Chart of the day: customers expect more personalized experiences according to businesses and that's why they are prioritising improving CX

Customer Experience (CX) improvements are being led by customers wanting more personalized experiences according to new research. Customer expectations are essentially driving CX prioritisation. 7 in 10 businesses said they were improving CX because customers expect more personalization, whilst 6 in 10 simply said they want to improve customer loyalty, which makes sense, we all want loyal customers! I think they are right though, customers expect far more personalization and many businesses are still not personalizing the experience for customers. It's great to see that businesses realise that customers have a desire for personalized experiences, but now they are expecting this and therefore it's important that businesses start to prioritize this and act fast. You'll notice the least concern was competitors delivering a better experience,…

The right hosting really does matter for any business owner who wants to be online and easily discoverable

When first setting up a website, most people simply carry out a web search and choose one of the top options. However, setting up a website for your business should involve a little more consideration. You need the right domain to suit your business and crucially you need quality, reliable web hosting. Without hosting, you have no online presence. Web hosting is the service which allows your website to be posted on the internet. If it isn’t on the internet, it’s entirely useless. Web hosting service providers offer the technology and services to keep your site online and viewable on the Internet while ensuring your website loads quickly and is secure. Website hosting providers store your website on their servers and ensure it is accessible 24/7, if they’re a quality provider. The right hosting…

Digital Asset Management (DAM) software is a business process management solution which provides you with a centralized online hub to create, manage, share, track and find digital assets

Each year, more than 160 million Americans watch the Super Bowl on television. Given the huge viewership, 30-second commercials are highly coveted, despite a cost of $5 million per spot (not including the cost of production). In 2018 the list of big spending advertisers included; Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Hyundai, M&M’s, Pepsi, Stella Artois and several others. Now imagine if the Budweiser ad featured the wrong logo or an embarrassing typo pointing viewers to a competitor’s website. Fortunately, this didn’t happen, but it is every marketer's nightmare. A Super Bowl commercial is a digital asset, made up of other digital assets, including; the logo, font, images, music, video, and other elements. All of it must be carefully managed to help tell the brand story. Every day, there are…

Why qualitative App Analytics is like finding money in your old jeans

We’ve all been there. You wake up one morning, all of your go-to jeans are dirty so you reach out to one of the older bunch. And then... JACKPOT! You find a well-forgotten $100 bill in your jeans’ back pocket. Ah, that feeling. Okay, but what does is it have to do with mobile marketing? Great question. Well, there’s a new mobile app analytics solution called Qualitative Analytics, that you need to familiarize yourselves with ASAP. This solution will allow you to find “hidden treasures” (like money in the back pocket) within your product’s data. These treasures can then be translated into real money via actionable insights on your marketing/monetization initiatives. We'll explain: Qualitative Analytics solutions provide you with tools like user session recordings and touch…

Chart of the Day: Use for benchmarking your ad clickthrough rates (Ecommerce focus)

With the rapid adoption of smartphones by consumers, both Facebook and Google had to move fast to transition their desktop-based revenue model over to smartphone. This involved developing new ad placements for mobile which encouraged clickthrough to maintain their CPCs. This benchmarking report from Nanigans shows how Facebook has been successful in encouraging relatively high average clickthrough rates of > 2% in retail ecommerce which are much higher than the sub 0.2% average CTRs for banner ads. They're consistent with the > 2% average CTRs which we see from Google (if budget is sufficient to target the top positions.

Recent changes in CTRs from this report show response moving upward for ecommerce marketers even after increasing in Q4. The average Q1 2018 CTR of 2.98% in Q1 is 25% higher quarter-over-quarter and 61% higher year- over-year. This is at a similar…

How Can You Harness Facebook’s Tremendous Advertising Power?

With over two billion monthly users, Facebook can give you access to thousands or even millions of members who may be interested in your products or services. The tricky part is figuring out how to use the platform and its unique targeting features to get the best results for your budget. While some aspects of Facebook advertising are fairly straightforward, others require a bit of trial and error before you can get them just right. Fortunately, we’re going to let you in on our own insights to help you avoid some common rookie mistakes. Even if you’re a veteran Facebook advertiser, you may be guilty of making some of the errors on this list. But don’t feel bad! It can all be fixed.

Rookie Mistake #1 - You Haven’t Clearly Defined Any Goals

This may seem elementary, but many rookie Facebook advertisers jump into…

Whether they realise it or not, most people will have been exposed to remarketing ads whilst surfing the web

Remarketing ads are text, image or video ads which appear all over the internet to encourage you to return to a website you visited previously. The theory behind this is that if you didn’t covert (buy something, make an enquiry, etc) on your first visit to that site then you might do if you return for a subsequent visit. As an advertiser, there are a number of platforms you can use to display your remarketing ads, such as Facebook and Google AdWords. Of these, AdWords is probably the one that will give you the widest reach. Using remarketing in AdWords is a fairly straightforward process. First you need to create  an audience list – i.e. define which people you want to remarket to. This could be, for example, everyone who has visited your website…

The ‘digital’ opportunity is enormous, with staggering growth in all territories and sectors

Along with the opportunities come some significant challenges as you adapt to highly demanding digitally-savvy customers. These challenges are caused by the pace, complexity and the degree of change.    This shifting environment means that digitally-led business transformation is a complex and on-going journey - an evolution to transition and optimise your business. Even digitally native companies know that they have to innovate and stay ahead of the game because of growing disruption and rapid technological change.

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Smart Insights members can also use…

Techniques and examples of using Pinterest to build a brand and connect with the student community

It’s no surprise - Pinterest drives an impressive amount of traffic. In fact, Pinterest is now 21% more popular than Twitter for US Internet users according to this Pew compilation of online US adults. This image discovery tool lets fans and influencers find and follow their favorite brands, whether it’s through products pinned from the website, or business pages created by brands. Many brands, like Whole Foods, Etsy, and Kate Spade effectively use Pinterest to share information. The possibilities (and marketability) are truly endless. Until recently, many universities did not have, or effectively use, Pinterest pages. The University of Michigan, often a risk-taker and thought leader among the Higher Ed social media community, saw…

Facebook is about to offer brands the chance to add an additional dimension to their online campaigns

At F8 (Facebook’s annual developers conference) the social media titan announced its next iteration of Oculus Go.  It is the company’s first standalone virtual reality headset, available online and via retail partners in 23 countries. Oculus Go’s features include new social apps that let consumers experience live events from a personal perspective.  For example, enjoying the best seats in the house at a launch show…to exploring social issues. Beyond the headset, brands will be able to exploit AR through more traditional platforms including Messenger. “We’re launching the ability for brands to integrate AR camera effects into their Messenger experience,” announced David Marcus, who heads Messenger. It is one of several enhancements aimed to help businesses develop brand connections through augmented reality camera effects, within the app. “This feature, launching in closed beta, helps people…