Our summary of the latest developments to be aware of from October 2012

The most obvious developments in October were the introduction of new hardware platforms that you couldn’t fail to miss, thanks to coverage in the main stream media. We cover these in our user experience and conversion section where we also have reviews covering the business relevance of two major Google Analytics developments. Although there was a flurry of new feature announcements in October after the summer “break” which we cover below, we believe that defining a strategic approach to marketing is what is most important and this is where we start our summary. On a lighter note, this video simulation This video simulation of the way we will use our phones in 2025 was one of our most popular posts in October, although many felt it didn’t give a positive image of life or marketing in the future… …

Google provides a new interface for integrating customer data into Google Analytics to enable more customer-centred analysis

Value/Importance: Most businesses [rating=1] Large and tech-savvy businesses [rating=4] Recommended link: Google’s announcement of Universal Analytics I must admit I found the explanation from Google short on details of the options for businesses to apply the features of its new “Measurement Protocol” data integration feature announced at this weeks Google Analytics Summit. With headings in the announcement post such as “the world is mobile” and “your business is unique” it wasn’t as clear as I’ve come to expect. So, I’ve been talking about the implications for digital marketers of Universal Analytics (UA) to analytics specialist Dan Barker who helps many businesses on Google Analytics (GA) setup and using it for sales optimisation and who is better at reading between the lines…

Find out how a recovery email campaign can boost your sales by up to 8%

SaleCycle have produced an Infographic to summarise the findings about shopping abandonment, from their September 2012 survey.  200 well-known brands were surveyed in the US and UK, including Retailers and Fashion brands such as Sony,  Ralph Lauren, the Body Shop and The Office. The aim of the survey was to discover how to send out an engaging, optimized email to shoppers abandoning the on-line sites at the point of purchase or engagement (ie. shopping cart, booking or application form). It centered around the following three questions: Timing: How long to wait to email your warm customers? Tone: Should we be direct or use a customer service tone? Content/Message: What should we say in our email to convert our customers to buy? Over 74% of  shoppers abandon their shopping cart, booking or application form, so how do we get them…

Eight tips for promoting your content to help obtain backlinks for SEO

Even if you create outstanding, quality content, if you don’t promote it fully, it will not give you the full value you need from your investment. Regardless of how shareable content is, to get the most valuable, relevant links requires online promotion through a variety of different channels. You may send a few tweets about your latest blog, but if no one is listening to begin with, your content assets are likely to be lost in the ether. This is content marketing without the marketing...  There are a number of things you can do to promote your site content effectively and drive high quality traffic to your site; here I'll highlight eight.

Tip 1: Social media promotion

Social Media platforms are one of the most popular and effective methods for promoting your…

Does optimization ever end? How we grew Crazy Egg’s revenue by 510%

Do you suspect that your conversion rate couldn’t be improved upon? In this case study, you’ll see specific methods for getting win after win from a site that already is an extremely strong performer. The example focuses on a home page, but the principles can be applied to landing pages also and supporting pages were included here. Plus, we’ll tell you how to get a free, annotated PDF of all the persuasion techniques we used to create wins—so you can apply them to your own site.

Overview of conversion rate optimization

Many people ask us if there’s a point at which conversion rate optimization gives diminishing returns. If that point does exist, Facebook, Amazon and Google don’t appear to have hit it yet. It’s astonishing what you…

Starting out as an affiliate – find your niche and reap the rewards

Have you ever thought about becoming an affiliate, either personally or as an alternative revenue source for your business? With the current global economic climate and technological advances leading to increases in entrepreneurial spirit, more and more people are looking to affiliate marketing as a source of online income. Done right, affiliate marketing can bring in some genuinely easy money, but doing it right means doing it smart.

With a lot of the competition sewn up by a minority of big players, it can be hard for the "small-time newcomer" to get started. However, the kind of growth seen in many affiliate niches in recent years will always bring with it opportunities.

Potential opportunities

Online gambling, gaming and weight-loss all lend themselves well to affiliate marketing; the high commission, CPA and the frequent lack of any physical ‘product’ combined with ever-increasing…

A useful summary of changing consumer search behaviour and mobile SEO best practices

This infographic highlights again the growing importance of mobile marketing; in this case showing its impact on search marketing. We're reminded that there are now more than 4 billion connected smartphones and it's anticipated that mobile usage will overtake desktop use by 2014. So don't miss out is the message! Although the headline on the infographic focuses on Google's Siri, it also has a useful summary of the alternatives for optimising mobile search. This Infographic from Alchemy Viral explores consumer usage, best practices for mobile SEO and the improvements of Siri to support consumers.

Best practices on mobile SEO

Here is a summary from the infographic of best practices for mobile SEO to consider. Responsive web design. Considered industry best practice and is recommended by Google. This includes using CSS…

Facebook improves options for international marketing through “Global Pages”

Value: [rating=1] or [rating=4] for brands marketing to local country audiences Recommended link: Facebook announcement on managing Global Company Pages Until this month brands wanting to use Facebook company pages to communicate with their customers in different countries have had a challenge. The challenge has been the resource needed to manage different company pages in different countries in a way that provides consistency and management for their communications. Each country has required separate administrators and reporting has also been separate unless third-party tools were used. In October 2012, Facebook launched “Global Pages” as a solution for managing company pages in different countries. This is how Facebook describe the new approach: “With this new structure, Facebook users will be directed to the best version of a Page based on the country those users are in, enabling them to see localized cover photos, profile photos, Page apps, milestones,…

Google's framework for multichannel success

I appreciate the headline might be a bit controversial, but it's a genuine question. It's a natural follow-up to my previous post reviewing McKinsey's New consumer Decision Journey. After all - Google are saying that their Zero Moment of Truth model represents the death of the sales funnel. Really? I don't think so… Of course we already know that P&G first realised the idea of 'moments of truth' in 2005, they said that the first moment was "in front of the shelf," and that the "second moment of truth" was gained through product trial and experience. So compared with McKinsey's Consumer Decision Journey, what is ZMOT adding? The aim of ZMOT is to explain how the consumer's research and decision-making journey on the way to purchase is now fundamentally different, that there's a step prior to P&G's first moment of truth, called ZMOT. ZMOT also explains that this…

Consumer research shows the importance of getting mobile experiences right

The Going Mobile 2012  research by Foolproof undertaken from November 2011 to March 2012 assessed the quality of mobile user experience based on consumers' mobile behaviour and usage patterns.  The research reveals some great practical insights around what consumers expect from their mobiles: They see it as ‘big bang’ event: mobile is creating new time and space for consumers. Time that was previously unproductive or inert is now filled with mobile interaction. What are users doing with this time? What brands are they engaging with in this new, very intimate, digital space? Which tools and services create value for them...and which are just creating noise?” Knowing the answers to these questions can be the difference between success and failure in the design of mobile services.  Mobile helps today's time poor consumers to use 'dead time' easily and efficiently. …