LTO Links #1

LTO Links #1

Your weekly must reads

Friends -- this is the first edition of a new side project I'm starting called Learn Test Optimize Links (aka LTO Links). You're receiving this as part of a select group whose feedback I'd really appreciate so if you have any suggestions, ideas, criticism, or plaudits, just reply to this email. -- Eric

Every Friday

Learn Test Optimize Links

brings you relevant news and content about the intersections of the Internet, technology, marketing, and politics. 

Why Learn Test Optimize?

Our goal is to build a culture of learning, testing, and optimizing throughout politics at every level and in every role.

LTO Links

Issue #1 |  

Advertising

Election 2016: Campaigns Finally Recognize That the Internet Isn't Just an ATM

"A relative lack of 'Donate Now' ads among the remaining candidates is a subtle but telling distinction compared to previous elections."

Advanced TV Isn't About Making More Money. It's About Fewer Ads and the Same Money

"TV is heading toward fewer commercial breaks and ads that better resemble the surrounding content...The medium is staying the same even while everything changes around it..."

How Political Ads and Video Content Influence Voter Opinion

"Since April 2015, people have watched more than 110 million hours of candidate- and issues-related content on YouTube. That's 100X the amount of time it would take to watch all content ever aired on CNN, C-Span, MSNBC, and Fox News combined."

Targeted Ads Don’t Just Make You More Likely to Buy — They Can Change How You Think About Yourself

"The data show that participants evaluated themselves as more sophisticated after receiving an ad that they thought was individually targeted to them, compared to when they thought the same ad was not targeted."

Content

The New York Times launches a podcast team to create a new batch of wide-reaching shows

"While many newspapers have experimented with podcasts and even launched several, the

Times

appears to be the first paper to launch a separate podcast-focused audio unit that is focused on pulling in revenue and attracting listeners at broad scale."

Have You Considered Marketing On Medium?

"People who discover your brand on Medium will most likely do so via the very best content associated with it – and, after all, first impressions count."

Revenue on Medium

"Publishers in the beta can access advertising revenue by enabling Promoted Stories, which are compelling, contextual Medium posts produced by brand partners...Medium is also inviting some publishers to join a beta program, in which they can allow readers to support them directly through paid monthly memberships."

Design

Building the UI for the new The Times website

"The redesign of

The Times

and

The Sunday Times

is all about content. It is about showing the right piece of news in its dedicated amount of space on the screen. The challenge of keeping this sort of strict hierarchy in a responsive layout determined by content can be difficult."

Email

How Responsive Email Design Impacts Engagement

"It is also apparent – and not at all surprising – that mobile users clicked less when they were presented non-responsive emails. For those not using responsive [email templates] mobile clicks accounted for 46.7%, companies sending only responsive emails however reached 58%."

Effects of List Segmentation on Email Marketing Stats

"Open and clicks rates were up across the board in all segmentation scenarios that we've investigated. Similarly, targeting subscribers via some type of identifying merge value—like interest, job title, location, etc.—helped keep abuse and unsubscribe rates down."

Debunking the Biggest Email Marketing Myth

"Think twice about removing those inactive subscribers from your list. Instead, you might consider moving them to a new list of inactive subscribers, where you might send them less-frequent emails, or different kinds of emails encouraging them to re-engage."

Social

NPR built a private personal finance Facebook group that now has more than 10,000 members

"Unlike Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups are designed to facilitate discussion around topics or activities...One thing that didn’t work, though, was making the group “open” by default..."

Facebook's Live Video Push Continues With Video Tab on Mobile, Live Reactions and Filters

"The company will now show a dedicated tab on the mobile app where people can see live video...Facebook is also now introducing filters, which will be available for live video. Soon people will be able to draw on the videos while they're live."

Twitter Wins NFL Deal To Stream 2016 Thursday Night Football

"For the NFL, this is a push to reach the growing cohort of people who might not have a cable subscription. For Twitter, it might prove to be a major win in its ongoing challenge to attract and keep new users."

Technology

71% Want The Dark Net Shut Down, Showing Most Have No Idea What The Dark Net Is

"So yes, while you certainly can order high-grade Afghan heroin over the dark net, those able to look past their fear for a few moments usually realize it's also an incredible tool for whistleblowers, political dissidents, and anybody else that may not want an oppressive or just plain old over-eager government sniffing and rifling through their communications."

MIT turns Wi-Fi Into Indoor GPS

"step inside an airport, museum, or mall, and you’re often relegated to studying a paper map or asking for directions."

Forget Apple vs. the FBI: WhatsApp Just Switched on Encryption for a Billion People

"In other words, WhatsApp has no way of complying with a court order demanding access to the content of any message, phone call, photo, or video traveling through its service."

Tools of the Trade

Gravit

"Whether you use Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or anything in between, you can choose from a set of preset canvas sizes or pre-made designs ready for you to use. Create your own unique design using Gravit and stand out from the rest."

10 Gmail Plugins That Make Agency Life Easier

"You could use a project management tool to reduce the amount of email clutter created from projects. But you could also better optimize how you use email, prioritize requests, manage communication from your inbox."