Digital marketing is always evolving, and Taboola is at the forefront of the one thing every marketer wants—a channel that’s full of new customers.
As digital marketers continue to search for new audiences, platforms, and creative content ideas, it’s easy to fall behind in an industry that is always changing. In an effort to share our industry knowledge, Taboola partnered with Masterclass to bring new digital skills to professionals of all levels.
We kicked off the series with the first couple of classes hosted in London and San Francisco this January. The discussion in these classes focused on two of the hottest topics in digital marketing—video, and the need to combine eCommerce and content efforts.
With our recent acquisitions of video company ConvertMedia and eCommerce-oriented Commerce Sciences, Taboola is uniquely positioned to discuss video and eCommerce content marketing. Our speakers shared their unique experiences with their classes.
London: Jamie Pelos, Digital Content Manager at British Gas Business
Jamie Pelos has been successfully supporting video strategy for over a year now at British Gas Business, and partnered with Taboola for the opportunity to share these experiences with like-minded people in London.
For Pelos, the most surprising knowledge gap was about YouTube:
“It was interesting that the room had a lack of knowledge on YouTube pre-roll ad campaigns,” Pelos said. “We ran a number of pre-roll ad campaigns during 2016 and received some really positive results.”
After the class, delegates said they’d be looking into this form of advertising for their own products, but he didn’t just discuss YouTube.
Pelos’s central message covered four tips—have a solid video strategy, scope out the videos your competitors are making, try different mediums, and finally, test and learn.
Pelos has been the Digital Content Manager at British Gas for two and a half years, and taught our Masterclass on January 24th in London. He currently leads their video strategy, while also contributing to content strategy, social media and search strategy.
San Francisco: Dan Partelow, Sr. Manager of Brand & Agency Development at Taboola
Dan Partelow has supported brands and agencies successfully at Taboola for four years. In San Francisco, he was most surprised to find eCommerce teams and content teams still haven’t all aligned across the board:
“A lot of content and eCommerce teams traditionally don’t see a need to talk to each other, which means their strategies aren’t in sync,” Partelow said. “So, they end up driving traffic to traditional eCommerce landing pages—but there’s this whole other world out there where content and commerce intersect.”
In his masterclass, there was a gap in knowledge around how to use content syndication to drive sales. Speaking to Sr. Managers at brands like Intuit, Macy’s, Pottery Barn, Uber and more, he expressed the effectiveness of shoppable content, which often includes, blog posts, videos, infographics and more.
The trick, says Partelow, is to offer an experience that provides value to that users. The landing page for your discovery campaign should add value to that user’s day. When content marketing and eCommerce strategies come together, they can do that for brands.
For Partelow, the masterclass was extremely valuable and full of amazing conversations with fellow marketers. The classes are doing just what we’d hoped—bringing together like-minded marketers together to talk about some of the hottest issues in digital marketing today, and how they can better leverage these strategies to grow their brands.
Taboola is hosting several more masterclasses this year around the globe. If you want to catch our next one, sign up.