7 TIPS FOR OPTIMISING CONTENT FOR VOICE SEARCH

By the end of 2019, the US alone will have more than 67 million voice assisted devices in use. And of the 2 trillion global Google searches performed each year, half of those are expected to come from voice search by 2020.

Voice search is changing the very way that online content is created and managed. Traditional content creation methods are unable to cater for this huge shift toward voice assistant devices. Which may prove challenging for many digital marketers and content creators.

To help you stay ahead of the game, we have pulled together a list of our top tips for optimising your content for voice search. So if you’re ready, let’s get started.

1 – Up Your Question Quota

The majority of searches performed online are question phrases… people just love to ask Google for an answer. But there is a difference between the way that people ask questions via a text search and a voice search.

Whenever a user performs a typed search, it’s typically a compact, shorthand version of how they would vocally present the phrase.

As an example:

Typed: Red velvet recipe

Voice: How do I make a red velvet cake?

To improve your chances of making it in the voice searches, you need to ask more questions with a natural structure and tone.

The perfect place to use full question phrases is in your headers. You can then use the header body to answer the question. Try to weave in semantically related questions where possible. And always aim to ask and answer those most important questions as naturally as possible.

2 – Avoid Fluff and Filler

As people type less and talk more, avoiding fluff and filler has never been as important as it is today. The intention of voice searches is to deliver accurate and easily digestible results.

Try to keep your verbiage as clear and succinct as possible. Avoid complex phrases and difficult to understand words. And get straight to the point.

While listening to lengthy audio output is much easier than reading large blocks of text, we live in a world where people demand instant gratification.

Make your message as clear as possible from the get-go and try to include a summary at the beginning. This helps both reader and search engine understand what to expect from the content.

3 – Get Conversational

The search engines are always going to favour good content above all else. So creating this as you always do is important. However, what will change is the way that you write.

As voice devices read your content aloud to the user, natural language is going to start to dominate. Look at the way you normally write and compare this with how you would have a conversation with someone.

You will probably notice stark differences between the two. And typically, typed text is much more formal and less natural sounding to the ear than spoken text.

Don’t be afraid to interject linguistics, speech disfluencies and filled pauses into your content. As voice assistants evolve to become more human sounding, these all help add to a more natural experience.

Colloquialisms are good. But remember that they tend to be regional and not everyone is going to understand their meaning. Think of the bigger picture but add as much character as you can.

4 – Put Yourself in the Searchers Shoes

We all know the importance of keywords. And while they are slowly starting to take second place to context, they are always going to play a vital role in SEO.

There are literally thousands of tools out there to help you discover the best keywords to use. But how do you find natural sounding question phrases instead?

The first thing that you can do is think about how you would ask a question out loud. Then head on over to Google and perform a search for the exact wording via the voice search function.

Scroll on down to the bottom of the page to wear the ‘people also search for’ section is. This will throw up a lot of related question phrases you can use along with your primary search phrase (PSP).

While SEO tools are useful. Sometimes the most powerful tool we have is our own thought process. Use this as the foundation for discovering more semantically related phrases.

5 – Optimise Old Content

If you are thinking about getting ready for voice search, optimising your current content is much easier than creating brand new content. It also gives you a better understanding of what you need to do when new content is needed.

Now, while it would be easy to focus all of your energy on optimising for voice search… it’s important to remember that other avenues are always going to be used too.

Just as some people have decided to hang onto home phones, cable TV and CD players, desktop searches won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. So you need to find a balance between traditional SEO and voice focused SEO.

In all honesty, they are two of the same things. The only difference is the way that your content is delivered and the way that you need to construct it. As an example, instead of foregoing keywords completely, use conjunctions and articles to create natural sounding phrases.

Voice search SEO is still pretty new. So many of the techniques and strategies you will need to use are still being worked out.

6 – Build on Mobile Search

Mobile search changed the way that SEO and content was implemented. A brand-new set of search queries, such as ‘near me’ entered the world of search terms.

As mobile devices use GPS and Wi-Fi signals to determine a user’s location, optimising for geographic keywords and Google my business became vital.

And here’s the thing:

Voice search and mobile search are much closer together than voice search and desktop search. But why?

More often than not, people use voice search when it is not possible to use text search. And these searches are performed on mobile phones and voice assistant devices.

So understanding how to optimise your website and content for mobile search can go a long way with helping your voice search efforts.

7 – Get Structured

You’ve probably seen content featured at the top of traditional searches. These might be a bullet point lists, ingredients or event dates, etc.  

But what are they? 

These are known as rich snippets. And the only way you can ever be featured for them is to use structured markup. 

Structured markup let’s the search engines better understand the context of your content. You provide all of the information needed and Google does the rest.

And there are literally thousands of different types of structured markup out there. A great example of how structured markup help is with video content.

Google is smart. But it’s not quite ready to be able to watch videos and determine what they are about. And this is where structured markup comes into play.

You basically tell Google (and the other search engines) what the video content is about. It then takes this information and is able to display the video in the search results to the right people.

Check out schema.org to find the perfect structured markup for voice search. These already exist and let the search engines know that your content is voice search friendly.

Final Thoughts on Voice Search Optimisation

When it comes to winning online, being ready to make changes as soon as possible goes a long way with helping.

You might think that voice search is not important for your business. But regardless of your industry or niche, it will be.

As more and more people move away from traditional text and screen searches, the search engines are going to be looking for content that translates well into spoken words.

If 1 trillion voice searches are performed each year and you are not voice search ready, your online business is missing out on a huge number of potential opportunities.

Head on over to our blog today for much more on the rise of voice search, actionable SEO tips and tricks, and a dedicated archive to everything digital marketing.

Article first published here: 7 TIPS FOR OPTIMISING CONTENT FOR VOICE SEARCH

3 Awesome Messaging Apps for Businesses to Try in 2019

The History of Google – Then and Now

A giant among giants. In just 25 years, Google has managed to grow from a small company to one of the most valuable multi-billion companies in the world.

Google’s logo and search engine home page are easily recognisable all around the world. Today, Google serves about 4.5 billion users in 160 countries and 123 languages.

But how did it all begin and where is Google headed in the future? Let’s take a look at Google’s history.

Early History

Despite what you may think, Google was not the first web-based search engine to appear on the worldwide web. The first search engine used to search for content on the Internet was Archie. 

Google’s history begins in 1995, which is when Larry Page met Sergey Brin. Page was studying at Stanford and Brin was considering studying there. The two started working on an engine called BackRub in 1996.

Backrub alludes to the way that the engine’s algorithms rank pages. You guessed right, backlinks were extremely important even back then. The technology that they developed was called PageRank; it determined a website’s relevance by checking the number and importance of pages, mainly by checking for other pages that linked back to the original site.

Page and Brin operated out of their dorm rooms. They built a server network using cheap, used computers. Backrub worked on Stanford University’s servers for a bit more than a year, but as the engine grew, Page and Brin had to expand and grow.

Both Page and Brin wanted to license their search engine technology at an early stage of development. After a number of failed negotiations, they decided to keep Google and seek more finance.

On September 15th, 1997, Google.com was registered. The term Google is a play on words of ‘googol’, a mathematical term which is used to describe the number 1 followed by 100 zeros ( 1 googol = 1.0 × 10100) . 

Funding

It wasn’t long before Google was noticed by investors. After a quick demo of the search engine at work in August 1997, Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim was so impressed that he wrote the pair a check for $100,000. 

The problem was that the two founders couldn’t cash in as Google Inc. did not yet exist as a legal entity. They incorporated on September 4th, 1998 and they eventually raised $900,000 more. Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos was one of Google’s angel investors.

Google’s first office was opened in Menlo Park, California. It was attached to the garage of a friend who sublet the place to the new corporation. It was about that time that Google hired its first employee, Craig Silverstein. He stayed with the company for more than ten years.

At the time of launch, Google.com answered about 10,000 queries every day. Google now processes more than 63,000 search queries every second, which translates to about 5.6 billion searches per day.

An Old Rival

Long before Google, Facebook, and YouTube, Yahoo was the undisputed king of the internet. Yahoo reigned supreme for more than a decade, but was sold for a mere $5 billion in 2016. 

Yahoo’s history is interesting on its own, but as you may have already guessed, Google’s rise to prominence had everything to do with Yahoo’s downfall. Yahoo had a chance to acquire Google in 1998 for just $1 million. They turned down the offer. In 2002, Yahoo’s CEO Terry Semel offered Google $3 million for the company. It was Page and Brin’s time to Turn Yahoo down, reportedly holding out for 5$ billion.

Yahoo’s platform was successful at the time. Its directories were designed to answer questions and view emails. They rejected Google’s PageRank algorithm because they didn’t think it would benefit their platform in any way. 

In the following years, Yahoo missed several more opportunities to acquire small companies that would go on to completely change the way we think of the internet today. Some notable examples include Facebook, YouTube, and eBay.

Constant Growth

Google was no ordinary search engine. The company’s willingness to innovate and keep moving forward were key factors to its success. Adwords (since renamed to Ads), Google’s own pay-per-click advertising platform has been the biggest contributor to their success.

Improvements, such as the doodle series, multi-language support and the Google toolbar also played an important role in the search engine’s success.

 In 2001, Google acquired Deja.com, an archive of 500 million discussions dating all the way back to 1995. In the same year, Google launched Google images and released their first annual ‘Google Zeitgeist’, a way to see what other people all over the world are searching for.

Google Adsense, which allowed businesses to connect with advertisers from all over the world, was announced in 2003. Google was growing at an incredible rate, and in 2004, moving to their new office at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, known as the ‘Googleplex. 

Google launched Gmail in 2004. What was then an invite-only service now serves more than 425 million users. Google finally entered the stock market, offering the public class A shares at $85 each.

New Heights

2005 was another great year for Google. Google Maps was born and Google set its eyes on the mobile market. Google Earth launched in the summer of 2005.

Google Analytics changed the way businesses track and measure their marketing impact. Even today, it’s one of the most useful free marketing tools available on the market.

2006 was the year that Google bought YouTube for a whopping $1.65 billion. Today, YouTube is estimated to be worth around 75$ billion dollars. Google and ‘googling’ were added to the Oxford English dictionary in 2006. 

Street View debuted in 2007 and is now available in more than 50 countries. Android made its first appearance in 2007 and was released officially on September 23, 2008.

In 2008, Google Chrome was introduced to the world. It quickly established itself as one of the fastest and most secure browsers in the market. It’s currently the most used web browser, with a market share of 64%.

Google+ launched in 2011 and Chromecast in 2013. Google’s smart home speakers powered by Google assistant launched in 2016.  

Logo

Google’s logo has changed quite a bit over the past 20+ years. The original logo was designed by Brin himself using GIMP. The logo used between 1999 and 2013 was designed by Ruth Kadar. A new, revised logo was unveiled in September 2015. 

The logo is regularly modified in the form of doodles. Doodles come in all forms and shapes, celebrating all kinds of different events and anniversaries.

Goooooooooogle’s Big Numbers

• 63,000 searchers per second, 3.8 million searches per minute, 228 million searches per hour, 5.6 billion searches per day. Wow!
• Google Search was responsible for 63.1% of queries in October 2018.
• Google Search’s desktop market share is 90.22% (95.2% on mobile).
• 15% of all searches on Google are unique. 
• Google owns more than 200 companies.
• Google earned $39.1 billion in revenue for Q4 of 2018.
• 90% of all internet users see Google Display ads.
• Gmail has 1.5 billion active users in 2019. Its market share is 27%.

 

And there’s no sign of Google slowing down anytime soon. Unless the world turns upside down, Google will continue to dominate the search and video market for a long time to come. 

Learn more about Google and digital marketing by visiting our blog today!

Article first published here: The History of Google – Then and Now

The Ultimate Exit Survey Guide

Some users will convert. Some will sign up for your newsletter. But what if people don’t really do what you want them to do? How can you tell if too many visitors are leaving your website and what can you do about it?We do everything we can to make sure users make it to our website. Once users do make it to our website, we do everything we can to make sure they stay there.

An exit survey can help you learn more about the state of your website. Here’s everything you need to know.

What Is an Exit Survey?

Exit surveys are shown to visitors just as they’re about to leave your website. Exit surveys often come in the form of a pop up that appears if a visitor moves their cursor away towards the browser toolbar. Other mouse movements can be set to trigger the survey.

Now, why would you want to annoy visitors with a pop up survey when they are about to leave? Most people will ignore the survey anyway. That’s one way to look at it.

Think about it this way. If visitors are leaving sooner than you’d want them to, then chances are they won’t be returning anytime soon. It makes sense to try and learn more about their experiences on the website, even if sudden pop ups may come off as spammy. 

It may be the case that only a small percentage of the users who leave your website actually complete the survey. However, even such small numbers can tell a lot about the state of your website.

Any kind of feedback that you can get is good feedback. You’d be surprised at the actual number of people who complete exit surveys.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Exit Surveys?

Exit surveys may not sound too exciting, but they can help you discover problems with usability, layout, value proposition, content, and the list goes on. Here’s why you might want to consider adding an exit survey to your website:

 

• Surprisingly, exit surveys have high response rates and they often outperform other kinds of website surveys. Maybe people are eager to express their discontent. Maybe they just like filling out surveys.
• People who fill out exit surveys provide you with the most valuable insights. Of course, you want to take into account the opinion of happy or converting customers too, but it’s often hard to improve when all the feedback that you get is positive. Finding out what doesn’t work that well will help research and reduce bounce and exit rates.
• Lower bounce rates translate into higher conversion rates. Knowledge is power. If you know that people think your product is overpriced, then adjusting the price tags or adding more value to your product will most likely increase conversions in the near future.

 

Be that as it may, exit surveys are not always reliable, especially if samples are small. We’ve mentioned the good so it’s only fair that we tell you about the bad as well:

 

• Exit surveys are intrusive. There’s no other way to put this. A large pop up never makes for a good user experience. 
• This is not a problem, if the user would just leave and never come back. But exit surveys can be triggered accidentally if users hover over specific elements during their stay on your website. Showing an intrusive exit survey to a user who’s just browsing is more than just awkward. 
• Results can be biased. Some visitors may see exit surveys as an opportunity to express their frustration. In this case, you might receive conflicting feedback from confused and agitated users, which may make it difficult to come to sensible conclusions.

 

Types of Exit Surveys

Exit surveys come in many shapes and forms. Depending on when users decide to exit your website, different surveys can provide you with valuable insight. Here are the most popular types of exit surveys:

Shopping cart abandonment surveys

Did you know that 70% of users abandon their online shopping carts before making a purchase? Now, that’s a shocking number. An exit survey can offer marketers a quick glimpse behind the scenes. Why are users not completing orders? What is it that stops them from buying?

Of course, this can be anything from an unexpected increase in price, lack of interest, lack of trust, to exhaustion at the face of extremely long forms that ask for way too much information. 

To create an abandonment survey, all you have to do is focus on those users who added a product to their cart and then decided to leave. Here are some sample questions that you could include in your survey:

 

 

• Why did you decide to quit shopping? A generic question that can work surprisingly well.

• Having trouble completing your order? This one’s a bit trickier. It implies that the user wants to complete the order but something’s holding them back. 

• Do you have any questions before completing your order? Similarly to the previous question, it’s implied that the user wants to complete the order. These last two questions are great for helping troubled customers convert, but don’t do much in the way of obtaining information from users that just don’t feel like buying anything anymore. 

 

 

This is exactly why being able to track the time that a user has spent on your website is extremely important. Someone who has had something on their cart for a long time, may actually have trouble completing the order. They decide to leave the website in frustration. Questions two and three can solve the problem and help them convert.

A user who just added a product on their cart and decided to leave after a few seconds, may have a completely different reason for wanting to go. A more general question (such as number one above) may give you a better idea of the reason behind their decision.

Pricing abandonment surveys

Users often make it to the landing page of a product or service but leave when they click through to the plan/pricing page. Obviously, pricing alone can determine whether someone will convert or not, but that’s not always the case.

Of course, when you’re setting up a pricing abandonment survey, you know that a lot of people are going to specifically complain about the product’s price. However, you may discover that pricing alone doesn’t answer many questions that visitors may have about your product. 

You may find that users do not clearly understand how your pricing plans work. Here are some sample questions that you could include in your pricing abandonment survey:

 

 

• Is our pricing clear to you? A crucial question, especially if you have several products or service plans on offer. 

 

• • Compared to similar solutions, do you think our prices are lower, higher, or about the same? You may already know how your prices compare to those of your competitors’, but knowing what customers think is probably more important.

 

• How much would you be willing to pay for our product/service? They say that the customer is always right. If the majority of people leaving your pricing page say they would feel more comfortable with a small drop in price, then it may be wise to take their suggestion into consideration.

 

Goal completion surveys

Goal completion surveys are more generic exit surveys that can pop up in places where other more specific surveys wouldn’t make too much sense. 

Goal completion surveys simply ask visitors if they managed to complete their goal during their visit, whatever that goal may have been. It may be that they found some useful information on your blog; maybe they learned more about your products or services.

Goal completion surveys are more than just about numbers. If customers are able to achieve their goals, then user satisfaction is high; a sign that you’re offering a great user experience. Such general information may not seem very useful but says a lot about the overall state of your website. It doesn’t really matter what their goal is today. Satisfied users are more likely to convert in the future.

 

Simple goal completion questions that you can include in your survey include:

 

 

• Did you complete the goal of your visit?

• From a scale of 1 to 5, how difficult was it to complete your goal?

• Would you visit our website again in the future?

• How likely are you to recommend our website to a friend?

 

Landing page bounce research

People leaving right after making to your landing page is never a good sign. Instead of panicking and trying to guess why people are not taking the actions you want them to take (e.g. sign up to your newsletter, download your new ebook, visit your products page), you can just ask them.

More than any other page on your website, your landing page is designed to hook users with actionable content and great value propositions. If people are leaving without going anywhere else, then chances are you’re either not being as clear as you should, or you’re bombarding users with too much information.

In this case, an exit survey won’t be able to solve all your problems. It can, however, help you uncover the root cause of the problem. Here is what you can ask:

 

 

• What should we do to improve your experience on our website?

• What more would you like to see on this page?

• What prevented you from signing up?

 

 

Exit surveys as a lead generation tool

One of the more effective uses of exit surveys comes in the form of special and limited offers. Just as the user is about to leave, you provide them with a personalised offer that they won’t be able to ignore: a discount, a free consultation, a free guide etc.

You can set up lead generation exit surveys on promotional or specific product pages. Think about it. Just by setting up a convincing exit survey you’re generating leads out of thin air. 

You can use the information you’ve obtained from other exit surveys to position your offers and propositions accordingly—discounts work great if customers believe that your product or service is a bit too expensive for them. 

Make sure you that you don’t ask for too much and that your offer has value. Remember that you’re targeting users who almost clicked away. A name and email for a 20% discount on a mid-range product is a good example of an exit lead generation offer done right. 

Response Rates

How you design your exit surveys, where you place them, and what you ask will affect your response rates. These can vary greatly, but successful exit surveys enjoy response rates of up to 70%. 

The type of survey clearly affects those numbers as well. When users are engaged, surveys have higher response rates (as is often the case with cart abandonment surveys, for example). 

When users are less engaged and not considering taking a specific action (e.g. they’re just browsing your blog), response rates remain low (as is the case with goal completion surveys).

This is all fine and dandy, but what can you do to increase your response rate? If you’re going to take the time to create multiple exit surveys, then you’ll want to make sure that people respond to them as much as possible. 

Using the best practices you can achieve high response rates and collect a large amount of data, even if traffic to your website is low to moderate.

Creating the Best Surveys Possible

Keep it nice and short

Don’t forget that exit surveys are pop ups. No one will engage with a 500-word, essay-long exit survey. Ideally, it should consist of just one question. If you really have more to say, then create more space and spread things out. 

Multiple choice or scale questions work the best. Text-input surveys can work too, but users are less likely to answer those. Still, written feedback is extremely valuable so what you can do is add an extra comment box at the end of the survey—give users the choice to express their concerns in more detail.

Don’t forget to follow up with an appropriate ‘thank you’ message. If you’re asking more than one question, make sure users know about it. They’re much more likely to make it to the end of the survey if they know there’s only one—or two—more questions coming up.

Make it visible

You don’t need to be subtle with your exit surveys—think of them as your last resort. It’s your last chance to capture the user’s attention and prompt them to take action. 

The form should appear in the middle of the screen and should be clearly visible and easy to follow. Unmissable is the word: make use of an overlay, go with a large design, and don’t be afraid of bright colours.

Test

Make sure that your surveys run well on all screens and devices. This is not always easy as buttons and fields may be too small and hard to interact with on mobile phones (especially if you’ve designed your website with desktop users in mind).

Testing tools, such as BrowserStack can help you get it right. Browserstack can help you check out how your website looks and runs on more than 2,000 devices. Needless to say, optimising for mobile is key, even beyond the scope of exit surveys.

To Survey or Not to Survey

There’s much debate around surveys, but exit surveys always seem to spark debates among marketers—some marketers love them, others hate them.

It’s not a matter of getting the code and implementing it on your website. There are more than a dozen tools that can help you create all kinds of exit surveys. The issue rather lies with the intrusive nature of the survey itself.

A well-placed exit survey can help you gain valuable feedback, which is exactly where things can get out of control. Instead of implementing an exit survey for a specific reason (e.g. a need to understand why users abandon their carts at the last moment), many end up using a combination of different exit surveys for more than just that.

We’ve all been to those websites. Navigating through them feels like walking through a field of landmines. And this is exactly why marketers need to be careful with exit surveys—and any kind of intrusive, in-your-face marketing tactic.

Too many pop ups negatively affect the user experience as they target more and more users. Things can quickly spiral out of control. Leverage exit surveys but make sure you know why and when to use them.

For more digital marketing guides, make sure to check out our blog today!

 

Article first published here: The Ultimate Exit Survey Guide

How to Write the Perfect Blog Post

How to Reach Millennials with your Marketing Campaigns

There are few generations as widely discussed as millennials. Baby boomers don’t understand them and gen-X most definitely doesn’t like being confused for them. But here’s the thing… Millennials play a hugely important role when it comes to the future success of brands and businesses.

In the United States alone, millennials make up a quarter of the population and are directly responsible for more than $200 billion yearly consumer spending! Multiply that on a global scale and the power of millennials becomes shockingly clear.

In this post we are going to look at why millennials are so difficult to target, who they actually are, and how you can connect with them. 

Millennials Vs Gen-X Vs Baby Boomers

We’ve all heard of millennials, but do you actually know which generation they fall into? Do you even know which generation you are? Let’s take a quick look at each of the different generations before getting started with millennial 

Baby Boomers. Born between 1946 and 1964, they range from 55 to 73 years old today. This generation were around during the flower power era and enjoyed a huge population boom following the Great Depression and World War II. Baby boomers we’re the ones who fought for protection of the environment and were the first to experience the civil rights 

Generation-X. Born Between 1965 and 1979, they range from 40 to 54 years old today. Also known as generation bust, Gen X were the first generation to experience MTV, the fall of the Berlin wall, Tiananmen Square, and the rise in popularity of 

Xennials. Born between 1980 and 1985, they range from 34 to 39 years old today. Seen as a crossover generation between generation X and millennials, Xennials enjoyed life before home computers, mobile phones, and social media and were also the first generation to use them. They are considered to be more like generation-X than 

Millennials. Born between 1986 and 1994, they range from 25 to 33 years old today. Millennials were born during a time where almost every home had internet, mobile phones, smart TVs and modern technology was the norm. They are often seen as the entitled generation who were raised to think that they are special. Every loser was a winner and they were raised to believe anything was possible. Of course, reality soon hit home 

Generation-Z. Born between 1995 and 2012, they range from 7 to 24 years old today. This generation has access to mobile phones and modern technology from birth. They spend less time socialising and more time online. They are also seen as the most tolerant generation toward different races, sexual orientations and cultures. Gen-Z’rs are also less likely to believe in church and government and are more forward-

Generation-Alpha. Born between 2013 and 2025, they range from 1 day to 6 years old today. This generation is still too young to have developed any clear character traits. 

 

 

Why Millennials are a Marketing Nightmare

Unlike the preceding generations, millennials are much less likely to respond to traditional advertising campaigns. And here is where the problem 

As Millennials start to take the reins of consumer spending, it is becoming harder and harder to understand their spending 

Plenty of research has been conducted trying to understand what it is that gets their attention. And while some patterns have become clear, it’s still not understood why they don’t match the marketing numbers of previous 

With more Millennials spending online than any other generation, marketing campaigns should have some type of influence. We already know that influencer marketing works with this generation, but why are ad campaigns missing the 

 

 

It’s all to do with the lingo you use!

The Solution to Millennial Marketing

We know where Millennials hang out and which platforms work best for reaching them. But unfortunately, most marketers don’t know how to connect with 

If your ad campaigns and marketing efforts don’t resonate with them, they will simply ignore you. So what can you do? The answer is actually much easier than you would 

Forget about spending a small fortune on ad campaigns that keep failing and work on utilising words from the millennial lexicon! Yep. That’s all it takes.

Every generation has its own style of language that the preceding generations struggle to understand. Just as you find millennial lingo confusing and hard to connect with, the same is true in 

The internet makes it so easy to integrate relevant millennial-friendly phrases and words into your campaigns. But to save you the time and effort of trying to find them, we’ve pulled together a list of the biggest and best millennial words for you.

 

 

Millennial Lexicon (with old people translations)

 

 

Final Thoughts

Adapting and modifying the way that you write your marketing campaigns can cost effective and easy once you know how. Of course, the millennial lingo goes far beyond the examples that we have listed in this post. 

Start off slowly by testing the waters with a few additional millennial words sprinkled in here and there before going in full force. This will give you a better idea of which words grab their attention and which don’t.

You also want to make sure that you don’t come across as condescending. It might not be your intention to insult come up but it can happen all too easily. Anagrams such as FOMO, GOAT and SMH not only resonate with this generation, but can save you space and money when creating ad campaigns.

 

 

Combining these words with visual images that resonate with causes and activities such as sustainability, global warming, political events, etc are the perfect way to reach out to and connect with the often confused millennial consumer.

Millennials are not the enemy… they are just harder to understand than all of the other generations. And now that you know what makes them tick, you can start checking all the right boxes to get them on side.

Why not check out our blog today for more awesome marketing and SEO tips, tricks and techniques to boost your reach across the board.

Article first published here: How to Reach Millennials with your Marketing Campaigns

The Evolutionary History of YouTube

Next year, the world’s biggest and best-known video site turns 15. From humble beginnings as a place for amateurs to upload videos to a platform that launches global cyber stars, YouTube continues to grow day by day.

Each month, more than 4 billion hours of video content are viewed. And for every minute that passes, users upload 72 hours worth of video content. 

Without it, Gangnam Style would have been confined to the airwaves of South Korea. Rebecca black would never have been so happy about Friday. And a prepubescent Justin Bieber wouldn’t have sung about his baby, baby baby.

Ok. So now that we’ve got the unfortunate side of YouTube out of the way, let’s take a look at the video sharing giant from its early inception to how it went on to dominate the world.

Nip Slips and Tsunami’s

Ideas come to people at the strangest of times, and YouTube was no different. 

If Janet Jackson hadn’t ‘accidentally on purpose’ displayed her breast to the world at the 2004 Super Bowl and the Indian Ocean tsunami didn’t devastate Southeast Asia, YouTube might not even exist today.

It was these key events that spawned the idea of an online video sharing platform according to Jawed Karim, one of YouTube’s 3 founding partners.

While at a dinner party with Steve Chen and Chad Hurley who had worked with Karim at PayPal, the concept of an online place for amateurs to upload their own video content was born.

On February 14th, 2005, a year after they came up with the idea, Chad Hurley register the domain, logo and trademark for YouTube setting it on it’s path to world domination.

YouTube Goes Live

3 months after YouTube was registered and trademarked, it’s very first home page went live when the beta version. One month later on April 23rd, the very first video was uploaded onto the platform.

Titled “me at the zoo”, the 19 seconds long clip was uploaded by co-founder Jawed Karim. Filmed in front of the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo, a baby-faced Karim spends 19 seconds talking about elephant trunks.

Just five months later in September, Nike went on to become the first video to achieve 1 million views with their iconic Ronaldinho ad. This served to cement YouTube’s potential as a promotional platform for brands and businesses on a global scale.

YouTube Goes Public

In mid December 2005, Sequoia Capital invested 3.5 million dollars into YouTube. This allowed YouTube to finally improve-it servers and increase its bandwidth so that it could launch itself as a public video sharing platform.

But it’s conceptual idea of being an amateur video sharing site changed come February 2006. It was this month that NBC ask YouTube to upload a clip from SNL titled Lazy Sunday.

This gave rise to YouTube content verification program, which was created to help content owners remove infringing video content uploaded by others. Ongoing promotions for NBC made Google stand up and pay attention to the potential of YouTube.

In Comes the Giant

October 2006 what was the month that Google purchased YouTube for a whopping $1.6 billion. The world’s largest search engine took YouTube and turned it into the world’s largest video sharing site.

When Google acquired YouTube, there were just 65 employees working for the video-site… fewer people than what work in a single department today.

Google had already conquered the online revenue earning potential of AdSense, now it was time to let people monetise their video content.

Average Joe’s Making Moolah

May 2007 saw the introduction of the YouTube partner program. This was a key turning point in taking YouTube from a standard video sharing platform to one that would grow to be the world’s biggest.

It suddenly became possible for the everyday person to take their hobbies and turn them into an online business. Just 12 months later, the most popular users on the platform were already earning incomes consisting of six figures!

In fact, it wasn’t just hobbies and businesses making money. Who can forget baby Charlie biting his brother’s finger and giving an evil grin to the camera! This funny family moment caught on camera has earned the parents behind the video more than $175,000!

From cats and fails to makeup tutorials and cookery shows, YouTube became firmly established as a viable alternative to TV.

Greedy Old Google

August 2007 was the month that Google decided to start placing ads on videos to generate revenue. 

Covering approximately 20% of the video screen, semi-transparent banners started to make an appearance. Of course, Google is a business and was looking for ways to monetise the website and ads seemed the natural way to go.

Giving rise to one of the biggest annoyances that viewers faced when watching content, it didn’t take long for adblock plus to make an appearance. 

Going Mainstream and Vevo

January 2009 saw the launch of official congressional channels on YouTube. In February, even the Vatican got in on the action and launched its very own channel.

Then comes April 2009… the year that the world’s ears were forever tortured with the high pitched vocals of Justin Bieber.

But going mainstream also caused a lot of tension within the music industry. Record labels started to complain about copyright infringement, licensing terms and piracy… and thus, Vevo was brought on board.

A joint agreement between Vevo and YouTube allowed the video sharing platform to continue streaming mainstream music so long as the video content is uploaded and monetized by Vevo.

Going Live & Democracy

2011 saw some pretty big advancements that would shape at YouTube into what it is today. 

In April, YouTube launched YouTube live, making it possible for video content to be live streamed on the platform. 

It also started to invest heavily in original content, carving out it’s very own Netflix Style programming and creating an online place for watching series and original movies.

Along with Twitter and Facebook, YouTube also played a pivotal role in the early stages of the Arab Spring. 

Helping spread important messages covering everything from political commentary to protests and activist planning, it made it possible to empower freedom of speech and democracy.

Banging Out a Billion

At the end of December, 2012 KPOP superstar PSY became a global sensation and went on to become YouTube’s most viewed video. Gangnam Style rapidly racked up over 1 billion views in 2012 and moved the goalposts for viewing goals.

By now, people were enjoying over 4 billion hours of viewed video content each month and uploading 72 hours worth of content every minute!

Dislikes Making a Mark

YouTube has been releasing a rewind video for the past few years. YouTube rewind looks back at the biggest and most iconic moments on the platform over the past year.

But the 2018 video released by YouTube went on to become the platform’s most disliked video ever. Within a week of being uploaded and released, it attracted almost 10.3  million dislikes, surpassing the then most disliked video, Justin Bieber’s “Baby” (which had 9.9 million dislikes.)

This was one of the first times that audiences, creators and YouTubers clashed with the views of YouTube as a corporate giant. Many claimed that YouTube overlooked the efforts put in by content creators and instead focused on creating an ad and celebrating already known celebs such as Will Smith. 

Viewers and creators wanted to know where Logan Paul and pewdiepie were. A few controverses seemed to break their relationship with YouTube. Which, in turn,broke the audience’s relationship with YouTube.

Making Millionaires

For quite a few years now, YouTube has been turning average people into millionaires. In 2018, the highest paid YouTubers were raking in double digit millions.

 

• PewDiePie – 15.5 million
• Jacksepticeye -16 million
• VanossGaming – 17 million
• Markiplier – 17.5 million
• Jeffree Star – 18 million
• Ryan toysreview – 22 million

 

The biggest earner of 2018 hadn’t even reached his first decade of life before earning his family a multimillion-dollar income.

Business Sense

With social media and video content leading the way in an ever connected online world, businesses realised the potential that online video offers their marketing strategies.

Other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have managed to forge their own paths in online video sharing. Gone are the days off sharing a video from YouTube to Facebook. They now make it possible for businesses to upload directly. 

For now, YouTube doesn’t look set to hand over it video content crown anytime soon. But, as is true with everything online, things can change almost overnight.

That’s about it for today’s post. Why not head over to our blog and check out more of our social media posts.

Article first published here: The Evolutionary History of YouTube