Our roundup of the latest developments and advice in Modern Marketing

Earlier in March, CERN celebrated 25 years of the World Wide Web. So, it’s official, we can no longer call new media “new”. Yet despite the opportunities for digital media to deliver more relevant, contextual, responsive communications, a common theme in this roundup is that options for targeting through digital marketing are not being fully exploited by many.

Strategy and planning

76% of marketers don’t use behavioural data - this is the shocking finding in this new research from Razorfish. Reviewing the implications of this, Dan Bosomworth gives his 5 recommendations for a real-time marketing blueprint.

Digital Marketing budget allocations 2014 - this summary shows the proportion of marketing budget allocated to digital channels. There is a huge range in % spend on digital according to business sector and maturity. How much of your budget is allocated to digital media?

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Gmail Promotions Tab Grid View: The Lowdown

Brace yourself, email marketers, Aaron Rothman, Product Manager at Google, recently announced some more major news on the Gmail blog which follows on from Gmail's move to default image display. The announcement explains that Google is testing a new feature for its email service, making the promotional tab more visual. With one click users can switch to a grid view and can see the pictures used in promotional newsletters straight away. You can see the visual impact from this mockup from Google (click for animation):

The thought behind this and what excites us most is that this will make it easy for Gmail subscribers to quickly scan through their promotional messages and find the ones that look interesting. And why do they look interesting? Because the content is engaging.…

Are you ‘Always On’ and marketing in real-time?

A new Adobe sponsored Razorfish study, The State of Always-On Marketing surveyed 685 ‘C-suite executives’ to reveal that 76% of marketers do not make use of segmented or behavioural data in their marketing. “Razorfish defines Always-On Marketing as data-driven, content-led experiences, delivered across channels and devices in real time."

Some other key insight from the research

Less than 5% believe that they are managing experiences for an “always-on” consumer Only 38% believed they are capable of targeting prospects versus returning customers Just 13% feel that their companies are pushing segmented experiences and measuring the results "“Regardless of channel type, there is a huge difference between spending money on speaking to someone who is never going to buy your product or service versus investing in speaking to someone who is likely to convert or influence other converters”. Pete Stein, CEO of Razorfish, New York Sounds high? Probably, but is it…

Best practices for successful B2B corporate video campaigns

Online video marketing has come a long way in a relatively short space of time. What started out as secretly watching YouTube clips in your room or furtively sneaking a peek on your work computer has quickly developed into a practice suitable for the boardroom. In fact, a recent Forbes report stated that the majority of CEOs now prefer to watch a video than other types of content if both are on the same webpage. Consequently, there’s been an upward trend in video marketing for B2B businesses, in both effectiveness and popularity. However, B2B video marketing campaigns have been slow to shake off their boring, corporate image, which consists of them focusing solely on their product or service with stiff, emotionless campaigns. Here are 7 examples of companies where brands have added personality to corporate video, we particularly like the approaches that Intel…

New research shows how different types of content marketing supports brand engagement and purchase in different sectors

Value: [rating=4]

Recommended link: Download InPowered/Nielsen report

With the increasing focus on content marketing, it’s important for marketers to work out how effective different types of content are at different points in the buying process. This new research from Nielsen, commissioned by InPowered shows dramatic differences in the effectiveness of content types across sectors affecting these brand metrics:

Stage 1: Familiarity with a new productStage 2: Affinity toward a brand or productStage 3: Purchase consideration of a brand or product

The research reviews three types of content, credible experts, third-party articles and user-generated content reviews. The importance of this type of content is shown from the statistic that 85% of consumers regularly seek out expert content ­- credible, third-party articles and reviews -­ for products they consider purchasing. The impact of content through the buying…

Also adds Pages to Watch feature to enable competitor review

Importance: [rating=5] Recommended link: Facebook - New Brand Page Layout change 26th March update: The new layout still hasn't rolled out for us yet, but Facebook has posted a blog answering some FAQ about the new brand page layout. This suggests that apps will be in left hand column so may be more prominent than the previous grabs below suggested, so maybe good news. Is anyone seeing the new version yet? This is big news since most brands now have a Facebook page which is a primary way of engaging with prospects and customers. Facebook have announced it will be changing the layout of the Facebook Brand Pages starting this week. Keep an eye out this week, as it is rolled out. So what will it give us and look…

Creating Email CTAs with Impact with Tim Watson

In this video, regular contributor Tim shows that too many email campaigns contain calls-to-action (CTAs) which focus on what to do, rather than the reason to click. This 99 second video shows how to improve email CTAs via top tips, examples and a simple formula on how to avoid mistakes, thinking about CTAs as mini value propositions. // // To get more tips on email best practices, read Tim's Zettasphere blog, sign-up for his email or check out the Smart Insights online copywriting course. …

New research and examples highlight video marketing trends

Value: [rating=4] Recommended Download: Research on the Future of Video Marketing, by Andrew Canter of the Branded Content Marketing Association (BCMA) - no registration needed Video content marketing is now a key technique for companies to engage their audiences when video is embedded into landing or product pages, so we found this an interesting thought-piece. Research also shows that 'bite-sized chunks of content' or micro content is particularly effective for distribution through social networks and video marketing hits this sweetspot highlighted by this research: This research from The BCMA highlights how video marketing should be driven by and integrated with content marketing strategy. The research asked leading experts from across the world on their thoughts and experiences of the 'future of digital branded video content'.

Key takeaways on video content marketing:

We found…

Learn to love The Logic Sandwich

To successfully take people through a whole buying decision, you need to find the right balance between satisfying their emotional and logical needs. The human brain has two halves: the left side of the brain is rational, considered and thoughtful, the right is creative, intuitive and spontaneous. To really get someone on board with your brand, you need to appeal to both sides of their nature. In short, you need messages that tick their emotional and logical boxes. [caption id="attachment_35506" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Are you serving up a Logic Sandwich?[/caption] Whatever you’re selling and whomever you’re selling it to (in the vast majority of cases), you are selling to a person: a human being. And, real people are primarily driven by their emotions. Even when what they articulate is a logical motivation for a purchase, there will be…

10 hidden factors that could be affecting your Conversion Rate

Many elements come into play when you are seeking to improve the conversion rate of your website as part of a site conversion optimisation strategy. You may already appreciate the importance of testing major changes such as the offer, call-to-action buttons, placement of product pictures and headlines. However there are other technical features of a landing pages, which if not implemented correctly may also damage your conversion rate. In this article I define 10 factors which are less well known but could easily be compromising your success. The examples I will include cover both classic landing pages for lead generation, in B2B for example and also Ecommerce sites.

Ten steps to improving conversion on your website

1. Utilizing a CAPTCHA

Everyone is familiar with these...

A lot of web users hate CAPTCHA codes, which…