Many businesses are trying to integrate digital and traditional marketing, but only 1 in 20 have achieved full optimisation.

Today's chart of the day comes from our 2016 research into managing digital marketing, which asked 1096 marketers from around the world about their experiences of managing the challenges of digital. One particularly important finding from the report was the poor state of integration between digital and traditional channels. There can be no doubting that this is important. Customers increasingly spend their time online and assess content digitally, making digital marketing ever more important. Yet some brands are starting to think traditional channels have become under-rated as a result and starting to question if they've over-invested in digital. Whether one channel is more important than the other is an irrelevant question; clearly both are of immense importance and which one is more important will vary between businesses. The key thing is that they should…

Tips for brands adapting to Digital from the author of Youtility

Many brands are struggling to adapt to a digital first culture and more seriously, struggling to remain relevant. It’s clear that brands moving from the industrial revolution to the connected economy need to be doing a lot more than creating a digital marketing dept in their organisational chart. Rather, they need to be adjusting and adapting their culture. I interviewed Jay Baer, author of the New York Times best seller, Youtility and one of my favourite business books. We discuss the challenges for brands that struggle to grasp “digital”, what brands can do to differentiate themselves in competitive markets and Jay’s latest book, Hug Your Haters.

Q. Many brands struggle to grasp how “digital” is structured within their organisation with many treating their digital activities within a silo -what words of wisdom could you provide brands to adapt a digital…

New research highlights different approaches to engaging retail customers

The DMA has identified four different types of consumers when it comes to brand loyalty. Some customers are always loyal, others only loyal for certain purchases. But whatever their natural propensity for brand loyalty, you need to engage them and build trust. The DMA's 2016 research presented below shows that over half of consumers will stick to a brand that provides good service when they know they could get a cheaper deal elsewhere. In addition in found customers don't particularly like being asked to provide reviews, yet brands are keen to do this. One the flip side, almost half of customers would like to receive free gifts from brands, but only one in ten companies do this. There is clearly currently a big mismatch between consumer desires and brand actions, and this needs to close. Find out more by checking out the infographic below. …

After teasing us for many months, Google has finally confirmed Penguin is running again. But this time, as part of the core algorithm.

Importance: [rating=5] For all webmaster and SEO's. Recommended Link: Google Webmaster Central Blog || SEO Guide

What is Penguin?

First announced way back in April 2012, the update was introduced as a way of tackling black-hat SEO techniques that were being used to artificially boost the rankings of a page. It particularly looked to target companies and agencies who were buying and obtaining links through link networks. It impacted approximately 3.1% of search queries in English, and resulted in some high profile sites falling down the search engine results page (SERPs), some even dropping off completely.

What's the difference this time around?

This is the seventh incarnation of Penguin and the first in 2 years and it's quite a big one. Whereas…

In today's innovative economy, businesses need to embrace digital transformation to stay ahead.

According to new research from The Economist, Britain and America are the most innovative major economies. This is great news for the economy as a whole, but it means businesses within the economy can't afford to be complacent. With increased innovativeness comes increased competition for established businesses. Thus they need to embark on digital transformation programs if they haven't already. Staying still is not an option. It is also interesting how China is 'punching about its weight' when it comes to innovation plotted against GDP per capita. This again should be a warning to major brands to expect stiff competition from China's emerging digital champions, who are using the lessons they've learnt appealing to price-conscious mobile consumers in their home market. Both East and West can learn from each other.

…

You may be focusing on the wrong metrics and missing the most important KPIs

As a digital marketing professional, you may have once expected that your job would involve a lot of creativity – you’d spend your days creating innovative advertisements, writing engaging copy, maybe even crafting catchy memes. And of course, you do work on these tasks, but unless your company has a committed marketing analytics professional on staff, you also likely spend much of your day surrounded by numbers, working hard to assess the effectiveness of your campaigns. All those numbers, taken together, are known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Unfortunately, sometimes the numbers piling up on your desk indicate that your marketing strategy isn’t working out as well as you’d hoped. That’s when it’s time to take your ad campaigns and KPIs back to the drawing board. Here are a few analytics strategies you can try to kick start your…

How Trade Shows can thrive when combined with Digital Marketing

Trade shows were once the cornerstone of one’s calendar. Before the days of Google Hangouts, Skype and in fact e-mail, trade shows were a hub for industry professionals to network and for businesses to launch initiatives which they hoped would keep consumers and competitors talking for months to come. As Lima Curtis discussed in her article, what made trade shows so special is quickly being surpassed and made irrelevant in the digital age. Despite this trend, trade shows for pretty much every industry imaginable continue year on year and hundreds of thousands of people annually clear a space on their calendar to attend. So when products and services can be launched in an instant online, fellow professionals can be contacted with the click of a button and all of…

It was long thought that having the keyword in your domain name would help you in the SERPs. Is this actually the case?

Ahrefs have done some stellar research into the On-page ranking factors in 2016 and have found many interesting nuggets. Back in 2012 Google rolled out an updated intended to bring an end to high ranking, low-quality Exact Match Domains (EMDs). Since then, the scurry to find high volume, keyword rich domains has somewhat diminished. But does have an EMD still impact the SERPs? As evidenced in the data, there is a clear jump between position #1 and #2 which suggests that either the EMD update is no longer in effect, or something different is going on. First of all, the phrasing used by Matt Cutts himself was "Minor weather report: Small upcoming Google algo change will…

Our interview with Rob Hammond, Head of SEO for publisher Trinity Mirror group

We asked the head of SEO for Trinty Mirror Group (the publisher behind major UK daily newspapers, such as The Mirror) about key SEO trends and how he see SEO changing in future.

What do you regard as the most significant SEO trends (and updates) that have impacted your current SEO strategy?

As a publisher, the growth of mobile is by far the most significant trend in search today. It has disrupted both the way that people search and the way that we produce content. Google talks about the importance of "micro moments" on mobile - reaching people precisely at the short moment they have an information need. I think it's a really helpful way to think of how search has evolved, and will continue to evolve as we grow accustomed…

Get the right strategy in place before you start testing

Starting and running a conversion programme is all about asking the right questions. The questions you want to ask of the tests themselves, but also the questions you need to ask yourself and your team to get the most out of the programme. Here are our 18 chronological questions to ask yourself and your team if you have recently started a conversion optimisation programme.

Before you test

1. Are a broad range of specialisms feeding into the optimisation programme?

The most effective optimisation programmes need input from strategists, user-centred designers, front end developers, copywriters and analysts.

2. What sources are you using to feed into the ideation process?

Typically the highest quality tests (i.e. the ones that will deliver the biggest uplifts and/or provide the greatest insight into the business) make use of a number of the following techniques/sources: persuasion/emotion/trust (PET), heuristics, user research (remote or moderated)…