70% of marketers predict virtual events are here to stay, why not host a paid event on Facebook?
Your weekly digital marketing matchbox to kindle creative content.
August 20, 2020
Zoom Fatigue? Never Met Her
It looks like we’ll need to stock up on some more Zoom shirts because nearly three-quarters of marketers expect virtual events to continue long beyond 2020. As in-person events are on hold, brands continue to understand what virtual functions can accomplish.
The most effective uses for digital soirees? Proposals and product demos, which is good news for B2B marketers. Still, lead generation has proven difficult without real-life get-togethers, heightening awareness of how much marketers rely on personal relationships, and in-person contact to generate business.
As virtual events become the norm for the foreseeable future, marketers need to shift their mindset for what results to r expect realistically. They will need to adjust the KPIs used to measure event success and reassess where events are most appropriate in the customer journey. Otherwise, your digital get together could turn into wasted bandwidth.
TL;DR: Expect virtual events to remain standard well into the foreseeable future, but unlike in-person gatherings, brands shouldn’t depend on online get-togethers for lead generation.
Tickets, Please
Virtual events are the gift that keeps on giving (see above), and most are free, so maybe it's about time businesses look into charging for online attendance. And Facebook’s ready to play the role of the ticket master. The company launched a new feature that makes the paid events option widely available to businesses to profit via live-streamed events.
It’s a natural pivot for the Facebook Events feature, and so far, users have forked up some cash … er, online credit cards for live streams of TED-style talks, trivia games, and cooking classes. But the possibilities for brands don’t end there. From live interviews with members of the C-suite or exclusive product demos to Q&As or virtual networking, the new digital marketing (and revenue) stream is flowing, and brands should consider going for a swim.
TL;DR: Facebook launched a new feature for businesses to charge admission for live-streamed events — meaning your next livestream can be a whole lot more exclusive.
Inside Insights
Content marketers, rejoice: Google officially confirmed Search Console Insights. It’s a new tool that combines data from Search Console and Google Analytics to give content creators and publishers a more profound understanding of how audiences discover and resonate with your content.
Google is tailoring the platform to provide the metrics that matter most to content marketers, becoming a one-stop-shop for deep insights into how blog posts, resources, and more are performing and (more importantly) why. One downside: It’s currently in closed beta testing, so if you haven’t scored an invite yet, we recommend getting familiar with Google Search Console — so you’ll be query confident and analytics advanced when the program rolls out further.
TL;DR: Search Console Insights combines Search Console and Google Analytics to create a data analytics platform specially designed for content creators, marketers, and publishers.
WHAT LIT US UP THIS WEEK
Don't Shop So Close to Me
We can all agree that waiting in line at Trader Joes under normal circumstances can be stressful. Add in antsy, masked shoppers in downtown Manhattan, and you’ve got chaos. That’s where a data-driven partnership aims to come to the rescue. By combining LinkNYC’s kiosks around New York and Foursquare’s wealth of user location data, LinkNYC’s digital signage now updates in real-time to share impactful neighborhood takeaways. The data includes everything from hourly shopper traffic levels of nearby grocery and drugstores to walking times to nearby shops, parks, and more.
Social distancing is tricky, especially when consumers can’t predict the crowds ahead. LinkNYC and Foursquare’s initiative aims to ease this pain point by turning data into advantageous insights for all shoppers. And while doing good for the community, the digital-out-of-home campaign subtly shows off Foursquare's top-notch location data capabilities, while boosting public trust in the Link kiosks. More importantly, this partnership reminds marketers that the pandemic isn’t over, and (while nobody misses the sad piano ballad social distance themed ad campaigns of earlier months), consumers are still looking at brands to help ease the new challenges they’re facing. And even small gestures, like pointing people toward shorter grocery lines, will be remembered by audiences long after this era passes.
TL;DR: Foursquare and LinkNYC combine location data and digital signage to help New York City grocery shoppers avoid long lines in this DOOH campaign.
