VM Weekly Roundup #thisweekineverything

Welcome to our industry news roundup, where the rubber meets the roadmap.

Brick-and-Mortar + Online

Facebook Tests Targeting Ads to People Who Visited Brands’ Brick-and-Mortar Stores

The retail world has been in a shake-up for more than a decade now with the rise of online shopping, and omnichannel–the marrying of brick-and-mortar with ecommerce–looks like the way the winds are moving. This latest ad type from Facebook is a step in the right direction for closing that loop: now, instead of being limited to creating Custom Audiences of website visitors, social media followers, or uploaded customer lists for ads, Facebook’s geotargeting will allow businesses to create Custom Audiences of people who have physically visited their locations.

10 Second Tip: If your business relies on getting feet in the door, you know how important it is to get those customers to keep bringing their business back. 61% of businesses report that more than half their revenue comes from repeat business, making retention arguably more important than generating new business.

Test Drive: With this new ad targeting, a restaurant could target its regulars with news of new happy hour promotions. Retailers could have an easy way to announce new operating hours, in-store-only promotions, or special offers. What would you like to say to visitors after they’ve been to your store?

Apps

When Teens Don’t Drive Safely, Toyota’s App Plays Parents’ Embarrassing Music

Instead of building yet another app catering to teens, Toyota built an app to specifically–and hilariously!–to annoy them. This story skates right on the border of “industry news,” but that actually makes our point for us: Toyota scores a marketing win here by creating something you’ll want to share news about. Lots of businesses think about making an app these days, but few have the budget or the desire to build one without a clear profit margin. Toyota has the extra marketing bucks to make one just to raise awareness–of teen driving safety, and of Toyota’s perceived commitment to it.

10 Second Tip: Humor and humanitarian messaging can go a long way to humanize your brand, connect with customers, and build goodwill–building blocks of brand loyalty. Even without an app!

Test Drive: Think about the causes, public services, and human concerns that might be adjacent to what your business provides. Are there ways you might be able to provide some community outreach in these areas as a company? Find a way to do it with humor, and you can bring awareness to the cause, build relationships, and generate the kind of buzz people actually want to pass on for you.

SEM, Voice & Local

Forward-Looking Retailers Are Preparing for AI, Hyper-Local, and Voice Search

Though this interview focuses specifically on retailers, the points made about the future influence of AI, Hyper-Local, and Voice Search on SEO are going to be important for every business to incorporate into their online strategy. Search is changing: the rise of voice-search enabled devices has led to an uptick in searches in the form of a question. Hyper-Local SEO, the practices of optimizing specifically for searches performed nearby (think “near me” search capabilities in apps or ad types) will likely come to dominate more small business strategies.

10 Second Tip: 50% of people who perform a local search for an item are likely to end up in store for a same-day purchase. AI for marketing data will only continue to innovate, as investment in AI data services is set to increase 300% this year.

Test Drive: SEO best practices have always been evolving on a treadmill with no ‘off’ switch, and there’s definitely no sign of that changing anytime soon. In the meantime, devoting some time to optimizing your content with FAQ question-and-answer sections is one way to ensure your website comes up in the voice searches most relevant to your business.