Advanced SEO cuts through abstraction. It doesn’t add layers of fixes and workarounds to mask SEO problems. Instead, it removes the problems themselves.

This deck is my talk from Digital Summit 2019. There are a lot of slides. If you’ve seen me speak you’re used to that. If not, don’t let it scare you. Every slide has a single link, idea, or tip. It’s a fast read that I’ve hopefully crammed with useful stuff.

Ask questions in the comments below, or find me on Twitter: @portentint

Or on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianlurie/

The post Advanced SEO: Digital Summit Slide Deck appeared first on Portent.

The following is my latest monthly Analytics column, originally published on ClickZ. You can read all my previous columns on ClickZ here.

Silicon Valley loves fancy job titles. It’s just something we do, and software and technology lend themselves to it. But it’s not always helpful. In many cases, these new titles are simply a reinventing or coopting of a practice that is already well-served by existing practitioners.

This brings us to today’s topic: growth hackers. I know many are well-intentioned and not all are consciously trying to shroud what they do in nebulous terms. But, unfortunately, there are many who attempt to sell services surrounding growth hacking with messages such as: “other marketers are behind the times / not data-driven / not digitally-savvy etc, so you should hire us.”

But let’s take a step back. What exactly is Growth Hacking? As defined by Wikipedia (emphasis mine)

“…a process of rapid experimentation across marketing channels and product development to identify the most effective, efficient ways to grow a business. …. It can also involve online community management and social media outreach or highly personalized outreach to news outlets to improve performance metrics such as driving customer acquisition and selling products.”

I’d invite you to read the entire Wikipedia page, because you’ll quickly see growth hackers are simply marketers by another word – as the intended goals are in alignment with traditional marketing. For example, in the quote I bolded, using digital channels to improve performance metrics is the domain of marketers of all types. Even the ones with boring titles.

If it’s not already obvious by now, I’m not a huge fan of the phrase growth hacking or the job title of growth hacker. The simple reason is, it’s not needed. It’s redundant and unnecessarily distracting. It isn’t that actual growth hacking tactics might not work or don’t belong within the tactical mix of your marketing. It’s that they likely already are there.

Consummate marketers use data to A/B test effectively, conjure creative ways to acquire users organically, optimize the reach of their content, etc – things growth hackers pride themselves on. So, it’s not that what growth hackers are doing is “wrong”, it’s just that things like data fluency are table stakes for all marketers as I wrote in a previous column.

The problem with many Growth Hackers from a measurement standpoint

Many growth hackers obsess over KPIs like increasing social media followings (and frequently use automation to do so) or short term traffic to a brand’s website for the sake of increasing numbers. But this is simply not sustainable. As I shared in a previous story on increasing organic marketing metrics, you want to chase increasing, sustainable returns, not spikes which are low quality and unpredictable.

Organic KPIs improved directionally rather than chasing spikes is the hallmark of quality online marketing

Growth at any cost without considering loyalty is wasted effort

Many growth hackers I’ve talked to over the years, while talking a good game about web analytics, show a misunderstanding of other critical business metrics. I once heard a proud self-proclaimed growth hacker at a tech conference triumphantly talk about how they rapidly grew app installs to exceed their aggressive goals in a short period of time. Which by itself sounds great, except a year or so later I saw a story in a tech trade in which that company was undergoing layoffs because the app just wasn’t working out. Maybe if they had a better understanding of the CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) of users generated through their “rapid growth” tactics they would be in a better situation. Or even simply look deeper into their app analytics to see loyalty metrics and didn’t just focus on installs without understanding if they would stick around.

Growth hacking, empathy and user experience

Great marketers understand the importance of empathy and respecting users. On more than one occasion, I have seen growth hackers cause users and potential customers to loathe them, all in the name of trying to chase KPIs. Which shows the danger (and, to be blunt, the stupidity) of a “growth at any cost” strategy. Two quick examples.

1. A chat app recently caused users to inadvertently text spam their friends in an attempt to gain users.

Tweet source

Recently, a new app called “Chitchat” disguised “invite” as “add” where the UI made it unclear that you’re “inviting” friends via texts (nearly everyone considers this spam) as opposed to simply adding existing users. The entire thread linked above is worth reading if you’re curious the type of user outrage and negative PR growth hacking tactics can provoke. To add icing on the cake, TechCrunch soon after called this company “Silicon Valley’s spammiest new app.”

2. Running Facebook ads targeted at users who are fans of the ACLU in an attempt to stem negative PR

Tweet source

For the sake of brevity, I’m not going to go into the entire story of what happened (feel free to click the Tweet source link if you want to dive in). But what occurred here is Uber’s growth team made the decision to specifically target supporters of the American Civil Liberties Union to try and stop the damage of not so flattering news about the company. But in a world of transparency, users are going to determine how and why you are targeting them – especially in cases that involve reputation management issues. In this case, an experienced marketer with a broad understanding of messaging and ad targeting would understand it’s inappropriate to use the ACLU as a vehicle to market their messages.

Quick conclusion

What I would be excited to see in the coming years is that marketers by all names and titles embrace a more holistic and broad view of digital marketing/measurement and how we help improve our company’s results. In an increasingly social and review-filled world, where spam tactics are always called out, ensuring we don’t just grow, but delight, our users will separate the winners from the losers.

Ludell Jones, Eazl’s Marketing Director, has been publishing some awesome vlogs about the day in the life of a modern marketer. Check out her latest …

The following is my latest monthly Analytics column, originally published on ClickZ. You can read all my previous columns on ClickZ here.

Presenting to students at UF Ad Society in Feb, 2017

Recently, I visited my alma mater, University of Florida in Gainesville, FL, to speak with advertising students about digital marketing, analytics and how to start a career in our field. As I had expected, I received many questions from students, both after my talk and via email. I decided it would be more helpful to answer several of the best questions as this month’s column to share thoughts with students everywhere who may have similar questions.

So if you’re new to our sector or someone on your team is, today’s post is for you.

What are some of the essential tools every marketing student should know going into their first marketing internship/job?

Well, of course, Google Analytics is one critical tool. We even have online courses and a demo account to help new users get up to speed quickly and become proficient at making decisions with data. But while understanding specific tools is great, it’s probably more important, when first starting out, to understand how to create a digital marketing strategy, which always comes before tools and tactics.

Being proficient with not just Analytics, but CMS (content management systems), CRM (customer relationship management) tools, programming languages like HTML, etc would all be good ideas and core to what we do. If you don’t know everything yet, that’s normal. Even the best experienced pros are still learning daily.

What do you think makes certain interns stand out from the crowd?

I think the best thing you can do is begin building a sandbox project (a place you can test and tinker on ideas without worry or oversight) from the ground up, without help. Create something real and tangible you plan to grow long-term in your free time such as a blog, an app, an e-commerce store selling something you’re passionate about, or another side project. Find a friend if you want, but also document your process and be sure to be involved at every step. Resist the temptation to outsource things at first.

You’ll learn so much as the result of experimenting on your own and be forced to go through the entire process a start-up or brand will when conducting digital marketing, including creating the actual product – something far too many marketers skip. You can’t get the same, real life, hands on experience in school or through certification. Smart brands and managers, the type that are really essential to work with at the start of your career, will value this greatly.

What are daily habits you believe a successful marketer should have?

Keeping your analysis skills sharp is probably the single most important thing you can do. Good marketers know not just how to record metrics and what KPIs matter, but how to use that data to influence decisions at the strategy table and get buy in for new projects. This involves both left and right brain thinking, as you can get pretty creative with how you use numbers to tell a story. Becoming proficient with data-driven storytelling requires lots of practice so working on it daily is helpful. Moreso, there’s big demand for analytics-savvy professionals so having this skill will provide a leg up.

What are some good readings marketers should have read?

To be an effective marketer in a world of constantly-changing communications trends, it is essential to stay at the edge. Embrace this and take the charge personally to follow sector news. Read case studies, industry trades, relevant blogs – create a system (email subscriptions + labels, RSS, whatever you prefer) to get the right information and data coming to you every day without spending much time. I’m less concerned with where you follow our sector, just that you follow. It’s important that all marketers do put in the effort to stay informed s things change so fast.

How do I choose between going agency and in-house?

This is a personal choice. I personally started my career on the agency side and think it’s a great decision because you get a view into many different types of companies and sectors. You also get to implement all different types of strategies and tactics as your different client’s marketing needs are unique. Agencies are a great way to get your feet wet in our sector and gain a diverse skill set. If you find a company you really love right out of college, go for it. Your first roles will be great learning experiences no matter where they are.

How do I make my resume really stand out?

There are countless articles on making a great resume so I’ll offer another idea: do something creative, in addition to the resume, which gets noticed by targeted companies or key executives. For example, ad copywriter Alec Brownstein targeted creative directors at advertising shops in New York via clever search ads driving traffic to his website. From this, he received two offers. He then made a YouTube video showcasing the results which has received nearly 1 million views. The point is he knew what he want and did something creative and specific to achieve it.

One more story: a friend of mine, Eric Friedman, tells the tale of his job interview with renowned VC firm Union Square Ventures in New York. During a pivotal second round interview Eric sat down with one of the partners, Brad Burnham and presented his resume. Brad told Eric to hang on to it as he just wanted to chat. When Eric pressed him as to why, Brad responded with something remarkable which went like this: “You can work really hard on crafting a well written, organized, resume with bullet points of accomplishments – but you can’t fake 500 blog posts.” On the web, it’s “show me, don’t tell me.” Showing dedication through consistency is a powerful way to demonstrate you’re a cut above.

Final thought: get started today mapping your journey

Our industry is still growing rapidly and the demand is there, everyone who puts their mind to it can have a great, fulfilling career as a digital marketer or analyst. Think critically, make a career plan and start executing on it. If you try I am almost certain you’ll succeed.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention. ITP2. It’s a nightmare for us marketers. Everyone’s talking about how it trashes audience targeting.

If you want a primer on ITP2, read this AdAge piece.

What sends a chill down my spine, though, is what ITP2 will do to attribution and by extension marketing, which is bad for everyone—not just marketers. Hear me out.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention and other “security” efforts wreck referrer tracking: We can no longer accurately track traffic source. Organic search, social, paid media traffic gets lumped in with “direct.” We did an audit, and found at least 18% of client traffic is misattributed “dark” traffic:

Amazing research & dashboard by Michael Wiegand aka smartest analytics person ever aka @mwiegand. Here’s the Google Data Studio version.

We assumed dark traffic if a direct visit landed on a page with a URL longer than about 15 characters. We could be wrong. Forty-seven million people might be typing
https://www.portent.com/blog/internet-marketing/the_internet_marketing_list_59.htm into their address bar. They could be bookmarking
https://www.portent.com/services/social-media.

I know I do.

That was sarcasm. The reality is that our attribution data is getting munged at scale. Attribution is a pivotal marketing argument. Break it, and you break everything.

ITP2 isn’t helping privacy. It’s about as useful as Not Provided. The real risks to our privacy are phishing scams, ISPs, cell providers, credit card companies, that time someone dumped 20 million personal records off the back of a truck, and that guy who just walked by and scanned your iPhone’s portable hotspot. Not efforts to track which color socks I just bought.

What ITP2 does is make marketing even worse. You thought spam plagued us before? Now you’ll have a million panicked marketers stuffing inboxes and SERPs, trying to exceed goals by another 18%. The new Nigerian top brass will be some marketer pleading “ME ME ME ME OH ME PLEASE GODS ME OTHERWISE MY CHILDREN WILL STARVE!!!!”

All ITP2 does is set us back to the 1990s. You heard it here first.

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