Our content marketing blueprint - updated
It's almost a year ago since we created our blueprint for content marketing infographic - and with so much conversation now around the converging of digital and 'off-line' media, the proliferation of mobile and the increasing popularity of marketers talking about paid, owned and earned media we wanted to update our blueprint for 2013.
Paid, owned and Earned media meets Inbound Marketing
It's important to be alert to paid, owned and earned, in relation to content and inbound marketing. Especially owned media - this has to be a key priority in 2013. Without your own (ed) brand platform from which to both publish, and to which you want to drive traffic there becomes a far weaker case to create and promote content. Since how will you garner any traction with your consumer, show any conversion? This is the key area that we've updated our infographic from last year, as…
Why you should place regular analysis at the heart of your SEO
In this article I will review the importance of regular analysis to help SEOs learn what is and isn’t working on their website, helping to inform optimisation and testing programs.
Why is regular analysis required?
The world around us is forever changing which impacts online behaviour. The key reasons for this are:
1. Online search patterns change
This is driven by several factors, including social trends and fads. A fad can drive a surge in specific search activity, only for this to wilt quickly.
A great example is retail fashion – each season has its theme and only a few of these themes will stand the test of time. Also some trends are cyclical/seasonal so will phase in and out of search e.g. Knitwear – popular at Christmas and through Winter.
Screenshot – declining and rising search keyphrases in the UK market
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07 Jan 2013
Answering the right questions on the path to conversion
Whether you're working on increasing conversions for an online enquiry form, quote request form, e-commerce transactions or an online application process, answering more of your visitors questions will help them and your business. It's a fundamental of web marketing.
For more practical examples of testing and optimisation approaches to increase leads and sales, hear Paul Rouke of PRWD speak in a webcast at the free Smart Insights #marketingpriorities2013 Digital Marketing Summit on 11.01.2013. View the full programme of speakers at http://bit.ly/priorities2013.
Of course, what you're asking visitors to complete and what your product/service is will dictate the amount and type of questions that they may have, but by identifying and answering typical questions you are more likely to encourage more visitors to ‘do what you want them to’.
In this post I'll look at:
A case study showing the potential of this approach
Some…
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04 Jan 2013
Improving your testing workflow to get bigger, quicker wins
Should you test one thing at a time or many at once? A poor experimental workflow can waste loads of your time! Here’s an extreme example: We’ve seen a company take six months to do something that took another company thirty minutes. That’s 8,760 times slower.
To grow quickly, you need to implement quickly, so our work with clients goes beyond suggesting what they should test; we build their in-house capability to “get stuff done.” This article describes a framework for speeding up your testing—so you can grow your profits quicker.
Many small changes or one big one?
If you’ve read the case study of our work with Crazy Egg on optimisation, you may recall that the winning challenger homepage was much longer and much more effective than the control:
Our winning challenger was much longer than…
As another new year begins, marketers naturally look to develop their skills and awareness in the areas they are responsible for. For me, social media is a key area and within this, these are the areas that I believe are likely to effect social media marketing effectiveness in 2013. How do you see it?
1. Embrace social search
The launch of Google+ in 2011 and its continued development in 2012 is just one of many signs that traditional search is becoming increasingly influenced by social signals. Whilst great content and effective link building are still the most effective ways of optimising your website for search engines, genuine social media activity is also playing a part, too.
Google’s Search Plus Your World, its numerous algorithm updates and the introduction of the Knowledge Graph are yet more signs that quality…
A case study of using social media in higher education
In this post I will give a summary of a detailed analysis of some findings from a brief audit Carlton Jefferis and I have recently carried out when pitching for some social media consultancy for the University of Hertfordshire. I hope you find the insights shared useful and in addition to comments and advice throughout you'll also find some great creative ideas for content which can work in other sectors too.
Multiple audiences, multiple departments, multiple platforms
The first thing we notice is that the University utilises many different social media platforms and within each has multiple accounts to reflect different Schools/Departments. The question is, does this lead to a silo-ed, somewhat inconsistent approach or is it necessary?
A University has to juggle messages to multiple audiences - students, prospective students (UK and…
A review of 2013 trends in Customer Relationship Management
MyCustomer.com recently caught up with CRM expert Paul Greenberg to get his thoughts on what emerged, re-emerged or strengthened in the industry over the past 12 months.
“In 2012, what you saw was the maturation of a lot of things that have been Wild West-y, edgy and unsettled for a long time in the CRM industry. You're now seeing the actual transformation of business on a global scale towards what IBM calls the 'Smarter planet'.”
So says Paul Greenberg, author of the seminal CRM at the Speed of Light and president of The 56 Group. In terms of enterprise software, the re-emergence of customer experience as a message from the vendors was one of the major trends to re-emerge this year, he explains. In…
