Marketing Insights - Edition 02 - June 2, 2020

Hello! We’ve added a lot of new subscribers this week, so thank you for joining! This has been another busy week for marketing, and I hope you find this information helpful and useful to you and your business. Please forward this email to your friends and colleagues and if you find something you want to know more about, feel free to email me at carey@careyvanwagoner.com.

Stay Safe, Carey.

Social Media Executive order explained. This week the President signed an executive order targeting legal protections that keep people from suing social media sites. The order argues that if a site restricts access to others’ content in bad faith and goes beyond removing the types of objectionable content detailed in the law, it should be deemed a publisher rather than a neutral platform — thus losing its legal immunity from lawsuits. If this vision were the law, it would mean that social media companies could be sued for defamatory content over what other people post on their platforms.

What does all of this mean for marketers? Not much, it turns out. The order opened several reviews that could result in some kind of later action resulting in kick-starting a policy debate. The order also directs Attorney General William P. Barr to develop draft legislation for Congress to consider that would promote the policy goal of curtailing the legal protections that Section 230 gives powerful technology companies.

Advice for marketers: Keep creating real, authentic content, and we’ll all be fine.

Coronavirus Ad Observations. HINT, you don’t need a coronavirus ad. When considering the video ads that were most effective since the coronavirus pandemic began, patterns are intensely local (varying country by country and state by state) and fluctuate in the short term. What works one week in one place can feel off the next week in another place. While there was an uptick in April of video ads that explicitly or implicitly referenced the pandemic, the vast majority of ads running were “business as usual,” not crisis related. Interestingly the business-as-usual ads showed no observable decrease in performance across brand metrics; they continue to drive recall, consideration, favorability, and purchase intent. Other April ad observations.

Debunking the branding vs. marketing debate once and for all. I’m often having to debate the merits of branding vs. targeted marketing, as I believe if you have a strong brand, marketing becomes much more effective. New studies show that despite cutbacks, surveyed consumers said they prefer to spend on name brand products across many categories as opposed to private labels, thus, investing in brand equity, may help you weather the economic storm. Read more.

Paradoxes. From DIY to Tech advances, one thing is certain, Covid-19 has brought about many new and contrasting behaviors to the marketplace. Even tie-die is making a comeback. So what is a marketer to do? Find out by listening to my favorite podcast here.

Google quietly rolls out an algorithm update. Google updates tend to always have some level of volatility for search rankings, but the May 2020 update seemed to be particularly disruptive. Several industries were impacted by this update including travel, real estate, news, and health. 

What do these updates mean for marketers?

Quality content has been and will continue to be the single most important thing that marketers can create to ensure that their sites are ranking where they should be. What is quality content? Here is a fresh set of questions from google to ask yourself about your content.

Book recommendation of the week: Click Happy: Your Guide to a Meaningful Life & Career in the Digital Era.

I have a confession to make. I collect books like most women collect shoes. This week’s recco. comes from an author that I’ve seen speak several times. It’s a must read for business owners who are looking for ways to grow their business online, and marketers who need a value add. Plus, if you purchase her book, she’ll give you a free gift.

Click here to read previous editions of Marketing Insights. See you next week.