Facebook fan page success is an effect of being a great company, not a way to become one

Value: [rating=4] Our commentary: Great post on Convince & Convert, as unintentional as it may be, we are being misled if we believe everything we read, Jay states "it"€™s in the best interests of Facebook, the media, application developers, and sometimes even brands themselves to concoct pseudo-science that "€œproves"€ that people that "€œlike"€ your company are instantly turned into a zombie army of influential advocates. But it"€™s simply not true" - another study from global ad agency DDB found that 92% of Facebook fans would likely recommend the liked product to a friend. Jay goes on "what I can"€™t abide, and what I want to put a stop to right now, is the notion that Facebook fan pages are a cause of advocacy. Instead, Facebook fan page "€œlikes"€ are primarily the manifestation of advocacy…

Setting up campaign tracking in Google Analytics to track campaign response

In this months poll I asked readers of this blog to see which campaign tracking techniques they or their company or clients tend to use. Later in this post I explain how to setup campaign tracking. Around 100 people voted, thanks!, how you voted is shown below:

We asked readers to tick all that apply even if  you didn't generally use a channel, like display or affiliates, but still knew how to tag, track and review it. The results seem to confirm what I find when I meet people face-to-face which is that: 1. Marketers tend to review all visitors to their site in analytics without breaking them down to segments - this is partly for time reasons or simply being aware of the options. T0 find out how to use…

Campaign examples of using Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places and Twitter Locations to reach your audiences through mobile marketing

Value: [rating=4] Our commentary: The growth in options for location-based marketing (aka proximity marketing) has been one of the major trends in 2010. We're sure you've followed the cases about the applications of Foursquare, Gowalla and more recently Facebook Places and Twitter Locations. There's also Google Latitude which has an API which can be used to ask users for access to update their Latitude location or view their current location if they have enabled their location history in Google. Our definition of location-based marketing: Social location-based marketing is where social media tools give users the option of sharing their location, and hence give businesses the opportunity to use proximity or location-based marketing to deliver targeted offers and messages to consumers and collect data about their preferences and behaviour. Marketing implications: Clickthrough Marketing have produced a short guide to…

Benchmark your email marketing against these 10 trends

Value: [rating=4] Our commentary : A new ten page whitepaper from Lyris to help review your email strategy into 2011. If you haven't seen it, my 10 factor email marketing audit may also be useful to benchmark your approach. Marketing implications : These are the 10 strategy issues covered in the Lyris report: 1. Email Remains the Cornerstone 2. Email Automation as an Essential 3. Web Analytics Enhances Email 4. Social Media Maximizes Email 5. Mobile Marketing Goes Mainstream 6. Search Marketing Extends Email Marketing Intelligence 7. Global Reach Equals Opportunity 8. Relevance Builds Engagement 9. Integration Reinforces Online Marketing 10. Marketing Technologies Provide Competitive Advantage Recommended link: 10 email strategies whitepaper from Lyris (PDF requires registration)…

A detailed case study showing how Dell structure their customer experience and improvement programme worldwide

Value: [rating=5] Added Jan 2011: The commitment of Dell to improving sales and experience through a measured approach is shown since have 25 dedicated people doing A/B and MV tests, not counting several others who support them. This was reported on Twitter by @anilbatra who was listening to Dell present at a Web Analytics Assocation symposium in Austin. Our commentary: Presented at Emetrics Washington DC in 2010, this 36 slide presentation entitled "From Good to Great" shows how Dell have evolved their analytics capability as shown in the diagram. It shows that the move to digital optimisation doesn't occur overnight. Marketing implications: This case shows the strategic importance Dell attach to web analytics and how it supports their vision for the digital channel. It shows…

10 email strategy factors to audit your email marketing effectiveness

Update: Dec 2014. See this post for our latest guidance on benchmarking email effectiveness where you can review your email capabilities using our new chart. Despite the growth in popularity of social media marketing, email marketing remains the best customer communications tool for most companies since: More personally relevant emails can be delivered as subscribers are targeted by: Demographics like age, gender, geography Previous purchase or download categories Time since previous interaction Position in lifecycle - new customers are sent different messages from old Following up on a website interaction like a search, category browse or an abandoned shopping cart - if your systems are joined up Offers and content can be inserted dynamically into the email to target with these techniques Cut-through and overall response is greater with response occurring over 12-48 hours rather than 1-2 hours more typical of Twitter and Facebook Response measurable at individual level offering better…

Fish Where The Fish Are

Value: [rating=4] Our commentary: Oreo is one of the most popular Facebook pages in the world, I didn't know that until today so Googled around to learn why and how they had achieved this. This video explains how that's been achieved. The strategy Beth Reilly and her team at Kraft Foods use follows the old adage of "fish where the fish are" and reach Mums on Facebook, where they are already spending their time.

Kraft Foods: How Oreo Learned to Fish Where the Fish Are, presented by Beth Reilly from GasPedal on Vimeo.

Marketing implications: I feel that the big question is how do you manage 11 MILLION fans on Facebook!? Let alone build it. That's a big community and impossible for any team to respond to every comment from every fan "€” as it turns out, Oreo don"€™t have to. Reilly…

Buy Your Friends Starbucks On Facebook

Value: [rating=4] Our commentary: Thanks to an update added yesterday to the Starbucks Card Facebook application, the brand's fans can now gift Starbucks via Facebook. Importantly, the Facebook Card app was dreamed up by 'Suz01' in March 2008 in their community site, 'My Starbucks Idea' (similar to Dell's Ideastorm) - now the smart guys at Starbucks have enhanced that idea with a "Give a Gift" feature, users in the U.S. and Canada can use the application to load between $5 and $500 to a friend"€™s registered Starbucks Card. To "€œGive a Gift,"€ app users are walked through a six-step process where they select a friend, specify an amount, choose a theme, pen a personal note, pay for the gift and then can share their generosity via status update with the rest of their Facebook friends Marketing implications: "€œIt"€™s great to bring another customer-inspired idea to life that…

Google Webmaster Tools - A guide for marketers and site owners

What is Google Webmaster tools (GWT)

Google Webmaster Tools is a system built by Google that gives you feedback on your website from how Google sees it. It shows everything from phrases used to find your site through to pages it can"€™t distinguish or access through internal and external links.

Why is it important?

With Google accounting for over 90% of searches in the UK and many other European countries, any  insights that Google provides about the effectiveness of your website are worth reviewing. Google Webmaster Tools alerts you to how Google sees your website & alerts you to problems it finds.. Online businesses often overlook the basic aspects of natural search management, but with this simple interface you can quickly see if you are ticking all the boxes.

About this marketers guide

The name "€œGoogle Webmaster Tools"€ is unfortunate since it suggests it"€™s just a…

7 questions to review your email strategy

Value: [rating=4] Our commentary : Our recommendation of the best email marketing advice this week is a checklist to help think through how you can get more from your email marketing communications. I really enjoyed reading this since it's about the BIG email strategy questions that should be asked to make email marketing effective. It's particularly applied to transactional sites, but some of the advice applies to brand and relationship building needed by all companies. Marketing implications: 1. Transactional emails rule! I agree, but I would expand this to all event-triggered emails to develo a complete email communications strategy through the lifecycle including welcome, research, reactivation and post-site behaviour follow-up. 2. Get the frequency and offers right according to customer activity levels. Don't overmail or undermail your best subscribers. 3. Use social media as a profit generator. This was the most interesting one for me. Facebook followers are great,…