Chart of the day: the more senior someone is in a business, the more they believe that they offer a good customer experience (CX).

The Customer Experience industry report 2018 by uisertesting.com has found that executive level professionals and those who work in CX management think they have a good CX, whilst UXers, product manager, and researchers believe their CX is less good. Executives may be far too confident about their CX which leads the report and me to suggest that the more senior managers could be less aware of the real CX in their business. Respondents also reported that good CX is critical to their businesses success, CX is recognized as being incredibly important to the success of a business. User research is also recognized as helping business growth. The majority also want more user testing…

‘Conversions’ is what you aim for as an email marketer. But are you walking the right path in the pursuit of it?

Many email marketers, focus so much on revving up the campaign performance metrics that they fail to see what the subscribers will perceive of their email. Email marketing, today, is about delighting prospects and customers at every point of contact- from onboarding to post-purchase communication. So, here are some basic email marketing best practices that you need to follow to ensure that you don’t get your wires crossed:

Use a valid FROM name and address

Your FROM name and email address is your identity. And most subscribers avoid opening emails from a name or address they don’t recognize. So, make sure you are sending your emails from an address that is not only recognizable but also appropriate for the specific purpose of the campaign. Using your brand name in your FROM name…

Three search trends and implications for marketers

As we move into another new year there are once again a new set of predictions, hopes and concerns as to the direction of digital marketing over the next twelve months and beyond. There are so many exciting developments set to take place and I’m really looking forward to seeing how these take hold in 2018. One of the interesting areas I’ve observed across many trends is the recurrence of two themes: artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. These two closely related subjects seem to be taking hold across a number of areas, including marketing automation, digital creative, personalization and marketing technology. However, it’s the influence of AI and machine learning on the future of search that I’d like to explore in some detail in this article and the potential implications on business and marketing.

[si_guide_block id="5750" title="Download our Premium Resource – Successful SEO Guide" description="This…

Chart of the Day: 39% of marketers don't think their organization's marketing strategy is effective

Having already looked at top priorities in organizations, marketing and sales priorities and challenges, it is now time to address whether above all else marketers feel marketing is effective. Seems ridiculous to think that marketers think marketing is not effective. Almost a whopping 4 in 10 (39%) of respondents believe that their organization's marketing strategy is not effective. This might be due to them not using and utilizing the correct marketing model that suits their business objectives and goals. You also need to integrate a variety of platforms to gain a wider audience reach, using just one model might not be effective.

Do you feel that your organization's marketing strategy is effective?

One respondent commented: The most disruptive force to affect my job in the next 3-5 years is the lack…

Digital PR is here to stay folks, but how do you make it a success?

Digital PR is one of those new-fangled buzzwords that everyone is talking about at the minute. But, like influencer marketing, a lot of people aren’t too sure what it is, or how to make a success of it. But digital PR is here to stay folks. As more and more businesses try and maximize on the overlap between SEO and PR. But what makes digital PR different from regular PR? And how can you make a success of it? Essentially, Digital PR is the art of placing a press article, whilst also earning a link back from the publication to your site. This is obviously different from traditional PR, where you’re looking to maximize brand awareness and place the brand front and centre of an audience’s mind. Your KPIs will differ for digital PR too. With traditional press,…

Customer engagement in ecommerce is paramount to success and must be a constant priority for your company

If your company isn’t hitting its sales targets, there could be a number of reasons responsible for these shortcomings. However, all too often, companies aren’t profiting as much as they should because they’re not engaging customers as much as they should. This is an especially prevalent problem in ecommerce. Without any face-to-face opportunities, far too many companies are dropping the ball when it comes to customer engagement. Sound familiar?

Why Customer Engagement Is Essential to Ecommerce

It should come as no surprise that people like individual attention. Alternatively, no one wants to feel like they’re just a number. We’ll spend our money on something we want, but most of us will also pay more if better service comes with it. This isn’t a small distinction, either. You ignore it at your company’s risk. 86% of consumers will spend more…
[Editor's note: We now have more recent guidance for frameworks for digital maturity evaluation]

Chart of the Day: BCG's pathway to digital marketing maturity model

You probably know of Boston Consulting Group for their classic market prioritization matrix which we feature in our essential marketing models guide. Well, they still continue as a consulting group and naturally work on digital transformation projects for which they share strategies via their blog. The latest, which I thought sharing is a simple assessment of digital marketing maturity based on organizational structure. Most suited for larger organizations it shows the typical pattern from an ad hoc approach to digital marketing across a business characterised by innovation, but also inefficiency and wastage due to overlap or inexperience. To control digital marketing activities a centralized approach is then recommended, but as I have seen in many cases this then results…

Three guiding principles of effective influencer marketing

The concept of influencer marketing is not new and has in fact existed for many decades. For years brands have worked with celebrities and other influential figures to leverage their popularity to positively impact their products and services, however, despite its long history, the rise of digital and social media has propelled influencer marketing into the consciousness of more marketing leaders than ever before. Fuelled by lower barriers to entry and access to a plethora of opinion leaders across a huge range of sectors and interests, the concept of influencer marketing has become a prominent device in the modern marketing toolkit: trends.embed.renderExploreWidget("TIMESERIES", {"comparisonItem":[{"keyword":"influencer marketing","geo":"GB","time":"today 5-y"}],"category":0,"property":""}, {"exploreQuery":"date=today%205-y&geo=GB&q=influencer%20marketing","guestPath":"https://trends.google.com:443/trends/embed/"});

2018: the year of the influencer?

Many commentators have illustrated that 2017 proved just how popular influencer marketing has become, leading some to suggest that 2018 may be the year of the influencer.…

The social media giant is finally listening. Facebook has recently been switching things up to “better” suit its users - or has it really?

A while ago, Facebook announced changes to its algorithm, showing users less public content, like posts from businesses, brands etc., and more personal content shared by friends and family. And now, they’ve come up with yet another change, this time, specifically aimed for marketers.

To give businesses more of an insight into how the impact of their advertisements is calculated, Facebook has introduced new labels on some of its metrics. “We’ve heard that businesses want more insight into our measurement tools and metrics. So today, we’re introducing new labels on some of our metrics to clearly show how they are calculated”, the social channel stated in its latest blog post on Thursday.

Facebook has been on the receiving…

Every day, we instinctively change our communication styles to fit our audience

That bawdy joke? You’re never going to tell it in the presence of your buttoned-up in-laws. Instead, you’ll wait until you’re surrounded by old friends. Why? It comes down to intuition. As children, we begin to understand that no two people communicate the same way. Yet by the time we hit adulthood, we seem to forget that fact, especially when it comes to corporate communications and marketing. Instead of lumping together all our prospects and customers, we would be much better off if we focused on connecting with them on the basis of their personalities. In other words, we should speak their language, not try to force them to learn ours. [si_guide_block id="44461" title="Download FREE Resource – Email trends 2017: A visual guide" description="Review your approach to email marketing by reviewing the latest trends."/] Authors Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram dived…