How Googles's new Universal Analytics and other planned features add to the tools available to improve business insight

The relentless pace of change at Google

I joined Google in 2005 - just after the acquisition of Urchin, the forerunner of Google Analytics. A big factor for me coming on board with Google (it was not a "no-brainer" as I had my own business and staff to consider), was the promise of the continued development of the product. At the time, many an industry "luminary" predicted that once acquired, Urchin would just be another product/tool on Google's shelf. Many mergers and acquisitions are like that - once acquired the interest of the acquiring company moves on to the next thing - but not Google. In fact, what still amazes me is that after 7 years since the launch of Google Analytics, the pace of change is even more rapid than during the first 3 years... Take…

Practical examples of offline retail techniques that also work online

Ecommerce is often considered completely separately from offline retail due to the logistics of both channels. However, if you have worked in the offline retail world as I have, you will know that many selling strategies that work offline to increase sales and increase average transaction values can work online. In this post I'll examine some of the frequent offline selling strategies and show how similar effects can be achieved online.

1. Line of Sight Merchandising Techniques

In many offline retail stores, the layout of the shop floor is governed by the line of sight from the entrance of the store. Line of sight is the natural or common focus points for a consumers eye to be drawn to as they enter a shop. It is within these focal points that stores will place their top selling and highest turnover categories for the season…

3 Gems from Mark Brownlow

In the first of the 3 Gems video series from Plan to Engage, I interviewed Mark Brownlow, author of Email-Marketing-Reports.com. Both Mark and I had recently presented in Stockholm at Apsis’ customer conference and I was very impressed by all the valuable content he shared within his session on “Email Marketing Trends for 2012”. So in this interview I asked Mark to share 3 Gems from this session. In a nutshell they are: Design your mobile emails to be easily clickable. Understand why you are integrating email with social – don’t do it just because you think you should. Optimise your current triggered email programme before adding new triggers to your programme. For more valuable insights from email marketing experts, join us at the virtual International Email Marketing Summit on November 15th – held at Your Desk. I hope that's useful, here is the …

Facebook responds to brand backlash...

Last week I explained the changes to the Facebook algorithm which resulted in a huge drop in organic reach for brand pages. Facebook has responded with a small tweak, just rolled out in the last day or so, which will enable fans to choose to see all a brand's notifications to their wall. AllFacebook.com have more on how Facebook's new notifications work. Once brands realise this is now out of beta be prepared for a slew of notifications instructing fans to tick the Show in News Feed option. So my advice would be to "get in early". And given that just posting a request to Fans to get Notifications on Facebook is probably likely to get to a measly 10% of your fanbase, you probably have no choice but to make it a Promoted Post. On the…

A new free presentation and guide to developing an mCommerce strategy

How to manage the opportunities and challenges of mobile marketing is one of today's  biggest issues for digital marketers. As we have shown in our compilation of mCommerce statistics, consumer use of smartphones and tablets is growing at a dizzying pace. To help marketers navigate the decisions needed about mCommerce, eibDigital asked us to develop a new guide to mCommerce. We launched this at the start of October 2012; you can (download it from the Developing Revenues eCommerce best practice site from eibDIGITAL). On 10th November 2012 we ran a webinar on the same topic which I also wanted to alert you to. You can view this at the end of this post. I thought it would also be interesting to share some of the feedback on how companies are responding to mobile marketing. During the webinar I asked two questions... Thanks if…

5 themes and 21 ideas to help create a content strategy

We'd no doubt agree that creating, sharing, distributing and promoting great content is now a very significant component of not only effective marketing, but effective brand-building today? We'd certainly suggest that it requires a key place in the strategic thinking in almost every organisation.

Perspective enables strategic thinking

As with most things when talking digital, the tactical jargon can really confuse people and I've been reminded again this week how our infographics have been really useful to people, to help think about this. The word "content" is thrown around a lot these days, most know what it means and its potential, but most are unsure as to whether they're doing it right. We suggest that it's the jumping into a down and dirty tactical perspective which causes this early confusion, the key is to elevate up and get a bigger picture view…

Take inspiration from buddy films to get the best from your affiliate programme

I often say that affiliate marketing is a people-led business, and that the better relationships you can build with your affiliates the more you (and they) will get from the partnership. I love an analogy, so I have looked at some of the fundamentals of building good, solid partnerships with inspiration from some of the best partnerships out there. From Wayne and Garth, the stars of Wayne’s World, to Donkey and Shrek, there are some great lessons to be learnt from these classic ‘buddy movies’.

1. Be honest

Honesty is the best policy. With affiliates you need to be honest with what you can and can’t do. Don’t commit to something and cancel at the last-minute. Do this too regularly and you will find affiliates are less keen to work…

Using analysis tools to diagnose a fall in Google search rankings

Google’s ranking algorithm is increasingly sensitive to the smallest of changes and continues to use an ever-growing number of signals to rank websites. As such, it’s commonplace for site administrators to find themselves in the predicament where natural rankings have dropped, visits have fallen and site revenue or conversions have dwindled. Fortunately – we are here to help! A pro-active approach to any drop in positions is crucial as it’s important that you maintain the trust of your client/boss through this difficult period. There is no issue which can’t be fixed with the correct understanding, approach and action plan.

Dig, Dig and Dig A Little More!

Before we can fix any issues, we first need to understand the root cause of the drop. There are a variety of tools which we can use to help us do this. Google…

This is a great infographic - communicating 5 principles of B2B lead generation, it's useful for any company marketing to business buyers. There's some good basic reminders on here, here's our favourite in Mobile (principle #5) - click to call: have a clickable phone number as well as a form. It's these simple things that make the difference. …

How Facebook's push for more ad revenue is causing challenges for advertisers

Facebook marketers have been having a pretty torrid time the last few weeks. Organic reach on posts from brand pages has been slashed in Facebook's drive to extract as much cash from commercial sources that it can. Even consumers can pay to have their status updates promoted nowadays. The result has been a big increase in revenue for Facebook that's above their target, but the company is still struggling to keep shareholders happy amidst a sliding stock price. And all is not well with brands. There have been numerous grumbles across the blogosphere in recent weeks as the kind of reach levels brands previously enjoyed free of charge are only now attainable with some hefty advertising spend. This sudden change has caught many brands unawares and has been a bumpy ride for many used to enjoying free promotion…