By Mark Eting
Bullseye Strategy Special Correspondent
We hate to sound like a Hollywood gossip columnist, but did you hear that Shopify and Mailchimp broke up?? It’s staggering, like when Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck stopped being Bennifer; unlike the undoing of Bennifer, though, this divorce has major ramifications for brands, agencies, and of course, consumers. We dig into what drove a stake into this partnership and also celebrate some big news about LinkedIn advertising and TikTok’s staying power in this week’s digital marketing round-up.
It’s Splitsville for Mailchimp & Shopify
Last week, Mailchimp announced that its app is no longer available in the Shopify marketplace–meaning that marketers who send emails using Mailchimp will no longer be able to use their Shopify data to create targeted campaigns. We’re hearing a lot of he-said/she-said on why the two digital marketing tools parted ways. Shopify has slammed Mailchimp for a bad user experience and Mailchimp says Shopify’s recently updated terms would put their users’ privacy “at risk.” Ultimately, despite all of this monkey business, there are third-party integrations that offer marketers a workaround, so there’s no reason to go bananas if you use both of these tools.
LinkedIn Upgrades Advertising Capabilities
In case you were confused by all the whooping and hollering coming from B2B marketers all over the globe, we’re here to tell you what the hoopla is about. LinkedIn has dramatically upgraded its targeting capabilities, adding lookalike audiences, audience templates, and the ability to target users using Microsoft Bing data. This will allow companies to serve the most relevant content to precisely the right customers. Champagne and cigars all around!
TikTok Achieves 300 Million Monthly Active Users
In case you were ready to dismiss TikTok as another FourSquare or Vine or other flash-in-the-pan social media platform, growing evidence suggests that TikTok isn’t going anywhere. The GenZ favorite has just reached 300 million monthly active users, and in China, where TikTok was launched as a Musical.ly rival, users spend 46 minutes per day engaging with the fun, interactive video content. Unlike Instagram and YouTube, where influencers dominate and brands have set up shop, TikTok favors person-to-person interaction. Advertisers haven’t yet figured out how to play a role on TikTok, and parents still are befuddled by it–making it the perfect playground for teens and tweens.
“Mark Eting” is the pen name of the Bullseye Strategy team. Check back with us next week for more news on what’s buzzing in the digital marketing industry.
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