Chart of the day: Most user experience (UX) research is conducted during the design and prototyping phase

76% do UX research during the design and prototyping phase, whilst 72% do user research before design and development. Just over half (52%) also do user research after launching. It isn't recommended to only do testing after launch, though doing user testing at all is better than not doing it at all. It just makes it harder to make changes after launch. It's certainly best to get the feedback early, to make changes early. It might take more time to test before launch and at various stages, but it certainly saves time in the long run. Those surveyed certainly seem to think the same as the vast majority test before launch. Some of those testing after launch will also be testing at other stages before launch…

Chart of the Day: The top reasons which stop consumers converting on smartphone

The m-commerce gap is a well-known and growing challenge for retailers. We all know the tremendous growth in the use of smartphones shown by the rise in % of mobile share of digital minutes which, as our mobile-smartphone stats summary shows stands at 71% in the US, 62% in Canada, 61% in the UK and higher in Latin (Mexico, 75%) and South America (Brazil, 72%) and higher still in Asia (China, 71% and Indonesia 91%). The problem for retailers is that ecommerce conversion rates on smartphones are significantly lower than desktop. Smartphone conversion rates are at about half of conversion rates on desktop, as a rule of thumb. This is partly inevitable since some smartphone users will prefer to make the purchase on desktop for convenience when they may prefer to browse on smartphone. Yet, many retailers will still…

How UK tools can improve affiliate marketing’s reputation in the US

Affiliate marketing has suffered from a bad reputation in the U.S., and things weren't so different in the U.K. a decade ago. In the U.K., though, industry leaders worked hard to change attitudes toward the sector by creating stricter standards and more transparency. Affiliate marketers in the U.S. could learn from their U.K. counterparts' experience and reshape attitudes toward their industry.

What's so different about affiliate in the UK?

E-commerce has grown exponentially over the past two decades, and with it, so has affiliate marketing. It’s a top marketing strategy for Target, Apple, Macy’s, and other Fortune 500 companies. While affiliate marketing has more than proven its value among top brands as a strong driver of high-quality traffic, sales, and leads, some marketers still question whether it is incremental; others still perceive it as a model that only works if a coupon or…

See better results and bigger wins using a test-driven B2B marketing strategy

Gambling on hunches when deciding which tactics and channels will help you achieve your goals is a flimsy strategy that could land you on the wrong path. The same mistakes are made far too often. Marketers try a channel once, get a disappointing result, and decide the channel doesn’t meet their needs. Or after the channel fails to produce, they continue to plug away at it forever, assuming things will eventually work out. Good channels don’t always reveal themselves right away, and bad channels don’t turn into good ones after meeting a nonexistent spending threshold. To avoid early abandonment and wasted budgets resulting from a prematurely folded hand, employ small marketing tests to evaluate channels across multiple audiences and creative approaches before the next round of betting. The most successful marketers analyze new marketing channels according to not only their current performance…

Chart of the day: According to research by Salesforce, over half of ad spend is allocated to Facebook (including Instagram) or search marketing (Including Google search)

In the previous year, 30% of ad budget was allocated to Facebook and Instagram and 28% was allocated to Google and Bing paid search ads. Facebook budget is expected to increase slightly by 1% to 31% and search budget allocation is expected to stay the same at 28%. Compared to other channels such as youTube, Display, and Linkedin, Pinterest and Snapchat etc. Facebook and Google are dominating the ad space with most ad budget allocated to them. Next year, 66% of digital ad spend will go to Google, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. Over the last year, 65% of businesses have increased their video advertising budget, with more money going on video on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. …

Insight into the different ways you can select a digital partner, and practical tips to ensure you end up with the supplier - and solution - that’s best for you

No matter what its nature, the ultimate success of your digital project will be significantly affected by the choices you make early on - such as those decisions taken during the supplier selection process. Fail to take the time to thoroughly assess bidding teams and the solutions they’re proposing and you could miss valuable opportunities, discover your teams have incompatible working practices or - in the worst-case scenario - be forced to run the selection process all over again. However, tailoring your process to deliver the greatest possible value is not always as easy as it sounds. Although the price might be at the forefront of your mind, in reality, there are a whole host of other critical factors to consider in…

Chart of the Day: Reasons why marketers are considering a change of job

As companies continue to grow and the competition increases, staff retention seems to be a recurrent issue for any employer hiring marketers. Especially as the new year unfolds, marketers might decide to pave their career paths differently to what their company allows. Companies should seize the desire for learning and development express by their employees and find newer ways to fulfill marketers in their current working environment, be it through new opportunities for growth or make them feel valued for their contribution. It is imperative for companies to critically understand when people are likely to move on and the motivations that have driven their decision. Andre Rickerby, CMO at Moonpig, asserts the vital need for a business to set their own working culture, referring to that as a “massive retention tool in itself”. Marketing Week Career and Salary Survey shows that while…

An in-depth step-by-step strategy for optimizing your site for mobile-first index with expert tips for 2018

It’s that time of year again. A time when we can look back over the past year and reflect on the huge amount of change in the digital marketing sphere and look ahead to what’s coming. Sometimes our predictions are stabs in the dark. Informed guesses if you like. Other times, we know exactly what’s coming.

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2018 will be the year of mobile. Whilst many of us have been ‘mobile’ for some time now, changing to responsive sites or setting up specific m. sites, 2018 is the year that things are really going to kick off.

Why is mobile so important in 2018?

Google announced way back in November 2016 that they were…

8 areas of innovation to improve your organic and paid search marketing strategy

As part of our digital marketing trends for 2018, we have created a series of posts focused on different channel trends and statistics to help inform the best practices needed to move forward with your marketing strategy in 2018. Now, in Partnership with Vertical Leap, we have now produced a briefing guide on the latest organic and paid search innovations for marketing managers to review and action.

Click here for the full report 'Search Engine Marketing trends 2018' from our partner, Vertical Leap

Trend 1. Data, analytics, and reporting

In our view, success in SEO has always gone to those businesses and their agencies who have the best data-driven processes and people to give attention to the detail needed to compete. Google has gradually improved their insight data sources and tools to help businesses…

The difference between social listening, monitoring, and real social insights

In sixty seconds alone, 3.3 million Facebook posts, 66,000 Instagram photos, and 449,000 tweets are published. That’s an abundance of content, but in this sea of data, your consumers are sending signals about what they want and what kind of digital campaigns they want to see from your brand. By tracking these signals, you can better understand your audiences, identify influencers to partner with, and run campaigns that yield an increasing return on investment. Capitalizing on this intelligence, however, requires looking beyond your average engagement metrics. It requires digging into different levels of insight and forming a clear strategy based on their nuances. Here are the different levels of social insight that you need to be aware of. Consider which ones serve your goals best, and leverage those tactics in your digital marketing. [si_guide_block id="82119" title="Download FREE Resource – 10 common social…