You will know about Brin and Page, but perhaps not Sundar Pichai and Matt Serlin...

Importance to Digital Marketers: [rating=5] Recommended link: Official Google Blog announcement of Alphabet

Is 'Alphabet' 'for real'?!

Well, you might have thought that Google had grown so well established and large, that it had lost the capacity to surprise. Not so! It surprised me with the announcement this week of Alphabet. In fact, I had to check it wasn't one of those April fool PR efforts with the stunning, but curious new brand and domain name of  Alphabet (http://abc.xyz). So I headed straight to the ICANN WHOIS domain registration database and learnt that there is a San Francisco connection, Although Matt Serlin (the main registrant is nothing to do with Google), but he is part of Mark Monitor which is a domain management organisation, but if you take a look…

Know where your app user acquisition channels drive sign ups

After spending your hard-earned marketing dollars on ad campaigns for your apps, you may be disappointed with the low acquisition figure and this prompts many questions. Have your ad campaigns targeted the right audience? Did you have the wrong advertising priorities when choosing campaign partners, ad networks and tracking partners for your ad campaigns? All these and many more aspects play a crucial role in making your app acquisition drive successful. Lack of adequate measures may mean you are unable to determine which channels are effective. So, measuring the success of your campaigns is crucial for the future of sustaining your app to support your business. In this post I will offer some clues as where to begin and how to approach this measurement. First of all, sustainability is more important than growth because only when through enough acquisition you can secure…

Produce your content as part of a well-planned strategy to get the best results as shown by this hypothetical case study

Content has been a big buzzword for the last 12 months, and still drives a lot of conversation today. This has only been encouraged with Google’s updated algorithm last year. Content now plays a more pivotal role in search engine optimisation (SEO), as link based metrics are decreasingly used as the main ranking signal. So yes, everyone’s churning out content, more and more – how many server farms will we need in 2030 to accommodate it all?! So what can brands do to make their content strategy work across channels and align with customer needs? To really leverage the power of content, publishers and brands should employ carefully thought out strategies, as this will ensure maximum returns. Given the vast breadth of the topic I will primarily focus on social and digital…

Research showing the importance of connecting with influencers to support your business goals

Reaching out to 'influencers' who will share your content and be Advocates of your brand is key. It's about finding the influencers who fit your brand, resonate with your content, will be positive and have 'authority' where they are socially hanging out. At the same time, we must be realistic with who we engage with and what we can share. It's not necessarily about following those with the greatest Klout or Followers - its relevance, credibility and fit for your business. Theshelf.com's research highlights these key points and the importance of connecting with Influencers. 92% consumers trust influencers from third parties and influencers are supporting businesses in achieving their goals; whether it's for SEO, Brand Awareness or to boost their sales. Read further, to find out their 5 tips to driving a successful influential reach strategy. …

Manage negative comments effectively and leverage positive ones to protect and promote your brand

Research shows that 3 out of every 4 consumers rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions while nearly 85% of them read up to 10 online reviews before they can trust a brand. Going by these statistics, it is absolutely important for you as a brand to pay close attention to mentions, comments and reviews on social media and deal with them effectively.

It all begins with listening

Unless you have a system in place to keep track of all the comments and mentions about your brand, managing them effectively is going to be an uphill task. Here are 5 tools to help you monitor your mentions and comments:

Hootsuite

Hootsuite allows you to keep a tab on specific keywords and hashtags…

Focussing on the wrong metrics can be a distraction and a waste of time but there are ways to keep your focus and make measurement worthwhile

When it comes to marketing metrics, do you ever feel like you’re chasing the wind? In the case of false metrics, that’s exactly what you are doing. False metrics are the metrics that distract you from the metrics that really matter. They’re likely to be everyday KPIs, but they don’t really have an impact on the bottom line. In the world of marketing, false metrics appear all too often and it is commonplace to hear about the wrong metrics being measured and reported.

Examples of the wrong metrics would be:

Chasing Facebook ‘likes’ or Twitter followers Looking at social media reach Undertaking an SEO campaign in order to increase traffic to your website. There is a tendency to just gauge what…

Simon Swan's interview with Danny Denhard, A digital marketing consultant with 13 years experience in the industry, talking about consulting and giving away some great SEO tips

This interview discusses Danny’s views on how digital marketers should consider what are the key elements in maximising the return from the plethora of digital channels now available to sell a produce or service. Danny shares some fascinating thoughts on how brands need to rethink how they position themselves within the digital market and the importance for brands to build an authority, not to chase the Google algorithm but instead look to craft a voice of trust and meeting the needs of your audience through creating a utility and loyal community.

Q. Can you tell us a about your consultancy? What services you offer and the types of business you work with?

I offer three main product lines; consult, train and advise. I work with the full spectrum…

Evergreen content is key to boosting your organic SEO

What is evergreen content?

Content creation is essential in any marketing strategy. It takes time and effort to create good content. If you invest in creating content you want to maximise the return on your investment. You want to see a boost in: traffic to your website, shares on social media, subscriptions to your mailing list and enquires to your sales team. Great content can do all of these and ultimately drive more sales. Some content will only attract traffic for a brief spurt. For example: an article about a new development in your industry. Such an article can drive a spike in traffic that might diminish in a matter of days. source: moz.com However some content can continue to attract…

Do you nurture your leads and know when they are 'qualified, sales ready' contacts?

Some interesting sales statistics to keep at the forefront of your mind when planning how to convert your leads. They could also help build your business case for investment and resources to manage your lead nurturing program. It can work both ways, in that you can miss out on sales by not responding to your 'sales ready leads' or provide irrelevant information at the wrong time to prospective buyers, which pushes them towards another brand. The key is covering all bases; defining your personas, sharing relevant personalised content, understanding how they search for information, knowing where they are in the sales funnel and efficient internal processes. For example, stats in the infographic from Orchestrate show by ensuring you have customer service SLAS can increase sales - 35% to 50% of customers buy from those who respond first! The…

Integrating your email and social media marketing opens the door to exploiting a wealth of data.

Integrating your email marketing audience with your social media audience should already be a game-plan-in-action within your marketing strategy. Using the rich data that comes from crossing these marketing channels however is often the post game oversight. Email and social media are touch points your audience interacts with daily - channels you yourself have spent time on today. Social Media Examiner wrote what’s turned out to be an evergreen piece of content titled 9 Ways to Integrate Email and Social Media Marketing. This content lives on today because the fundamental relationship between emails and social media for the user remains the same, as do the benefits for marketing teams. Consider the amplification of your email message that social can provide, consider the data you can collect using email service provider platforms (ESPs) and how…