A custom report for summarising goal performance

The conversion report in Google Analytics is probably the most important report in the entire service. The conversion report shows you the percentage and absolute numbers of visits which converted into a set of defined goals for a website. Goals can be any marketing outcome related to lead generation and sales from enquiries through to video views. Here is example of the goals in a typical conversion overview report:

This particular website converted 3.65% of traffic (conversion rate) into performing some sort of action which I have determined as a goal for the website. A total of 147 goals (absolute number) were completed in this particular month and this is one of many metrics used to measure the performance of the website…

6 tips for a successful agency partnership

Over the last 7 years, I've had experience of working with various different traditional and digital marketing agencies. Whilst one agency’s skill set may differ from another, what I have found to be consistent is the way in which many agencies operate and how clients can get the best from a working relationship with them. Working with a marketing agency should be a collaborative relationship. With digital marketing moving at such a frightening pace, it’s important to work closely with an agency and allow them to provide strategic insight and know-how whilst acting as an extension of the client’s in-house team. In this post I’d like to share a few thoughts on how you, as a client, can establish a productive working relationship with your digital marketing agency so you can... 1. Set out your goals and…

I think the way in which site design style evolves on the web is fascinating . Any site visitor can tell within a second or two when a site appears dated, and if it is, then it's immediately damaging to the brand. Getting the relationship off on the wrong foot. Whether a site design is effective naturally depends on the ability of the designers at a web design agency to select a modern design style with  interactive design elements. That's why all marketers need to keep in touch with rationale behind the latest design styles and why I was keen to talk to a Twitter contact, Jim Callender of Callender Creates, a web design agency whose client portfolio showcases current design styles well. As a freelancer, Jim has worked on many high profile site such as the Times Online redesign, eBay, Royal Mail, Travelbag, Expedia, Halifax and Audi. Awarded 'Digital Freelancer of the…

5 tips to help create the perfect web design brief

Writing the perfect brief may not be a wholly realistic goal, but you can go a long way to ensuring the success of your new (or refreshed) website by aiming for just this. The aim is to create a brief that is as comprehensive and informative as possible to elicit accurate estimates / proposals and ultimately a brilliant website. There will probably still be a couple of questions coming back from who ever you've sent the brief to – but the first step in creating a great website (one that meets its objectives) is writing a comprehensive, actionable brief.  This post explains best practices around creating a website design brief to support a new site redesign brief template I have developed for Smart Insights. …

Agencies give their views on how companies can get social engagement in six seconds

Last month Twitter announced its entrance into the video sharing arena, with the introduction of Vine, a mobile app that allows users to capture and share short six-second looping videos. In this post, I'll look at how marketers view the potential of Vine and advise on how it should be integrated into campaigns. Currently only available on iOS, but with plans to bring it to other platforms in the future, iPhone and iPod touch users can download the free Vine app from the app store, recording videos and sharing them on the Vine network itself and Twitter. Already dubbed the ‘Instagram for video’, initial response to the innovation has been generally positive – though with a few caveats. “I think Vine is a perfect fit…

A briefing on Facebook Page Post Targeting Enhanced advertising feature

Facebook Newsfeed HyperTargeting is a relatively new Facebook feature (officially referred to as “Page Post Targeting Enhanced”) that enables pages to deliver more relevant messaging to their Facebook fans. In short, Facebook Newsfeed HyperTargeting increases the targeting accuracy of posts by increasing the types of posts segments a community manager can target. Previously, pages could only deliver “one-size-fits-all” posts, or segment posts against locations or languages. The more robust segmentation criteria allows pages to segment their posts to their audience’s newsfeed using additional criteria, including: Age Education Gender Workplace Interests Language and Location Relationship Status

Marketing Implications

The low barrier to development and deployment of segmented messaging using this tool allows for micro-segmented, personalized message deployment at scale. This has the potential to dramatically increase your Page engagement rate. As such, Facebook Newsfeed HyperTargeting lends itself naturally to integration within your Social…

No pain. No gain... Take time out to create an effective contact management plan

From working in different sizes of organisations, it is clear that ‘Contact Management Strategy’ is still an unmet aspiration, often accompanied by other buzzwords like ‘Channel Strategy”, “Multi-Channel Strategy” and “Customer Journey Mapping”.

Why solid contact management plans are needed

From what I see, it’s questionable if the planning or implementation of contact management is as effective it could or should be across many organisations. It seems that while the need is recognised, time is not set aside to create a contact management plan, integrated across customer touchpoints. In this post, I'll reference what is needed, that is, to create a framework and planning tool to plan and roll-out the communication strategy, aligned to the business goals which may include conversion, gaining more customer…

Showing why online retailers must have an effective mobile experience in place

Jill Robb showed in her post on Ecommerce trends for 2013 how online UK retailers are experiencing rapid growth in mobile use of their sites. This new infographic from Kissmetrics shows the growing importance of creating mobile platforms for US online retailers. Source: Kissmetrics Blog - full links to source on this page. Note that the chart showing that mobile due to overtake desktop access by 2013 is based on a 2010 prediction and is worldwide, so skewed by emerging market trends.  …

An example of the learning on Ecommerce available from #EcomChat

Value: [rating=5] Even if you can’t always make the chat, I really recommend the summaries if you work in Ecommerce as a consultant, in an agency or for a retailer. Recommended link: #EcomChat This was the question discussed at the latest #EcomChat, a regular Monday "Tweet-up" = Twitter discussion arranged and hosted by @danbarker and @JamesGurd . It’s a great format for stimulating ideas on different ways to approach Ecommerce, often touching on different areas of Ecommerce Merchandising. You can see the type of learning you get on the summaries by Dan and James on the #EcomChat homepage.

55 Email tips for Ecommerce

As an example of the insight available, I enjoyed scanning these Email marketing tips summarised in a PDF. Here are some examples…

25 tips on selecting staff for digital roles

In this post we share some tips and advice to help you if you're looking to develop your career in digital marketing, or if you're involved in recruiting into digital roles.

The advice is based on interviews I completed with specialists from three leading recruitment sepecialists: Dan Boneham at Michael Page: Jonathan Hirst at Network Marketing and Mark Lennox at UK Job Advertising Site  OnlyMarketingjobs.com.

We completed these interviews when developing our new Guide to digital marketing job roles and the accompanying infographic showing the opportunities from digital marketing jobs that supports it. We created this summary for the infographic, but there was far more in-depth advice from the interviews we thought was useful too.

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