it takes constant efforts to improvise and to stay ahead in the race – many businesses are not seeing it coming or don’t want to focus on it the way they should as they don’t see any wave of CX happening – by the time they will see the wave hitting the shores, it will be too late. So, the complexity in the process and the failure of many businesses to see the larger picture, makes the road less travelled – there lies the opportunity for the pioneers to gain from the first mover advantage. When delivering great CX becomes the norm, things will get harder. Now is the time to pluck those low hanging fruits!

Understanding Modern-day CX

The number of touch points through which your customers/prospects can interact with your brand/business has increased manifold in the last few years, both offline and online. Let’s quickly list out a few common modern-day touch points – physical stores or branches/offices, kiosks, outlets at various locations, websites, micro-sites, social media pages, apps, social market places like Facebook Market Place, Facebook Shops etc, chatbots, messaging apps, third party websites where you have content-assets, calls/call centers or customer care, emails, agents/representatives, influencers, affiliate partners, print media, online advertisements, marketing collaterals, blog posts, OOH, promotional events, outdoor advertising, webinars, Help Desks, Surveys, Review Websites, Your content assets indexed in search engines and YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE ITSELF & more.

Your customer may interact with any of your touch points, anytime. Delivering a consistent and awesome experience across touch points, all the time, which is better than your competitors, is what successful CX program is all about. Powered by technology, personalized and contextual delivery of experience at applicable touch points will take your CX to the NEXT LEVEL.

Understanding the On-going Marketing Paradigm Shift

As you know, marketing models explain the buyer’s journey or customer life cycle that he/she goes through before and after conversion and how the marketers can reach out the customers at different stages of buyer journey. Once such model is RACE, which stands for Reach, Act, Convert and Engage – these are different stages of buyer journey. [If you are not familiar with how the buyer journey works as per RACE, you may read about it here as I opt not to explain it in detail in this article]. This traditional customer life cycle is now challenged and often interrupted by the new age technologies, primarily the mobile – modern-day customer is tech-savvy, and his behaviour has drastically changed.

As Google describes it, it’s the age of micro-moments. I quote “intent-driven moments of decision-making and preference-shaping that occur throughout the entire consumer journey”.  Google calls it the new mental model for marketing.

With the availability of mobile, what used to be a predictable, daily sessions online have now been replaced by many fragmented interactions that now occur instantaneously. Hundreds of moments happen every day – checking the time, chatting with friends on social media, texting a spouse etc.

Broadly, Google classify these micro moments into 4, namely, I want-to-know moments, I want-to-go moments, I want-to-do moments and I want-to-buy moments. As Google puts it “they are game changers for both consumers and brands”

I further quote Google “Micro-moments occur when people reflexively turn to a device—increasingly a smartphone—to act on a need to learn something, do something, discover something, watch something, or buy something. They are intent-rich moments when decisions are made, and preferences shaped. In these moments, consumers’ expectations are higher than ever. The powerful computers we carry in our pockets have trained us to expect brands to immediately deliver exactly what we are looking for when we are looking. We want things right, and we want things right away.” [source: Think with Google]

Purchase is not planned anymore (like it used to be most of the time) and it doesn’t take the regular customer life cycle – the modern-day consumer, being at any stage of the customer life cycle, may interact with your brand anytime, anywhere and at any touchpoint using any device.

Your brand messaging, product or service, marketing messages, customer service and all the elements that are part of customer experience should be consistent and it should be further possible (and should be) to make the customer experience remarkable by making it contextual, personalized and top-notch.

As a business, you should keep a track of all customer touch points and brand interactions and optimize them to ensure awesome customer experience consistently. For ex: Before buying your product, your potential customer may quickly check your Google reviews – it’s a touch point too! What do your Google reviews say about your brand? Are your customers say the exact things that you as a brand claim to be? Is there a disconnect?

Another example on how to optimize customer experience – let’s say, you run an ecommerce site, how many payment options are your providing on your site? Do you have all major payment methods, or you are giving your customers only limited options? Your customer may want to pay via PayPal and if that option is not available, then that has an impact on how your customer feels about your brand in that moment.  Multiple negative experiences may lead to big impact.

Let me give you one last example before we move on to discuss the advanced technologies that are impacting and shaping customer experience delivery – If your offline customer experience is not consistent and in-sync with your online customer experience, it’s a gap that needs immediate attention. For example, your call centre or email support is great and it drives a customer to go to your nearest brand outlet and if he gets a rude response from your front-end manager at the outlet or if the offer given to him is not honoured by the outlet citing some reasons – it results in bad customer experience, which means there is no consistency in delivering great customer experience across board and that there is a gap that needs to be fixed. Delivering a seamless multi-channel experience is what makes the difference.

Technologies that are taking CX to advanced level

Today many businesses are taking advantage of modern technologies and techniques to provide a personalized, contextually meaningful, and awesome customer experience.

• Marketing automation – One of the best examples is marketing automation – just imagine the situation where you are bombarded with too many ads randomly vis-à-vis you see a personalized and a contextually relevant advertisement or a marketing email based on your purchase history. What would you prefer?
• Beacon Technology – which helps you to send discount offers or loyalty program offers to the customers who are near your store based on location tracking through their mobile phones.
• Internet of Things – Internet of things is a technology enables all IOT-enabled devices to connect to the Internet which could be a game changer for personalized customer experience.
• Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality – these technologies to help customers experience awesomeness. For ex: a customer sitting comfortably at home can try and see how dresses look on him/her through AR or you can place a furniture from an online store at your bedroom to see whether is fits in your space or how it looks virtually.
• Big Data and Predictive Analytics – data is the new oil. How you analyse, interpret, manage and put data to use in CX efforts will play big role in building your CX program.
• Artificial Intelligence – has been taking customization and personalization of customer experience to the next level with a human touch.
• Chatbots and Voice Assistant – The use of voice assistants like Alexa, Siri or Cortana are making lives of customers easier – be it placing orders or getting customer support, they are truly enhancing customer experience across board.
• Personalized Login – whether you login through a website, app or a kiosk at a store, delivering personalized data and contextually relevant results, suggestions or recommendations enhances customer experience.

Now with the understanding of the importance of delivering awesome customer experience consistently across channels to make your business future-ready and with the knowledge of technologies that can make it possible, your next step would be to kick-start the process of building ecosystems needed in your organization to launch a successful CX program. In the next part of the article, which is upcoming, we discuss how you can build a 360-degree CX program, and the mistakes to avoid to prevent program from failing. We will also cover a few interesting case studies of businesses that are killing it with their CX efforts.

Image by Jony Tylson on Unsplash

The post Customer Experience (CX) – Understanding the On-going Marketing Paradigm Shift. appeared first on TheiMarketingCafe.

Shane Barker: Hey! I have been in the digital marketing space for over 20 years. And for the last four years, I have been a consultant for various startups as well as the Fortune 500 companies.

My team and I do everything it takes to help brands grow significantly. This includes leveraging content marketing, SEO, PPC, and many other tactics to drive great traffic to their businesses. And then help them engage and convert audiences into loyal customers.

There are two ways we work with our clients. They can either hire my entire team to handle their brands’ marketing needs or they can hire me as a consultant to educate and train their teams.

Kavin Paulson: How has been the experience working with celebrities and managing their online reputation? Can you share some insights with us on celebrity reputation management? (Would like you to share a couple of names of your clients, if you may do so..)

Shane Barker: Due to the non-disclosure agreements and contracts we have with our celebrity clients, I can’t share their names. But I can tell you about what we have done for them.

We have had a number of clients who faced bad publicity. People sometimes post negative stories and other crazy stuff online about celebs (many of which aren’t even true).

We help push that content down and push good content up. We help our clients manage their social profiles better by boosting good content that enhances their online reputation.

Another thing to note here is that we only work with celebrities who are really doing something good. We don’t believe in helping people who have done something bad and are looking for a hideout.

KP: What would be your working style when you take over a marketing team and when you provide only tactical consulting? How does your approach change?

SB: When taking over a marketing team, we help brands create a strong digital marketing strategy to convert more leads into actual sales. We usually set up a 3-6-month or 1-year contract, depending on our clients’ needs and the goals they want to achieve.

During the program, we work to:

• Provide basic training to their team.
• Familiarize them with the software and platforms we use such as Slack, Google Drive, and Trello.
• Put a plan together and help them implement it.

We follow a hands-on approach based on deadlines and S.M.A.R.T. goals to help brands achieve what they have been looking for.

While providing tactical consulting, I help them put a solid strategy in place to excel at:

• Sales funnels
• Conversions
• Influencer marketing
• Product launches
• Content ideas that drive more traffic

You can always reach out to my team for more information.

KP: Please briefly walk us through your career path.

SB:I started off with actually working in restaurants in a variety of job roles such as a butcher, server, then bartender. I went on to open restaurants all over the nation for a brand called “Shelly’s Mexican Restaurants.” I did that for quite a while.

Then I came back to Chico, California, where I went back to school. I also got to work at a company which introduced me to the web and online marketing space. That’s when I started working with a lot of freelancers.

Later, I got a chance to learn more about this industry, working with a team of 130+ people. We were making $25 million a year, and it was a crazy business.

Based on everything I learned during those times, my team and I now help brands achieve their marketing goals. We do everything from SEO to content marketing, influencer marketing, and a lot of speaking engagements. I am also writing a book.

That’s just a glimpse of what my journey has been like. Hopefully, there’s a lot more to come…:)

KP: What does your typical day look like?

SB: I usually get up at 5:30am and start my day with a cup of energizing coffee.

I then connect with my team through Slack, going through whatever we’re working on. Usually, I have 3 or 4, or sometimes eight meetings in a day. It totally depends on the day.

Then I have some “me time” when I workout or do something to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Around 9pm, I go to bed, wake up the next morning, and do it all again!

KP: Can you share with us some details of one of the biggest marketing campaigns that you have ever run? What did you do differently? What were the factors that made the campaign extremely successfully?

SB: I would say my biggest marketing campaign was an influencer marketing campaign for Zoe Rodriguez, a fitness influencer. We helped them grow their sales from $400K to somewhere around $1.6 million in less than one year all through influencer marketing.

What we did differently was that we relied on influencer marketing. We didn’t do any SEO, and only posted a little bit of blog content.

A majority of their sales were a result of influencer collaborations. The factors that contributed to making it a success include:

• That was during the beginning stages of influencer marketing, so there wasn’t much competition. We collaborated with people who had highly engaged audiences.
• She had great products.
• She had an amazing collection of before-and-after pictures that attracted people to try out her fitness guides.

It was a wonderful experience working on that campaign!

KP: Can you name a few of your biggest clients and your experience working with them?

SB: So when you say, “biggest clients,” it’s a bit difficult to decide which ones to talk about!

One of the clients we worked with is BigCommerce, a leading ecommerce platform for growing brands. We have worked with them for a number of years and it has been a good journey.

KP: You have also been a mentor to many entrepreneurs and have been actively involved in hackathons and start-up events. Can you share some tips with budding entrepreneurs on how to build a digital presence during the start-up phase based on your experience? Also, what do you think are the major challenges faced and mistakes committed by start-ups when it comes to building a digital presence?

SB: Though a majority of startups leverage digital marketing today, not all digital marketing strategies have the potential to hit the bull’s eye. In fact, there are many which don’t even get close to driving the desired results in terms of reach, engagement, or leads.

I would suggest that budding entrepreneurs should tap into the power of influencers to reach out to wider, more engaged audiences in their niches. The best part is that you can drive great engagement while working with micro-influencers too, who generally charge just $250-$300 per sponsored post.

When we talk about challenges or mistakes, I believe that many budding entrepreneurs fail to set proper goals and KPIs for their digital marketing campaigns.

I strongly recommend that you set S.M.A.R.T. goals for every marketing campaign to drive the best results. S.M.A.R.T. stands for:

• S – Specific
• M – Measurable
• A – Attainable
• R – Relevant
• T – Time-Based

KP: What is the one piece of advice that you would like to give to budding entrepreneurs?

SB: I would suggest that budding entrepreneurs carefully plan their goals, KPIs, and strategies. The right metrics will help them ensure that they are moving in the right direction.

As an entrepreneur, you should also ensure that you pick the right people for your team. The people you choose to work with can either make or break your business’ growth.

Working with the right people to leverage the right strategies is how you gradually move towards achieving your goals successfully.

KP: With emerging technologies like AI, IOT, Conversational Interface, Automation, and PWAs etc. taking over the digital world, how do you think the digital marketing landscape will change 5 years from now?

SB: Absolutely. Due to the fast pace of the marketing industry and the advancements in technology, the digital world will be quite different from what it is today.

The software and platforms we are using today will be updated and improved, and we’ll also have a lot of new stuff coming up in five years. That’s why the digital marketing landscape is always evolving and there’s always new stuff to learn about.

KP: If you could change one thing about the digital marketing industry, what would that be?

SB: The one thing I would like to change about the digital marketing industry is the presence of misinformation.

There is a lot of misinformation around the web that asks people to do things in a certain way and many people follow that. They fall for irrelevant strategies and tactics which barely bring them any significant results.

So I suggest that you always watch out for the quality of the content you refer to.

KP: If you were not a digital marketing consultant, what would you have been?

SB: Let me think… what did I want to be when I was a kid…? I guess, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. There’s really nothing else that I wanted other than running my own business.
Maybe the thought of becoming a fireman attracted me at one point.

KP: Where do you see yourself five years from now?

SB: Five years from now, I see myself working with a team of 100+ employees and doing great business worldwide.

KP: How would you describe yourself in one word?

SB: The word could be “motivated” as I am quite motivated to get things done.

KP: On a lighter note, what would you do if you woke up one morning and found that you had become Mark Zuckerberg, the Chairman and CEO of Facebook?

SB: I don’t know what I would do. In fact, I don’t know if I would want to be Mark Zuckerberg. I don’t think I’d like to have that many responsibilities.

So I’d probably go back to sleep and then wake up as Shane the next day.

The post A Chat with Renowned Digital Marketing Consultant, Shane Barker appeared first on TheiMarketingCafe.

It’s always a challenge to approach influencers in a way that gets them to say “yes” to the collaboration. As mentioned earlier, influencer marketing is immensely popular and so, there’s a great demand for influencers. As a result, some influencers get a lot of requests from different brands.

This has made influencers very selective when it comes to deciding the brands they want to collaborate with. So, you should approach them in a way that makes them want to say “yes” to your offer.

Here are some ideas on how to approach influencers the right way:

a) Follow Influencers on Social Media

To get on the radar of your potential influencers, you need to follow them on social media. The posts on their social accounts will give you an idea of their work, reach, and engagement.

Engage with their posts – you can like them, share them, or even comment on them. But make sure to comment something meaningful. This will eventually help you build your relationships with influencers.

b) Draft a Win-Win Proposal

You need to create a proposal that addresses both yours and your influencers’ interests. Introduce yourself at the very beginning of the proposal and don’t forget to show your appreciation for their work.

The proposal needs to have a clear explanation of why you are reaching out to them. This will help your potential influencers understand their responsibilities and role in the campaign.

Talk about how the partnership is related to their niche and therefore, relevant. Also, mention the benefits they can expect from the collaboration. Feel free to cite examples of your past collaborations too. Conclude your email by inviting them to have a one-on-one meeting to discuss the opportunity in detail.

c) Follow Up

There’s no need to panic if you don’t get an immediate reply from influencers. You need to understand that they get many emails every day. And it’s not possible for them to answer each one.

Wait for 2-3 days, and if they still don’t reply, then send the influencer a follow-up email.

2. How to Measure ROI of the Campaign

The biggest challenge for 76% of marketers is to calculate the ROI of their influencer marketing campaign. Here are the three important metrics you can use to measure the ROI of your campaign.

a) Measure Conversions

Conversions can include sales figures or responses to CTAs. Measuring conversions is a very straightforward approach to calculate the ROI from your marketing campaign.

You must relate your conversions to your campaign goals, which you had identified in the initial stages of influencer marketing campaign.

For example, let’s say your campaign goals were to get 1000 people to subscribe to your newsletter and boost your sales by $50,000. To measure the conversion rate, you’ll need to calculate both those metrics.

b) Measure Campaign’s Reach

There are two indicators to measure a campaign’s reach. First, you need to measure the growth in your follower count. Influencers create very attractive content and it can motivate their followers to follow you on social media.

At the end of your campaign, you need to measure the increase in the total number of your social media followers.

The second indicator is website traffic. When influencers talk about your brand on social media or their blogs, they might include links to your website to generate organic traffic as well.

You can use Google Analytics to measure organic traffic directed to your website by influencer-generated content. These two indicators will help you measure your campaign’s reach.

c) Measure Total Engagement

You’ll need to quantify and calculate the number of comments, clicks, shares, likes, and reactions to measure the total engagement. You can also track and evaluate cost per engagement (CPE). This will give you an idea of how consumers are reacting to your brand.

To calculate CPE, you need to divide your total investment by the total engagement generated from the influencer marketing campaign.

You can also use influencer marketing platforms to measure the ROI of your marketing campaign. Platforms like Reelio give you access to the detailed metrics of your campaign. It enables you to review and track the performance of influencer-generated content.

Reelio collects data and information from social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube to provide detailed reports on your reach, engagement, views etc. all in one place.

3. How to Identify Genuine Influencers

Another challenge which many brands face is in identifying the right influencers and staying away from fake ones. If you think that a large following can translate into a high engagement rate, you’re mistaken. It’s important to weed out the fake influencers from the real ones when you are searching for relevant influencers.

If you come across any of the below red flags, you should proceed with caution:

a) New Accounts with Huge Number of Followers

You have to keep an eye out for accounts which have gained an unusually high number of followers in a short time. Because it’s not easy to win the trust of people and gain followers organically. To increase the follower count organically, one has to invest time and put in a lot of hard work.

Whenever you encounter an account which has a huge number of followers, monitor the account to see if the followers are bots or real people. However, if the account belongs to a celebrity, then the number of followers can shoot up in just a few days.

b) Calculate the Engagement Rate

This is one of the most effective ways to identify genuine influencers. To calculate the engagement rate, consider the most recent 20-30 posts of the influencer and divide the number of likes, shares, and comments by their follower count.

If the engagement rate is poor when compared to their number of followers, chances are high that their influence isn’t genuine. You also need to reconsider influencers when their engagement rate drops and/or increases suddenly.

c) Monitor the Quality of Engagement

The third way to identify genuine influencers is to monitor the quality of their engagement. All you have to do is scan some of the recent posts of the influencer and the comments on them. This will help you identify if the comments are from real people or not.

If the comments are similar to each other or/and they look spammy, chances are they are from bots. However, if the comments are thoughtful, then they’re likely to be from real people.

Final Thoughts

There are challenges in every form of marketing and influencer marketing is no different.

The challenges mentioned above are the most common ones faced by influencer marketers. If you are facing any of these challenges, then these tips can help you out.

Can you think of any other challenges in influencer marketing and ways to overcome them? Let us know in the comments below.

The post How Marketers Can Overcome These Influencer Marketing Challenges appeared first on TheiMarketingCafe.