Let’s Talk AI and Google.

Let’s have a Talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Ok…we must talk about AI….it is here NOW, and I predict that 2023 will be the year that AI will have a major impact on nearly Everything.

With the release of ChatGPT a few weeks ago, the world has moved into new era’s of information. AI will change the world as we know it today – I truly believe that, as it takes our intelligence to a new level.

But, for the sake of business today, and for the sake of Google, we must also look at the opportunities, and the limitations, and goods and the bads when it comes to AI.

AI can help give ideas for topics to write (ie, ttell it something like, “I offer internet marketing services and I have a website. what are 50 potential services pages that we could write up that might appeal to prospective clients”…. and wa-la, out comes 50 ideas… some of those will be useful, and some will not… but AI can also take it a step further because you can then tell it to write articles about the ideas that it, or you, came up with that could be useful….. there are advantages to having something 1. come up with ideas, and 2, executing those ideas (by writing the ideas).

So, I know that we have several clients who want “As much content as possible, as quick as possible, as cheap as possible” and AI, at first glance, looks like a dream… so let’s dig in a little….

So, in relation to SEO, we need to talk about what Google thinks about AI generated content first. John Mueller has been saying over and over again, and even recently, that Google doesn’t like AI content, and says that it is against the Google Guidelines and can harm your website.

On August 25th and again on December 6th, Google released their first ever “Helpful Content Updates”. According to Google, this update, “generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.” I added the bold to “written by people, for people” because finding and penalizing AI content was one of the main focus’s of those updates.

These are worth reading: .

• Google Says AI Generated Content Is Against Guidelines , SEJ – April 6th 2022
• AI Generated Content Google Guidelines: Will Google Really Penalize Your Auto-Generated Content? – July 28, 2022
• What creators should know about Google’s August 2022 helpful content update – Google August 2022
• More From Google On AI Content – It’s About If The Content Is Helpful – SER November 8, 2022
• Google: We Have Algorithms To Detect & Demote AI Altered Plagiarized Content – SER November 30, 2022
• Google Helpful Content Update 2 –  SEL – December 6, 2022

So let’s talk AI programs – below are some AI content programs: 

• ChatGPT https://chat.openai.com/ – * Best AI tool that I’ve seen…can do a lot more than just content…it can also write code, and do more.
• Jasper https://www.jasper.ai/
• Writesonic https://writesonic.com/
• articleforge https://www.articleforge.com/
• WordAi https://wordai.com/
• Ink https://inkforall.com/
• AI Writer https://ai-writer.com/

Here are some AI Programs for Video/Image: 

Create AI Videos/People https://www.synthesia.io/ and https://humanpal.io/
Create AI Pictures https://labs.openai.com/
Text to Image: https://www.fotor.com/features/ai-image-generator/
Image Editing: https://prisma-ai.com/lensa
AI Art Generator: https://creator.nightcafe.studio/
Open AI Examples https://beta.openai.com/examples
Jasper Art https://www.jasper.ai/art

Now, for the scary – and Super Import Part.  Here are the tools that can detect AI content:

• https://huggingface.co/openai-detector/ – ** this one I would recommend the most
• https://writer.com/ai-content-detector/
• https://contentatscale.ai/ai-content-detector/
• https://www.poemofquotes.com/tools/ai-content-detector.php
• https://originality.ai/
• Percent Human: A list of tools for detecting lower-quality AI content – Glenn Gabe
• How to Detect AI-Generated Content (and Can Google Do That) – Ann Smarty

So I’ve been playing with ChatGBT a lot, testing what it can and can’t do. I’ve had it write some simple programs, and also some songs (ie, I’ve asked it to write the words and music to another song on Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album, I’ve had it write Ferris Bueller’s Day off – 40 years later, I’ve had it come up with viral bait ideas, video idea, website ideas, and so much more).

I even asked ChatGBT for what I should tell all of you about AI.

Here are the Instruction that I fed it:
I run an SEO company. if i was sending an email to my clients talking about AI for content creation. What are some of the things that you would recommend that I inform my client about AI content and how to use it or how to not use it for website content. Write this in first person, in the style of hunter thompson and mark twain. Include an original relevant joke. Tell an interesting personal story about AI as well. Put headings above important paragraphs with interesting title headings. Also, include a quote from someone, but get the quote wrong, and make that quote big.

Here are the Results that it gave me:

Hey there,

I wanted to reach out and talk to you about using AI for content creation. As you know, AI technology is constantly evolving, and it can be a useful tool for generating high-quality website content. However, there are a few things you should consider before jumping into the AI content game.

“AI is the future of content creation!”

Someone, probably

The Pros and Cons of AI Content

On the one hand, AI-generated content can save you a ton of time and effort. It’s fast, efficient, and free of spelling and grammar errors. Plus, it can generate content on a wide range of topics with ease.

On the other hand, AI content may not be as engaging or persuasive as content written by a human. It may not capture the tone and style you’re looking for, and it may not be as effective at converting visitors into customers.

The Importance of Human Oversight

While AI content can be useful, it’s important to remember that it’s not a replacement for human-generated content. It’s crucial to have a human review and edit AI-generated content to ensure that it’s accurate and appropriate. AI-generated content may contain errors or inappropriate language that a human would need to catch and correct.

Originality is Key

Google and other search engines value original, high-quality content, and they may penalize websites that use copied or spun content. It’s important to ensure that any AI-generated content is unique and not copied from other sources.

The Future of AI Content

As I mentioned earlier, AI technology is constantly evolving. It’s possible that AI-generated content may become more sophisticated and persuasive in the future. It’s important to stay up to date on developments in the field and to consider how AI may be able to benefit your content strategy going forward.

“AI is the future of content creation. Or maybe it’s just a fad. Who knows?”

Mark Twain, probably

I’ll never forget the time I saw an AI write a poem that was so good, it made me cry. It was about the beauty of nature and the impermanence of life. It was truly a remarkable moment, and it really made me think about the potential of AI as a creative tool.

I hope this information was helpful, and if you have any questions about using AI for content creation, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Best,

This piece of text, FYI, scored a 99.98% fake on https://huggingface.co/openai-detector/

When I asked ChatGBT to “talk about the history of google and ai content and if they might penalize a site for using ai content”

It said, “Google has a long history of using artificial intelligence (AI) in its search algorithms and other products. The company has always been at the forefront of AI research and development, and it has invested heavily in AI technology over the years.

In terms of AI-generated content, Google has generally been open to the use of AI as a tool for creating content. The company’s algorithms are designed to prioritize content that is useful and valuable to users, and this includes content that is generated using AI.

However, it is important to note that Google may penalize websites that use AI to generate low-quality or spammy content, or that use AI to try to manipulate search results in an unethical way. The company’s guidelines specify that websites should not use “automated programs or services to create links to your site or generate large amounts of content.”

Overall, it is important for websites to use AI in a responsible and ethical manner, and to focus on creating high-quality content that is valuable to users. This will help ensure that the website is in compliance with Google’s guidelines and is likely to rank well in search results.

So I guess the big question really is, “Will Google Hurt your site if you use AI for content generation?”
Well, currently, Google is saying “Yes, we will penalize your site for using AI content.”.

Will that change in the future?
…Maybe.
Can Google detect AI content today?
Probability yes they can most of the time…

Will they be able to detect new AI content in 1 year?
…I’m not sure.

AI is not going away, it’s very smart today, and it’s only getting smarter, and in a few month, when it’s connected to the web, and Google, and Amazon, and Microsoft, and others release their AI’s to the public, then a new day of knowledge will be upon us. I believe that AI will effect us as much as The Internet effected our lives.

In the end, AI is just a tool, and it’s how you use that tool that will determine “how smart you are because of AI”. Jobs will be lost, how we do things will change, and new opportunities will arise…there is no stopping what has started, and by the end of 2023, we will be in a new era, an era that takes the knowledge of the world, and the internet, and it will start to “think” and to write and to communicate back and forth with us. We will learn from it, and it will learn from us… It’s about to be a long strange trip into a new era of humans, an era beyond the Internet, and era of AI.

Happy Holiday’s, Peace, Love, and Respect,

Jim Boykin and the Ninja Team.

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How to Detect AI-Generated Content (and Can Google Do That)

Artificial Intelligence is taking the SEO industry by storm, and as it often happens in our community, there have been lots of discussions about how to use AI to manipulate ranking signals scale, especially content.

AI tools can write original content, and, from the reader’s point of view, good content. In fact, some AI-written content is scary good.

In fact, well-written copy could save SEOs much trouble by helping them add meaningful text content to database-driven pages, like product categories, city-driven pages and more.

So can AI be an SEO solution?

Not quite.

John Mueller has been saying that Google doesn’t like AI content, and has often been quoted saying that AI created content is against the Google Guidelines.

In August and also on December 6th, Google released the first ever “Helpful Content” updates. According to Google, this update, “generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.”

I added the bold to “written by people, for people” because finding and penalizing AI content was one of the main focuses of those updates.

Here’s some coverage on how Google may be treating AI-written content:

• AI Generated Content Google Guidelines: Will Google Really Penalize Your Auto-Generated Content? – July 28, 2022
• More From Google On AI Content – It’s About If The Content Is Helpful – SER November 8, 2022
• Google: We Have Algorithms To Detect & Demote AI Altered Plagiarized Content – SER November 30, 2022
• Google Helpful Content Update 2 – SEL – December 6, 2022

But can AI-written content really be detected?

Yes, even if it’s very well-written.

In fact, I was genuinely surprised by that discovery because to a human eye, it often seems undetectable. It often sounds natural and flows well, and can even add a lot of value (to me, it is not really “fluff” content that exists for the sake of adding more keywords to a page).

And yet, it can be detected, and if the tools below can detect it, so can Google:

GPT-2 Output Detector Demo

GPT-2 Output Detector Demo is open, free and requires no registration. As a result, it is sometimes down, because a lot of people seem to be using it at a time.

However it is scary good. Make it your first choice when analyzing content for possible AI impact.

GPT – Writer

GPT – Writer is another free and open AI detecting tool. I have found it just a bit less reliable than GPT-2 but it still managed to identify that my content blurb was not exactly written by a human being.

Content at Scale

AI Detector – Content at Scale is another tool that I have found quite reliable. It gives your content a human score, so aim at higher percent!

AI Content Detector

AI Content Detector is a free detector but it has a limit of up to 200 words. When comparing it to the above tools, I didn’t find it reliable enough.

Originality.AI

Originality.AI is the only premium tool on my list. It charges 0.1 cent per credit and checks your content for both originality and AI.

It does a good job detecting AI-generated content, so it is a good option if any of the free tools is down. It also offers API access and saves your scans.

My Own Take

Overall, when running my tests, I didn’t find it too challenging to bypass those filters. It takes just a few minutes of editing to make the text sound the way I’d say it. One quick edit per paragraph got me past all those tests. It did take me a couple of minutes to edit about 300-word text, so it is not exactly effort-free.

There’s no way to tell if Google using more advanced tools though.

Manual detection

There are a few approaches you can take to try to detect AI-written content manually:

1. Look for stylistic quirks: Some (but, again, not all) AI tools have distinct writing styles that may be noticeable to a human reader. For example, they may use unusual sentence structures, or they may repeat certain words or phrases more frequently than a human writer would.
2. Check the content for factual errors: AI systems may not always produce accurate or up-to-date information, so factual errors could be a sign that it was written by an AI.
3. Analyze the language: Some AI systems create content that just don’t sound quite normal, so analyzing the language used in the content for any irregularities or inconsistencies could be a way to detect AI-written content.
4. Check for a lack of personal voice or perspective: AI systems may not be able to express personal opinions or write in a personal style, so a lack of personal perspective in the content could be a sign that it was written by an AI.

Obviously, these approaches are not foolproof and may not always be reliable for detecting AI-written content. So when in doubt (i.e. when you were not that one actually writing content), try the tools above!)

 

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How Marketers Are Spending Their Money in 2023 (We Asked 8032 Marketers)

With the economy up in the air due to inflation kicking into high gear, war, interest rates rising, and other factors that we can’t control we decided it would be great to see how other marketers are reacting.

And we didn’t want to know how marketers were reacting just in the U.S., we wanted to know on a global scale what businesses of all sizes in all major industries (and for both B2B and B2C) are doing.

So, at my ad agency, NP Digital, we decided to leverage our traffic, email lists, and relationships to conduct a wide survey so not only could see what other marketers are doing but to also understand the “why” behind their decisions.

Here’s what we found out.

Earned Media

Let’s look closely at each earned media channel to see how budgets are being reallocated.

SEO

68% of companies surveyed said they are increasing their SEO budget. The number 1 response on why they are making this is shift is because they said it provides a higher ROI than paid advertising. Which is true… it just takes longer to see results.

11% said they would maintain their SEO budget going into 2023. The number 1 response on why is because there wasn’t much flexibility with their overall marketing spend due to economic reasons.

As for the 21% that said they were decreasing… it was a toss-up on why between two main responses.

The first was that SEO wasn’t producing results and the second was that the marketing team is having to make cuts to meet their reduced budget.

Organic Social Media

32% of companies are planning on increasing their organic social media budget. The primary response was because of the Apple IOS changes, and they aren’t able to spend as much as they want on paid social media.

26% said they would keep their budget as is with the main reason being that you have to be on the major platforms in order to communicate with customers and potential customers.

A whopping 42% said they would decrease due to organic reach continually declining and organic social media not providing as high of an ROI as it used to.

If you are facing a decline in organic reach, watch this:

Content

83% of companies are increasing their content production budget. The number 1 response on why was due to the need to create content in multiple formats including video and the cost associated with it.

8% said they would maintain their budget. The main reason why was the economic situation limiting their ability to spend more.

And 9% said they are decreasing their content creation budget due to AI tools helping them create content more affordably.

AI Tools

Speaking of AI tools… they are the talk of the town these days. From GTP-3 to Dall-E to ChatGPT… there are a lot of companies leveraging these APIs to create their own tools or to make their marketing more efficient. Especially with earned media.

A staggering 98% said they would invest in AI tools in 2023. The main reason why revolved around these 3 main points:

1. Save money by automating content creation
2. Reduce the amount of time spent on creating content
3. Ability to reduce headcount in the content department

2% said they would not test out AI tools, and the main reason was they felt that the quality of the AI tools isn’t up to their standards.

Email Marketing

56% of companies said they would increase their email marketing budget. It was a toss-up on why marketers said they would increase their budget…

1. Because their list size is growing so their costs for housing email addresses are going up
2. Due to privacy laws, companies are spending more to make sure they are compliant with personal data
3. Companies are investing more in marketing automation

38% of companies plan on maintaining their email marketing efforts. The main response why was they believed email is an important channel to use to communicate with existing and potential customers.

6% said they plan on decreasing their email marketing budget. There were 2 main responses on why marketers said they would decrease their budget… it was between

• Companies pruning their email list of inactive subscribers which would allow them to save money
• Companies are switching email marketing software providers to save money

Very few companies planned on reducing headcount related to email marketing efforts.

UX/Conversion Rate Optimization

61% of companies plan on increasing their overall UX/CRO budget. It was a toss-up on the main reason they wanted to increase their overall budget in this category. The reasons were:

• With the rising cost of ads, CRO helps provide a better ROI
• UX important part of the overall marketing experience

26% of companies plan on keeping their UX/CRO budget the same primarily for the same reasons as above.

And 13% plan on decreasing their budget due to economic reasons as the main driver.

Podcasting

Podcasting is one of those marketing channels that isn’t saturated yet. And the survey results show that marketers believe in it as a viable channel for the future.

92% of companies are planning to increase their podcasting budget in 2023. The main response was that they currently don’t have a podcast and are planning on creating one.

5% of companies are planning on maintaining their existing podcasting budget. The main response on why is they haven’t figured out how to drive meaningful revenue from their podcast so they don’t want to spend too much yet.

And 3% plan on decreasing their podcasting spend. The main reason was due to economic factors requiring marketing to make cuts.

Community-Building

84% of companies are increasing their spend on community building. The main reason was that marketers want to feel more in control of their destiny instead of being beholden to algorithms that they can’t control.

12% of companies plan to maintain their community building. The majority of the companies in this category felt it was important to increase their budget but they weren’t able to due to economic reasons.

And 4% plan on decreasing their community-building budget due to the economy.

Paid Ads

There are a lot of different paid ad channels, for this category we looked at the main leaders. So, let’s start off with search ads.

Search Ads

With Google and Bing ads, most companies (59% and 47% respectively) are looking to increase their budgets. Almost all of the responses on why were that it provided a clear ROI compared to other marketing channels.

Both channels had roughly the same percentage for maintaining the budget at 18% for Google and 19% for Bing. The main response for maintaining the budget was they haven’t figured out how to scale while maintaining profit margins.

And as for the decreases (23% for Google and 34% for Bing), the main responses were related to:

1. The average cost per click for their industry is getting cheaper
2. Fewer people were searching for the keywords they were bidding on so their overall spend is decreasing.

Social Ads

The percentages in the graph above are all over the place, but the story is consistent when you look at the responses.

With Facebook, Instagram, and Snap, the main responses for either maintaining or decreasing spend are related to the Apple IOS privacy changes. In other words, marketers aren’t able to generate the same ROI from Facebook as they used to be able to.

Some of the companies got lucky and were able to maintain their spend to generate a similar ROI and some had to decrease their spend in order to keep their ads profitable… again due to IOS privacy changes.

A smaller percentage on these 3 platforms were able to increase their budgets. The main response to increasing is that their campaigns are profitable so they plan on scaling.

As for YouTube and Pinterest, (28% and 35% respectively) said they planned on increasing their budgets. The main response was their ads are profitable and they want to scale them.

33% (YouTube) and 29% (Pinterest) plan to maintain their ad spend because their ads are profitable. The second most popular response for maintaining was they can’t scale due to it making the ads unprofitable.

As for the decrease in YouTube and Pinterest ad spend, the main response was related to the economy impacting their business and budget cuts in marketing.

With Tiktok, the majority of marketers, at a whopping 84%, said they plan to increase their overall spend on this platform because they see it as an untapped opportunity.

And with LinkedIn, the majority of the companies who responded about their LinkedIn ad spend were in the B2B category. 57% plan on increasing their budget with the number 1 response being that they feel it is the best platform to target their ideal customer.

35% plan on maintaining their LinkedIn ad spend with the main reason being that it is working but they aren’t able to scale due to a lack of inventory for their target demographic.

And 8% plan on decreasing their LinkedIn ad spend with the primary response being due to their company slowing down for economic reasons.

Now I wanted to save the most interesting one for last, which is Twitter. I didn’t actually expect these results… and you’ll see why…

28% of companies plan on increasing their Twitter ad spend. The number one response on why was they feel there is an opportunity to acquire customers for less on the platform due to companies pulling out after Elon bought them.

And 34% plan on decreasing their ad spend. When asked why the main response was they don’t agree with how Elon Musk is running the platform and the changes he has been making.

Other Online Ad Buys

Let’s dive into each of the channels as the responses were interesting.

With podcast ads, 78% plan on increasing their ad spend. The top reason was they plan on buying ads to promote their own podcast in order to make it more popular. 18% plan on maintaining their ad spend with the responses primarily discussing how it produces a positive ROI or that companies felt it was great for branding and cheaper than radio.

With the 4% of respondents saying they are decreasing their ad spend, the primary reason was that they are seeing a decrease in ROI from their podcast ad spend.

For banner ads, 34% plan on increasing their ad spend with the main response being it’s profitable and they want to scale it. 52% plan on maintaining their spend with the main reason being around it being profitable. And 14% of companies plan on decreasing their ad spend due to mainly not being as profitable as they would like.

As for remarketing spend, 94% plan to increase their ad budget as they see it as one of their most profitable marketing channels. 5% plan on maintaining it as it is profitable. And 1% plan on decreasing their remarketing ad spend with the main reason being around lack of conversions.

Now for OTT/CTV… if you aren’t familiar with these terms, it’s related to streaming TV.

52% of companies plan on increasing their ad spend for OTT/CTV with the main reason being it provides more transparency and trackability than traditional TV ads. 35% plan on maintaining their spend for this category with the main responses being related to it providing great branding and or profitability.

As for the 13% that plan on decreasing their spend, the main reason was shifting the budget to Google ads and other channels that are more profitable.

Now looking at influencer marketing, which is mainly used by eCommerce companies, 41% plan on increasing their spend with the main reason being is it provides a better ROI than other marketing channels that they are using.

17% plan on maintaining their spend with the main response being that it is profitable and cutting it would cause the company to lose money.

And funny enough 42% plan on decreasing their influencer marketing ad spend with the main response being that they aren’t able to produce a positive ROI.

If you look at the percentages you can clearly see influence marketing is either working for companies or isn’t. Roughly 58% of the companies that use this tactic are able to do so profitably.

Traditional Ads

With traditional ads, there was a big trend. In almost all channels companies responded with their plan to decrease traditional ad spend.

It was a toss-up with a few reasons. The main ones being:

• Lack of ability to track return on investment
• Economy causing marketing budget cuts
• A shift toward moving ad spend to performance marketing due to better results.

A lot of companies are still maintaining their budgets and when we dug through the responses very few companies are stopping their traditional ad spend all together as they still believe it is an important channel to reach their customers.

Overall Marketing Budget

As you saw from all the graphs above there are a lot of budgets shifting around.

But we wanted to also know what companies are doing with their overall marketing budget. Are they increasing… decreasing?

I assumed with the economy a lot of companies would be decreasing their spend, but overall more companies are increasing them in both B2C and B2B than decreasing.

26% of B2C companies plan on increasing their spend, 51% plan on maintaining their spend, and only 23% plan on decreasing their spend.

The main responses for increasing or maintaining their spend revolved around their marketing either being profitable or just overall working.

As for the decreases, most of the reasoning was around the economy and how it is already impacting their business.

As for B2B, a lot of the companies in this category have recurring revenue and much more predictability into future quarters when it comes to financial performance.

34% of them plan on increasing budgets with the primary reasoning being their marketing is profitable or at least when looked at from a lifetime value perspective. 45% plan to maintain with the above reasoning being the primary driver as well.

And 21% of B2B companies plan on decreasing their overall marketing spend due to the economy impacting the company’s overall health.

Conclusion

Even though most marketers are worried about the economy and are making changes to their marketing, the majority of them are increasing their spend or maintaining versus reducing.

From an earned media perspective most companies are looking to increase their budget due to it providing a higher ROI, other than organic social with the primary reason being organic reach is continually declining.

And with AI tools becoming the latest craze, most marketers are at least trying them out.

From a paid ads perspective, most companies are planning on increasing or maintaining their search ads. But with social ads, many companies are planning to decrease. Not because of choice, but due to IOS privacy changes impacting the performance of their ads and companies not being able to scale their social ads as profitably as they use to.

Funny enough with it comes to Twitter it’s a bit polarizing as 28% of companies are planning on increasing ad spend because 34% of companies are planning on decreasing or stopping their ads due to their views on Elon Musk and the decisions he has made.

As for traditional ad buys, in all channels, the majority of companies are planning on decreasing their ad spend and shifting a lot of the money to performance channels like Google Ads or SEO which is more trackable.

So now that you know what others are doing, real question is, what are you doing with your marketing budgets in 2023?

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Does Rich Media on Product Pages Help Boost Revenue?

Rich media – including videos, gifs, audio recordings, and infographics – is a popular tool used to convert users on landing pages and in digital advertisements.

Does it have the same impact on conversion rates and revenue on product pages? That’s the million-dollar question for many e-commerce website owners and marketers looking to increase the conversion rate of their own product pages.

So if you’re asking yourself, “should I make room for rich media on my product pages?”, you’ll find your answer to that question and more below.

Why Is Rich Media Important?

Rich media is any feature or website element that encourages users to interact with it. This type of content is often used on landing pages, in digital advertisements, and on product pages.

The most widely used example of rich media on product pages is video.

So, why is rich media important?

In e-commerce, rich media enables the viewer to interact with the product before they convert. This includes visualizing product installation, seeing the product in use, and even learning tips and tricks for best product usage.

This isn’t a new trend. YouTube videos for e-commerce have been around for years. However, the importance of rich media in product selling only seems to grow.

Beyond engagement, product videos and other forms of rich media can build trust with potential customers. After all, to see is to believe. Product videos may help to ease users’ concerns or even highlight features that get potential customers more excited over the product. This essentially means you can sell more with your videos.

Perhaps most importantly, especially as it relates to the topic at hand, is that Google is increasingly prioritizing webpages with video content. In fact, Google may even turn webpages with video content into rich snippets. With an average conversion rate of 58% as compared to 41% for non-rich results, it’s easy to see how your website may benefit from more video content.

Common Product Page Conversion Methods

The use of rich media on product pages isn’t the only conversion method that website owners may use.

A few other methods include:

• Trust badges, like an icon from the Better Business Bureau
• Compelling product copy
• Customer ratings and reviews
• Customer-generated content (e.g., product images, product videos)
• Frequently asked questions
• Estimated delivery dates
• Low inventory messaging (e.g., “Only 3 left!”)

There are plenty of ways to boost conversion rates on your product page. We recommend split testing to truly determine how effective each of the above methods is with your audience.

Rich Media: Does It Boost Revenue For Product Pages?

We know there are many benefits, as outlined above, to including rich media on product pages. We also know that rich media advertisements tend to see higher conversion rates and revenue than their non-rich media counterparts. In fact, rich media ads have been shown to outperform standard ads by up to 267%!

To truly understand whether rich media has an impact on product page performance, though, we need to perform analysis across multiple websites.

What Our Data Shows Us

For our analysis, we selected six top name-brand websites from the baby sleep sack industry. Of these six websites, we chose the top-performing pages from each as of August 19th, 2022. The goal of this analysis was to determine if videos helped boost estimated traffic revenue, among other related metrics.

In addition to rich media, we’ve also included other factors that may impact the web page’s performance.

Rich Media, Product Schema and Quality Information: Kyte Baby

On the Kyte Baby product page for the Sleep Sack in Sage 1.0, a video is available.

The website ranks for 310 organic keywords with 2.4 thousand organic traffic visits per month. As for organic traffic value, or the revenue attributed to organic traffic visits, this page nets $21 per month.

Let’s consider what else the product page might do well.

First and foremost, Kyte Baby does have product schema implemented. Product schema, or product structured data, enables Google to display product listings in a richer way. With product schema, Google can enhance both product snippets in rich results and merchant listing experiences.

This includes displaying price, availability, and even ratings and reviews:

In addition, the Kyte Baby product page also contains a high word count (1,284 words on the page, NOT including the 6,524 reviews for the product). This offers ample opportunity to optimize the listing for search engines while providing all necessary information to customers.

Product Reviews Add Over 1000 words to Love to Dream’s Product Pages

The second product page on our list, Love to Dream, also featured a video on the product description page during the time of our analysis. The video appears to have been removed more recently, though our analysis only focuses on the time when the video was present.

The URL ranks for 579 organic keywords, it draws in 3,000 in average monthly traffic, and it has an organic traffic revenue of $977.

Similar to Kyte Baby, Love to Dream does have product schema implemented. The Love to Dream product page has a fairly low word count (653 words), though product reviews are also found on the page which adds an additional 1,134 words to the listing.

Aden + Anais: How A Small Product Image Gallery and Low Word Count Hurt Performance

The first on our list not to include a video on the product description page, the Aden + Anais Boutique Cotton Muslin Light Sleep Sack features a minimal gallery with just two images.

The product page ranks for 98 organic keywords with an average monthly organic traffic of 122. The estimated net dollars in organic traffic revenue is $39, which means this product page is the second lowest performer on our list.

Aside from the minimal image gallery, the page contains a minimal word count (346 words) which doesn’t include the word count from the 63 reviews.

One thing to note here is that the reviews average 3.1 stars which may account for the poor performance we’re seeing. A low average review count is likely negatively impacting conversion. After all, 93% of consumers say online reviews impact their buying decision. On top of that, most won’t engage with a business or product rating below 3.3 stars.

Sleeping Baby: The Unseen Factors That Impact SERPs

Sleeping Baby’s The Classic Heather Zipadee-Zip Swaddle Transition® product description page has a modest gallery (just five images including a size guide) with no video or other rich content available.

With 23 organic keyword rankings, 11 in average monthly organic traffic, and an estimated $3 in organic traffic revenue, Sleeping Baby is the poorest-performing product description page in our analysis.

This is an anomaly among our analyzed pages as product schema is implemented, the page has a decent word count (401 not including product reviews), and it has over 2,400 reviews. All other things being equal, you might expect better performance results. As we know, though, Google is likely considering dozens of unseen factors.

Magic Merlin: How Few Reviews and Sparse Product Descriptions Directly Affect Product Page Rankings

The product description page for Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleepsuit in Cream has a gallery of varied images, including those with text-to-outline key product features. The page does not include a video or other forms of rich content. The product description page does have product schema implemented.

With 63 organic keywords, 90 average monthly traffic visits, and a traffic value of just $6, Magic Merlin is our second-to-worst performing product page in our analysis.

When considering other factors that may play a role in poor performance, consider that there are only 112 words on the page and there are no reviews of the product.

Of the six listings we’ve analyzed, Magic Merlin is the only one to receive a passing score for Core Web Vitals. These are a set of factors that Google considers when evaluating the page’s overall user experience. Specifically, Core Web Vitals measures:

• Largest contentful paint: How long it takes for the main content of a web page to load.
• First input delay: The delay in time from when a visitor first interacts with the page (e.g. clicks a link, scrolls through a carousel) to when the browser is able to react.
• Cumulative layout shift: A measurement of the shifting of website elements (e.g. font, buttons, images) while the page is still loading. This can disorient visitors.

So while Magic Merlin performs well in user experience, we can see that other factors (e.g., no rich content, low word count, no reviews) may play a larger role.

Dreamland Baby Co.: Rich Media and Product Schema are Necessary For Product Pages

Last on our list is Dreamland Baby Co.’s product page for the Dream Weighted Sleep Sack.

The product page has a gallery of 15+ images, but no product video is included. The product page ranks for 538 organic keywords with 3.8 thousand in average monthly organic traffic and an estimated net of $640 in traffic revenue.

Dreamland Baby Co. seems to turn the previous results on their head, as it outperforms the two listings with videos present when it comes to organic keyword rankings and monthly organic traffic.

To stir further intrigue, Dreamland Baby Co. does not have product schema implemented so it’s not benefiting from any enhanced Google search results listings. It does contain a decent word count on the page (1,029 words, not including the word count from the 3,000+ reviews).

Insights on Rich Media and Product Pages

If rich media was the be-all-end-all for product page conversion, you would expect to see sites like Kyte Baby and Love to Dream outperform the other ones on our list. That’s not the case, however.

Kyte Baby and Love to Dream were the third and second best-performing web pages, respectively. Dreamland Baby Co., a web page without a video and even without established product schema, performed the best among all six websites analyzed when looking at overall organic keyword universe.

Why might that be?

With a whopping 3,000 reviews, Dreamland Baby Co. obviously has high engagement and high customer satisfaction. These likely play a factor in its success within the organic search results.

So, can videos increase conversions?

While video can be a useful conversion tool to build revenue, they are best used on pages that are already well-constructed and functional. A video cannot make up for a failing Core Web Vitals score or poor SEO practices such as lack of product schema. Shift your focus to your web page’s structure first and foremost before adding extraneous content such as videos.

FAQs

Do you still have questions about rich media on product pages? Here are some answers to frequently asked questions.

Where should I include rich media or videos on my product pages?

When it comes to displaying rich media and other videos on your product pages, the best place is in the image gallery or carousel. This will ensure the content is above the fold and in a place where customers may think to look for them first.

What is rich product content?

Rich product content includes any descriptions, images, or video that is used to help both search engines and individual readers get a better understanding of the product and its uses.

What is e-commerce rich content?

E-commerce rich content is an umbrella term that includes any sort of rich media for an e-commerce page. This can range from your basic product images to more complex offerings like video and augmented reality.

What are the benefits of rich media in content?

Rich media has a variety of uses in content. As a start, it can provide a valuable graphical supplement to any points you want to make in your copy. Some content is better illustrated in rich media form than it is in text. In addition, having rich media allows your piece to have a broader appeal than if the piece was just text.

Do product videos help boost conversions?

Product videos are elements that may help boost conversions if all other factors are already implemented, such as product schema and a passing Core Web Vitals score.

How long should my videos be?

A good rule of thumb is to keep the video under two minutes in length. This will ensure the viewer’s attention doesn’t stray.

Do I need to optimize my videos or rich media?

There are a few general video optimization rules to follow. These include using a video streaming service for quality and speed and only loading your video once all other content elements on the page have loaded.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that rich media, especially videos, can elevate your product pages. That assumes, however, that all other important elements and factors of a product page have been implemented and considered.

For the best results, you should add videos to product pages that have already been optimized for user experience and SEO. This includes considering your score on Core Web Vitals and whether you have product schema set up for search engine optimization.

Have you seen growth in conversions since adding rich media to your product pages?

from Neil Patel https://ift.tt/ztojV2w

Getting Started with Behavioral Email Marketing

When sending out automated emails to your list, how personalized are they?

I’m not talking about things like $firstname, or order by $date for free shipping – but actual personalization based on their behavioral triggers.

Let’s dig a little bit into the numbers behind this. According to the latest Blueshift Report, trigger-based marketing emails outperform batch and blast emails by 497%. Along with that, automated emails delivered 29% of all email marketing purchases with fewer than 2% of email sends.

Recently, behavioral email marketing showed high promise of sales. Think of this as something that’s bringing the above benefits together, helping companies increase ecommerce sales by simply using behavioral triggers via email, sometimes with automation. Built off the concept of behavioral marketing, this method helps get a pulse of your audience so you can interact with them in a way that makes sense.

Let those numbers sink in a minute.

The potential for making the most of behavioral email marketing is wide open, and yet, according to Econsultancy, only 20% of marketers are using behavioral targeting.

Why is that? Let’s take a closer look at the core issues and learn how to get started with behavioral email marketing.

Send Emails Based On Customer Actions

Now, not all of these points will be email “action-worthy,” so it’s up to you to figure out what actions the user takes (or doesn’t take) that are worth sending an email. You may have even seen this kind of behavioral targeting email marketing at work when you sign up for a service, but don’t complete your profile or verify your email address. If the company is smart, they’ll send you an automated email reminding you to do so.

But re-targeting the user in this way isn’t the only way to leverage behavioral targeted emails. You can also send out targeted messages, for example, when a customer:

• Submits a form to download your white paper, video, case study or other free item.
• Views certain content on your web page. If they spent some time browsing the FAQ, you can set up a behaviorally targeted email to check in and see if they have any specific questions.
• Leaves an item in their cart without checking out. You could send them a reminder email with a small discount, remind them of limited stock (or that their cart will expire) and so on.

Remember, with behavioral email marketing, it’s the customer at the wheel — not you. They’re making choices while interacting with your content. Behavioral marketing is designed to act on those choices with the kind of engagement that increases conversion rates, grows profits, and vastly improves customer retention.

Discovering Behavioral Email Marketing Trigger Opportunities

Once you start collecting and analyzing the information that you gather on your customers, new opportunities for behaviorally targeted emails will percolate to the surface. You’ll start getting all kinds of great ideas on how to guide users back into your service. To help get you started, here’s an overview of email marketing formats I consider some of my favorites:

The “Getting Started” Email

Also known as an “onboarding” email, this message is usually sent after you create an account or register for a service. It’s designed to get you clicking and interacting with the service as quickly and fluidly as possible. Here’s an awesome example from Stocksy, a stock photography site:

Notice how they’ve carefully curated images in emails on a specific theme – then encourage you to click through and check them out for more design inspiration. Here’s another example from Airbnb:

If you’ve been browsing trips to wine country, this targeted email can help make your tour much more palatable through the offer of discounts, local guides, special attractions, and more.

The Notification Email

The notification email is generally just a canned response from your account or user management software that tells people their username and password, and maybe has a link to some documentation to get started. That’s where most of the getting started automating of the process ends — which results in a lot of confused or frustrated users.

Instead, encourage them to take the first step toward trying out your product by offering more of a guided, hands-on tour. If you have a SaaS, walk them through using it by helping them to create their very first _____ — such as a website, playlist, or campaign. This sort of guided, pop-up tour will help them feel more at ease, and can also give you even more valuable data for your behavioral targeting email marketing goals.

The Icing on the Cake Email

These are the unexpected but highly welcomed emails that encourage better customer retention. Here’s a great example from Shopify that lets users extend their free trial of the service:

Another example comes from TurboTax, which is designed to pique the user’s curiosity about how much their tax refund could be, before they ever see a check in the mail:

It also promotes the benefits of using the TurboTax service, but without being overly “sales-y” or pushy. Rather, it shifts the focus onto the customer and their end goals – which revolve around getting the biggest refund possible at tax time.

The Reward Email

Everyone loves getting an unexpected reward — even if it’s a digital “good job!” Here’s an example of an email from Withings, which is a Fitbit-style product that helps inspire healthy habits by tracking your activity. Here, you can see a user has won a badge for taking 8,000 steps in a day, and unlocked the Marathon reward. They can also share their progress on Twitter or Facebook.

The Recommendation Email

Oftentimes, great customer service from a company is enough to get you to recommend them. But what if the brand sweetened the deal? Bombas, which sells socks online, provides free socks, with no limit, to people who tell their friends about them. Those friends get a discount on socks, and the referrer gets more socks. And we all know you can never have enough socks.

Transactional Emails

Did you know that transactional emails (receipts, shipping notifications, etc.) are opened up at 8x the rate of regular emails? With this in mind, it’s worth going through the ones your company sends and doing away with those dusty old “order confirmed” messages, to make every note you send one that not only thanks the customer for their order, but does so in a way that’s more akin to having a conversation than making a statement.

This Slack notification for the user to get involved with the app on mobile does just that by having a link to their blog in the footer:

It’s not invasive, but the user knows the brand has more in store. Those are the kinds of placements in your trigger emails that will keep leads engaged.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is behavioral email marketing?

Behavioral marketing refers to the response to each lead’s behavior with the kind of engagement that boosts conversion rates, revenues, and customer retention.

How can I create emails based on user behavior?

Think of this email in the formula of an “if-then” clause. For example, if a customer abandoned their cart, email them to remind them of the quality products they’re leaving behind. Try including a coupon, because that prompts leads to convert as well.

What is behavioral targeting in email marketing?

Behavioral targeting in the email marketing world is sending out specific emails to consumers based on their past behavior. For example, sending a different email to someone who brought a product from your online store versus someone who filled their cart, but never checked out.

What are the 4 types of marketing emails?

The 4 main types of marketing emails are as follows:

• Email newsletters, sharing company news and relevant product updates.
• Acquisition emails, designed to introduce customers to your sales funnel for products or services.
• Retention emails, designed to keep customers engaged in your sales funnel.
• Promotional emails, which highlight deals or other specific opportunities to purchase/engage with your brand.

What makes an email unprofessional?

Aside from standard issues like typos, broken images, or formatting issues, some things that may flag an email as unprofessional include:

• A bad template that is difficult to read.
• Using bait-and-switch headlines to trick people into reading.
• Having an overly long email before getting to your CTA.
• Sending too many emails in a short period of time. This may get your content marked as spam.

What are the 3 most important things for an email?

While the answer may vary here based on market and customer base, 3 things that are universal are:

1. Adding a personalization element to the emails whenever possible.
2. Be sure to sound human, not like a sales robot.
3. Having some form of CTA or CTAs to move the reader into the sales funnel.

Should I target every consumer with behavioral email marketing?

You’ll want to create a few samples to send that depend on the scenario and behavior of the lead. Having an email tailored towards a user’s experience will feel more genuine, guiding them to convert. 

Conclusion

The bottom line is getting more behavioral triggers in your marketing strategy is going to make it better. Trigger-based campaigns offer the appropriate material and messaging to the subscriber at the right time, matching where they are in the funnel.

At the core, trigger email marketing operates by nurturing subscribers depending on their interaction with your brand. 

You can keep your lead’s attention by sending timely, relevant emails. 

This can show more prospect engagement, more clickthroughs, increased customer purchases, retention, and an overall positive experience.

Marketers who aren’t getting on the behavioral email marketing train are missing out, so get started by following the best practices I recommend.

Get creative with your triggers and see how your tactics convert more leads.

Which behavioral triggers have you found to be the most effective in your marketing campaigns? Let me know in the comments!

About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today!

from Neil Patel https://ift.tt/su0ci7I