Mediaboss Marketing

Carspring, the London and Berlin used car buying platform founded by Rocket Internet, has picked up 5 million in Series B funding. Backing the round are Rocket Internet itself, along with Channel 4s Commercial Growth Fund, which offers media in the form of TV advertising in return for equity. In other words, a portion of this round (1.3m) isnt cash per se. A number of other unnamed investors also participated.

Launched in 2015, Carspring is described as an online used car dealership and moves the buying process for a used car entirely online. On the supply side it sources used cars from a network of used car dealers, while the demand side sees it put in place numerous features to make buying online both trustworthy and extra convenient.

This includes mechanical checks to ensure vehicles makes the Carspring grade, a 6 month warranty on cars bought, home delivery, and a 14 day money-back guarantee although Im pretty sure the latter falls within distance selling regulation anyway. Either way, a big part of the startups pitch to consumers is that its processes can be trusted, with no or little downside buying a car online rather than in person. In addition, the company provides financing to let you buy your car through instalments.

The importance of putting weight behind the Carspring brand would also explain why the company is investing heavily in above the line advertising and taking media-for-equity investment from Channel 4. While VCs are fine with significant dollars being spent on online marketing, which is highly targeted and trackable in terms of ROI, they arent always so keen on lots of their cash being sloshed on TV ads. Channel 4s Commercial Growth Fund offers an alternative way for the right kinds of startups at the right stage to invest in and potentially benefit from television since only equity swaps hands.

To that end, in respect of Carspring, Vinay Solanki, Head of Channel 4s Growth Fund, says he looks for highly disruptive early stage companies that are solving consumer problems but are not typically able to access TV advertising in their growth stage without help. We can also expect to see Carsprings first TV ad campaign air in the not so distant future.

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Carspring, a London and Berlin startup that lets you buy a used car online, raises 5M Series B - TechCrunch

If youve been paying attention, you know about Mobilegeddon, Googles 2015 algorithm change that assigned preferential search results for mobile websites.

While Google rolls out an estimated 500 algorithm changes a year, this was one had important consequences for business owners and their (mobile) websites.

What this really meant was that Google assigned favored results for mobile sites, punishing those whose websites didnt translate to mobile devices.

How do you know if a site is mobile friendly?

If you have to scroll, click and fool around trying to read a site on your phone, its not mobile-friendly. That site is not meeting the design specs for responsive designadapting to all devicesdesktop, tablet and phone.

All of this is, of course, in response to the overwhelming growth of users who access everything from their phones, which is now more than 60 percent.

A scramble to become mobile-friendly

The result? A mad scrambling to convert sites to mobile.

In many cases, businesses are able to do some workarounds rather than having to create a whole new website, which is always a major undertaking.

Ive worked on quite a few WordPress conversion projects, successfully salvaging the old site to make it mobile-friendly, rather than starting from scratch and building a whole new website. Big savings in terms of time and money.

Look out for Mobilegeddon 2017: A mobile-first strategy

Google is rolling out a mobile-first index thats being called Mobilegeddon 2017.

As with Mobilegeddon 2015, site effectiveness and search results will be affected unless youre prepared.

Mobilegeddon 2017 is Googles new mobile-first index. Google is changing their index of web pages from desktop pages to mobile pages. No longer will a user be served up two different experiences.

Why does Mobilegeddon 2017 matter?

As with the algorithm change in 2015, If you dont optimize your website for mobile, your audience wont find you unless they stay on their mobile devices.

he organic traffic on your website will nosedive. Your site will not show up in search results as well as on those that are optimized for mobile.

Adapting to or preparing for Mobilegeddon 2017

Does your website meet Googles ever-changing algorithms? Copy and paste your url into Googles Mobile Testing Tool website for a quick analysis.

Youll get three ratings: one for overall mobile-friendliness, one for loading speed on mobile and one for desktop.

While the mobile-friendly ranking is most important, the loading-speed time is important as well. If your site takes too long to load, your audience will give up and go elsewhere.

Failed the mobile-friendly test? An opportunity

If you failed the test, its probably time for a new website that meets the global standards for responsive design. This may be the impetus to stop procrastinating and create a new website.

Styles have changedtheyre simpler and more streamlined. Chances are your content is no longer relevant and your images are outdated.

This is an opportunity to create an important new marketing tool for your business.

Janet Peischel is a writer, Internet marketing expert and the owner of Top of Mind Marketing. Contact Janet at 510-292-1843 or jpeischel@top-mindmarketing.com.

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The Internet Marketer: Mobilegeddon 2017: What You Need to Know - Napa Valley Register

Dive Brief:

ASCI's report underscores how a negative view toward the media online can ultimately impact overall customer satisfaction. This point is becoming increasingly pertinent for marketers as divided political times inevitably lead to stronger waves of consumer backlash and increase the demand for things like advertiser boycotts of websites that don't align with a particular audience's viewpoint.

In early June, it was reported that the far-right news outlet Breitbart had lost 90% of its advertisersover a three-month period, reflecting the growing power of grassroots movements like Sleeping Giants, which targeted and called out brands that still appeared on the site. For brands that continue to support and advertise on sites that prove divisive and, stemming from that, cause dissatisfaction that dissatisfaction might then grow to impact their e-businesses.

ASCI highlighted changing reader perceptions of news and opinion websites that are starting to lose some of the glow they gained during the most recent U.S. election season. In contrast, this year saw drops among all the largest websites, hurting customer satisfaction with the overall internet news and opinion category down 1.3% to a score of 75.

Another interesting point brought up by the ASCI report is the view on social media. Even as social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter increasingly become the lead aggregators and disseminators of news online, their impact on the e-biz space has remained relatively stable, or at least hasn't harmed customer satisfaction as signifcantly.

Top image credit: Fotolia

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Study: Customer dissatisfaction with internet news drags down e-biz index - Marketing Dive

These Kendrick High students are helping run a school supply company Columbus Ledger-Enquirer The company, now about a year old, isn't run out of an office, doesn't stock its products in big box stores and doesn't have experienced business staff or a production facility. But using a combination of ingenuity and some strategic internet marketing ...

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These Kendrick High students are helping run a school supply company - Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

When it comes to picking a hotel room, millennials prefer a deal on a picture-perfect room they can share on social media over saving money on a cheaper room, according to data from mobile travel app HotelTonight.

"Fundamentally they are different as a generation, which extends to how they travel and how they really travel for business," said HotelTonight CEO Sam Shank. What they really want is value. They're really interested in spending a little bit more to get a whole lot more versus previous generations who just want to spend the absolute least amount of money as possible."

A study by Internet Marketing Inc. found 97 percent of millennials will post on social media while traveling, with three-quarters posting once a day. Sixty percent were also willing to upgrade their travel, whether that meant early deplaning or purchasing Wi-Fi. Another study by Mintel showed travel was more important than paying student loans, buying a "big ticket" item or starting a family.

The changes have become more important, especially because millennials really like to travel. Millennial travelers are now the largest segment of business travelers, taking an average of 7.7 business trips over the last 12-month period according to report from MMGY Global. And 77 percent of these younger travelers are more likely to turn a work trip into vacation, compared to just 58 percent of GenXers and 43 percent of Baby Boomers.

HotelTonight, which allows travelers to find discounted last-minute accommodations from day of to seven days in advance, found millennials were more likely to take a heavily discounted luxury room over a full price standard room that may be cheaper.

And keeping in line with wanting a shareworthy experience, the company noticed millennials preferred boutique hotels with a unique vibe where locals hung out rather than existing name-brand chains. Other generations received their inspiration from mass-market magazines, Shank said, but millennials get their inspiration from social media experiences which can be very tailored and curated to a person's tastes.

"It's not only about broadcasting interesting things and doing interesting things, but it's also about receiving inspiration," Shank said.

That's not the only change. Millennial travelers are twice as confident in booking travel all on mobile than those over 35, according to HotelTonight. The company has seen the number of business travelers using their hotel on-demand app increase 53 percent year over year.

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Millennials want a hotel room that looks good on Instagram, rather than a cheap one, says HotelTonight CEO - CNBC