Social commerce trends to create seamless e-commerce experiences directly in social channels your customers love
One of the things that has always fascinated me about social media is the way it continues to adapt and evolve to changing consumer trends. Over the last 20 years we’ve seen a progressive shift from simple, text-based updates, to increasingly visual and ephemeral content, championed by app-based platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, and at the same time, social commerce has flourished.
Whilst newer entrants such as TikTok have taken this trend even further, there have also been innovations in one-to-one communication seen in the development of messenger apps such as WeChat, WhatsApp and Messenger (the latter both owned by Facebook):
It’s been interesting to see how some of these trends have converged to drive innovation in social media…
Without setting clear marketing objectives, you’re basically directionless – and working to achieve vanity metrics that don’t necessarily help you achieve your overall business goals
Digital marketing objectives underpin all marketing strategies. After all, how do you know what you're working towards without clear, actionable, and achievable metrics? Setting marketing goals should always be the priority as they will be the basis of your entire strategy.
By achieving your digital marketing objectives, you’re also helping reach your overall business goals, whether that’s boosting your overall sales or improving awareness of your brand.
Setting marketing objectives is, on one hand, a great way to motivate yourself and your team and work towards achieving better results for your business.
On the other hand, objectives and KPI-setting is about much more than just saying “I want to achieve that and that” – it’s how you can develop a plan or strategy that will help support your vision…
The cultural digital transformation we experience every day highlights the importance of continuous learning in all aspects of business and marketing. How can you leverage training and skills development planning to achieve your goals this year?
The landscape of today’s workplace isn’t what it was twenty years ago. Today’s environment is both fast-paced and competitive, which makes it all the more important that employers find a way to keep employees energized - often with an employee training and skills development plan.
This changing nature of work requires additional training strategies focused on enhancing learning agility, transferability of skills and opportunities to explore adjacent, in-demand skills.
Digital transformation is an area of skills development that demands attention. Companies need to improve the effectiveness of their online communications now that digital channels are one of the main techniques customers use for selecting and buying products and services.
If you're looking to create or improve your marketing…
Review your campaigns and learn how you can improve your digital media performance with our marketing campaign analysis tools
The process of setting up, brainstorming, planning, and ultimately delivering digital marketing campaigns is an exhausting, challenging, yet fun and extremely rewarding process.
Once the campaign goes live, you can witness the fruits of your labor. However, all digital marketing campaigns must at some point come to an end and there is always one final step in the process: campaign analysis.
Every company, brand, or agency will approach the end of a campaign differently, with some going into detail and others taking a much broader view. However whilst digital campaigns can be quite simple and straightforward, perhaps with maybe just one or two channels, others may be more complex and multifaceted.
I, therefore, believe it’s always best to err on the side of detail so that you can get a true picture of how different…
Your ultimate guide to creating a user journey map with step-by-step instructions, a template, and an example to follow
Creating a user journey map has many benefits for both your users and your team. A journey map will help you discover friction points for the user and opportunities to improve user experience. Ultimately, you’ll discover opportunities to increase engagement and build customer loyalty.
The process of creating a user journey map will help foster team alignment, clarify priorities and surface opportunities for increased revenue or saved customer service costs. Creating a journey map means that you’re prioritizing user experience as a means to create long-term value.
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Template to use
Don’t be intimidated by the thought of jumping straight into creating your user journey map. Starting with a blank…
Planning how companies communicate with customers has always been an important aspect of marketing strategy. But the introduction of new omnichannel marketing technologies in the era of digital disruption makes it even more crucial today
The pace of innovation continues to drive new options for reaching customers across a number of key channels. Savvy business leaders know that to thrive in this market, they must be ready to adapt and develop their strategies. For example, Omnichannel marketing is now recognized as an essential approach for all businesses with an online presence. But how does omnichannel relate back to your customer?
Twenty years ago, when digital channels didn’t have the diversity and importance they do now, the choice of which channel to use and how best to connect with customers didn’t influence customer service outcomes so heavily. Today, however, customers have an astounding number of options for communicating with companies — and businesses…
Discover your top customer experience (CX) issues quickly
How do your customers, both current and prospective, really feel about the experience they’re having with your brand? How can you best measure this? In this post, I share three cost-effective analysis techniques you can use to get these answers.
I realize it’s more fun to focus on acquiring new customers. It’s satisfying to see those acquisition metrics rise as you capture more visitors through your organic, paid and social campaigns, then nurture them with your content marketing. But if there are any 'experience or expectation disconnects' during those first touchpoints, these prospects may not feel an emotional connection with your brand, and not convert as a result.
Also, it’s much more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one. According to Emmett and Mark Murphy in the book 'Leading on the Edge of Chaos,' a 2% increase in…
7 strategies, tactics and tips to stand out. Plan your first 100 days on the job, as a new starter, to make an impact in your marketing career
Starting a new job can be tough. In the first 100 days on the job, not only do you have to contend with the technical side of your role but also your new employer’s culture, politics, processes, and people.
The Trading Economics United States Job Openings report in March 2022 stated that US job openings hit a record high:
The number of job openings in the US rose by 205,000 from a month earlier to a series high of 11.549 million in March of 2022, above market expectations of 11 million, as work shortages persisted.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Job vacancies rose to a new record of 1,318,000…
You need a digital product roadmap so your team doesn’t get lost in the tactical weeds. Here’s what a great one looks like.
As Lewis Carroll famously said, ‘if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.’ When it comes to digital product planning, unless you want to risk wandering aimlessly, you’ll need a product roadmap.
Besides keeping your team focused, a good product roadmap will help keep your work aligned with the expectations of your executive team. And it will show you’re keeping your eyes on the financial ball.
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Here, I share five essential traits of product roadmaps for owners of digital products, using examples from my experience that worked well. Take it, tweak it to make it your own, and use…
Paid vs organic social media strategy: Your planning essentials
Both organic and paid social media landscapes are constantly evolving. New networks rise to prominence (e.g. TikTok), new technology increases user participation and real-time content (e.g. Periscope) and existing networks enhance their platform and product (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram launching ‘buy’ buttons).
In 2022, organic reach is also continuing to shrink as the leading networks ramp up their paid social media channels to monetize platform investment. Now more than ever, marketers need to research and optimize the right organic and paid media options to achieve their goals.
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If the first era of social was engagement, the new era is acquisition and conversion. Social commerce…
