Is your fashion store missing out on the potential of fashion apps?

Recent data released by Google confirms what we already know - mobile is the future of retail.  Over 64% of smartphone shoppers turn to mobile for ideas before heading out to shop and 1 in 4 mobile video viewers in the US have visited YouTube for help with a purchase decision.  While consumers may not always have access to a tablet or laptop, mobile is the one device that is always on, connected and in reach.  Mobile is the ideal platform to bridge retailer’s in-store and online experiences and is the perfect avenue for brand’s to communicate directly with the customer. Recent data released by Google confirm what we already know- mobile is the future of retail. Over 64% of smartphone shoppers turn to mobile for ideas before heading out to shop and 1 in 4 mobile video viewers…

Chart of the day: User generated is the single most influential factor in determining purchase intent.

User-generated content (UGC) includes things such as photos and reviews sent in by previous customers. Nine out of ten (90%) of US customers who took a recent survey into UGC, said that user-generated content was the highest influencing factor when purchasing online. Search engine results came a close second. Promotional emails came third. It makes sense for SEO and email to have high influence, but this study shows that UGC is now heavily influencing shoppers, more than ever are buyers relying on reviews and the opinion of others. Those under 30 were particularly heavily influenced by UGC. Those over 65 were least influenced by UGC. Clearly then UGC will become over more popular and is an area you should be looking at developing. …

Facebook launches new tools to make group admins lives a little easier

Facebook has rolled out some great new tools for group admins that will help them manage their groups more effectively. The aim of rolling out theses changes are to help group admins and moderators to save time and increase the amount of meaningful content to ensure the groups are adding value for Facebooks users. Mark Zuckerberg  described his vision of Facebook groups as: There is a real opportunity to connect more of us with groups that will be meaningful social infrastructure in our lives. More than one billion people are active members of Facebook groups. If we can improve our suggestions and help connect one billion people with meaningful communities, that can strengthen our social fabric. At the Facebook Communities Summit in Chicago, it was announced to some of the top group admins of Facebook that they are looking to provide…

Do you have a holistic testing strategy?

Testing is the best way to find out what makes your customers tick, but if you market across multiple digital channels, you must come up with a testing protocol for each channel: email, web, social media, retargeting, SMS etc. Or do you? And even though you already know that email is the hub of your digital marketing programme because you can use email addresses to identify and communicate with your customers across all your marketing channels, most email marketers are not performing the basics and testing their emails as stated in latest report from GetResponse “Email Marketing & Beyond: Global Industry Benchmarks 2017”.

What if I could show you that…

Testing via email can drive your multichannel testing programme and deliver insights across your entire customer database, thereby not only saving you time and money in driving traffic but…

Chart of the Day: After years of global growth, online ad spend outstrips TV spend for the first time

Online ad-spend surpassed TV spend in several mature markets a few years back. But now we have reached the watershed moment where online ad spend is higher than TV spend globally. This spectacular growth makes it an interesting time to work in digital marketing. But we are seeing the lion's share of this growth to just two providers, creating a 'digital duopoly'. This may create a less competitive market, which could be bad news for advertisers in the long run.

  Source: KPCB Internet Trends 2017  Data Source: Zenith Advertising Data Forecast Recommended Toolkit: Marketing Technology and Innovation …

How to create the perfect name for your business

Company names like Apple, Amazon and eBay evoke an image of success and cutting-edge technology. They make an emotional connection with consumers, resulting in the kind of brand recognition that many companies dream of. It’s hard to overstate the importance of a business name. Not only is it the first thing that customers see, it also sums up the company and its unique take on an industry. “When a name is the face of the brand, getting it right is absolutely crucial,” Adam Fridman writes in Inc. Getting your business’ name right could mean the difference between “Blue Ribbon Sports” and “Nike.” Here are some tips for how to come up with a business name.

When Naming a Business, Think Like a Consumer

Ideally, your business name should be short and easy to spell while covering key elements of your company. Unique spellings such as “Chick-fil-A”…

The 5 best tools for collecting and showcasing customer reviews

Reviews have become essential to buying and selling online with customers trusting customer reviews over 10 times more than descriptions or claims made by the brand itself. Reviews can also benefit a brands’ search marketing efforts, as often they will feature highly in SERPS, particularly for local results. They enable marketers to collect and request product and customer service reviews. Some tools also curate conversations happening on social media for brands to use as social proof on their websites. Customer review and ratings tools enable marketers to collect and request product and customer service reviews. Some tools also curate conversations happening on social media for brands to use as social proof on their websites. We've researched five of the best customer review and ratings tools so you can decide which is best for your business. These tools have been selected to be particularly useful…

New research from the DMA shows that only 48% of marketers agree that social media gives them any return on investment.

A report from the DMA on social media's place in marketing reveals some very interesting trends, but not all of them are positive. Although the vast majority (77%) of marketers are using at least one social network to promote their brand, that doesn't necessarily mean they are getting the most out of social or generating significant ROI from it. The research asked some 111 marketers from a mix of large B2B and B2C companies questions regarding their use of social media. We have also just undertaken our own research in 2017 with a much larger sample size (609) and found a big divide in how marketers view the effectiveness of social media marketing.

Which channels are used most for marketing?

As a rule of thumb, marketers will generally gravitate to the channels…

Chart of the Day: B2B marketers place SEO Rankings and Traffic Generation above Leads or Sales

SEO is one of the most important channels in any B2B marketing strategy but is often overlooked. Despite its track record in virtually every industry, B2B marketers can feel overwhelmed with the amount of work that goes into ranking your business in the results pages of Google (and Bing etc). When you first starting out with your SEO strategy you need to research keywords, identify your target keywords, write the content, generate links and even after all that you still may not appear in the SERPs due to Google's reluctance to tell anyone how it actually works. Which is why SEO remains a unique challenge for B2B marketers.  But if you get it right you may find that Traffic Generation is less of an issue and you need to focus on turning that traffic into leads…

How to use data to optimise your multi-channel marketing

Multi-channel marketing provides businesses with the opportunity to engage with consumers across a variety of different fronts, tailoring messages for specific groups while maintaining a consistent message and brand. But it’s not simply a matter of sending your message blindly out into the ether – to achieve true success over multiple channels you need to make effective use of the data at your disposal. This article demystifies this process, helping you understand what this data is, where you need to find it and what you need to do with it. As with all marketing, a little bit of considered thought at the start of the campaign makes a real difference in the result.

Tracking your data

This may seem obvious, but the actual obtaining of your data is the most important place to start and tracking a campaign is really the only way to determine…