Why benchmarking is essential to fill the digital marketing gap

In theory, analytics can tell you anything you want to know about your last digital promotion - except whether or not it was successful... For example, analytics may tell you? Your conversion rate was 3%. Is that good? Engagement is down. Is it down across your competitive set or is it just you? Redemption rate exceeded targets by 10%. Was the bar set too low? You won't get these insights from your digital marketing analytics because all they can give you are your numbers, which are meaningless unless you have something to compare them to. Benchmarking tools provide answers by plotting your data against the industry-specific averages for hundreds of metrics. You'll know what objective success looks like. You'll know if you achieved it. And you'll know how your promotion fared versus the…

 5 problems that block strategic marketing planning and strategic thinking

Michael Porter sums up the focus of strategic planning best for me: “The essence of strategy is choosing what NOT to do. Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different". I love this Porter quote - in marketing planning (any planning) we have to make decisions - there is not endless time and resource available to any of us, there is always too much to do. This lack of time to focus on strategic planning and thinking was shown in our research on Managing Digital Marketing. Many organisations we asked did not have a marketing strategy to align their digital strategy against... So the question is, how do achieve focus? How can we avoid the common problems that limit strategic planning?

Focus!

The central premise of Porter's advice is to develop…

Is Marketing Automation right for your business - find out the reasons why other businesses are using it

Are you at the stage of choosing your marketing automation system or building the business case? If so, then this infographic may give you some advice on how to either sell the idea to your boss or ensure it meets your business needs. Marketo and Software Advice, a company that researches and reviews marketing automation tools, spoke with hundreds of companies to find out the key drivers to purchasing a marketing automation system. For 91% it was a new initiative, and companies with less than 500 employees were the main buyers to purchase a Marketing Automation System. The main drivers were for lead acquisition and to automate their processes, as shown in the infographic.

 More resources on Marketing Automation on Smart Insights

…

What are the "must-have" features of your LinkedIn profile

LinkedIn has a wealth of features to help businesses as our evolving A-Z of 30 LinkedIn features shows. Using new features on LinkedIn often feels to me like like a finding a new recipe, where you are not sure which one to choose until you have tried it out, and seen the end-result. Though, like all recipes, we should not forget the core ingredients.  LinkedIn has so much that it's important to determine your goals first and then choose the right mix of features to reach them, and perhaps test and try again. This infographic showcasing 'the LinkedIn Profile Tips' is timely since the research shows that almost half of profiles are incomplete and only 58% update their details. You can learn more about using LinkedIn for business with our recently…

3 key barriers that need to be overcome to help towards better integration of digital media

“Truly Integrated Marketing is the holy grail for the marketeer. ”

Colin Green, Marketing Director, Land Rover UK

Yesterday I saw a PPC advert for a pair of shoes that I’d wanted for a while. I clicked through to find that the product was actually out of stock. The next day I was retargeted by the same retailer advertising the same shoes and but at a different price, I clicked through again, and again found that the price was as it was yesterday and there was still no stock. It’s not the first time I have seen this and imagine you may have too. The experience got me thinking about the dangers of running digital marketing in silos leading to a lack of integration with businesses a long-way from the holy grail of integrated marketing communications.…

5 Franchising Q&As with a look at opportunities in Australia

Becoming a small business owner has grown into one of the hottest topics in the world business news in the past few years. With an over 90% prosperity in the franchise sector, running your own business is a one-way ticket to success. Yet, the unlimited power which franchise enterprises hold is often deeply buried under a messy pile of obscure researches and heavy statistics. Understanding the basics of franchising is the first step towards starting a successful business. This article will give answers to the top most asked franchising questions helping you improve your organisational and personal management skills.

Q1. What is a Franchise?

Franchise is generally an authorisation granted by a company or product owner which gives a person the right to market a specific service or product by using the trade name or trademark of another business. The authorised person is…

Is User-generated content in advertising the ultimate in brand advocacy?

"So now all we need is a load of people with cameras to tell everyone else how great our product is..."

Recently, in the US, Coke launched what’s being hailed as ‘the world’s first TV ad made completely with user-generated content’. The ad was produced by W+K and was made up of short videos filmed on the fly by real customers/brand advocates, whereby Coke asked the question: “What does it feel like when you take a sip of Coke?” And thus, the ‘AHH Effect’ ad was born… [youtubevideoembedder id="XokGFN86ljc"] Whilst the slight advertising cynic in me wonders whether there are a few rather contrived elements to the content, one has to temper that with the notion that hardcore Coke fans really would do all sorts of crazy sh.. for the chance to be in a TV ad with such a hugely potential reach.…

Boo hoo: “ Learning from the largest European dot-com failure

This in-depth case study of Boo.com features in the last few editions of my book Digital marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice  - it's based is based on story of Boo.com failure from the excellent book "Boo Hoo - a dotcom story" "Unless we raise $20 million by midnight, boo.com is dead" So said boo.com CEO Ernst Malmsten, on May 18th 2000. Half the investment was raised, but this was too little, too late, and at midnight, less than a year after its launch, Boo.com closed. The headlines in the Financial Times, the next day read: "Boo.com collapses as Investors refuse funds; Online Sports retailer becomes Europe's first big Internet casualty". The boo.com case remains a valuable case study for all types of businesses, since it doesn't only illustrate the challenges of managing E-commerce for a clothes retailer, but rather highlights failings in E-commerce strategy and management…

What can we learn from these examples of failed digital marketing strategies?

There is a tendency for both brands and agencies to accentuate the positive in case studies and write-ups of campaigns and case studies. It’s understandable to take this positive approach to hide bad news out of sight of investors, clients and consumers. However, we can often learn more when marketing failures are reviewed. In this article I’ll take a look at 4 examples of digital strategy failures that highlight good practices by showing poor practices.

1. Boo.com

Despite the fact that boo.com went spectacularly bust over a decade ago, it still offers a unique insight into one of the biggest and most costly digital business failures in European history. Boo.com aimed to become a first-to-market global brand selling sportswear and designer clothes.   The business launched in 18 countries in the autumn of…

4 online appliance retailers rated for the best overall online experience across 150 mobile and desktop touchpoints on the customer journey

Simple Usablity recently reviewed the UX from 4 leading e-commerce sites (Currys, Argos, Appliances Online and Appliances Direct), to find out how they are focusing on the customer experience.  The companies were assessed across 120 touchpoints along the customer journey from homepage to checkout, and 30 touchpoints to rate their mobile experience.

PET Assessment - Persuasion, Emotion and Trust

Retailers were assessed on this and other criteria including social proof, salience and gamification. Appliances Online ranked the highest on 'Emotion',  Currys on 'Salience' (how they influence what visitors pay attention to and how they interpret the meaningfulness of the information) and Argos on 'Social Proof' (customer reviews and ratings).

Mobile Strategy

All three retailers, except Appliances Online were evaluated across 30…