Weekly content marketing news for freelancersNow that the holiday season is in full force, there is no better time to keep up with the leading trends and tactics in content marketing to help you have an advantage over your competition. However, with so much to do and very little time to get it done, you can’t be expected to do it all yourself. Thankfully, Content Radar is here to help with the news and updates you need.

Content Radar Four Things to Remember to Capitalize on a Record-Setting Holiday Shopping Season

The 2018 holiday shopping season is officially underway and is already breaking records thanks to a Black Friday that saw $6.22 billion in online transactions — a 23.6 percent increase over 2017 Black Friday shopping, according to a report from Adobe.

In the report, Adobe examined the web traffic from more than 1 trillion site visits and 55 million items for sale. Perhaps your organization’s sales are part of this $6.22 billion. If yes, the good news is that the shopping season is just starting, and there is more to come. If not, the good news is (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) the shopping season is just starting, and there is more to come.

In other words, it is shaping up to continue to be a record-breaking online holiday shopping season, and there are principles learned from Black Friday that you can employ in your short-term and long-term marketing efforts. Here are four emerging trends from Black Friday that you should pay attention to:

  1. Don’t Wait for Black Friday: In recent years, some brick-and-mortar stores have moved up their Black Friday deals to start on Thanksgiving instead. Not only has this trend extended to online shopping—it has been fully embraced by web shoppers. Adobe reported that Thanksgiving saw a 28 percent increase in online spending since 2017, making it the fastest-growing online shopping day of the year. Online shopping saw a spike around 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving, but the peak shopping time was between 8-10 p.m.Things Marketers Capitalize on During Record-Setting Holiday Shopping
  2. Optimize for Mobile: Optimizing your site for mobile has been a best practice for years, but this Black Friday showed the continuing trend of more people buying from their smartphones on Black Friday than ever before. According to Adobe, Black Friday 2018 was the first shopping day ever to see more than $2 billion in sales directly from smartphones.
  3. Buy Online Pick Up In Store: An emerging trend this Black Friday came in the form of “Buy Online Pick Up In Store” (BOPIS). Though the data is inconclusive, it appears that more shoppers are shopping online and picking up in the store rather than braving the crowds during the initial shopping experience.BOPUIS - Buy Online Pick Up In Store is picking up steam among consumers
  4. Social Referrals: According to Salesforce, the retail traffic that came through social media referrals increased 41 percent from last year’s Black Friday. The increase is likely indicative of a maturation among social platforms in driving sales as well as marketers’ ability to better understand and utilize the tools available to them on social channels.

Of course, many of the best practices for Black Friday are also good practices on most other days of the year. In a recent YouTube video, Jessica Guzik from Oberlo shared multiple tips for taking advantage of Black Friday, including advising to set up a Facebook pixel and start tracking customers as soon as possible.

“The more visitors you start tracking now,” Guzik says, “the better Facebook can retarget them” for future Black Fridays.

Content Radar MarTech 2019 registration is now open at the lowest rates attendees will see. Those who want to attend the April 3-5 conference in San Jose, California have until Jan. 26, 2019 to receive the lowest rate.

Content Radar Many brands are not being as upfront with their influencer marketing partnerships as they could be. Roughly one out of three brands admit they do not disclose influencer marketing efforts as sponsored content to online audiences.

Content Radar YouTube is now showing “ad pods” to viewers. These “ad pods” feature two skippable, back-to-back video ads before or during a video. YouTube says the pods will minimize the number of times a viewer is distracted with ads during a watch session.

Content Radar Instagram is playing with the formatting of the layout of profiles within the app. In an effort to make profiles easier to use, Instagram is testing adjustments with the buttons, icons, and navigation.

 

Catch Up with Previous Editions of #ContentRadar: