Savvy Musings Digital Digest, September 3rd, 2022
Last week’s newsletter had a 28.45% open rate. Most of you don’t hate it because y’all keep opening it! Thank you for the support!
In other news, It’s September, and you know what that means!
The above image was stolen from this guy.
What I Bookmarked This Week
A guide to Eating Asian Food
Probably the most expansive and helpful Twitter thread I’ve seen in a hot minute
A Bear-y Good Pole Dancer
I’ll see myself out!
Link Actions in Emails
I’m a big fan of ActiveCampaign around here. They recently added a feature that allows you to fire off an action when someone clicks a link. You can add a tag to a contact when they click specific tags. This helps you learn more about your contacts. But you have to use ActiveCampaign’s native email builder to access it. So tools like Newsletter Glue (which I use for this newsletter) won’t be able to take advantage.
Recently from the DS Blog
The past couple of weeks, Nanor and I published a pair of articles, and it turns out they’re both useful! Imagine that!
I pen my thoughts about the emergence of AI writing tools while Nanor breaks down the various types of automations e-commerce stores should use.
 digisavvy.com Marketing automation can help your e-commerce business reach new heights by increasing your number of sales, getting more and better leads, and improving your product’s conversion rate—automatically. Finding the right… Read more. |
 digisavvy.com See what I did there? Hey, I thought it was clever! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AI, Machine Learning, Open AI, the Metaverse, EOL of the Choco Taco. The world is going through a… Read more. |
In WordPress News
Update Yo WordPresses!
WordPress has a Security and Maintenance release available to all users. “Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately.”
Acquisition Press Continues…
Gravity Flow has been acquired by Gravity Forms. I’ll say it; I’m annoyed I can’t just use GF to refer to Gravity Flow/Forms. Whatever!
Gravity Flow is a slick addon for Gravity Forms that allows you to add multiple steps to the form submission process in Gravity Forms. We’ve used it on a few projects requiring user approvals for form submissions. You can use it for vacation requests, an approval process for new user registrations, and much more.
From the Gravity Forms website:
We are pleased to announce that Rocketgenius, the company behind Gravity Forms, has acquired Gravity Flow and Gravity Experts.
The acquisition is an exciting opportunity for Rocketgenius and the Gravity Forms community. Not only does this move strengthen our portfolio of WordPress product offerings, it also allows us to better help WordPress users create powerful form solutions that support and grow businesses.
I like this acquisition; it’s a natural fit for the Gravity Forms ecosystem. I’m curious how much revenue Gravity Flow generated and how Gravity Forms will monetize this addition to their product family. I also wonder where GravityKit sits within the crosshairs of Gravity Forms. That also seems like a logical acquisition target, IMO.
Automattic Eating Their Users’ Lunch?
In an article written on PostStatus, they examine the recent announcement on WordPress.com touting web design and development for $5,000. Lots of hot takes on that initiative.
The move positions WordPress’s parent company, Automattic, competitively against freelancers and small agencies offering services at a similar price point.
Automattic isn’t alone. Acquia offers Acquia Site Studio, which mucks up how Agencies do their Drupal implementations.
Acquia serves a similar role to Drupal as Automattic in its role in the Drupal Project. Acquia and Automattic are both for-profit organizations that offer products and services for the Open Source, non-profit CMS platforms they support.
Personally, I think it’s always better to swim upstream with the work one offers. Charge more for what you do and provide a premium service/value. I don’t think Automattic will sweep up that many customers this way. Plus, it’s a one-and-done affair. Most people or businesses who pay for this service need ongoing support and consulting for their business, and that’s not something Automattic provides. There’s a lot of value on the table to increase traffic, visibility, and more for small biz website owners.
A Block That Generates Artwork Based on Text Inputs???
Aaron Edwards, CTO of WPMUDev (Edublogs fame), shared a compelling gif of a block he’s been working on that generates artwork from text inputs. While this is pretty cool, I’m not yet sure I’m all aboard the AI-artwork train.
WordCamp US is Coming Here
The premier event for the WordPress space, WordCamp US, is next weekend, starting Friday! Can you believe it? Organizers have enforced an attendance limit this year due to COVID safety considerations. However, fret not tater-tot; you can still watch all of the talks via free live stream. Read the details.
Sadly, I will not be there. I’ll be in… Cleveland. I booked the trip first, and I can’t change it. It’s a bummer, so I’ll just have to get my fix elsewhere. Perhaps WordCamp Asia? 🤔
A few talks that I’m looking forward to:
- A New Era of Block Themes is Here, by Rich Tabor
- Content Creators Are Users, Too: The Crucial Importance of Carefully Crafted Editorial Experiences, by Helen Hou-Sandi and Phil Crumm
- A Chat With Matt Mullenweg. It’s not his usual State of the Word speech, which I find odd. He was a fan of the curated, smaller audience from his last SotW. I’m not sure that I like that specific approach. It will depend on if he’s taking questions from the audience this year at this chat, if the questions are carefully selected, or if he takes none. Given the bumps he’s taken on Social Media this year, it’ll be interesting to see how he handles larger community interactions.
Question: Does WordPress do a “Five for the Future” for the various Open Source projects that are a part of Core? Say, like React? 🤔
Actionables
We’re going to talk a little bit about search engine marketing today. Specifically, we’re talking about how to optimize your website for a visitor’s search intent.
What is search intent?
What’s better than SEO? Understanding what visitors are attempting to do when they land on your website. This is also called Search Intent.
Ahrefs has an awesome resource on Youtube that covers the basics of SEO. They also have a wonderful (and bite-sized) video on Search Intent.
Getting the most out of your email lists
Do you spray and pray with your emails? Stop that sh*t! Not everyone needs the same information, and not everyone will find the same value.
Segmenting your email lists by what your audience cares about helps you communicate with them more effectively is important.
Segment ideas
- Age
- Gender
- Income
- Geolocation
- Interests
- Purchase history
- People who like you (jk, that list would be very small for me)
When you start messaging people about things they care about or have taken related actions (visits, purchases, inquiries), you’ll see more interactivity from your email campaigns and more revenue generated from those emails. Check out our article on Email Marketing Segmentation.
Effective SEO Meta Descriptions
SEO Meta descriptions are that blurb of text below the blue link in a search results page like so:
Every page on your website needs one, they all need to be unique, and they should follow these guidelines.
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