Six serious misunderstandings about social CRM

18 months ago, customer-centric innovator Dr Graham Hill, authored Social CRM at a crossroads: Where to next?, an examination of the state of play in SCRM. A year-and-a-half later, I've been reviewing with Graham how brands have been applying Social CRM. It seems that many brands may have taken a wrong turn. But before we get to some harsh truths, it’s worth emphasising the positives – because there has still been plenty of good work done in the interim. Brands are listening to customers more; businesses are embracing social media as a communication channel; and vendors are developing a strong portfolio of social CRM technology. All laudable achievements. However, Graham says, when he looks at how the social CRM movement has progressed in the past 18 months, ultimately he gets a feeling of “déjà vu”. Similarities…

How should companies align their marketing activities with business goals?

By Jim Sterne, Founder of The eMetrics Summit. Source: Gartner Hype Cycle for Big Data Big Data, as the name would suggest is, well….big. With so much you can measure, what should you measure? With so many measurement options, the more difficult question is no longer about standards or technologies, but about goals. What are you trying to accomplish? You can answer that question as a business: raise revenue, lower costs, increase shareholder value, etc. You can also answer that question as a profit center: increase profit, grow market share, increase customer satisfaction… But the real attention-getting question to ask about goals is personal.

How are you compensated?

The manager who will only make his annual bonus if customer satisfaction goes up X% doesn't seem to mind going a…

Two winning tests for a multilingual Ecommerce site

In this case study, we’ll show you how to increase your win rate by doing some diligent research. Plus, we’ll show you the results of two interesting tests. E-commerce sites have a particular challenge when it comes to conversion rate optimisation compared to landing page optimisation for example. Implementation can require significant technical resources. Because of this, it’s important that e-commerce marketers change only things that are likely to work. They don’t have the luxury of being able to “throw stuff against the wall to see what sticks.”No one can win every test, of course, but you can increase your win rate. At Conversion Rate Experts, we have the advantage of having worked on many e-commerce stores, but even if you don’t have the benefit of experience, there are simple things you can do to radically improve…

Find out more about the future of online display ads and tips on how to be successful with your advertising

Following on from our post on conversion rates for Google Adwords ads, including rates for the Google Display Network, this new infographic from Prestige Marketing reminds us about the role that display (banner) ads can play in your marketing. It gives a quick summary of how display can be used to generate reach and awareness on different online platforms and outlines future growth rates.    …

Some quick Bootstrapping tips to get you started!

Simply put, bootstrapping is doing something with nothing, and that ‘something’ usually refers to running a business. The origins of the term bootstrapping  are up for debate (it’s from the legend of Baron Munchahusen if you believe Guy Kawasaki), but it is generally agreed that it refers to ‘an absurdly impossible action’.

So if bootstrapping a business already seems like madness then why would you try it while working full-time?

I’m sure many people working in digital marketing have fantastic business ideas and think ‘If only somebody would give me £1million to get that business underway.’ Well, the sad fact is that isn’t going to happen, but when you can become an instant worldwide publisher for very little cost then digital bootstrapping is an appealing option for many fantasist millionaires.

So where to start?

Trees and acorns All businesses take investment to grow and if you…

Are they The Real Thing?

I read yesterday that Coke have a new revamped corporate website, a nice example of responsive design. Not your average corporate site and a major step in implementing their 2020 vision for marketing. It's a site that's much closer to being a consumer magazine title than what we might expect from a large corporate website.  

Are Coke a little late?

I've mixed feelings about Coke being positioned as pioneering in modern marketing, listening to them you'd be forgiven for believing that their Content 2020 vision is somehow leading edge, world changing stuff. They are "ahead of the game" compared to some corporates on one hand, I guess, yet on the other hand, especially given their size, they're way behind the pace. To top it off, they're…

14th November 2012: Pinterest launches business pages

Importance: [rating=4] Recommended link: Pinterest blog post about new business pages Well it had to happen… Following Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter Business pages, Pinterest have now launched their own business accounts. For now the main benefit it will give you is a verified account, the layout of the boards is identical. It’s a quick job to convert to a business page, here’s how.

What is the process for getting setup as a Business on Pinterest?

This is the order in which I upgraded our Pinterest page to a business account. Step 1. Verify your site . To do this go the Account Settings page and choose “Verify”. You will then be able to download an HTML file which you upload to the root folder of your site and this then proves it is connected to your…

The fourth in the annual series reminding us about the power of social media

I'd be surprised if you have not seen one of Erik Qualman's Social Media Revolution videos or the very funny parody (shown below). Here's the latest 4th instalment in the world's most watched social media video series. How do you find it? …

Oxfam Ireland's new responsive design

With the dramatic increase in mobile site users all businesses are experiencing, there has been a lot of discussion of responsive design as an approach. Responsive design gives the option to deliver a great experience for smartphone, tablet and desktop users without the need for creating a separate mobile optimised site or apps. So it can be a cost-effective solution. If you want to learn more about the approach I recommend this primer on responsive design approach shared with me by Dan Croxen John. Examples are often the best way to understand the potential of an approach, so in this post I focus on a single example which shows the benefits of the approach.

Oxfam Ireland responsive design example

I saw this Oxfam Ireland example mentioned in the excellent LinkedIn Web Managers Group and thought it was  an interesting example of a responsive design that was worth sharing. It was…

5 cases-in-point show why you need other metrics to review email marketing effectiveness

There have been a couple of heated debates I've been part of in the email community just recently, one about open rates and another about subject line length. In this post I'm reflecting on the open rate debate. I've added an update to the original post showing more proof that open rate fixation can be misleading. It may surprise you that the community is very split on the value of the open rate metric, seemingly, a cornerstone metric since the dawn of email marketing. It's a metric cited in every email marketing book and on every mail marketing course... So why is its value in doubt? Ken Magill reported on some of the open rate debate. Let me summarise some of the reasons…