🔊 Questions to ask before taking a certification program | Preparing for a new decade of marketing innovation

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Plus, Pinterest embraces diversity in product development, and Messenger’s new policy start date gets pushed.

Jan 21, 2020

Good morning marketers, how do you decide on your next certification?

There are two types of people – those who take certifications to bulk up the ol’ resume and those who, well, genuinely enjoy learning. Either way, odds are that you’ve taken a professional course at some point in your career. For those looking for new certifications and enablement programs, the options, credentials, and selling points are endless.

When you boil it all down, there are three major questions marketers should be asking before committing to a course: Is the course content current, accurate, comprehensive and valuable to my career? Will I realistically be able to finish this course on time? And, is the cost worth the effort? The evolutionary nature of martech means skill enablement programs and vendor-sponsored certifications aren’t going anywhere, so marketers should think about what and where the biggest benefits are.

Budgets are growing, technology is evolving, and marketing teams are leveling up. And while some trends will fade, major themes like data regulation and digital commerce are here for the long run. Columnist Kyle Hendrick offers tips on how marketers can prepare for a new decade of marketing innovation, arguing marketers should take a bold approach to personalization – as long as it’s in line with consumer privacy. From voice commerce to a shift in customer experience expectations, Hendrick explains that companies that are quick to adapt to emerging channels and new technology will be the ones to succeed in the next decade.

There’s more below, including why marketers should think more holistically about targeting, plus an update on the social front.

Taylor Peterson,
Deputy Editor

Pro Tip

Take your targeting with a grain of salt

“Marketers continue to struggle with targeting. At the same time, some studies show that social media platforms may only be accurate about 30% of the time in pinpointing consumer decision-making,” explains Ashley Cooksley of The Social Element. “However, a more intense level of regulation related to the 2020 elections, a renewed focus on fake news on social, as well as hyper-targeting with bias, may draw targeting and regulation into the same sphere for useful collaboration. Platforms with micro demographic targeting options have lulled marketers into ignoring offline behavior. Successful brands in 2020 will look beyond simply refining audience targeting and rather view social media targeting as one small part of the whole, regard new regulations as not a limitation, but a benefit.”

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Social Shorts

Pinterest reaches a milestone, Messenger makes changes to an important date, WhatsApp is taking some me-time

Pinterest embraces diversity in product development. In its 2020 diversity report released last week, Pinterest hit a new milestone by exceeding its three hiring goals with respect to diversity in 2019. For full-time women engineers, the company set out to increase hiring rates to 25% – and surpassed it at 27%. For underrepresented minority engineers, Pinterest’s goal was 8% but managed to close the year with a 9% rate. Finally, the company wanted to increase hiring rates for underrepresented minority employees across the entire company (business and product) to 12% – and exceeded it at 14%.

Messenger’s new policy start date gets pushed. To give developers and businesses more time to prepare for the new policies and features coming to Messenger, parent company Facebook has changed the effective policy date from Jan. 15 to March 4. Based on feedback from the developer community, Facebook said it found additional policy-related use cases that weren’t covered under the original set of message tags used for personalized conversations. As a result, Facebook plans to roll out a “one-time notification” API in February to give businesses and developers time to implement the new API before the new policies take effect. The new policy will be especially important for businesses that already engage with customers on Messenger using the platform’s advanced personalization features.

WhatsApp needs some space. Facebook, the parent company behind Whatsapp, is reportedly taking a break from building out WhatsApp’s ad product to realign its approach as a revenue-generating messaging platform. According to the Wall Street Journal, WhatsApp in recent months disbanded the team responsible for developing an ad integration solution. The team’s work was then deleted from WhatsApp’s code, according to sources who spoke to the Journal. “For now, the focus is on features [which allow] businesses to communicate with customers and organize those contacts,” the news reads. Advertisers, take note: it looks like WhatsApp won’t be a major ad driver any time soon.

Immersive search marketing training

Do you have a search marketing specialty? Maybe it’s selling products on third-party platforms like Amazon or Facebook… perhaps it’s paid search… maybe the nitty-gritty of multi-location or technical SEO. SMX Workshops were designed for marketers like you. These immersive training experiences, hosted by recognized industry experts, allow you to drill down into a specific aspect of search and soak up channel-specific tactics you can implement immediately. We’re hosting six outstanding, full-day workshops Friday, February 21 in San Jose… which will you choose?

See the workshops »