Adding JSON-LD structured data with Google Tag Manager

Understanding and Achieving Data Analytics Maturity

The post Understanding and Achieving Data Analytics Maturity appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/understanding-achieving-data-analytics-maturity/

New online SEO training: Structured data

SEO basics: What are rich snippets?

Maybe you’ve heard about the concept of rich snippets. SEO experts seem to think everyone knows exactly what rich snippets are. But, for SEO newbies, a rich snippet is a really vague term. What are rich snippets exactly? Time to explain what rich snippets are, why they’re important for SEO and how you can get them for your site.

What are rich snippets?

A snippet is a result Google shows to the user in the search results. An example: I was searching for a good recipe for homemade ice cream and googled it. Google showed me a results list with normal snippets and rich snippets. A normal snippet usually looks like this:

Google shows the title in blue, the URL in green and a description of what the page is about. This is what we call the snippet, the thing Yoast SEO helps you to optimize with our snippet preview.

A rich snippet shows extra information between the URL and the description. A rich snippet looks like this:

In this snippet, a picture of the ice cream is added, you can see the rating of the recipe, the time it takes to prepare this type of ice cream and the number of calories it contains. A rich snippet contains much more information than the normal snippet does. That’s why we call it a rich snippet.

Why are rich snippets important for SEO?

Rich snippets stand out from the other snippets. They look much nicer and you’ll instantly know more, just by looking at them. You’ll know whether other people liked the homemade ice cream and how long it’ll take you to make it. Rich snippets are snippets that have a higher click-through rate. People like to click on rich snippets.

If the click-through rate of a snippet increases, you’ll get more traffic from that search result. Not because your position in the search engine changed, but just because more people click on your result. In the long run, rich snippets will have an effect on your ranking as well. As more people click on your result, Google will notice that people prefer your page above other ones. That’ll definitely improve your rankings in the long run!

How do you get rich snippets?

Google can show rich snippets if you add structured data to your site. Structured data is a piece of code in a specific format, written in such a way that search engines understand it. Search engines read the code and use it to create rich snippets.

Read more: ‘What is structured data’ »

Adding structured data to your website can be quite daunting. But we’re here to help! As of tomorrow, Yoast offers an online training to teach you how to implement structured data so Google can show rich snippets. We’ll show you different strategies (from beginner to more advanced levels), so that everyone will be able to get started with structured data and get those rich snippets!

Keep reading: ‘Structured data with Schema.org: the ultimate guide’ »

from Yoast • SEO for everyone https://yoast.com/seo-basics-what-are-rich-snippets/

Remember This: B2B Customers Are Consumers, Too

Deliver the Digital Experiences They Expect or Kiss’em Good-bye

Manufacturers in today’s global marketplace need to embrace digital solutions in order to optimize the online experiences they deliver to their customers. Maxim Integrated, a semiconductor manufacturer, realized that their website was failing to deliver to prospective B2B customers, who were logging onto, and quickly bouncing away from the company’s legacy website because they could not easily find what they needed. Chances are, the elusive B2B buyer — who orders lunch on Foodler, books a plane ticket on Expedia over lunch, and catches an Uber ride back to the office — will move on to a competitor who makes the online experience easier.

The analog days of cold calling and pre-sales schmoozing are long gone. Digital technology is facilitating a new matchmaking paradigm. Today, buyers will find you — if you’ve got the digital infrastructure in place to be discovered. Once prospects enter your online ecosystem, they begin to build a relationship with your brand. In the digital world, making that connection requires you to align your content with what a buyer needs, from the first moment they make contact with your company.

B2B customers are consumers too, with an added twist — they need to produce and deliver results for their companies as fast as possible. No one can afford to wait. Maxim Integrated learned that manufacturers can better serve their customers by creating a user-friendly digital experience that delivers spot-on information at exactly the right moment.

Why are digital experiences so important?

The future of manufacturing is digital. Some experts call this movement Industry 4.0, while others refer to it as the emergence of an experience business transition, in which a companies invest in technology capable of connecting content and data with behavioral, engagement, and predictive analytics.

Becoming an experience business is about more than increased efficiency. It’s about competitiveness in today’s marketplace. Success in marketing, sales, and support depends on how well you engage with your customers. Your message has to resonate in a business environment filled with an ever-changing choice of products and technologies. Customer experience is one of the most important ways in which companies can both differentiate themselves and close sales deals.

Customer experiences matter, and B2B customers are simply consumers playing a different role in a different context. In fact, according to a recent survey, 80 percent of B2B companies say that their customer’s expectations are higher because of what they experience as consumers. This means that manufacturers need to prioritize customer engagement during the B2B sales processes, across multiple distribution channels, and on whatever device the buyer prefers to use. The bottom line is that competing in the digital economy requires delivering information to prospects and customers when and where they want it.

How one company went digital

It used to be agonizing to scour Maxim Integrated’s website for information and specs on their products, which number more than 9,000. Search was slow, and instead of focusing on better content delivery solutions, Maxim Integrated’s IT department spent inordinate amounts of time fixing problems on an outdated system that could not scale or connect easily with other software systems. The process was time-consuming and ineffective.

The semiconductor manufacturer solved the problem by leveraging a digital foundation that combined digital asset management (DAM), customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) into one system. Says Robert Reneau, the company’s director of digital marketing, “Now we can transform the online experiences we offer our customers and partners, and deliver content faster.”

That’s the name of the game these days — respond at the speed of light, and deliver a consistently good user experience. “Our previous approach typically involved costly and difficult-to-maintain workflows,” says Reneau. “But now, we are integrating responsive design into our processes to publish content once and deliver it across any device. We have created a digital communications platform that makes our customer’s navigational experience simple and easy.”

The past is prologue

Evolution is not always easy. For some manufacturers, moving from legacy systems to a completely digital model requires letting go of processes that are deeply ingrained in the company’s operating ethos. However, companies like Maxim Integrated understand that legacy systems just don’t have the technological horsepower to drive content velocity, or to connect with prospects and customers in real time.

If your company is still relying on technology that represents the way you’ve “always done it,” it’s time to rethink your strategy. Legacy CRM solutions, for instance, lack the ability to process and deliver personalized digital assets on demand. To move forward, you need to understand your options. In order to build a digital foundation, it’s important to know what solutions are available, how to apply them, and how to integrate them with your existing IT infrastructure.

Moreover, you need a digital platform that can be customized. Something that works for one customer might not work for another. Delivering the right content at the right time requires an understanding of how your customers identify, research, select, and purchase products. You also need state-of-the-art analytics tools that will facilitate tracking user activity, modeling how purchasing decisions are made, and predicting what users are looking for at various crossroads on your website.

Implementing a digital solution

The first step a manufacturer needs to take in moving toward a fully digital content management platform is to develop an understanding of how technology can deliver better customer experiences, lower costs, and, ultimately, boost the bottom line. Maxim recognized the advantages of combining its DAM, CRM, and ERP systems to form one, well-oiled machine. So they implemented a fully extensible digital platform, and customized it to meet their specific needs. Here are five steps that any company can use as a starting point for developing and implementing a digital content platform:

1. Create a cross-functional team. Great results depend on multiple parts of the company — including marketing, sales, operations, IT, support, customer service, and legal — working together to develop a strategic plan.

2. Focus on understanding your customer’s journey and experience. Obtain a clear idea about what customers want from your company, and how to deliver the online experiences they expect. Mining website analytics and focus groups with customers can help sharpen your team’s focus.

3. Establish benchmarks for results. Don’t try to achieve everything at once. Develop a strategic plan for building and implementing a digital foundation that can be tested and tweaked as you move forward. This will require an accurate understanding of the capabilities of your DAM, CRM, and ERP systems. As the system is rolled-out, monitor user engagement and results closely in order to determine how best to optimize the platform to meet both company goals and customer expectations.

4. Leverage an existing framework. For most manufacturing companies, customizing a digital framework is a more cost-effective approach than trying to re-invent the wheel. Your platform should be unified, easy to use, and capable of integrating with other systems. It is essential that you start with a scalable platform that can integrate easily with your company’s core tools, workflows, and data sets. Finally, consider security, as well as a cloud-based infrastructure that provides complete redundancy to prevent any downtime.

5. Consider your ROI. Return on investment matters, so crunch the numbers and consider how the new system will reduce costs while increasing sales.

For manufacturing companies that are serious about a digital transformation, moving to a platform that facilitates faster content delivery on virtually any device is usually an easy decision. The combination of cost savings and improved customer engagement means higher conversions and a clear path toward increased sales.

Transform your manufacturing business with digital experiences, and read about more best practices for managing digital experiences or read more in our #manufacturing series.

The post Remember This: B2B Customers Are Consumers, Too appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/remember-b2b-customers-consumers/

Experience Chains: Linking Great Experiences Across Companies

Imagine flying into San Francisco International and having a driver ready to pick you up and deliver you directly to your hotel. There, the concierge greets you and hands you the key card to your room. Or better yet, an app on your phone directs you to your room and unlocks your hotel door. And, all of these actions are enacted without your initiation. You may think this is an experience for the elite, but this “experience chain” — where multiple brands collaborate to provide a singular experience — is getting closer to reality for all of us.

From a customer’s perspective, a travel excursion like the one mentioned above is a single experience. But in today’s on-demand economy, a single business can’t deliver such an end-to end experience for a consumer outside of its core business.

How do brands work together to deliver a unified and seamless experience rather than multiple, possibly disjointed, but hopefully related, experiences?

As I go from place to place or site to site or app to app on my phone, once I leave the context of the brand I was interacting with, I’m basically breaking whatever experience I was having and starting a new one. That’s where an “experience chain” is needed. The idea is that two or more related businesses (an airline, ground transportation, and hotel, as in the example above) work together to create a seamless experience for their joint customers, which in turn helps all three companies succeed.

For airlines, on-demand cars, and hotels to collaborate on an experience chain, they need to find a way to share information that allows them to deliver an exceptional experience throughout their customer’s entire trip. Instead of ordering a car when you get off your plane and then finding out the closest driver is 10 minutes away, imagine that as soon as the plane is at the gate, the airline shares that information with a car service, so that by the time you walk out to the curb, your car is pulling in to greet you. The hotel and car service also exchange information about where your hotel booking is (so the car knows where to take you) and when you will arrive (so your room is ready for you).

How is this possible? It takes sharing the right data at the right time — and having entire organizations from multiple businesses eager to help.

Get C-Level Support for Information Sharing
As companies commit to true collaboration, there are so many exciting ideas that can come to fruition, including experiences that go beyond what a single brand can deliver. But it will take the willingness and capability of one business (like American Airlines) to share their data with another (like Uber and then Marriott) so that the customer’s positive, even delightful experience can continue seamlessly from one brand to the next.

Sharing data, first throughout a single organization — whether from calendars, social media, purchases, or surveys — requires buy-in that starts at the top and then moves down into the other layers. Perhaps the product design team is getting negative feedback on why money transfers take five days, so they need to share information and data back and forth with the financial team to brainstorm creative ways to change the process and facilitate better user experiences. Or, the legal department needs information on how to keep the customer in mind when developing their terms of service to ensure they don’t stand in the way of a positive customer experience. This collaborative focus on the customer throughout an organization is key for making an experience business work.

The next major step to develop experience chains is to have C-level executives buy into the sharing of data among partnering companies. Data security is always of utmost concern, but experience businesses need to be willing to trust their partners. They should implement and insist upon rigorous controls, as well as develop ethics and standards that protect the type of information needed to keep experience chains going.

We already have dozens of customers subscribed to data “co-ops,” designed to help them create better analytics and experiences for their own businesses. These companies already have the mentality and CEO support to share data that will help them deliver better experiences.

Use AI, But Don’t Neglect the Human Touch Just Yet
Technology also plays a valuable role in creating experience chains. Today, artificial intelligence is used to look at a customer’s history and then provide current options based on what he/she is likely to need or do. Where we expect it to become extremely valuable is in predicting what consumers want and delivering it without them having to ask. This kind of preemptive decision making is the golden ticket we’re all working toward — and we’re getting closer every day.

For example, smart home technologies such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home are listening to us and learning about our preferences at different times of day and are starting to make decisions for us (kind of creepy, I know). If my smart refrigerator orders fruit and I leave an apple in the fruit bin too long, then it will decide to order fewer apples the next time. Or if my home assistant recognized from my schedule that I had been in back-to-back meetings all day, it could know to play relaxing music when I arrive home.

You might recall the Tesla-Dunkin’ Donuts-Visa experience chain we shared at the Adobe Summit last year — your Tesla gets a text about a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts, automatically orders a coffee for you, and it’s ready and paid for through your Visa account when you arrive, so you just grab it and go. As long as experience businesses commit to true collaboration, AI can help create many similar and fulfilling experiences.

This being said, I don’t believe we should automate everything just yet. We aren’t to the point yet where AI can make the right decisions that take into account my emotional state or my history as a consumer of any particular product. Additionally, the human touch is still needed, in most cases, to turn a potentially negative experience into a positive one. Interacting with an automated machine doesn’t often make me feel better about a product or service. That only happens when I get a human on the phone and can feel my problem being solved.

Experience businesses that are eager to operate in an experience economy will succeed as they help each other through experience chains. Learning how to structure your organization — as well as work with other brands and even competitors — will help deliver fluid, compelling, and personalized experiences that create an emotional connection between the customer and the brand, resulting in long-lasting loyalty. It’s a win-win-win for all.

Read more ideas about the future of experience business from our #AdobeTT participants.

The post Experience Chains: Linking Great Experiences Across Companies appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/customer-experience/experience-chains-linking-great-experiences-across-companies/

Ultimate guide to small business SEO

Ask Yoast: Use a 302 or 307 redirect?

Avoid these site structure mistakes!

Point of Sale: Retail & Travel Weekly

This week’s articles include a look at coffee shopping, the potential impact of personalization for companies, and the importance of having clear call-to-actions on your site.

• How Retailers Are Using ‘Coffee Shopping’ To Bring Customers In The Door [Forbes]: A concept first adopted by Apple is now making waves overseas.
• Study: Personalization Should Be Priority In E-commerce Upgrades [RetailDive]: Businesses could increase their revenue by as much as six percent with more personalization-focused site enhancements.
• Need More Conversions? Review Your Calls to Action [PracticalEcommerce]: A relatively simple change — including a definitive call-to-action — could have large a impact on your site.
• Study: Amazon Dominates Online, But Physical Stores Retain the Advantage [RetailDive]: Brick-and-mortar stores still have some advantages in an e-commerce world.
• Survival Of The Personalized: Brand Success In The Age Of The Retail Apocalypse [Retail Touchpoints]: As many cry that the end of retail (as we know it) is at hand, personalization could be a tool for many companies to survive the apocalypse.
• Survey: 45% of Retailers Plan to Use AI in Next 3 Years [RetailDive]: Additionally, more than half of retailers are improving the mobile shopping experience.

The post Point of Sale: Retail & Travel Weekly appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/point-sale-retail-travel-weekly-59/

Enhancing the Customer Experience Through Brand Partnerships

The post Enhancing the Customer Experience Through Brand Partnerships appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/enhancing-customer-experience-brand-partnerships/

Coming soon: Structured data training!

Do you want to increase chances people click on your page in the search results? Want to learn how to get those awesome rich snippets? Next week, we’ll launch our Structured data training. In this new training, you’ll learn how structured data can influence the appearance of your pages in the search results. After completing this course, you’ll be able to add structured data yourself, so Google can show a rich snippet.

Why take our structured data training?

A normal snippet of a recipe looks like this:

You see a title, a URL and a description of a page. If you add structured data to your page, Google (or another search engine) can transform your snippet into this:

So the structured data you add can show up in the snippet. For recipes you can add ratings and reviews, cooking time, calories and an awesome picture. Not only for recipes, but also for books, movies, articles, products etc. structured data exists.

Rich snippets let your page stand out from the other search results in Google. And if your page stands out in the search results, chances are much higher people will click on it.

Is adding structured data hard?

Adding structured data is not very hard, but you do need to know what you’re doing. After some training, everyone should be able to add structured data and get rewarded with those desired rich snippets!

We’ve created a very practical online training in which we take you through all the steps of adding structured data to a site. We’ll first explain the theory and then we’ll show you screencasts that will guide you through the steps you need to take. We’ll discuss multiple strategies you can use to add structured data to a website. Some strategies are more advanced (and more daunting) than others. At the end of the course, you’ll be able to add structured data in multiple ways. Just choose which strategy fits you best and start working on those awesome rich snippets yourself!

Want to buy our course?

The structured data training will be available as of June 29. You can purchase the course for the introductory price of $119 until July 2. You’ll get access to over 75 minutes of training videos, lots and lots of reading material and challenging quiz questions. If you finish our course, you’ll receive a certificate and a badge to put on your site. If you buy one of our courses, you’ll also get access to the Yoast Updates. These updates keep you in the loop about new trends in SEO and WordPress every 3 months.

Want to know more?

Check out the Structured data training and make sure you won’t miss the launch by subscribing to our newsletter!

Not the right training for you? We offer lots of other SEO courses. See which one fits your needs best!

from Yoast • SEO for everyone https://yoast.com/coming-soon-structured-data-training/

Google Search Console and structured data

How Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics Drive Today’s Retail Personalization

When something changes in the customer landscape, Walmart knows. And they know just how to react.

“Walmart has a massive inventory with millions of products,” says John Bates, senior product manager for data science and predictive marketing solutions at Adobe. “And they adjust that inventory to better align with certain types of products, depending on what’s happening in real time.”

For example, if a hurricane is in the weather forecast, Walmart will shift its inventory to have the things they know from past experience their customers will want to buy — extra grocery staples, bottled water, sandbags, wet/dry vacuums, chainsaws, and generators. Simultaneously, merchandise that is less likely to sell in this weather — again, according to Walmart’s data — is taken off the shelves.

“This strategy provides sufficient inventory for the most-needed items on any given day and minimizes the shelf time of all products — satisfying both customer and retailer needs,” says John.

Ensuring a relevant experience for customers, whether they’re heading to a store or shopping online, is achieved by leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning and predictive analytics, to deliver personalized experiences at scale.

AI Helps Deliver What Customers Want
Not surprisingly, retail and ecommerce have always been central to the personalization and optimization conversation. From Amazon’s recommendations — which drive 30 percent of its revenue — to targeted email outreach and push alerts promoting complementary products, the most optimization-focused retailers have always pushed the experience envelope, fueling people’s desire for more relevance at all touchpoints.

Delivering relevance on those touchpoints, though, is where some retailers start to lose their footing. “Taking that next step is a big leap,” says Kevin Lindsay, director of product marketing for Adobe Target. “It’s a leap of faith in terms of how much you can bite off. How much is actually doable today and what benefits can you get from incorporating AI into developing these tactics today?”

But delivering personalized experiences at every touchpoint isn’t something customers just want, it’s what they expect. More than half of consumers want a “totally personalized experience,” and three in five are happy to have interests and behaviors shared if it means a more personalized journey with a retailer. However, 42 percent of retailers say they know too little to effectively engage key segments.

Even a Little AI Can Help Deliver the Right Experience
Working with AI, predictive analytics, and machine learning perhaps seems out of reach for many retailers, however, as Kevin mentioned, it’s not an all-or-none proposition. Retailers that take a phased approach to implementing and applying the insights they gain from AI are the ones that are already benefiting. Think about how you can start applying AI to help you in each of these areas.

Invest in the right technology stack. Because many retailers haven’t made the leap of faith to invest in the right technology stack that delivers relevance at scale, the experiences they deliver are more likely to miss the customer experience mark. From ecommerce experiences to connected store associates to post-sales communications, without the machine anticipating next steps by acting on predictive analytics, retailers can’t effectively and efficiently map out the customer journey — and, naturally, can’t act on those critical cues and moments in time. Start by taking inventory of the data your organization has access to and how it is integrated for a complete view of your customers.

Surface customer needs. Retailers also aren’t able to leverage key data points and real-time actions to deliver relevance beyond what’s right in front of them. “There are plenty of other applications that come along with machine learning,” John adds. “ Discoverability of content in search is a good example. By leveraging machine learning and predictive analytics, brands can look beyond what customers are searching for and start connecting the dots on what they likely want — it’s cross-selling at scale, matching customers to specific products or content that will nudge them towards more conversions and greater lifetime values.”

ASOS.com, a British online fashion and beauty store, uses AI to uncover and solve issues specific to online retailers — helping customers find the right size and minimizing returns. By analyzing which items customers keep, in which sizes, versus the items and sizes that get returned most often, ASOS is able to use machine learning to recommend appropriate sizes for individual customers regardless of the brand or fit of specific items of clothing. As a result, returns of ill-fitting clothing are minimized, the customer experience is improved, and ASOS reduces its costs.

Produce relevant cross-channel interactions. When machine learning and predictive analysis do take the wheel, cross-channel customer interactions become increasingly relevant to customers on an individual level. And that surprises and delights those consumers at every turn, and all but ensures they keep coming back for more. Says John, “The impact is very straightforward. Machine learning and predictive analytics increase the likelihood a customer will convert — or, even decreases the likelihood an undesirable outcome will occur. That could be something like low retention for a subscription service.”

Gather more data. Retailers should act on every opportunity to gather data. “Every single point of interaction that a consumer has with a retailer is another dot. It is another piece of data that helps to make up the picture,” explains Kevin. The picture you create with data ultimately will feed machine learning and predictive analysis for retailers. Brands like The Home Depot and Ikea are good examples of companies moving on this data, as they’re using beacon technology to understand the physical journeys and pathways that people take within a large mass merchant store. And the data that emerges provides an interesting insight into how they should be merchandising their products.

Incorporating AI is a shift that’s happening daily but, for most retailers, isn’t quite there — yet. “The ability to say, ‘OK, here is everything we’re learning,’ and then ask how we can act upon it right now to provide a customer with a much more relevant experience — I would say that is the piece that is not very mature yet even among bigger retailers,” says Kevin. “You can probably count on two hands the number of big retail companies out there that have the data, resources, and ability to build machine learning systems for the benefit of personalization.” Start small, but start, and you’ll be at the top of the pack when it comes to delivering personal and relevant experiences across your customer base.

The Future of AI in Retail Experiences
The technology powering artificial intelligence is quickly growing and evolving. “There’s a lot more we’ll see,” John says. “More intelligent systems with cognitive analytics — systems that go beyond serving up insights to actually make recommendations and decisions based on those insights, and then constantly learn to make better decisions.”

Investments in AI at Adobe are consolidated under a single framework with Adobe Sensei. Sensei will unify AI components along with trillions of data and content points to create unparalleled experiences. In Adobe Target, a new experience decision engine dubbed One-Click Personalization is now in beta and enables marketers to test different web page layouts and activate the process with a single click. After that, the machine takes over, working through several hundreds of thousands of visits and interactions with the website to determine the ideal layout — the one that drives the most conversions.”

And that’s just the beginning. Take steps now to incorporate the power of AI in your efforts to drive personalized and relevant experiences to each of your customers.

For more insights on how retailers are adopting new technologies for more personal customer experiences, read more from our digital marketing retail series.

And, download our white paper to learn why retailers that use experiences stand out.

The post How Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics Drive Today’s Retail Personalization appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/analytics/machine-learning-predictive-analytics-drive-todays-retail-personalization/

Why there’s only one model: the open source model

5 Tips to Transforming Optimization from Sideshow to Main Event (Part 3)

In this final post on transforming your optimization program from sideshow into part of the main event, I’ll discuss tips 4 and 5 shared by Debra Adams, my colleague in Adobe Digital Strategy consulting. (Read post 1 and post 2.) These tips address the timing of getting your seat at the decision making table, as well as tactics for keeping that hard-won seat.

Sometimes it’s difficult to know when you’ve succeeded in this transformation. Just as I first shared a true story that helped you determine if your program was a sideshow, I’ll describe what it looks like to when you have successfully achieved the transformation.

Tip 4: Get your seat at the table before big decisions are made.
When testing comes into the decision making process after the business units and leadership have already decided where they want to focus testing efforts, your sway over those decisions is severely limited. As an optimization lead, you and certain members of your team need a seat at the table as these discussions and decisions about what tests to run and priorities are being made—not after.

You need a forum in which to share and explain why certain tests aren’t useful, how certain success metrics don’t really indicate success, and what tests to run or metrics to use instead. You also need to be able to share the testing roadmap and strategy so that priorities can be discussed and set relative to the broader optimization program goals. Finally, you need a place and means to demonstrate the business value of using data, not marketer’s intuition, to determine and deliver the experience the customer wants.

Tip 5: Reinforce the value of your testing program.
Once you’ve earned your seat at the table, you’ll need to periodically remind the organization and its leadership why you’re there by sharing how your program contributes to business success. You’ll also need to share your test results with colleagues and senior management so that they see the value of and learn from individual tests.

You can do this in a number of ways:

• Create a year-end summary that outlines all the tests run, how many moved the needle, and how many didn’t. Describe the program’s formal goals for the year and show how it measured up against them. (You should have formally established and articulated the program’s goals when developing your testing strategy and roadmap.)
• Regularly communicate to the organization what your program is doing. Try gamifying optimization, letting employees guess which test experience won and giving prizes for guessing correctly. Show designers the impact of their creative to inspire them and help them learn what types of creative work.
• Engage stakeholders in submitting ideas. Tap into the knowledge and creativity of stakeholders and employees by soliciting test ideas from them, giving credit and recognition when ideas produce big wins.
• Create a document of key learnings. Use it to justify applying successful test results to other relevant areas of the site to immediately multiply the impact individual tests. Also use these learnings to avoid repeating changes already proven ineffective or detrimental.
• Plug into marketing campaign teams. Get in front of new campaigns. As a side effect you may spur greater adoption of and involvement in testing.

Activities like these engage employees in testing and build up organizational knowledge of what works and what doesn’t on digital properties. It also helps the concept of optimization permeate the fabric of the company to create the attitude that “of course we optimize.”

Recognize when you’ve succeeded
You’ll know you’ve transformed your optimization program from a sideshow to part of the main event when your company believes this about testing:

• It’s valuable and necessary
• It should have dedicated resources
• Development schedules should accommodate it

Getting to the point where optimization is simply part of the company culture takes work and determination. It’s well worth the effort, though, when you repeatedly demonstrate how your testing prevents the business from implementing poor features and changes and helps them deliver the customer experiences that positively impact the business bottom line.

Let the experience of others guide you
You don’t have to undergo this transformation alone—many others have gone through it and have advice and experience to share, like these two companies who shared their stories at Adobe Summit:

• Build it and they will come: Growing a successful optimization program. Learn how US Bank built the business case for expanding its optimization program.
• Traits of a high-flying optimization program. Discover the characteristics of a successful optimization program from WestJet, Canada’s second largest airline.

In addition, experienced consultants like Debra Adams have helped numerous companies build and transform optimization programs into an integral part of the company’s success. Consider learning how an Adobe Target consultant can combine his or her expertise with your industry knowledge to help your business build a powerful optimization program with Adobe Target.

The post 5 Tips to Transforming Optimization from Sideshow to Main Event (Part 3) appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/personalization/5-tips-transforming-optimization-sideshow-main-event-part-3/

The Expanding Role of Marketing — and Artificial Intelligence — In Experience Business

Disney Magic is alive and well. Take its MagicBands — the all-in-one wristband that connects us to our entire Walt Disney World vacation, letting us enter the parks, unlock our hotel rooms, and buy food and merchandise. Even more magical, or so it seems, is how Disney shares surprises personalized just for its visitor, such as an occasional photo of the family on the ride they just finished or awarding fast passes for the day. Those experiences might feel enchanted, but MagicBands actually use artificial intelligence (AI) with data compiled from all its visitors so Disney can provide memorable experiences along every point of our visit.

We eat it up, and keep coming back for more.

Influence like this no longer lies with the suave, silver-tongued marketer and glossy marketing brochures. In today’s experience business, every single person — from customer service reps to HR to the designers and developers behind products like the MagicBand — must play a role in creating experiences customers crave. In addition, in their customer-centric roles, everyone needs data and help understanding it, and they all must learn to leverage technology instead of hiding behind it.

Think Marketing Across Every Role
Marketing helps us define who our customers are and how to reach them. In today’s increasingly transparent society, we all need to know our customers and how to reach them. We then need to improve our processes and interactions to deliver an experience that builds loyalty and trust. Every employee must have the same goal: delivering compelling, personalized, and seamless experiences that enable long-time emotional connections and loyalty to the brand.

Every touchpoint a customer has should make it easier for them to do business with your company again, because people rarely buy things just once from a company. In that sense, everything ties back to marketing and every interaction is a reflection of the company and its brand. For example, the Disney product designers creating the MagicBands needed to think about how to make the product so it provides a memorable service, rather than intrudes on it. If you’re in the customer service department responding to visitors’ questions or complaints, you’re also a marketer — marketing a continued relationship.

Ensuring that everyone in your organization considers themselves a “marketer” will help you develop and drive more memorable experiences. Even better, those who can work together as a team to create these types of customer experiences in real time will have a competitive advantage and be able to win and retain customers for the long term. Disney’s success at this is one of multiple reasons fans travel cross country or even across the world year after year.

Automate What You Do Best with AI
Marketing at every level requires access to and understanding of data. Fortunately, there is an overwhelming amount of data today but we still struggle to understand it — especially with so much available. Artificial intelligence (AI) helps us fill the gap between the information we have and our ability to comprehend it. AI can help organize and analyze large amounts of data so it can present the right, actionable information to drive better customer experiences, much easier than you and your team could ever do on your own.

Consider these ways of using data and AI to create the experience business that will help you compete:

Start with that one thing that you think already makes your business great and see if you can’t use AI and automation to make it a little bit better. For example, if you’re Disney, build the MagicBands to improve the already amazing customer experience. Or if you’re a healthcare company, create an iPhone app that automates how you respond to and even treat your patients.

Don’t run from or bias the data. Look at the data for what it is because it will tell you more of what you need to know than you could ever imagine.

To make that possible, invest in a platform such as SAS or Microsoft BI that allows you to leverage data to get a much better understanding of your customers.

Consider the Pros and Cons of Data
While we need data to thrive as experience businesses, there are positive and negative results associated with how we use it. AI can be a lifesaver — literally. Smart watches, for example, can detect, with a high degree of accuracy, people who might have an irregular heartbeat, and immediately alert the individual or their doctor. Jawbone makes a product that connects to mattresses and measures the quality of your sleep and identifies your best sleep positions and sessions. And multiple research studies show how any number of free or inexpensive fitness apps help motivate us to exercise.

On the other hand, we also need to consider the potential pitfalls of using all the information available. What type of choices are we having technology make for us? Who is liable when something goes wrong, like when a pedestrian is struck and killed after walking in front of a self-driving car? While there aren’t currently any answers to these ethical questions, there need to be international standards and guidance that help regulate the ethics associated with AI, much like we have in the wireless industry.

In any case, as AI technology becomes less expensive and more prolific, experience businesses can provide consumers with even more actionable, personalized data that helps improve and even prolong life. None of this starts with technology, however. It starts with understanding your customers’ needs. That’s when you can start to deliver truly compelling experiences.

Focus on Experiences, Not Technology
To provide the seamless experiences that will delight customers, technology must be nearly invisible. Consumers just want the experience. For example, even if consumers know about advertising technology, they don’t love it because it feeds them more ads. They love it because it creates personalized, timely, and relevant ads that bring them value and show that your business understands who they are and what they need. That’s all they care about, not how AI or machine learning works. They love how we can connect them to people they love and to the things they like to do.

While you need to think about the value AI and other technology can create, first think about it from the human experience. Then, like Disney, you can look at all of the ways your technology can enable from the background the experience you want to deliver to your customers. We use smartphones or watches because they connect us to people, entertain us, and improve our health. We use a MagicBand because it makes our entire vacation seamless and personalized just for us. These are memorable experiences that keep us coming back for more.

Again, everyone in your organization needs to think like a marketer, with AI and data helping to create and improve the experiences your customers expect and demand. Otherwise, they’ll find the companies that will.

Read more ideas about the future of experience business from our #AdobeTT participants.

The post The Expanding Role of Marketing — and Artificial Intelligence — In Experience Business appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/customer-experience/expanding-role-marketing-artificial-intelligence-experience-business/

Manufacturers: Stop Drowning in Your Own Content Digital Asset Management (DAM) Cuts Costs, Speeds Workflows, and Saves Time

Manufacturers: Stop Drowning in Your Own Content
Digital Asset Management (DAM) Cuts Costs, Speeds Workflows, and Saves Time

Zebra Technologies has solved a tremendously difficult problem that many manufacturing companies share — the organization of thousands of digital assets into one, easily accessible system. Zebra, which makes mobile printers and computing devices, needed a digital filing cabinet capable of managing everything from product specs and images to catalog entries and sales slicks. What’s more, all of those assets had to be readily available in different languages, and for various markets, customer segments, and device formats.

To bring order to the chaos, Zebra implemented a digital asset management (DAM) system — one that would enable the company to find and deliver personalized customer content, on demand. Now, distributors and sales reps have ready access to the materials required for product marketing and promotion. The end result is greater efficiency in content delivery, lower costs, and higher ROI.

The Content Flood
Implementing a DAM solution helps manufacturers align content to product marketing and customer-targeting needs. This is particularly important when it comes to delivering content with pinpoint accuracy, at precisely the right customer touchpoint.

The ROI rationale for better content management is clear. In just a few years, buyers have become five times more dependent on digital information when making a purchasing decision. They also interact with an average of 10.4 pieces of content before buying. Moreover, according to IDC, 71 percent of marketers create more than 10 times the amount of content than they did in the past.

The challenge is to make it easy for customers to find the information they need. The solution is digital asset management. DAM organizes assets in a way that enables the content to find the customer, instead of expecting the customer to search for content. Buyers no longer have to forage for information. The asset management system anticipates where the customer is on their buying journey, and automatically serves up the correctly-targeted content.

As an added bonus, better asset management improves overall business processes and efficiency, which are two important goals for helping manufacturers compete in the global marketplace.

Why an Integrated Platform is a DAM Good Solution
Digital asset management is far more than just a database of assets. A good DAM system facilitates customized user experiences, automates tools for everyday content management tasks, and optimizes your capability to work at any scale you need:

• Deliver a personalized experience. The most important aspect of implementing a DAM solution is to help deliver an experience that delights customers and partners, using any combination of display devices. The system automatically adjusts for variables, such as language, pricing, regulatory restrictions, and/or branding. This enables manufacturers to customize the user experience with special product websites, custom portals for distributors, product manuals, and even personalized after-sales support.

At DuPont, the Crop Protection division formerly produced a 400-page book once a year to provide customers with information about the company’s chemical agricultural products. It was a one-size-fits-all information solution. Today, DuPont uses a DAM tool to manage all of its assets online, including delivery of that annual print piece in an e-book format. Now, farmers can also use a mobile app that mines Dupont’s database for information on the specific needs of their crops and potential threats to their harvest. This translates into a more cost-effective, tailor-made solution for reaching customers in their localized languages, wherever they are located.

• Automate time-consuming tasks.  Another advantage of a DAM platform is that you can control how digital assets are used, and for what purpose. If you need to modify an asset, you change the repository copy so everyone has access to the most recent version at the same time. Everything passes through any set of reviews and/or authorizations you define. Different items can have different authorization paths so, for instance, the person who reviews marketing material for use in France isn’t seeing product manuals meant for the Singapore market. Furthermore, the system helps to ensure that nothing gets released until it has all the necessary authorizations.

For DuPont, the DAM system tracks labels and safety sheets generated for farmers who buy the company’s insect, weed, and pest control products. When customer information is changed, the DAM program drives automatic updates that can be used to customize future interactions with any given buyer. By automating the delivery and updates of buyer data sheets, DuPont saved one million dollars a year, and reduced the time it takes to get materials into the hands of its customers by 50 percent.

• Create workflows at scale. Also, with the right DAM platform, you can update, approve, and deploy content as fast as needed, on any scale, without creating a drag on performance. Managing content and assets then becomes all about quality, efficiency, and velocity.

A case in point is Maxim Integrated, a manufacturer that designs and sells semiconductor-based solutions for automobiles, medical devices, and consumer electronics. Digital asset management enabled the company to implement a powerful search tool that makes information on over 9,000 products readily available to its customers. Currently, instead of constantly combing through digital assets, Maxim’s staff can more efficiently and effectively focus on adding new capabilities, and on improving the information delivered to end users. Using a content management system also makes it easy to make updates without relying on IT. Plus, the company’s DAM solution interfaces with Maxim’s overall content management platform, and scales as needed

• Ease of integration. Another advantage of implementing a scalable DAM system is that it integrates easily with other IT solutions. For instance, when Zebra acquired the enterprise solutions unit of Motorola, it doubled its digital assets to 130,000. There was no need to create a new website for former Motorola customers because Zebra was able to repurpose templates from its DAM system in order to leverage its existing website at a fraction of the cost of building a new, customized site.

A Top-Line Growth Investment
Digital asset management addresses the need for manufacturers to improve both content marketing and the speed at which new information is created and deployed. Your investment in a DAM system is an investment in supporting sales conversions and top-line growth. Moreover, by extending content across channels in ways that can scale as necessary, a DAM solution also facilitates better engagement, response rates, conversion, brand consistency, and, ultimately, customer satisfaction. It’s a win for the company, for the customer, and for your budget.

For more information on how you can begin to implement digital asset management at your manufacturing company, explore the following links:
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) solutions for manufacturers
Learn more about the benefits of AEM

The post Manufacturers: Stop Drowning in Your Own Content Digital Asset Management (DAM) Cuts Costs, Speeds Workflows, and Saves Time appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/manufacturers-stop-drowning-content-digital-asset-management-dam-cuts-costs-speeds-workflows-saves-time/

Introducing Adobe Advertising Academy

Once controversial, the adoption of automated, data-driven buying of advertising is now so mainstream it is often taken for granted. Over 70 percent of digital video ad budgets and over 80 percent of display ads are forecasted to be bought through automated channels this year. Traditional TV advertising bought through automated software is expected to eclipse $3 billion in 2017, and double in 2018 to $6 billion.

Given the rapid rate of change, the skillsets required for modern media planning, buying and execution are much different today than they were even five years ago. Even creative jobs — traditionally the bastion of designers and art directors — are becoming more data-driven according to Adobe Digital Insight’s latest Advertising Report, which found that nearly one-third (32 percent) of creative job listings require data and technology skills.

As a result, it’s becoming mission-critical for marketers to adapt, train, and cultivate the next generation of advertising talent — particularly as industry hiring is expected to outpace the labor market overall. Every role — from CEO down to an entry-level media planner — now demands new expertise, and marketers need a partner that is committed to helping them succeed in a fluid industry.

To that end, Adobe Advertising Cloud is proud today to announce the launch of Adobe Advertising Academy.

Adobe Advertising Academy is an immersive, free training program that provides marketers with both certified technical training as well as a broader strategic understanding of industry developments and current events that are necessary to excel in today’s evolving market.

Adobe Advertising Academy pushes the boundaries of traditional, platform-specific training programs by utilizing insights from all of Adobe. New courses on creative strategy, sophisticated ROI analysis, hiring and presentation skills are designed to arm marketers to succeed in a broader context.

Adobe Advertising Academy is associated with Adobe Digital Learning Services, Experience Cloud learning programs. Adobe Advertising Academy builds on an earlier, award-winning program launched at TubeMogul, which Adobe acquired in December of 2016. At launch, Adobe Advertising Academy has already trained over 1,000 marketers across North America, EMEA and APAC including Adidas, BRP, Clorox, Heineken, L’Oréal and Walmart.

Clients that successfully completed Adobe Advertising Academy’s inaugural session include Diageo, The Prosper Group and Universal Music Group.

“While we’re incredibly proud of our industry-leading platform, we’re even more proud of our client services and learning and development teams that have armed our clients with the knowledge they need to succeed,” said Brett Wilson, VP, GM of Adobe Advertising Cloud. “Adobe Advertising Academy builds on that legacy by offering a rigorous program taught by experts covering the whole industry — all in a setting that encourages sharing best-practices with industry peers.”

“Adobe Advertising Academy is the gold standard in digital marketing education programs,” said Andrew Finnan, director of accounts, The Prosper Group. “The overview of current market trends and the ability to network with other leading advertisers yielded valuable insights that will drive real results for our clients.”

Enrollment in Adobe Advertising Academy will be included in the new client activation process at no additional cost for qualified customers. In addition to the hands-on product training and industry overview, Adobe Advertising Academy’s other new curriculum includes:

• Social 201 – Optimizing for branding or performance
• Display 201 – Optimizing for branding or performance
• Getting the Most Out Of Your Data
• Vertical-custom tracks for clients with experience in the following industries: Retail, Finance, Auto, CPG, Entertainment and Health/Pharmaceutical

Post-graduation, Adobe Advertising Academy also offers opportunities for continued enrichment. These include:

• Product and industry sessions via web conference to accommodate busy schedules
• Invitations to stream Ad-Nauseum, a guest speaker series with top industry experts
• Annual certification renewal via online exams

Michelle Chen is Head of Training, Adobe Advertising Cloud

The post Introducing Adobe Advertising Academy appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/advertising/introducing-adobe-advertising-academy/

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Strengthening Ties with Developers

A vital and vigorous online community is an essential part of the way Microsoft interacts with developers and IT professionals. But with only 800 technical authors, it was tough for Microsoft to respond to more than 90 million readers who use Microsoft portals for resources, discussions, and support.

Recognizing that an engaged audience of such as size is valuable to the brand, Microsoft is moving the 5 million articles on its MSDN, TechNet, VisualStudio.com, and Docs.Microsoft.com web portals to a new content site, Docs.Microsoft.com. The site uses Adobe Livefyre in Adobe Experience Manager, part of Adobe Marketing Cloud, to help article owners manage and publish content, and respond quickly to readers who provide feedback.

“To keep our brand strong, we need to support our community through good experiences and high engagement. Customers expect an interactive experience, to be listened to, and that their concerns are addressed in a timely manner. Livefyre gives us the tools to make our content better and improve customer satisfaction,” says Gigel Avram, principal data science manager at Microsoft.

Since implementing Livefyre, Microsoft has seen improved article ratings of up to 30 percent. It’s also improved and accelerated the ability of authors to respond to recommendations and corrections, which makes readers feel more engaged and improves the overall quality of content.

Learn more about how Microsoft is cultivating online communities and strengthening ties with developers using LiveFyre, part of Adobe Experience Manager.

The post Strengthening Ties with Developers appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/strengthening-ties-developers/

Adobe Launches Adobe Advertising Cloud TV for Personalized TV Advertising

Native integration with Adobe Analytics Cloud enables audience-based linear TV planning and buying with first-party data.

For the better half of a century, both advertisers and broadcasters alike enjoyed the security of knowing that TV was the unquestioned champion of media, the most effective and reliable way to deliver a message to millions.

But the rapid fragmentation in consumer attention — accelerated by the spread of high-speed broadband internet, smartphones and social media — means that TV advertising isn’t as effective as it once was. A typical buy achieving 200 gross rating points (GRPs) reaches 25 percent fewer people today than it would 20 years ago. This reach atrophy – combined with the efficiencies gained from leveraging data to amplify effectiveness across digital channels – has left traditional TV buyers looking for a way to regain their lost reach, and do it in a way that goes beyond basic age and gender demographics.

Which is exactly why Adobe Advertising Cloud, part of the new Adobe Experience Cloud, is thrilled to announce the launch of Adobe Advertising Cloud TV, the industry’s first automated software for linear television ad buying that incorporates first-party data.

“Adobe Advertising Cloud TV is leading the charge for more automation and data-driven targeting in traditional TV advertising,” said Brett Wilson, vice president and general manager, Adobe Advertising Cloud. “This solution builds on TubeMogul’s legacy product with new firsts, including a native integration with Adobe Analytics Cloud for targeting using a brand’s first-party data and cross-screen capabilities that bridge the gap between TV and digital formats.”

The ability to use data to reach a strategic audience — mothers who are in market for an automobile as opposed to Females 25-49, for example — has been a hallmark of data-driven television for years. Now, powered by Adobe Advertising Cloud’s seamless integration with Adobe Analytics Cloud, marketers can finally use their own first-party data segments to inform strategic targeting across linear television. And thanks to Adobe Advertising Cloud Search — Advertising Cloud’s search advertising solution — marketers can now plan and buy linear TV against audience segments that have already demonstrated intent through online searches.

Any marketer can plug their own data into Advertising Cloud’s demand-side platform; advertisers do not need to be pre-existing Analytics Cloud clients in order to use their digital first-party data for traditional TV. Advertising Cloud’s open approach means marketers can activate data from any DMP, and even more importantly, take those learnings with them post-campaign.

No first-party data? No problem! Adobe’s data-driven approach to TV buying means advertisers can easily determine whether a past or present TV buy is effective and whether a new approach is needed to reach a specific audience. Notably, Advertising Cloud’s exclusive access to TV manufacturer data provides minute-by-minute insights as to what content a viewer is consuming on their TV, enabling marketers to index consumers based on their viewing history and build a TV plan to reach that audience. This data is collected in a privacy-safe manner from consumers that have opted-in to an enhanced advertising experience.

But our data offering goes well beyond just TV manufacturer data. Our extensive data partnerships are seamlessly integrated into Advertising Cloud TV, providing advertisers with access to:

• Integrated strategic audience targeting, buying and reporting with a market-leading MRI partnership
• Minute-by-minute viewing data from Nielsen AMRLD
• Strategically target specific households with set-top box (addressable) data

The solution seems perfectly timed: Programmatic TV advertising is forecasted to grow 206 percent this year, eclipsing $2.16 billion, and double in 2018 to $4.4 billion. As investment expands and new entrants make the space more competitive, what separates Advertising Cloud TV from the pack?

“Not only is Advertising Cloud TV the most comprehensive platform available, but our unique position as an independent technology provider is conquering barriers to scale the market opportunity,” said Brett Wilson, VP and GM of Adobe Advertising Cloud. “The fact that we don’t own or markup media means that we’re not out there competing for upfront dollars or steering spend toward preferred partners. That earns trust, both on the supply-side in gaining access to exclusive inventory from TV networks and on the buy-side by offering advertisers a platform aligned with their incentives.”

Clients are similarly upbeat. “With TV playing a significant role in Sparkling Ice’s media mix this year, as seen in our recent integrated marketing campaign Be Not Bland™, we wanted to leverage a platform that would help us navigate through the noise and get smarter with our offline strategy,” says Brian Kuz, Chief Marketing Officer of Talking Rain. “Adobe Advertising Cloud TV best positioned us for success by targeting our mass audience efficiently and effectively, while giving us the capability to measure and optimize our first national TV campaign.”

Brought to you from Adobe Experience Cloud’s Facebook page, watch Phil Cowlishaw, Head of Special Operations Consulting, Adobe Advertising Cloud, discuss Advertising Cloud TV and the benefits for marketers.

Brett Wilson is GM & VP, Adobe Advertising Cloud

The post Adobe Launches Adobe Advertising Cloud TV for Personalized TV Advertising appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/adobe-launches-adobe-advertising-cloud-tv-personalized-tv-advertising/

Ask Yoast: Is my site structure too deep?

One Size Fits All, Not Always a Fit

With the influx of ways that consumers are viewing content and interacting with technology, marketers are in a unique place that provides both ample opportunity and challenge: an abundance of ways to reach the right audience. It’s clear that personalized advertising is more effective for a campaign, and while marketers are no longer having to rely on assumptions on behavior, the industry grapples with access to the data that will move the needle and add relevancy. Today, we take one step forward by validating reach in two ways: an integration of Adobe Analytics Cloud and Adobe Advertising Cloud TV, as well as Adobe Audience Manager providing the first to market Data Management Platform (DMP) integration with a search engine.

The television was arguably the most powerful and iconic physical part of the 20th century, but the 21st century may take the cake for TV’s heyday. Quite simply, we’re in the golden age of television: consumers can watch whatever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want to. And that’s where things get complicated. From live TV to video-on-demand to connected TV apps, it’s a constant struggle to figure out where a brand’s ad dollars should go.

Today, Adobe announced the launch of Adobe Advertising Cloud TV, giving brands the chance to reach over 95 percent of American households by enabling the buying of TV ads in all forms. And as only 26 percent of Americans believe the TV ads they see are relevant to them, it’s increasingly important for brands to target effectively. Data can be a transformative force here in helping brands drive decision-making that matters, and allocate marketing spend based on behavior in an increasingly fragmented landscape.

To address these challenges, today’s launch of our Advertising Cloud TV includes an integration with Adobe Analytics Cloud. An industry first, brands can use first-party audience data to better plan and buy linear TV ads with Adobe Audience Manager. Leveraging a brand’s own audience segments with insight from both marketing and advertising pushes, marketers can also purchase TV ads against audiences that have already demonstrated intent through online searches, helping to close the gap between traditional TV and digital content. Through this integration, marketers will have access to additional datasets from the likes of pay TV providers, MRI and TV manufacturers, giving brands a leg up when planning, targeting, buying and measuring audiences.

We see Advertising Cloud TV as a turning point for the marketing community. As viewing habits have shifted, so has the ability to market to them effectively, resulting in rounds of inefficiency and annoyance for both brands and consumers. Here, data helps deliver precision at scale, creating a custom audience network that extends reach well beyond what can be achieved with traditional TV buys.

Search has moved far beyond a one-sided communication, and serves as an intelligence fabric with a goal to deliver predictive insights. In a significant step to help marketers knit together search-advertising strategies, Adobe Audience Manager is the first to market DMP integration with a search engine through Bing Ads’ Custom Audiences. With Audience Manager, Microsoft clients can now integrate their brand’s first party-data, a first for Bing, to target audiences using any CRM data, such as purchase history or subscription renewals. This gives clients a new level of detail into their own customers, getting clear insight into the individuals behind the searches, and utilize more targeted parameters.

Adobe Audience Manager was recognized as a leader for the third time in a row in “The Forrester Wave: Data Management Platforms, Q2 2017” report by Forrester Research, Inc.

The post One Size Fits All, Not Always a Fit appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/analytics/one-size-fits-not-always-fit/