Chart of the day: Know how and where to target Generation Z consumers in 2018

Generation Z, also known as post-millennials, are the latest generation to take to online media consumption, adopting a social and mobile-first approach to online research channels. Targeting millennials has, in the past few years, become a buzzword for any business that wants to delve into the minds of consumers who want more brand engagement, charity-inspired campaigns, and tech-savvy marketing. However, Generation Z are, what some call, the future of social consumerism. Starting from the mid-1990's (approx 1995) these are the generation who live and breath online, where social media, staying connected and latest trends are vital to daily life. By these dates, Generation Z are approximately 21-22 years old, starting their careers or in full swing knowing who they are and where they want to be. It is the generation where traditional advertising might not cut it anymore, they aren't looking…

The best Christmas Website designs and landing pages of 2017

Christmas time is upon us and if you’re a retailer, then I’m willing to bet that you have put up some Christmas decorations somewhere. If you have a brick-and-mortar shop, then you might have a tree up with some presents underneath. After all, you’re in the Christmas spirit and you want your shoppers to be in a jolly mood while browsing around your shop. Your website should be no different! Getting your browsers into the Christmas spirit is essential, after all, the more festive they are the happier they are, and the happier they are the more likely they are to purchase your products.

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There are lots of strategies out there for you to use this Christmas to motivate…

Chart of the Day: Most effective email marketing tactics ~ Part 1 of 2

This is a two-part series, where we will look at the most effective email tactics and those that are the most difficult to implement. View the second part of this series to discover the most difficult email tactics to employ.

What is a tactic?

Tactic - noun An action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end.

Step 1: Where do I start?

Before you even begin to think about the strategy, you need to decide what end result you want. What does success mean for your email marketing? Does it mean: Opens and clicks Revenue Subscriptions List growth Brand awareness Customer satisfaction List growth

Step 2: What tactic do I use?

In our chart below, there are 7 tactics that have been used, with varying success. There are many others that you can use, for example, A/B copy testing, asset creation,…

How successful were brands in their 2017 Black Friday campaigns?

Each year, online retailers make new records during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping period. 2017 is no exception. ContactPigeon, a marketing automation platform for 200+ eCommerce brands, recently analyzed over millions of emails and eCommerce transactions for a sneak peek into how Black Friday 2017 has shaped up. The most interesting insights were summed up in an infographic. Key findings include: Online sales are record high: +14% revenue increase, compared to same 24-hour period on Black Friday 2016. More retailers are using email for Black Friday: +11% overall increase in total volume of emails sent on Black Friday 2017, compared with Black Friday 2016. Email marketing is still strong: Email alone as a channel makes up 23% of sales attribution on Black Friday 2017. Desktop is (still) the Black Friday king: Despite the growing mobile usage, the majority of…

Chart of the day: Online advertising grew 11.5% like-for-like in the first half of 2017 in Europe.

€2.6 billion spend on advertising was added during the first half of the year, across search, display and classifieds/ directories. Research by IAB and IHS Markit shows marketers are increasing online advertising spending. The report focuses on advertising in Europe only. In this chart of the day blog post, I will update you on latest research by IAB Europe and IHS Markit, with charts from their Adex Benchmark from the first half of 2017. Search advertising is leading and display advertising has grown the fastest, interestingly online video is up 20%. As shown in the chart above, search advertising dominates online ad spend, but there is a huge jump in growth of over 13% for display advertising. …

10 statistics and reasons why you should turn your marketing attention to baby boomers

Baby boomers are born between 1946 and 1964, there are around 74.9 million baby boomers. That's an audience of 74.9 million that need to be reached. They made up almost 40 percent of the nation’s population. Because of the buzz built around millennials, it has become easy to market to that generation. But what about baby boomers, how are marketers reaching them and seeing an ROI? Marketers will usually be looking to reach one of the following generations to promote their product or service: Baby boomers – born between 1946-1964 Generation X – born between 1965-1980 Millennials – born between 1981-2000 The generation that often gets overlooked is baby boomers. More importantly, this generation now constitutes the wealthiest age group this century. But marketers find boomers difficult to target. One key reason it is so hard to target this generation…

Blockchain has revolutionary applications in marketing and will be good news for both publishers and advertisers

Blockchain has been a hot topic in the tech world ever since Bitcoins emerged from obscurity to become the obsession of nerds the world over around 2013. Marketers love finding shiny new technologies to distract them from their day jobs and have enjoyed hopping on bandwagons to prove their down with the latest trends ever since some bright spark realized that newfangled printing press things could be used to churn out flyers to promote the latest in powdered wigs and ruffs. But whilst marketers have been all over other trends, such as the growth of Snapchat or Live video, like a rash, they've yet to properly 'get' what the blockchain can actually do for them. I think this is in large part down to two key reasons: Blockchain is the result of mind-bogglingly clever cryptography and thus…

How to make the most out of SEO tools to increase your internet presence

When it comes to SEO, you can’t have enough hacks or tricks up your sleeve (at least, I can’t). After all, ranking on Page 1 of the Google can take your business from zero to hero pretty quickly. So all of us digital marketers try our very best to achieve the coveted page 1 rank for a high-volume keyword. [si_guide_block id="80207" title="Download FREE Resource – 10 business-limiting SEO mistakes " description="The search engine optimization (SEO) mistakes to avoid and what to do instead. Google's engineers have said there are at least 200 'ranking signals' which affect whether you can rank above your competitors or not for searches which will bring you new business. To make SEO even more challenging, many of them change frequently in Google's algorithm updates. So, it can be really tough…

Chart of the Day: How do Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon make their money?

In this article, I defined Eight online revenue models along with how they are calculated, so they could be applied to new revenue models of startups. In this chart of the day, we can see a comparison of the four / five dominant digital brands sometimes known as GAFA of FAMGA or even the frightful five. Of these five digital businesses, it's no surprise to see that Alphabet (Google companies including their research and development) and Facebook are dominated by ad sales. Apple sales are dominated by product sales with iPhone much more important that Mac laptops and iPad. Data services like iTunes and storage are still relatively small (11%). Amazon is different to the other four in that it focuses on online retail, yet this is less…

...And you won't be able to tell the difference

2017 is the year that copywriting by Artificial Intelligence (AI) has moved from science fiction fantasy to commercial fact. Game-changing new tools mean that computers can now produce convincing, accurate product descriptions that look as if they were penned by a trained copywriter. The future has arrived.

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Many people regard AI as a bit of a joke and cannot imagine a day when software will write better than humans. Tay, the ill-fated Microsoft chatbot, became a laughing stock when she went from innocently playful tweets to racist rants and swear words…