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February was a big month for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs); over 50 deals were signed during the month worth $109 billion!
The largest SPAC merger, ever recorded in history, occurred last month – a $24 billion deal to bring Lucid public, executed by Micheal Klein, an ex-Citigroup banker.
In other news, Twitter is back at, capitalizing on others’ innovations with the roll-out of Super Follows. A very Only Fans, Substack-Esque subscription service allowing followers to view exclusive content for a fee.
Before we get into that here’s a peek at what’s to come:
- Super Follows creating a new newsletter platform right on Twitter
- Seven emerging SEO technologies you need-to-know
- Eight ways to revitalize your video content marketing
What’s the future of B2B marketing?
We don’t have a crystal ball 🔮 to peer into the future but we do know it’s going to look different than it does today. Ross joins Dave Gerhardt on the latest podcast episode of B2B Marketing Leaders to discuss where B2B marketing is headed.
Spoiler alert: Content investments and intentional distribution are going to play a big role.
Twitter Becomes a New Player In Paid Subscriptions
Breaking into the subscription market, Twitter is rolling out Super Follows.
This new feature allows accounts to publish gated content that followers can access for a cost.
Creators can charge for exclusive content, community access, newsletter content and special deals. As you can see in the mockup above, Super Follows will be a great way to hide new features, updates and releases behind a paid wall.
The most interesting feature is the subscriber-only newsletter (I’m not sure if this will allow creators to link out to existing newsletters or not). One thing for sure is that this is a great way to promote, monetize, and increase newsletter subscribers right from Twitter.
Additionally, this feature will allow you to promote and sell gated reports, teardowns, and case studies directly from the social media site. Increasing conversions by removing friction as it bypasses a website click-through.
Along with the roll-out of Super Follows, Twitter is capitalizing on the boom in subscription services with the development of Communities.
Personally, I think Twitter missed the opportunity to name Communities – Nests.
Nonetheless, Facebook Groups and Subreddits, which Communities seems to replicate, have both been successful features and resonate well with their audiences.
Goodbye #MarketingTwitter 😞 and hello Marketing Twitter Community 👋!
Communities will bring users together over a shared common interest. This means marketers will be able to target specific communities organically by sharing relevant content within the Community.
Both features were discussed in Twitter’s investor and analyst presentation, but no release date was included.
Key Takeaways
- Super Follows bring subscription revenue to Twitter
- Communities allow for greater targeting and audience access
- Keep your eyes 👀 on Twitter, as we await the rollout of these features
Seven Need-To-Know Emerging SEO Technologies
In the ever-changing world of SEO, new technologies are constantly emerging, and it is best to be aware of them to stay ahead of the game.
AbdulGaniy Shehu of Moz has pulled together a list of seven emerging technologies in SEO to help scale SEO processes in 2021 and beyond!
Let’s dive right in:
1. Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Since Google’s release of the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) algorithm in 2019, NLP has been made possible. No longer relying on keywords or phrases, Google is able to look at the search intent behind each query and process what a single word in a sentence means based on context alone.
Effects on SEO: Although you can’t optimize for the BERT algorithm, NLP highlights the importance of content that accurately answers search queries.
2. Natural Language Generation (NLG) for short-form content
Nothing beats putting keys to the keyboard and creating content naturally, but AI solutions like Copy.ai are becoming popular for creating short-form content such as headlines or product descriptions.
Moz tested Copy.ai to generate a new tagline:
Moz won’t be using any of these suggestions, but this is a great starting point for new brands or companies undergoing a rebrand.
Effects on SEO: Essentially, AI for writing relieves the stress of having to come up with copy around certain keywords and phrases. Just input your brand name, a detailed description of what you do, target keywords, and let the AIs work their magic.
3. Term Frequency times Inverse Document Frequency (TF*IDF)
This one is actually a tool that allows SEOs to measure the importance of a keyword phrase by comparing it to the keyword’s frequency in a large set of documents. Moz discloses that it is unknown if Google uses TF*IDF in its algorithm, but that it won’t hurt to incorporate TD*IDF into your on-page SEO strategy.
Effects on SEO: These tools will provide insights around which phrases you can add or remove from your page to increase search alignment and uncover other closely related search phrases. These findings uncover ways to increase your article’s relevance and boosts SERP rankings.
4. GPT-3 for Automated Content Creation
Similar to NLG for short-form copywriting, GPT-3 API works to write long-form content. It was trained on a large pool of datasets: Wikipedia, history books, etc. Teaching this ‘robot’ to write like a human and generate content based on inputted terms to be covered.
Effects on SEO: GPT-3 can take bullet points of information and whip up the first draft of a blog, or spin up email campaigns that you then just need to edit for clarity. At least that’s as easy as it is supposed to be, but if you don’t trust robots you can reach out to a content marketing agency 😉.
5. SEO A/B Testing
Everyone knows and utilizes user A/B testing which uses two versions of the same page to identify the best variant, but SEO A/B testing is often glossed over. SEO split testing isn’t aimed at the end-user it is aimed at Google bots and is typically underutilized since it doesn’t result in a direct target audience optimization.
With SEO A/B testing, you are showing Google different versions of a landing page, not multiple versions of the same page. Once both pages are live you simply wait for bots to crawl the variant pages to see results.
Effects on SEO: Pretty straightforward, SEO A/B testing will allow you to uncover which versions/features/copy work best to drive results. Beginner SEOs may test title tags, meta descriptions, and heading ones. While more advanced SEOs may test, internal anchor texts, schema markup, AMP pages, etc.
6. Automated On-Page Content Optimization
Tools like Frase AI breakdown top-ranking pages in the SERP and provide you with the structure to be used in content creation. All you have to do is enter the target keyword and wait for Frase AI to run its analysis.
Effects on SEO: A lot of background research goes into long-form content, deconstructing the format of each top-ranking page on the SERP, developing headings/subheadings, uncovering subtopics to rank for, etc. Now, there are tools to support you in this research, allowing SEOs to spend less time uncovering insights and more time creating high-quality content!
7. Non-Text Content Factors
Slowly but surely, non-text content is being recognized in SEO because of its positive impact on user experience. With Google’s Core Web Vitals releasing this month, non-text content (images, infographics, graphs, videos, audio, PDFs) is going to have a HUGE impact on SEO.
Effects on SEO: Google is going to start recognizing the information shared on different graphics, so break up the clunky boxes of text on your website and reap the benefits! This improves user experience and decreases bounce rates.
Key Takeaways
- Non-text content will be recognized by Google bots
- AI copywriting is on the rise to help SEOs draft content based on keywords
- Google is getting smarter and will be able to go beyond keywords and understand a user’s search intent to deliver higher quality search results
- Tools are on the rise to make SEOs lives easier, for example breaking down top page structure and uncovering phrase matches for additional opportunities
Time To Upgrade Your Video Content Marketing Strategy
Today, 60% of businesses use video as a marketing tool and it is becoming a staple in many companies’ marketing strategies.
Three weeks ago in Volume 18, we covered virtual event fatigue as the charm of on-screen meetings began to wear off. In that edition, we discussed different ways you can spice up virtual events to boost audience engagement and retention.
This week, we are going to share eight types of video content to upgrade your marketing strategy! Here we go:
Explainer Videos
Short videos used to explain your brand and what you do.
- Targeting the top of funnel awareness and intent stage
- Ideal length: 60-90 seconds
- Best used on websites, social media, YouTube, and in ads
Product Demo Videos
Display how your product is meant to be used and the value it provides.
- Targeting the middle of the funnel decision-making stage
- Ideal length 2-3 minutes
- Best used on websites and in emails
Testimonial Videos
Customer reviews or testimonials talking about their positive experience with your brand.
- Targeting the bottom of the funnel evaluation stage
- Ideal length 2-3 minutes
- Best used on websites and social media
Behind The Scenes Videos
Displaying how the product is made adding a personal touch.
- Targeting the top of the funnel awareness stage
- Ideal length 1-4 minutes (depending on product creation process)
- Best used on websites, social media and YouTube
Company Culture Videos
Aimed at prospective employees and customers, giving them an inside look at life with your organization.
- Targeting the top of funnel interest and action stage
- Ideal length 1-2 minutes
- Best used on websites, in emails, on social media and YouTube
Sales Pitch Videos
Start a two-way conversation using this video to spark interest in your business
- Targeting the top of the funnel awareness stage
- Ideal length 30-60 seconds
- Best used in emails and live demos
How-To Videos
Similar to tutorial videos, giving viewers a step-by-step guide on how to use your product or service.
- Targeting the middle of the funnel interest and action stage
- Ideal length 2-10 minutes (depending on the complexity of your product)
- Best used on websites, in emails, on social media and YouTube
Webinars
Not technically a video until it is repurposed, webinars are great to engage with your audience, answer questions, and educate newcomers on your brand.
- Targeting the top of funnel interest and awareness stage
- Ideal length 15-60 minutes
- Best used on websites, in emails, on social media and YouTube
And there you have it – eight different styles of videos you can start producing to update your content marketing strategy!
These tips were brought to you from Breadnbeyond’s beautiful infographic.
Key Takeaways
- Using video allows you to go deeper into detail without losing the interest of your audience
- With all the different video styles and publishing platforms, there is no reason to not start creating videos
- Video content needs to be a part of your marketing strategy in 2021 because it allows you to connect with your audience in a way that text can’t
OTHER NEWS OF THE WEEK:
👑 Klarna, the highest-valued privately held fintech company in Europe has raised $1B in recent funding to achieve a $31B valuation.
🚚 The software company, Shippo, providing eCommerce companies shipping-related services has announced a new $45 million investment bringing their valuation up to $495M.
💻 Founders David A. Steinberg and former Apple CEO John Sculley have raised $222.5M in debt financing for their martech company Zeta Global.
BRAIN FOOD OF THE WEEK:
Non-fungible tokens or NFTs have taken off recently as cryptocurrencies rise in popularity. These tokens work as a digital asset accompanying cryptocurrencies while supporting digital artists.
The crypto art market is valued at over $100M and continues to grow and develop a monetized meme market. Some art has sold for over $3.5M, but the most shocking purchase would have to be the one-of-a-kind rendition of the 2011 Nyan Cat meme that sold for $590,000 in an online auction.
(Don’t be alarmed we didn’t steal or spend $600K on this gif, it is a free run of the mill gif of Nyan Cat enjoying his space run)
Typically NFTs are bought with Ethereum, which is the second most popular cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin. They are able to hold value and are not mutually interchangeable, unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum.
NFTs haven’t invented a digital art market but they are causing it to boom, giving digital artists well-earned recognition and buyers the ability to own and trade online content.
TWITTER THREAD OF THE WEEK:
Technology to leverage in your sales machine by Peter Kazanjy (@Kazanjy)
WHAT WE’RE WIRED INTO THIS WEEK 🎧:
Positions by Ariana Grande (best track: 34+35)
Originally Sent Out Thursday, March 4, 2021. Stay up to date with all of our latest findings by subscribing to our newsletter today. Signing up also gives you early access to Ross’ Tuesday essay full of exclusive industry insights.
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