Making User-Generated Content a core feature of the online fashion-buying experience

You may know Boticca since they are active content marketers who have worked with bloggers to build a strong social media presence with 35,000 Twitter followers, more than 50,000 Facebook fans, 50,000 Pinterest followers and 3,000 Tumblr followers. They're a great example of how to engage through content and then convert that interest to sale and advocacy through permission marketing. In this example we take a look at their latest Instagram campaign since more marketers are looking to tap into it since its growth has continued since it was purchased by Facebook. They use Instagram by linking to the Gallery from the Boticca.com homepage, in a section call "The Edit", which is a selection of photographs curated by Boticca's visual merchandisers.

The photographs in the Gallery…

10 permission marketing principles and campaign examples integrating web, email and social media marketing

It is now nearly 15 years since Seth Godin launched his permission marketing mantra. Yet it remains highly relevant - I still recommend newcomers to online marketing download and read his permission marketing principles.

But how does permission marketing apply today? In this post I show examples of how digital marketers today are applying Permission marketing principles  to their email marketing and social media marketing activities today.

In his book, Godin explains the principles of using permission marketing both in the offline world and online world, but he doesn't describe in detail how to best achieve permission marketing using web and e-mail.

For each of the core principles of permission marketing, I identify, define and illustrate my principles of ‘e-permission marketing’ which show how web,social, e-mail and offline communications can be…

Multiple, lightweight interactions will rule in the 'Always-on' future of marketing

The sentiment in the headline is something that we keep seeing - that marketing is rapidly evolving - look at how much people talk about content marketing now compared to only a year ago. It's worth learning from what Paul Adams is advising on this topic;  it's from a different perspective, but with a degree of bias I might add. I'm a very big fan of his recent book, Grouped, a must-read for anyone who takes the future of web-based marketing seriously, hopefully that's you! Paul was until recently, the global head of brand design at Facebook. So hugely credible if not likely a little biased. I first read an article by him in Wired magazine and have enjoyed his articles ever since. This post by Paul on his blog is about the Future…

Examples from testing the best time of day for email broadcast in different sectors

Sending emails at the right time to reach your subscribers when they are actively using their email will affect overall campaign response. Given the ongoing interest in this topic I've updated this post based on some of latest research from Pure360 where they looked at emails from 40,000 different campaign the last year from 150 of their clients (900 million email delivered). As you would expect the best time varies by sector, but they do recommend a best time for consumer emails:  'In fact, the best time to send an email is now during the ‘Post Work Peak’, as people are finishing up at work and heading home. Over a quarter (26%) of marketing emails that are sent in the most successful hour, 5pm to 6pm, are opened, which is 9% above average. '

Optimal time to send your email by…

Legal services: Engaging the non-engagable through content marketing

For law firms, word of mouth has always been the principal generator of work. This may seem surprising given the wealth of marketing tools at their disposal, but the reason is actually quite obvious. Both individuals and businesses perceive purchasing legal services as high risk. People generally don't fully understand their legal rights, and if they do, making a purchase is typically an infrequent act, arising out of a situation of distress (litigation, divorce, death). So people look to friends, colleagues and 'opinion leaders' for their experiences and recommendations, to reduce any risk they may feel exposed to. Historically law firms have sought to leverage the power of word of mouth through 'thought leadership' activities, 'early' forms of content marketing; monthly newsletters, articles in trade publications, local seminars etc. But things have moved on. Or to be more specific, moved online: word of mouth has expanded…

Why businesses need to adopt an omni-channel approach

The recent (and well publicised) reports of a number of high street retailers such as Comet, HMV and Jessops going into administration has reinforced the need for businesses to continue to adapt their strategies or suffer the consequences as a result. Prominent high street retailers that failed to capitalise on the e-commerce boom (making the move online too late) have consequently been dealt a harsh lesson in reality.

The opportunity online

On the flip side 2012 was another strong year for e-commerce with UK retailers achieving 14% year on year growth (IMRG) with similar growth is expected in 2013. Combine this with the incredible growth of mobile/ tablet commerce and this year presents a real opportunity to online businesses. According to the latest BRC-Google Online Retail Index tablet searches increased 238% in the fourth quarter and the IMRG m-Retail index reported…

Review the quality of your audience segments with this checklist

This blog post first appeared in the Arts Marketing Association’s, Journal of Arts Marketing, and we are now sharing it with Smartinsight's readers. For more free resources, case studies, research and toolkits to promote art, culture and heritage visit culturalhive website. 

In an ideal world we would treat everyone as an individual and tailor and promote our offer accordingly. But this is impractical. Treating everyone as an homogenous mass however is ineffective - one size does not fit all. Segmentation provides us with a happy medium.

Segmentation is a fantastic way of reaching different people with different messages and can vastly improve how you cater for people. It means you can be strategic about audience growth and development of audience relationships.

Get it right and segmentation should provide true market insight that will lead to tangible results in audience development,…

Mobile traffic up to 15 per cent of global internet traffic in May 2013 – up from 10 per cent in May 2012, and six per cent in May 2011.

Value/Importance: [rating=5] Recommended link: KPCB Internet Trends You may well have seen the reports from Mary Meeker, a partner at KPCB who typically releases annual surveys at the turn of the year.  In May she updated her 2013 findings, so we thought we would alert you to this latest report. KPCB Internet Trends 2013 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers We see these as some of key highlights from her report: Growth in shared and created digital content, from documents to pictures, tweets and…

Sharing screengrab tools (including how to screen grab a really long post with a single click)

I mark a lot of student marketing assignments. It's good to see students using visuals, but I'm often surprised at how many are still using "Print Screen" to do a full screen grab when what they actually want is just a  section of a page. So here, I share three of the many screen grab tools that I use.

1. Windows Snipping Tool

This is an under utilised tool that comes free with Windows. The screen grabs below are  self explanatory as to the steps involved:

   

With this tool you can highlight text or underline/circle etc:

…

Ideas on encouraging pollination to create a better experience

I spent a lot of time observing the bees - mainly because I was s*** scared of being stung and yes, bees CAN smell fear.

This was my first taste of watching 20,000 visitors, with attitude, do something that totally hooked my attention. I read voraciously and absorbed everything I could find at the library.

I was amazed at how they could engineer perfect hexagons out of wax secreted from their own bodies. I read of Their Queen and her subjects, their complex dances, their calculations of distance - always taking account of wind and the movement of the sun overhead. Like an organic machine, I watched over 50 kilos of honey come from one beehive in the hot summer of 1976 from ceaseless industry and coordination.

But one thing really stood out. That call to action,…