What’s New in Marketing? Our summary of digital marketing advice and developments in April 2014
Three of the main social networks updated their profile pages in April. Have you updated yours to fit in with the new designs? See the social media marketing section for details.
Strategy and planning
Key digital marketing priorities for 2014?. In this article Dan reviewed new research from Deloitte/Exact Target which discusses priorities - how do yours compare?Take our digital marketing healthcheck. Have you taken our free healthcheck? We’ve updated this to include our latest research and recommendations. It’s designed to be quick to take with just 5 questions across each of our RACE Planning framework.
Improving results with the aggregation of marginal gains philosophy. In this article I took a look at applying Dave Brailsford’s philosophy of excellence to improve results from digital marketing.…
A guide to process, tools and examples for social media listening
What I’ve leant from social media listening
Two recent reports highlight the fact the business are not taking social media listening seriously and it’s still in its infancy. A study by the Altimeter group showed that only 42% of businesses are using social media listening to learn from their customers, this was a study whose respondents’ main discipline was social media, personally I would have expected it to be higher.
The second report from Amiando (a study of event marketers) showed that only 20% of marketers are listening in social for the benefit of the business.
I know I’m a big social media advocate, but I’m shocked that businesses are not using listening not only to benefit social media activity but the overall business, I guess it’s not been 'sold' in to the…
Why is marketplace analysis important for digital marketing and what does it involve?
For me, marketplace or situation analysis is a key part of creating a digital marketing strategy. We've included it as the starting point in our RACE digital strategy planning framework - it includes these key areas for defining the future opportunity or potential for digital marketing for which I've added examples at the end of this post.
But some, maybe many, would ask "what's the point of situation analysis? We don't have time, why don't we just get on with our search, social and email marketing to hit our sales targets".
The problem with this, is that if you're always operating in "campaign execution mode", you don't really know what's possible from digital marketing; you're "shooting in the dark".
For us, taking time out regularly for…
Research on UK SME usage and attitudes to online marketing
Over 188 UK small and medium business responded to Browser Media's survey at the London Business Show, providing insight into how SMEs are using and investing in online marketing today. We think you will relate to their findings.
79% felt the website was critical to their marketing, yet 28% are happy with their Google rankings and 4 in 10 are investing in their websites!
The survey highlighted:
SME managers and owners are familiar with social media marketing, email marketing and SEO.
Over 50% manage their digital activities in-house and one third have Agency support.
The least familiar online marketing tactics are content marketing, affiliate marketing and inbound marketing.
Summarising the research, Joe Friedlein, Founder and Managing Director at Browser Media said:
…
How popular are meshing, stacking and responding to ads?
Millward Brown's major new ad response research project, AdReaction looks at the use, behaviour and perception to advertising of multiscreen users across 30 countries, including the UK.
What is the principle of AdReaction?
The core aim of the research is for brands to 'evaluate the multiscreen landscape by considering both the scale of screens (reach/opportunity to contact) as well as the receptivity of people to various marketing approaches, both within and across screens.'
Who was surveyed?
A survey was distributed via smartphone or tablet, to over 12,000 multi-screen users, aged 16 - 44 across 30 countries. A Multi-screen user is defined as 'people who own, or have access to, a TV and a smartphone and/or a tablet. They consume 7 hours of screen media buying during a 5 hour period.'
Key findings of the AdReaction Survey
35% of screen time involves using both the TV and a digital device. Of…
Who makes search happen? The latest SEMPO and ClickZ Salary Survey on Search Marketing reveals the answers
This research gives a good summary of how search marketing is managed. Interesting if you're a search specialist or you manage search. The research shows the growth, availability, and day-to-day operations happening in the search marketing industry in the the SEMPO and ClickZ Salary Survey Results.
What are search marketers getting paid? What is the job growth for search? How many search marketers are in agencies? Answers to these questions along with discoveries relating to search marketers’ salaries, job roles and responsibilities, verticals/segments, compensation extras and perks, budgets and more can be found in the 2013 Salary Survey Results.
The survey was conducted to better understand the constantly evolving search marketing industry. The results of the survey provide valuable insights regarding the direction of the industry and what to look for in…
Visual, real-time content must move up the agenda
I said something in a meeting this week, it’s pure opinion to be honest, but I think I can back it up and wanted to post about it this week:- “brands that can leverage real-time, visual content will find themselves market leaders.” Would you agree or disagree?
A move to visual content since 2012?
Ever since Pinterest and Instagram started to get traction with consumers (2012 I'd suggest?), we’ve seen pictures literally become a 'thousand words', and savvy marketers have been quick to get visual content to the front of their social media and search marketing agendas.
I also remembered a great Altimeter report, again from 2012 that revealed a deep confidence that marketers saw the importance of visual content, social and mobile. We’d have to say that was well founded as it turned out?:
…
A briefing on the new Experian UK Mosaic customer profiling
I recently attended the re-launch of Experian’s UK 2014 Mosaic Segmentation. I thought it would be useful to share a summary which I hope will be useful for marketers, who have been working with it and those who are new to what I have found is a fabulous segmentation tool.
If you don't know it, Mosaic is a consumer classification tool that benchmarks the UK population on over 450 data variables. According to Experian,
"Mosaic is our most comprehensive cross-channel consumer classification, built for today’s hyper-connected world. Using new data and analytical methods, organisations get deeper insights on consumer lifestyles and behaviour to help you make more informed marketing decisions".
They go on to explain that they see Mosaic as more than a socio-demographic segmentation and they believe it is even more relevant today than when first created over 30 years ago.…
How online retail brands can benefit from video commerce
Consumers today want a visually engaging online shopping experience that is personalized at the same time. According to a recent study, 52% of consumers said that watching videos makes them more confident about their purchase decisions.
As one of the most shareable forms of media, videos not only boost your brand’s voice, but also help you build an emotional connection with your customer.
Thus, including it as a part of your marketing strategy will not only help you drive conversion, but also increase average order value, differentiate marketing campaigns, increase margins and reduce return and development costs.
6 ways for video engagement
Here are six ways suggested by MobStac on how to make videos work for your e-commerce store:
1. Feature engaging product videos
Not only does engaging video content improve the look and feel of your e-commerce website, but also has a huge…
3 big changes to your Twitter profile are now live
Importance: [rating=5]
Recommended link: Twitter blog post announcing Profile Changes
23rd April update. We first alerted about this change to Twitter profiles on 10th April, when the rollout was promised "over the next few weeks". Well, a fortnight later and the rollout appears complete since this banner prompting users to update their profile has now been reported at the top of many profiles including ours.
If you take a look at the requirements for imagery, they are:
Brand ident (on left) of 400px by 400 pxMain pic of 1500px by 500px
Background and examples of the new Twitter profile
Over the next few weeks, Twitter will be making a big change to the layout of each profile page. These will be available…
