In May 2020 Google introduced a new ranking factor for search engines: Page Experience. While “mobile first” indexing (beginning in 2017 and finally completing in May 2021) was the first move toward using page experience as a factor in search engine ranking, the Page Experience rollout seeks to improve search results for users by providing…
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Latest Trends and Best Practices from our Thought Leaders and Industry Experts.
The Future of Ecommerce: How COVID-19 is Impacting Ecommerce in 2021
The pandemic – and its associated lockdowns and stay-at-home orders – have caused ecommerce to rise to an all time high. And with the increase in direct-to-consumer sales comes a strain on shippers and retailers to meet the growing expectations of consumers who want their orders fast, cheap, and environmentally friendly. Yet, even as communities…
Read MoreMarketing on Clubhouse – is it worth it?
What is Clubhouse? Clubhouse is an invite-only, audio-only social media application that allows users to create, host and join chat rooms. The application has been compared to a virtual conference, with thousands of rooms and presentations that listeners can duck their head into to listen or raise their hand to participate in the discussion. At…
Read MoreResponsive Search Ads Are Now the Default
Google recently announced that its responsive search ads (RSA), which debuted just a few years ago, will now serve as the default format in Google Ads. Moving forward, advertisers can expect prompts to create them first instead of the longstanding expanded text ads (ETA). On the surface this seems to be an innocuous Google Ads…
Read MoreSEO is Going Mobile
The rapid increase of mobile device usage in recent years has dramatically shifted search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. According to Google, more than half of all website traffic occurs via smartphones and tablets. eCommerce businesses, in other words, must now account for the fact that half of all online visitors are on their mobile…
Read MoreTikTok Transitions Into eCommerce
To better compete in the social atmosphere, the fast-growing app TikTok has been making strides towards increasing their eCommerce options. As users have increased their daily TikTok usage since the app launched in 2016, brands and small businesses have profited largely from viral trends. According to an annual report of 2020 taken by App Annie,…
Read MoreImprove Mobile Marketing Lead Generation
Balancing the quality of leads versus quantity. Preventing abandonment. Keeping up with optimizations. When it comes to lead generation, the list of challenges goes on and on. Especially in the mobile marketing space, which has lagged behind desktop for years. Google, Facebook and LinkedIn are attempting to change course by creating a new type of…
Read MoreMindgruve Lands at No. 234 on Inc. 5000 Regional List
With Nationals fast approaching, Mindgruve has earned a coveted spot on the 2021 Inc. 5000 Regional list for California. There are five others that span the U.S., including DC Metro, Florida, Midwest, New York Metro and Texas. Each list recognizes companies in their respective state or area for innovative achievements, sustained growth and job creation—no…
Read MoreA Closer Look at the Headless CMS
WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore and other traditional content management systems (CMSs) have long been considered the industry standard of website development. Also referred to as monolithic, regular or coupled, they were created to more easily manage online elements like content, images, HTML and CSS. But as brands continue to expand their content infrastructures, they need a…
Read MoreJames Earwicker a Finalist for San Diego Business Journal’s CFO of the Year Awards 2021
For a second year in a row James Earwicker, CFO of Mindgruve and Mindgruve Ventures, has been named a finalist for San Diego Business Journal’s (SDBJ) CFO of the Year Awards. The virtual show, scheduled for March 25, 2021, recognizes financial executives who often work behind the scenes of their respective companies bolstering their success…
Read MoreNavigating a Cookieless World Part II: The Latest from Google
Recently, we took a look into the near future at a Cookieless world and explored what cookieless tracking could mean for brands and their customers. In part two of this blog series, we break down Google’s recent announcement that solidified its approach. What did we already know? Google will be phasing out third-party Cookies on…
Read MoreWhy Endemic Advertising Should Be Part of Your Media Mix
Also known as vertical advertising, endemic advertising refers to ad placements that are contextually relevant to the markets and websites they’re running on. While this might seem like a no-brainer, in the world of modern media endemic partners rarely come up when fleshing out a strategic media plan. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) is…
Read MoreLooking Into the Future of Television
2020 drastically shifted the baselines of TV viewership. What did we learn and what’s to come with next-generation TV experiences? The adoption of in-home lifestyle across work, fitness and entertainment is here to stay. In 2020, the TV industry saw several years of disruption and innovation compressed into just a few short months. “COVID has…
Read MoreFacebook & the Apple iOS 14 Update
Apple’s iOS 14 policy update started rolling out globally in January 2021. It’s meant to protect customer data from being used without permission. While this is a step in the right direction for consumer privacy, citing its disagreement, Facebook announced its intention to move forward with the Apple Limit Ad Tracking (LAT) prompt associated with…
Read MoreDigiday Brand Summit Recap: A Consumer First Evolution
Mindgruve joined Digiday’s 2021 Brand Summit in January, which focused on marketing industry evolutions. The biggest marketing themes, more specifically, were bracing for change and putting the consumer first. After 2020, the industry won’t return to a pre-Covid normalcy. Brands will need to adapt, while staying true to who they are. Theme 1: Listen to…
Read MoreThe (Near) Future of Paid Social
2021, much like last year, will be filled with uncertainty for marketers. As much as we all would like to believe 2020 is far behind us, it has had a major and lasting impact on nearly every industry. Businesses of all types have pivoted their paid social strategies, which will influence consumer behavior. There are…
Read MoreWhat’s Next for Ecommerce?
2020 was a monumental year for ecommerce. At one point, it saw a 10-year growth in just a 90-day period. But will it stick in 2021? Below we take a look at what elements of ecommerce are likely here to stay. Convenience As small businesses scrambled to go online and survive last year, many turned…
Read MoreWhat Can Search Marketers Expect This Year?
2020 was a wild year for search marketers. Some had to adapt to never-before-seen scenarios and realign their search campaigns accordingly. Others paused efforts altogether as industries collapsed under the weight of the pandemic. And still others doubled and tripled down on spend to capitalize on new search marketing opportunities. Needless to say, the search…
Read MoreHow SEO & Email Will Evolve in 2021
Earned media is showing no signs of slowing down. Below are some of the most prominent trends in SEO and email we’ll likely see over the course of the year. SEO Trends Core Web Vitals – Google rolled out core web vitals in 2020, which will begin to factor into its ranking algorithm in the…
Read More2021 Marketing Trends
What can marketers expect in 2021? We won’t ring in the New Year and step into a new world of marketing, although there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic. Especially when the bar has been set so low the past 12 months. eMarketer projects total media ad spend in the US will be down…
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