Tools and techniques to support site migration
We are currently living in an era of Digital Darwinism , a time where evolving technologies - from mobile, real-time, to social media and the Internet of Things - are disrupting traditional business models and markets.
In order to adapt effectively many larger businesses are creating digital transformation programmes to ensure that businesses look beyond the here and now and focus on how disruptive technologies are affecting customer behaviour and the impact this has on their business in the future.
The continuous evolution of the website to support digital transformation
For most, a company’s website is at the centre of their digital ecosystem, and with the explosive growth in mobile and tablet usage , the form and nature of the website is changing to keep pace with the changes in…
Broken Links = Missed Opportunities
It's common with the growth of website Content Management Systems that websites have multiple editors & frequent updates, so this can easily result in mistakes. An area that often suffers as a result is internal & external linking from within webpages.
While easy to manually check, it is often the case that sites are just too big to go through page-by-page to check. Luckily for webmasters and marketers alike there are tools that will help you identify broken links on your website.
Why are broken links such a bad thing?
Not only are you disrupting user journeys through the website which could leave users frustrated with your brand, but you are also making search engine spiders jobs more difficult and therefore reducing your opportunity to rank well. If search engines are unable to crawl / index you site easily they will be less likely to appropriately rank it.
Broken links from other sites are also an…
Don't let BAU get in the way - make the time to plan for account growth
New business is the lifeblood of every agency, or so the saying goes. But, at the same time, the equally well-known adage is that it costs you a lot more in internal time and external / freelance costs to acquire a new client compared to retaining and growing an existing one. Unfortunately business-as-usual work on client projects or "agency life" can get in the way.
So, if you (the client services / account handling team) are not focusing on existing account growth, then you should be. By the way, I’m not a fan of the term ‘organic’, which is often applied to refer to growing an existing client account. It can imply 'it’ll just happen' rather than 'let's plan to grow this account…
Compare your traffic sources and mobile vs desktop audience split to others in your sector to make the business case for investment in digital marketing
Value: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Google Analytics Benchmarking announcement
Do you remember Google Analytics Benchmarking? You’ll need quite a good memory since Google withdrew it in late 2011 I recall - we lamented its passing in this post on using Google Analytics to Benchmark engagement with a site recommending how to use measures like bounce rate, pages per visit and visit duration to compare engagement with your site.
Well, now it’s back with a bang including a new interface and new types of reports. Here’s how to check it out:
How do I set up Benchmarking?
This is easy and you may well have it set up before. Head to Admin and check the second box shown.
Data is shared anonymously,…
Don't lose sight of your brand personality your #video strategy
Storytelling has been around for millennia. As children we grew up with tales and fondly remember stories opening with 'Once upon a time…'. With this nostalgic link in mind, businesses use stories as central parts of their advertising and messaging campaigns when seeking to humanise their brands.
Source: Shutterstock
Today, social media are an ideal vehicle to distribute these stories. And with good reason, the online landscape is becoming noisier every day. Storytelling is an effective method for getting heard above the din.
On a practical level, storytelling is a great way to engage, motivate and connect with your readers. But with so much content being shared daily by so many brands, the written word just doesn’t have the same impact anymore -- particularly for the reader who has grown up expecting…
What are the marketing opportunities, implications and actions for brands, businesses and marketers?
Tech watchers have become used to the regular September announcements from Apple. After a couple of years without major updates to the product line we were expecting a genuinely new Apple product and it’s here in the shape of the Apple Watch.
Of course, Apple announcements are huge news across mainstream and tech channels, so what can be said that hasn’t already be said!? So I’ll keep our alert brief focusing on the names, timelines and marketing implications for businesses and brand. There were hours of announcements across the Apple Live event, but there are 3 main releases to be aware of.
1. Apple Watch
Release date: Early 2015
Cost: $349 (£216)
Resolution: Not disclosed!
Battery life: Hours not days!
You will have heard that the Apple Watch will be touch screen, feature Siri voice interactions…
A 5 step tutorial on using SEMrush and other tools to improve SEO and PPC keyword targeting for online stores
When growing your online store, every bit of knowledge you can get counts. Any mistake, money spent on wrong keywords perhaps or landing pages not delivering what your customers are looking for can cost you a lot. But sometimes that knowledge lies with your competitors. They are the people who potentially have been running their business longer than you. Or at least have already tried various strategies you want to employ now.
By conducting a clever competitive research, you can tap into their experience and discover strategies that are worth considering for further use. A properly conducted competitive research offers great benefits for your online store:
It will help you keep pace with the changing market. Markets change over time. Chances are…
Which are the most popular content marketing tactics used by UK Marketers?
We are all working to exploit the ''content marketing revolution' and are feeling the pressure of keeping up with fresh, engaging content. The Content Marketing Institute's report reminded us that there is continued growth to increase this year in the UK as 76% of Marketers are using content marketing more than they did last year, regardless of the challenge of resources to produce sufficient, engaging content. Content marketing was used by 88% of respondents, perhaps a misleading figure since the survey was completed by the Content Marketing Institute.
Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2014 Benchmarks, Budget and Trends report
What's behind the growth in content marketing?
Are we realising the ROI as we can measure the impact of content marketing on our…
Recommendations and examples of using style guides to support a CRO programme
When we kick-off a Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) programme with a new client we always try and find out what existing guides or tools they have that we can use during our programme. These may be branding guidelines, style guidelines, UI Pattern libraries, etc.
For example, here is a really good description of how Envato, who run the Tuts+ sites, carry out Style guide Driven Development.
However, the responses we get from clients are wide-ranging. As Mark Boulton (@MarkBoulton) pointed out recently:
We're not going to dive into that debate around whether style guidelines are a help or hindrance here, instead I wanted to give recommendations from a CRO angle and investigate how we can…
The latest tactics showing why Email marketing is "alive and well"
If you think about innovation, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t marketing, probably you are thinking of the latest gadgets, self-driving cars and drones. But in the quickly-evolving marketing world a lot has changed in the way brands and consumers communicate. With a trusted and solid channel like email marketing, where does the real innovation takes place?
Email is mature, but not outgrown
Email marketing is known to be a trusted and versatile marketing channel. In the Gartner Digital Marketing Hype cycle published last July places it has moved beyond 'the slope of Enlightenment' and on emerged onto the 'Plateau of productivity'.
Connected marketing concepts that we also find in this graph are still being hyped, meaning that it will take at least 2 – 5 years before marketers realistically will be getting the most out of these channels, if they…
