Marketing Google

Identity and encryption provider DigiCert, Inc. has issued that world’s first Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) to CNN.com, a move that will enable the company to participate in upcoming trials of the Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI).VMC, a new digital certificate that validates the authenticity of the brand logo attached to an email sender’s domain. The BIMI standard requires validated logos but currently does not use VMC. The certificate is expected to become a requirement for senders in the next year in addition to domain authentication through DMARC.Why we should careThe BIMI initiative will be a new standard for high-volume senders that will allow brands to display designated logos for authenticated messages. And while DMARC will authenticate the domain sending an email, VMC will validate the logo itself in order for BIMI to work.Yahoo Mail is currently running a pilot of BIMI, and Google has announced plans for its BIMI pilot for next year. Other inbox providers …

Every business wants as much customer feedback as possible. That’s why we obsessively measure NPS (which barely has any statistical validity) and run surveys (which, in addition to being biased by definition, can negatively impact customer experience) like it’s the end of the world.But the feedback wereallywant is different. It’s genuine, quick and easy to get, and structured enough so we can analyze it effectively. That’s where social listening, or social media monitoring, comes in.Social listeningis the process of monitoring mentions of keywords (for example, a brand name) or key phrases across social media and the Internet at large. Think of it as a way to measure people’s awareness of any subject – and their opinion on it – without having to ask questions.More and more companies are adopting social media monitoring every year, and social listening tools are also evolving quickly. Even though they’re calledsocial mediamonitoring tools, many apps go beyond social media and monitor t…

Building a corporate, product or service brand – or planning any go-to-market activity in support of that brand (campaign, website, content, etc.) – in the absence of a strategy is like building a house without a solid foundation.Creative must be grounded in a sound strategy, underpinned by a singular insight about the audience. This means going deeper – figuring out the intrinsic human need that’s driving the consumer, and showing how you’ll meet that need or solve that pain point. Look at the data available to you, get the data that isn’t, and plan things out in a way that makes sense.Why bother? Strategy empowers creativity. When you give a creative team a strategic, authentic and singular insight, they’ll push the creative that much further. Creative teams need a defined sandbox to work in; otherwise, the unlimited choice and scope can be paralyzing and actually stifle great work. Context is always king. Without a sound strategy up front to inspire the creative, you often get – at…

LinkedIn introduced three new features for Page admins on Tuesday, including an “Employee Notifications” tool that lets admins alert employees when new updates are posted on the company Page and a “Kudos and Team Moments” feature to highlight new team members, work achievements and more.There is also a new “Completion Meter” that identifies missing fields on a LinkedIn Page so that Page Admins can make sure their company’s page is complete.Employee Notifications for LinkedIn Pages. The new Employee Notifications feature will allow Page Admins to let employees on the platform know when an update has been posted on the company’s Page so that they can share it with their LinkedIn connections. (When posting an update, Page Admins will have the option to “Notify employees of post” which is listed under the three dots in the top right-hand corner of the post composer.)The tool includes safeguards that limit notifications to once every seven days — making sure employees do not spam their fee…

At a recent MarTech conference, I gave some presentations on consumer privacy, stressing that it’s becoming more obvious with every new regulation that privacy as an add-on or afterthought won’t work. While attendance was less than I had hoped, those who came left the sessions committed to achieving “privacy by design” and armed with the tools they needed to get it done.What I’d like to ask the rest of the conference attendees is….where the heck were you?Did you attend some easy-peasy session full of confirmation bias, so that you could get a pat on the head that you’re doing everything right?Did you attend a session on fascinating technology that your company is light years away from being ready to use? Did you attend a session that would help you make small improvements in an area where you’re already doing pretty well, like SEO?Or did you attend a session led by the person you hope will be your next boss?I get it. Believe me, I attend these conferences all the time. There are more …