Speaking at MediaPost’s Search Insider Summit, Nathan Safran, chief executive officer of Blue Nile Research, says, in surveying some 183 respondents, there are generally two types of searchers. There are those who “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” -- users interested in speed of search, just using fragments of two or three words. The other big search consumers use four or more words, those who “take an extra minute to do their search.” Safran says one conclusion drawn from those searchers using questions are that they are looking for “resolution”. Overall, he says, …

Marketers assume they know how consumers search, but they need to challenge their assumptions, said Nathan Safran, CEO at Clue Nile Research, during a presentation Thursday at the MediaPost Search Insider Summit. Recognize the individualism of the audience, not just the characteristics that put them in a specific audience segment. The tools are valuable, but it's lulled marketers into a false sense of security.

While top brands have been slow to evolve, they insist that the days of last-touch attribution are numbered. The Home Depot is a case in point. Though it's still stuck in last touch limbo, that's finally changing, according to Sean Kainec, Senior Manager of Search Engine Optimization at the home improvement giant. "You have to go back to the first touch," Kainec told attendees of MediaPost's Search Insider Summit, on Thursday. Yet, properly attributing sales have never been more complex, Kainec admits. "We're looking at something like 200 connections with a customer," he said. Among countless other potential leads, "It …

Consumer Behavior as Search Engines Lose their Interface panelists Thursday at the MediaPost Search Insider Summit say that location, voice, wearables, and bio-metrics should drive context. Pay attention to what questions and when consumers ask in specific locations in the country.

Particularly on top platforms like YouTube, if you're still siloing search, social, and creative, you're doing it wrong! So says Whitney Drake, Lead for Social Strategy and Care at GM. You "can't have [those respective teams] working independently," Drake told attendees of MediaPost's Search Insider Summit, on Thursday. Rather, you have to get them in the same room (or on the same conference call) to come up with consistent branding and tagging. Rather than a separate discipline, Drake calls social the "way we're moving forward with search." And, why not, considering that it's the "largest focus group in the world."

GM Lead for Social Strategy Whitney Drake kicked off the Search Insider Summit Thursday talking about how the company taps search to leverage social. She admits GM's team, like other companies, had a big disconnect between search and social until to two teams began working together on headlines and thumbnails.

Beware of the automation trap! Efficient as it may be, too many clients "struggle" with email automation because of a misconnection that is should be entirely automated, according to David DeVore, CEO of content marketing startup Story Ports. Because "it takes a lot of time to set up, people feel like it's very hard to change once it's doing its thing," DeVore told attendees of MediaPost's Email Insider Summit, on Wednesday. Yet, "It's important to understand what the dials are." For example, clients would be wise to know how subject lines are created, and how to test them. That said, …

That is pretty much what you might expect MediaPost to host five years from today, based on the expert panelists response to a "what will email marketing look like" five years from now wrap-up question from "career" panel moderator Katie Bisbee, CMO, DonorsChoose.org. "There might not even be the title email marketer," predicted Fluent CMO Jordan Cohen, adding, "It's going to be the addressable marketing manager across all channels." "I think it's going to evolve from an email marketer to a direct marketer" that is the "keystone in the archway" of the entire marketing mix, predicted Silver Legacy Resort Casino …

Because they have to excel at almost everything in the tool chest: data, copy, tech, omnichannel, customer experience, you name it. That was the consensus on the "career paths" panel that opened Day Three of the Email Marketing Summit this morning. "It's definitely the renaissance position, the Jack of all trades," asserted panelist Colleen Dalton, Interactive Marketing Director,Silver Legacy Resort Casino. She ticked off the list of skills required of a good email marketers, listing "writing skills," a feel for the "brand voice," a "real eye for graphics," a "passion for subject line testing," an "understanding of lists and database …

Well, if you input that URL, you'll get a pretty good idea, because it will take you to www.amazon.com. Still stumped? "Jeff Bezos owns it," Richard Cohene, VP of Marketing of Beyond the Rack, told Email Marketing Summit attendees during his keynote this morning, after posing that question. Actually, he offered $100 to anyone who could answer it at the summit. Nobody did. The reason Cohene posed and answered it was to make a salient point to the email marketers in the room: That it's all about the data, stupid. "Before Amazon was Amazon it was relentless.com," he explained, adding, …