Sajjad Bhojani, Head of Multi Channel Marketing and Developments outlines the Dunelm process for digital strategy creation

Our recent research on managing online channels shows that many businesses still don't have a digital strategy, although a good proportion now do. Our templates and guides give ideas on how to structure digital plans, but there is also the question of what is the best process for developing online and multichannel plans and reviewing performance against targets. To help answer this question I spoke to Sajjad Bhojani,
 when he was Head of Multi Channel Marketing and Development  at Dunelm and asked to explains their process for strategy creation and ongoing management of online channels. (This case study was originally in 2014, but we're sharing again to fit in with our multichannel marketing theme, since there are some interesting learnings). Dunelm is the UK’s largest…

Social Media Essentials

Welcome to our weekly summary of what's happened in social media this week. We highlight the top stories to help you stay up to date with social media, here is what caught our attention this week.

Spotlight story: Twitter has a new look

The most talked about change in social media this week has been Twitter's new look. As many have already seen Twitter has redesigned their layout, introduced some new features and updated old ones. You will now see a rounded profile photo, more intuitive icons, a new side navigation menu and articles and websites opening in Safari’s viewer. So make sure you adapt your profile photo to fit in the new circle shape. It is clear Twitter have listened to their user's feedback and made changes according to this. Even though Twitter received some backlash from this update its good to see a social media platform adapting to their user's needs. Read our full…

Chart of the Day: Is a 360 degree customer view a myth or a reality?

I have been involved in marketing since the mid 1990s and I was brought up by Martha Peppers and Don Rogers, authors of 1:1 marketing encouraging businesses to develop a single customer view. The nirvana of a single customer view for large organisations is that all employees from marketing and sales through to customer service can easily harness profile information about a customer and all their marketing communications interactions with a company plus their sales and service transactions. Since that time we have had an explosion of channels, martech and data which has made the theory difficult to put into practice. So I found this insight from Blue Venn on marketers perception of the SCV interesting: On the positive side it's good and actually surprising that the percentage of marketers who think a…

Research reveals marketers approaches to multichannel marketing

In partnership with Digital Doughnut, EPiServer surveyed over 200+ marketers to find out how they are tackling multichannel marketing. The resulting report presents an overview of single-channel, multichannel and omnichannel strategies, as well as insights about how well marketers feel they are able to implement these strategies. Below you will find some key findings from the report, as well as examples of companies who are successfully providing a more seamless experience for users. Over the last five years, the way that brands are communicating with their customers has fundamentally changed. Instead of adopting a single-channel, or even multichannel approach, businesses must now offer a truly seamless experience across all devices. Rather than tailoring their approach to multiple individual touch-points, the latest digital marketers are breaking down these out-dated silos and are providing customers with a single coherent view of their brand - delivering the right message,…

Chart of the Day: Understanding subscriber loyalty - Part 1 of 2

This is the first of a two-part blog, covering subscriber loyalty and unsubscribing. What will be covered: Unsubscribe Rate Unsubscribe-to-open Rate Benjamin Franklin said there were only two things certain in life: death and taxes. Well in email marketing, there is only one: unsubscription. Customers can move jobs, not feel engaged by the messaging or can just change their minds. In fact, I cannot think of one company that I have been subscribed to and stayed subscribed to. Having a unsubscribe/update preferences link is a legal requirement for all marketing emails. It's important to give your customers a simple and easy way to change their preferences/choices. In today's chart, I look at unsubscribes by sector. The average unsubscribe rate is 0.49%. But the sector with the highest unsubscribe rate is B2B (non-retail) is displaying at 1.08%. While the best performing is Public Relations…

Developing your startup pitch

The perfect startup pitch helps entrepreneurs separate their companies from a growing amount of competition. Startup activity in the United States increased in 2016, continuing an upward trend that began in 2015, according to the Kauffman Foundation. All of this comes after startup activity reached its lowest point in the last 20 years in 2014. A more competitive market reinforces the notion that startups need more than a good business idea to become successful — entrepreneurs must convince others to invest in their business. Making that case persuasively is as much science as it is art. The following sections offer some guidelines and examples for developing the perfect startup pitch.

How to Make a Startup Pitch

Research

Make sure you research and double-check every detail of your presentation. You should have an understanding of your product or service, the market and how these two areas interact. “What is your competitive advantage?”…

Twitter introduce rounded profile photos, live engagement updates and much more.

You may have noticed last week Twitter updated its look and redesigned some of its key features. Most of the changes are mainly aesthetic but have been applied to make Twitter look consistent across both IOS and the Andriod app. Twitter announced the redesign last week quoting: 'We're refreshing our product too and making it feel lighter, faster, and easier to use. We listened closely and kept what you love. And for the things you didn’t, we took a new approach to fix and make better.'

What's changed?

The most obvious feature that Twitter has changed is switching from square profile photos to rounded images. Although not everyone has taken too kindly to the new profile icons. Additionally, the update has changed the look of interaction buttons on tweets, for…

Chart of the day: Staying in touch with friends is the main reason behind social media use

We all use social media but why do we use it? A recent report interviewed a range of social media users and explored what keeps them coming back to social networks. The study reported that 42% use social media to keep in touch with what their friends are doing. Conversely, it is becoming used less to share their own photos or opinions, with only 33% doing so. Therefore what we can see is that many social media users are coming to view social networks as a passive form of networking. Users are just looking to consume content rather than sharing their own personal lives. What does this mean for marketing? It is good news that users are open to engaging with content, rather than just putting out their own. However, if users are uploading less of their personal content, this…

Video can help you take your digital marketing results to the next level

Content has always been a king and video content is king in 2017. According to a new report from Cisco, by 2019, online videos will generate four-fifths of global internet traffic. To be ready check the tips and cases below to get a clear idea of how, where and why you should implement video in your digital marketing strategy.

On your website

The video takes more time and resources than text, but 79% of customers say they'd rather watch a video to learn about a product than reading text on a page. 84% said that they'd been convinced to make a purchase after watching a video.

How to get results with SEO

Make short video reviews on product landings. 97% of businesses said that their video tutorials and short videos about their features helped increase user understanding of their products or…

Chart of the Day: Snapchat's impressive growth is mostly confined to North America

Snapchat's explosive growth and popularity among 'Gen Z' means many marketers have started to see it as the future of social media. But perhaps this hype is only really relevant for those focused on the US market. Although Snapchat is growing in other areas, the level of penetration is far lower. Snapchat's ad products are also clearly less used outside of the US, in part because of the lack of penetration. This can be inferred from the extremely low revenue per user in all markets other than North America. Source: Atlas Data Sample: 160,00,000 Snapchat users Recommended Toolkit: Social Media Marketing …