5 ways to use the service integrating with Amazon

You will know that reviews and social proof are an essential strategy to maximise the appeal of an online retailers proposition in order to incentivise a would-be customer to make that purchase and turn prospects into customers. Furthermore, online reviews are more trusted with consumers than bland, manufacturers product descriptions. It's also recognised that to get customers to review a product or service requires a reason or purpose to make the effort.

Enter Hugdug - a product review site with a mission to get millions of us to write reviews of our favourite books, music or whatever takes our fancy. The incentive is to drive people to write reviews through the site where 50% of revenues generated will be going straight to selected charities.

So how does Hugdug work?

Hugdug is part…

Research shows purchase uplift from social sharing and reviews

What is the value of social sharing online? How does it impact sales? Can I charge more if my product has a highly perceived value?  Sharethis and Paley Centre for Media conducted a research stud research sharing behaviour amongst 6,000 consumers, that helps answer these questions. It's a piece of companion research to the infographic we shared recently, asking what prompts online sales? It gives more evidence of the impact of social proof where social sharing and reviews of products or of a brand as a whole give reassurance to purchasers about buying a product or service. This new research shows that the impact of social proof on retail buys is significant, it concludes that: 'Content sharing can influence consumers more than price and brand, and motivate people to spend 9.5% more', according to the research.' In this…

How should content marketers drive leads for B2B?

Getting a good 'lead' remains the metric that matters the most to marketers. To a Journalist, a good 'lede' is a great headline that entices readers to read the full story. As the content marketing revolution marches on, all companies will need to become, in part, media companies. Modern marketers can join the charge forward   and improve program ROI, by adopting a new CPL: the Cost per Lede.

Discussion of two biases in marketing

However, as I work with marketers around the world, I’m struck by two persistent traditional marketing biases that keep them from joining the revolution:

1. The bias in favour of director-and-above level professionals, at the expense of individual contributors; and 2. The bias in favour of opportunities and leads, at the expense of prospects and suspects. As the VP of the Global Audience Business…

Which LinkedIn features are best for lead generation?

In B2B marketing, we know that lead generation is key and it's about generating good quality, targeted leads, which can be qualified as much as possible rather than focussing on the volume of leads. To assess which social networks is best at B2B lead generation across B2B sectors. Oktopost has analysed over 100,000 posts across LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+, and LinkedIn ranked the highest for lead generation for B2B companies. The findings covered in the Infographic below included highlights that: 96% of posts, in discussion groups, generated leads which resulted in up to 86% conversion rates. 1 out of 3 converted posts, included a ? in the subject line of the post.

To learn more about LinkedIn, access our Smartinsights LinkedIn Guide which we have recently updated.…

Can content marketing software ease the pain?

A new technology report by Rebecca Lieb at Altimeter has just been launched evaluating the software landscape for content marketing. You might read that as a “not for me” - doesn't sound too exciting at first glance, but we'd suggest that it might be worth re-thinking that stance.

The $44Bn market: Content marketing is big and complex

Now valued at a whopping $44Bn, the creation and promotion of customer or branded content remains on a huge growth trajectory, and yet Altimeter finds 70% of marketers lack a consistent or integrated content strategy - marketers still have a scattergun approach to content. “Content is the atomic particle of all marketing” Rebecca Lieb [note: Seth Godin also said content was marketing’s last stand about 2–3 years ago] The reality is that marketing is now a complex process, it involves multiple stakeholders throughout the organisation, outside agencies and suppliers, and multiple channels…

6 Migration musts for advertisers to prepare for the switch

Remember 2012 when Google switched Google Shopping over to paid ads, and merchants on Google had a collective pain attack? It's happening again. Google recently announced they are switching the current version of Product Listing Ads (PLAs) over to the newer Google Shopping Campaigns format. This will happen by August 2014. It's similar to the initial introduction of paid Product Listing Ads from (October 2012), when Google completely changed how Google Product Search functioned, and required merchants to make the switch within a certain timeline (July 2012). This time, to prepare, read the PLA Guide. How is Google changing Google Shopping and how can you get ready? Below are the details of how Google Shopping Campaigns are different from current Product Listing Ads, Google Shopping Campaigns best practices.

Google Shopping Campaigns vs. Current PLAs

Google Shopping Campaigns are at…

Research showing how social media influences retail purchases

Shopping prompted by social media is on the rise, as we know from research on increasing use of  mobile devices - research and the use of social media. But this research reminds us that there are many other more important communications that first influence purchase. Bizrate's trend tracker survey demonstrates how shoppers are using social media, when buying products or services, researching online or engaging with retailers. Findings show that Facebook still ranks high for 'shopping related activities' for consumers and Pinterest follows for inspirational ideas.

In terms of purchase, Shopzilla's trend tracker shows on average 78% of consumers 'did not look at the product in a store before buying' and females…

Copywriting best practice: Opening Lines - How They Make Or Break

A good opening line draws you in. A bad one tells you to put the book down. Opening lines are the most important sentences a writer will put down in pen and paper. They are crucial for commercial success. If readers cannot go beyond an insipid opening line, they cannot reach the thousands of beautiful sentences that lie just beyond the first page. If a reader does not read, then the subsequent lines will virtually not exist. In a sentence, a good opening line leads to a strong literary start.

A must for commercial success

The start of any literary work begins with the first two lines and continues to the first two chapters. Agents and publishers read a work before readers do, and they are not afraid to cancel the novel if they find it uninspiring. Their most said excuses are: If readers…

How Twitter is killing '2 birds with 1 stone' with its new mobile app promotions

One of the biggest names in social media has finally joined the mobile marketing revolution. After Facebook announced that almost half of its revenue now comes from mobile ad sales, Twitter made the wise decision to revamp their mobile app to increase their revenue opportunities from advertisers. In April, the company announced an app install suite which takes advantage of their previous acquisition of MoPub in order to allow advertisers to reach their audience both on and off site. The new interface will allow for the marketing of other apps, giving users the opportunity to initiate an app download on their phone from within a tweet.

Meeting industry demands

By creating the ability to promote apps within their app, Twitter has given advertisers everything they need to capitalize on an ever growing market.  Now more than ever, people are connecting…

Why is content marketing so popular yet so few have a content marketing strategy?

This infographic features a nice curation of  research from the Content Marketing Institute showing that content marketing is more effective when marketers follow a strategy. We agree - we saw a similar finding in our EMEA research with Hubspot and our infographic Competing on Content! While 88% of marketers in the UK are now implementing elements of content marketing only 42% actually have a documented content strategy. We though you'd find the infographic useful since it summarises the top content challenges marketers are facing and gives guidance on how to overcome them. As well as five key benefits of following a content marketing strategy.

 Source: JBH Marketing Infographics

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