Greetings!

I’m going to change Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer” lyrics to “It’s been a hot, hot, hot summer…” (and we’re not even that far into it)! It’s also been hot from a digital marketing perspective… check it out!

• How do you know if your gen AI chatbot is hallucinating? Time recently reported “Scientists Develop New Algorithm to Spot AI Hallucinations.” The researchers came up with a formula to calculate “semantic entropy” which determines how similar the responses are when prompted with different variations of the same prompt. They are hoping that gen AI chatbots like ChatGPT can ultimately provide a button that will give you a “certainty score” to the provided response. If you don’t want to wait to see how and when this comes to pass, we have three suggestions for you:
  1) Try typing the same prompt into multiple gen AI chatbots and observe the response similarity.
  2) Only use Gen AI responses that come with citations to the sources included in their response.
  3) Use Google Gemini’s fact-checking feature to highlight verified (green) and questionable (red) parts of AI-generated responses.

• Switching from AI hallucinations to a different AI issue: “How to fight bias in your AI models.” Martech uses the lack of accurate data on loans taken out by women as an example of how an AI model will then be biased about the potential of this under-reported segment. A possible solution is creating “synthetic data” to fill in these gaps.

DBE Perspective 💬

At SMX Advanced, Elizabeth Tucker, Google Search’s Director of Product Management, revealed key insights into the future of SEO.

Some focal points include reusing the words, “satisfying,” “helpful,” and “experience” when describing content. Could these expand EEAT principles Google’s set forth in the past?

Get the details from our Director of SEO & SAIO, Marc Engelsman: Google Seeks to Satisfy with Renewed Focus on Helpful Content.

• Here’s a new concept: ban algorithmic feeds on teen social accounts. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the “Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids” act. Should the act be approved, it will prohibit addictive feeds for teens as well as sending notifications between 12am – 6am. Social Media Today sums it up well.

• We’ve seen influencers used in countless B2C product campaigns, but what about B2B? Some influencer strategies from B2C crossover into B2B, like choosing a micro- and niche influencer for their specific audience. One thing you have to keep in mind is subject-matter expertise and professional experience. Check out this EMarketer chart on the topic!

• Did somebody say bacon? Oscar Mayer did! They pulled a great fake-out to give you a giggle!

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

I’ve been hit with the “respond, don’t react” mantra frequently this year. Books, articles, and life situations have been pointing at it in one way or another. The quick overview if you’re new: it is about letting the situation sink in and responding thoughtfully instead of reacting on your first emotion.

I think one way to get closer to this is by listening. Once the situation (whatever it is) gets difficult, pause and listen.

• Listen to what’s going on in yourself. Ie., Is your heart beating faster? What emotions are going through you? 
• If you’re in a conversation, listen to the other person’s verbal and non-verbal cues. 
• If the situation is too much to handle, listen to something outside what’s going on. Maybe there’s rain on the window or a breeze picking up. Then, once you’ve grounded yourself, head back in and respond.

Responding allows us to pull out of the tunnel vision caused by reacting. We gain perspective and thoughtfulness in tricky circumstances.

Go get ‘em today – you got this!

Natalie

Love me some Coldplay… Did you know they are making their new album entirely out of plastic collected from water? They also aim to make their tours more sustainable. They’ve topped my charts as the coolest band ever. 🤘

Howdy!

We’ve got 2 weeks’ worth of roundup for you, so grab your favorite beverage and let’s jump in!

• Will AI be facing a content boom/bust situation like the gold rush? An Epoch AI study “projects that tech companies will exhaust the supply of publicly available training data for AI language models by roughly the turn of the decade — sometime between 2026 and 2032.” The potential need for more content may push AI developers to mine sources like emails or text messages (goodbye privacy?). Or lead to partnerships with content sources like Reddit and Wikipedia.

• Siri (and all Apple products) will be getting an AI makeover. They’re calling it “Apple Intelligence.” The new features include enhanced photo editing, custom emoji creation, and other photo and content editing/generation capabilities. ***NOTEWORTHY: Apple integrated ChatGPT from OpenAI to help drive some of these enhancements. Microsoft, as a core investor of OpenAI, stands to benefit from this Apple/OpenAI deal. We’ll keep you posted.

• Perplexity Pages was introduced earlier this month as a form of publishable content threads that are searchable by Google. It seems some of these threads are now starting to show up in Google’s AI Overviews. We agree with this article that these Perplexity results could lead to spammy, black-hat-ish optimization abuses.

• Raise your hand if you’ve ever abandoned a cart because of extra fees. (Okay, I can’t see your hands, but I am sure a good portion of you have.) “Nearly half of US adults abandoned their online shopping cart at checkout because [of] the extra costs (shipping, tax, and fees)” as stated by EMarketer reporting on a Baymond survey. The real question is what can we do as marketers to mitigate these costs?

• Marketing Charts surveyed high-level marketing leaders with this question: “In the next year, what effects do you anticipate AI will have on your organization’s funnel?” Interestingly, improving and scaling lead management variations were mentioned in 3 out of 5 top results. Another one was “optimizing messaging and content.”

• We’ve talked about creative being a true ad differentiator in the past. LG Ad Solutions released data expressing that “49% of customers believe they can distinguish between traditional and AI ads on CTV.” While 30% of respondents stated they would like their ads personalized with AI, 80% believe it should be regulated. We all need to be careful how we step with AI ad/content creation.

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

Have you ever seen a toddler experience something for the first time? They pick up rocks and sticks in amazement – with consistent wonder of the world unfurling around them. 

What if we applied more of that amazement to our day? 

We could watch planes pass by the sky with astounded awe. We could experience how amazing it is that we can flick a switch and have light flood a room. We could see our jobs from a beginner’s perspective. 

Could uncovering amazement, awe, and wonder make us more aware of and happy with the lives we have?

That’s a wrap – enjoy the rest of the week!

Natalie

Speaking of awe, this is one of my favorite articles. Here’s an excerpt from Outside magazine contributing editor, Florence Williams:

“A heightened awe experience stimulates the vagus nerve, which calms us, and releases a pleasant rush of dopamine and oxytocin, increasing a sense of connection.

It also dramatically shifts which brain networks are firing up. Imaging studies show that awe reduces activation in our self-referential default-mode network. The findings help explain two significant features of a classic awe experience: a relatively diminished sense of self, and a tendency toward altruistic behavior.”

Awe changes the way we think and how we experience, #SoCOOL!

Hiya!

Time to turn on the digital marketing thinking caps. We’re getting ready to dive in!

• ChatGPT-4o (o standing for “omni”) rolled out on Monday, and it’s getting closer to the robot assistants we see in the movies. Read a quick summary in The Verge and get the capabilities in the OpenAI ChatGPT-4o blog. Overall, it is faster, understands more (from languages to conversational cues), and is available to free users. Note: Free users still won’t have access to the internet browsing features that are included with ChatGPT Plus subscribers.

• Now consider this other OpenAI news: “OpenAI may be getting closer to launching its ChatGPT product that searches the web and cites sources when answering questions.” We’ve seen some elements of link citation use with ChatGPT Plus prompt responses. It seems like the difference between free and Plus users will be usage limits. Here is the ChatGPT response to our query regarding its search function.

• Have you been following the US vs. Google antitrust trial? Danny Goodwin covers how the DOJ “hammered Google over search ad price manipulation” in its closing statement with 20 eye-opening slides. Read for yourself and let us know if this changes your attitude and/or investment in Google Ads.

• Here’s a head-scratcher: Search Engine Journal reports “Ex-Google CEO Implies AI Search Will Have No Links.” We’ve all seen how Google prefers to provide answers to queries without links to answers (e.g., the example for “what time is it in california” used in the article). And most of us can trust Google’s response to these simple, fact-oriented questions. But our testing of Gen AI has revealed some gaps in the accuracy of their responses that have not included source citations with links. At a time when expertise, authority, and trust (E-A-T) are touted by Google as helpful content quality signals, we don’t foresee a link-less Google AI search engine anytime soon.

• LinkedIn and Microsoft partnered to provide a new report on the AI landscape in the workforce. Unsurprisingly, 76% of global knowledge workers are using AI at work – 46% of them started using it in the past 6 months. Also, interesting to note that the top occupations using AI include content writers, graphic designers, and marketing managers. Here’s the Social Media Today overview and the full report on Microsoft.

• Skittles renovated a tiny apartment in NYC and is paying for one lucky raffle winner to live there for a year. If you haven’t seen the pics, you gotta check ‘em out!

DBE Perspective 💬

Our Director of SEO, Marc Engelsman, challenged Google Gemini, ChatGPT Plus, and Perplexity to a write-off… and even the winner had room for improvement.

Dive deeper into the findings, and read the full article: Ranking Gen AI Platforms on What They Know and How They Talk About SAIO.

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

I was recently given a challenge.

Instead of the traditional “How’s your day going?” I was asked to start with “Tell me about your day.”

The traditional how’s-it-going banter consists of a yes or no answer. However, “tell me about your day” invites room for conversation – for connection. It gives an opportunity to know another on a deeper level. It goes beyond polite greeting and lets the other person know you care.

Try it sometime. You might be surprised with the responses you receive.

Keep on swimming, y’all! 🐟

Natalie

“94% of fish stocks in the US oceanic and gulf waters are not being overfished,” which is an all-time high according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration! Catch the story in Good News Network.

Guess what?

… our favorite day of the workweek! We’re super excited to give you this week’s edition of Perceptive Marketer. Let’s goooo!

• How do Perplexity searches differ from Google? This article could have used Google SGE examples for a more ai-pples-to-ai-pples comparison (pun courtesy of Marc Engelsman). However, you quickly see the stark (and welcome) difference of Perplexity’s ad-free environment. Time will tell if Perplexity will show ads for revenue.

• What is the top impacting factor on a person’s perception of brands on social media? Would you be surprised if I said content? A recent study by Sprout Social supports this. Content ranked over how fast the brand responds and how personalized the responses are. So whatever you post – make it worthy of your audience’s time!

• Meta introduced new AI-powered tools for the Creator Marketplace and Advantage+ creatives in ad campaigns. The improved Image Expansion feature is said to allow more natural-looking image ads on the platform. As with any new feature, please check all creatives as thoroughly as possible.

• Does B2B have to be the “boring” sibling to B2C? Liam Moroney poses this thought in MarTech. If you look at B2B with the perspective of quick sales, many opportunities for awareness and audience-building are missed. Marketing and sales are their own separate channels that require their own objectives and finesse.

• Speaking of B2B, how can you utilize AI-powered tools to find and engage the right decision makers? Ruth Stevens describes how to use Demandbase, Anteriad, and 6sense. Check it out!

• After debate between Elon Musk and the X team, they decided to decrease the impact of blocking users. If a blocked user replies to your post, you will be able to see it and report/respond to it. Andrew Hutchinson from Social Media Today has an interesting opinion as to whether it will last because some people want to be fully separated from select profiles.

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

When was the last time you really looked out a window?

Every time you look out a window, it’s a little different. Leaves on a tree are rearranged. Different people may be walking, running, or riding bikes. The sunlight is shining on the Earth at a slightly different angle today than yesterday. 

The point is… there’s always something new and different to appreciate. Like the window, each day, there is something new and different to appreciate. We just have to be open and present to look.

Happy Wednesday!

Natalie

Excel at Excel with these hacks!

Hiya!

How are you doing, friends? I hope you’re ready for some digital marketing news – let’s get started!

• Fast Company is apparently seeing the same things we are. In their last AI Decoded newsletter, they discussed how marketers are concerned about the ways chatbots perceive their brands. We cannot change what the AI models already know, but we create new, optimized web content now with SAIO strategies to align their answers with what we want them to perceive.

• Does it perplex you how Perplexity’s referrals to brand sites are growing? MediaPost notes: “Perplexity… is most likely to reference product sites, whereas Google SGE will also include informational resources such as lifestyle and news sites.” Although these search engines and chatbots may give different results, we still see some overlap in their sources. This emphasizes the importance of brand authority on SAIO/SEO optimization.

• Last week, we talked about ads appearing in Gen AI responses from SGE and Copilot. Now, Google’s floating the idea of paid plans for those using the generative AI features! Regular search would remain free. But, how many people will pay for Google’s Gen AI when other platforms are giving us just as good, if not better, results? 🤔

• User-generated content… we know about that. What about employee-generated content? (*cough cough* like this newsletter) Jesse Liszka talks of the benefits of employee-generated content. It provides a looking glass view into a company’s culture, giving employees a chance to show their expertise and personality. Highly recommend this if you haven’t already implemented it in your marketing plan.

• We’ve all seen bad AI artwork. Keen eyes are able to spot AI-generated images and some audiences are upset by it. Multiple brands are banning the use of generative AI, even putting it as a clause in their agency contracts. This is a good question to address for your brand if you haven’t already.

• Social Media Manager (SMM) burnout.😔 Like PR, you have to be constantly attentive, creative, and quick. If not carefully guided, this position could be draining on a person/team. Zaria Parvez, Senior Global Social Media Manager at Duolingo, goes over her views of work/life balance as a SMM. She mentions making something beautiful with her hands every day. Adding physical creativity can ground us when most of our days are spent in a virtual landscape.

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

Here’s an interesting metaphor:

“Forests lower temperatures through a mechanism that’s similar to sweating in humans. When trees release water vapor from their leaves in a process called transpiration, the evaporating water cools the surrounding air.”

This is from a Scientific American article on reforestation efforts. Apparently, forests are helping keep the Eastern U.S. cooler. Isn’t that amazing? If we truly look, it’s not hard to uncover wonder in the beautiful, regenerative powers of nature.

Have a superb day!

Natalie

Did you know trees can communicate with each other?? 🌳

Read The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben to learn about our surprisingly social leafy friends! If you’re looking for a quick review, check out the documentary!

Greetings!

You’re traveling through another dimension – a dimension not only of digital marketing but of mindfulness. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Next stop: Perceptive Marketer!

Yes, we changed our name. No, this is not a drill. The name change is better aligned with our mission: to widen our perceptions as marketers through industry news and mindful perspectives.

Let’s jump in!

• Want to know what’s keeping marketing and PR leaders awake at night? Check out the top 10 challenges marketing decision makers are facing in 2024, based on UK respondents. Search engine updates and volatility, anxiety of being replaced by AI, plus a lack of understanding how we could use AI are some of the top concerns. This report is from the UK, and they haven’t even seen the Google SGE roll-out yet. No wonder a separate survey cites 76% of UK employees have experienced some form of stress-related staff absence.

• Understand Google SGE through this Lady Gaga search result. Business Insider’s overview helps you gain a deeper understanding of how disruptive SGE (and other Gen AI platforms) can be to the traditional search marketplace. The article even includes a discussion on the emergence of ads as sponsored links in Gen AI results – a topic we just covered in our latest blog.

• Google SGE has been released to the public… at least for a starting set of queries. Whether you’ve signed up to see SGE or not, you may see AI overviews filling your result pages. This is only a test but stay tuned for alerts when SGE finally goes live for reals.

• Are you afraid of the robot uprising? 🤖 Maybe this might make you feel better. The United Nations adopted a resolution for the “respect, protection and promotion of human rights in the design, development, deployment and the use of AI.” Sustainable development and a commitment to closing the digital gap between countries are two purposes of this resolution. If you love legal jargon, here’s the full resolution.

It’s Raining Ads! 🌧️

Ads in AI to be specific. Google SGE and Bing Copilot are showing ads in their Gen AI responses. What does this mean for Search AI Optimization? Find out here: Spring 2024 Rains Ads On Gen AI Results!

• As a perceptive marketer, you’re probably aware of multichannel and omnichannel marketing strategies. Have you heard about “optichannel”? “Optichannel strategies aim to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time through each channel, maximizing engagement and conversions.” Martech explains the optichannel approach is a way of optimizing individual channels to improve customer experience.

• TikTok is not giving up! (And who would expect them to?) The attempt? A $2.1 million TV ad buy. Many TikTok users have been lobbying the senate to not pass the house bill, especially with so many businesses depending on the platform. But will a TV ad make a difference to the senators’ thinking? We have to keep watching.

• 🦉 With hot tracks like “Spanish or Vanish”, who wouldn’t want to go see Duolingo on Ice! Check out this spoofy Disney on Ice remake released on April 1st! (Pro tip: if you go to the ticket link, you can get promo codes for future Seat Geek tickets AND a free month of Duolingo.)

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

Spring makes life go a million miles a minute. Are you taking time to pause? Here are some ways:

• Take nature breaks.
• Look up from your screens.
• Focus on your breathing.
• Eat without distractions.
• Ground yourself with nature-inspired activities like gardening.

Overall, finding moments of stillness will help us truly see the beauty and wonder that is the spring season.

Happy Wednesday!

Natalie

10 points if you got the intro reference! 👏🔟👏

Here’s some spooky fun facts about the famous show. 🙂

Hello and welcome!

In case you’re new here, this is your weekly dose of digital marketing news and data to help you make informed decisions. Stay tuned to the end for a dash of mindfulness to ease the stress of the day.

• 72% of respondents to a recent survey said AI-driven personalization and generative AI will affect their business the most in 2024. Here’s the scary part: “AI is also powering hyperpersonalization by using complex user data such as real-time browsing behavior and predictive digital preferences to create highly customized experiences.” What could go wrong with that? We should all be pondering the ethics of that question.

• What is a position-less marketer? According to Optimove, this marketer has a diverse skill set and can adapt and collaborate to drive business outcomes. Is this the direction marketing is going in the automated, AI-driven future? Our thought: AI still needs inputs and oversight from well-versed specialists in some of today’s key digital marketing roles – SEO, PPC, Data Analytics, etc.

• Generative AI is a hot topic (still), but how are people actually using it? As a marketer, I found this interesting because “content creation & editing” was the second-most popular use. We go into this in our latest POV, but as a reminder: AI should be an assistant, not the sole writer.

• We all know social media shows us what we want to see. If Joe Schmoe engages with a video of monkeys doing the tango, naturally, the algorithm will show him more dancing monkeys. The day Joe takes a trip to the jungle, with the thought of seeing these hairy performers live, he’ll be in for a rude awakening. Now, this is a silly example, but the topic can be ANY topic. We need to be aware that social media algorithms silo our information. A way we combat this is through ethical marketing, based on the principles of transparency and accuracy. Get more about ethical marketing and disinformation from ClickZ.

• We’ve been talking about antitrust suits for Google, Meta, and Amazon, but what about Apple? U.S. regulators are now also targeting Apple for monopolizing the smartphone market. Are there other situations we take for granted that may be up for targeting by regulators?

Has Written Content Become the “Um Like” of Marketing? 💬

Um, like, I mean, you know, uh…

We are all familiar with these filler words…. We tune them out whenever someone is talking and just listen to the stuff that matters.

The same thing happens with poorly written content. Unless content is created with the audience in mind, it becomes as meaningless as the filler words peppering English sentences. Why has some written content become so boring, and how do we fix it? Read more in our latest POV: Has Written Content Become the “Um Like” of Marketing?

Thoughts to Take With You… 💞

Recently, I had a stranger treat me unkindly.

I didn’t respond and went on my way. It was a small interaction, but it made me think (as pretty much everything does). Maybe this person had a bad day or believes they’re stuck in an unhappy life path.

In a later conversation with Niki , our amazing CEO, she shed some light on these kinds of interactions. She said we have three ways to respond: 1. react with the same hostility, 2. pretend to ignore it, or 3. genuinely respond with civility.

When we choose the high-road option in #3, we surpass our own ego and show kindness to someone who may need it. Whether they rethink their actions is not up to us. But we all know deep down if we show more kindness and compassion, the world can be better.

Looking forward to seeing you here next week!

Natalie

Growing season is here 🌱

If you love to garden, here are some awesome hacks for you!

Heyo!

We’re in the midst of winter in New Jersey, and it’s such a great time to pause. Tara Brach, American psychologist, author, and meditation teacher gives some insights into the benefits of the “pause” in her book, Radical Acceptance.

“Pausing interrupts entrenched patterns of interaction. When the downward spiral of judging and misunderstanding is stopped, even for a brief time, it becomes possible to recognize the unconscious beliefs and feelings that lie behind the problem. Such insight naturally leads us to making wiser choices.”

When the moment is demanding a lot of you, if you have the opportunity, take a pause. See if anything changes.

• Econsultancy has put out their “Digital and Marketing Trends for 2024.” Their observations fall into five sections including:
  • Data haves and have nots
  • Customers are more than a conversion
  • Creative experiences
  • GenAI: Beyond the cool demo (with a note that AI’s presence is felt in other sections)
  • People as competitive advantage

Note one of the subcategories for the Customers section is “A rebound for trust” that explores how use of AI for content and/or images can reduce a customers sense of trust and how brands need to counteract that potential pitfall.

• Speaking of trends, Marketing Charts compares “Marketers’ Most Important Consumer Trends in 2024 vs. 2023.” Generative AI tops the list now but wasn’t even on the list last year. All the other trends show declines vs. last year with TikTok and Metaverse showing the biggest drops.

• Notice a theme here yet? What if we shared an eMarketer chart showing that 86% of adults worldwide want AI to “help research products or get information” during their shopping journey (according to October 2023 IBM data)? They also think AI would be helpful for customer service, looking for deals or reviews, and generally shopping for products or services. Does optimization for gaining AI chatbots’ citations in their answers now sound like something you might be interested in? (Yes, that was an Entourage reference.)

Do Good Spotlight
🌟 Wikipedia 🌟

If you have a smartphone, you’ve probably used Wikipedia to win a disagreement or two. “When did this movie come out?” “Who originally sang this song?” We’ve been there. That’s why we’re choosing them as our spotlight this week. They’ve saved us a few times, it’s time to give them a little support back: Wikipedia.

• Many of us think AI is smarter than us on all levels. 🤖 Even though some AIs can pass the bar exam, they are missing out on a crucial, simplistic element (most) humans have: common sense. This TED Talk by Yejin Choi outlines why AI is not yet the sharpest crayon in the box. Even though the talk took place last April, the point still rings true. When testing a variation of her prompt: “Would I get a flat tire by bicycling over a bridge that is suspended over nails, screws, and broken glass?” I get the same “Yes” response from ChatGPT. I even explained why it was wrong and asked the same prompt with a car. No change. AI still has a ways to go for ultimate knowledge domination…

• Google is moving where the reports are found in the UI for some accounts. If you need some help finding it, here’s SEL to the rescue!

• We’ve been hearing stories about how some in the executive suite/board don’t understand marketing goals and capabilities. For example, the Snoop Dogg ad for Solo Stove was a witty awareness play. Because the ad did not derive significant revenue in six weeks, Solo viewed the campaign as a failure and replaced the CEO. CMI points out the failure wasn’t the revenue, but the missing CTA that could have engaged audiences and guided them down the customer journey if sales, not awareness, was the real goal.My thoughts tie into the intro. Perhaps if there were more thoughtful pauses throughout the campaign creation process, maybe they would have picked up the mistakes in marketing CTA and analysis. Thank you to Amy Masters for sharing this with us.

Before you go off for the rest of your day, take a moment to pause. See how it might give some distance between you and the demands or stresses of Wednesday.

You’re awesome,

Natalie

What’s the new coolest trend?📈🤳😎

1. Find your digital marketing friends.
2. Creatively bring up WHW in all conversations with them. Examples of totally not-awkward conversational K-turns:
   • “That’s cool you got a new car… Have you heard of the What’s Hot Wednesday newsletter??”
   • “You need help finding your phone? I’ll help! Once I do, I’ll show you how to sign up for What’s Hot Wednesday!”
   • You: Knock, knock.
     Your Friend: Who’s there?
     You: What’s Hot
     Your Friend: What’s Hot, who?
     You: What’s Hot Wednesday! You should sign up today!
3. Okay, maybe don’t use those. But you should bring us up with your friends. Send them all the signup link. 😁