By not actively trying to establishing a stronger online presence, as a business owner, you lose out on potential sales and loyal customers
How a business portrays itself is a vital factor in its success and, with the advent of social media, establishing a positive image and creating a personal brand is as important as ever. For entrepreneurs trying to make a name for themselves, this is even more important.
Many businesses make the mistake of thinking a Facebook page or a LinkedIn profile isn’t that necessary. However, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that the face behind the business is as crucial as the business as the business itself.
By not actively trying to establishing a stronger online presence, as a business owner, you lose out on potential sales and loyal customers.
While the web is crammed with everyone using the same old strategies, businesses aiming to differentiate themselves need to opt for out-of-the-box solutions…
Take a moment to recall the last time you received truly exceptional customer service
It’s probably not that easy to remember, right?
Most businesses strive to give good customer service, but very few stand out above the rest for providing great customer service. If you do happen to remember such an occasion, the thing that probably makes it so memorable is the very fact it stood out as being extraordinary (i.e. not the norm).
That check-in staff member who remembered your name.
That shop assistant who went above and beyond to help you find the best product for your needs.
That hotel manager who took the time to ask for your feedback and then gave you a voucher for your trouble (this one happened to me just months ago, and I now talk about it often).
…
Security concerns are incredibly common and have the potential to wreak huge damages to a site and its long-term organic performance
Exactly why is cybersecurity important for SEO?
If you’re working closely with a website – for an agency, independently, or in-house – it’s likely you’ve been confronted with a security issue at some point. Though they range in threat-level, security concerns are incredibly common and have the potential to wreak huge damages to a site and its long-term organic performance.
Despite the ubiquitous threat, it seems digital marketers rarely feel the need to delve too deeply into the security space. Many believe it is simply not in their remit or not their problem.
As strategies for SEO and cyber attacks have evolved side-by-side, it’s become clear that security is something that digital marketers need to actively pay attention to. An effective SEO consultant must be well-versed enough to inform their clients on best…
Social media strategy and planning essentials
First let’s answer the question, “What is a social media strategy?”
A social media strategy defines how your organization will use social media to achieve its communications aims and the supporting platform and tools it will use to achieve this. At a basic level it’s a simple statement of intent, outlining the goals and measurable objectives for using social media, and the target outcomes you want to achieve. It does this in the context of the overall business and comms plan so that social media isn’t in a silo but working in parallel with other channels. It isn’t a detailed plan of action – you’ll also need a plan but without a clear strategy, how do you prioritize the activities for a plan? Think strategy first, plan second.
Even if you’re not actively involved in social…
Customer listening is now essential
Ever talked with someone who doesn’t seem to listen to you or let you get a word in edgewise? Pretty annoying, right?
The same is true in digital marketing. In order for you to market and, ultimately sell better, you need to listen as much as you talk. Only then can you capture the critical customer feedback you need to inform the tactical tweaks and strategic transformations you need to make to take your business to the next level. The best way to do this is by listening – at first manually if that’s all you can afford to do – but eventually in a deep, analytics-based way. This is the realm of customer listening (CL) platforms.
What’s a Customer Listening Platform?
A customer listening (or CL) platform is a SAAS-based app that allows you to listen to all the streams of customer data you have available so you…
While marketing is certainly a huge part of a businesses’ success, you also need to make sure you have a detailed customer acquisition strategy in order to actually achieve the objectives you want
Growing an e-commerce business and generating new customers on a consistent basis is not just about knowing how to market your business or having the budget for complex, expensive campaigns made with the best agencies in the world. While marketing is certainly a huge part of a businesses’ success, you also need to make sure you have a detailed customer acquisition strategy in order to actually achieve the objectives you want, in as little time as possible and continuously generate new customers for your business.
In this blog post, I’m going to show you how to develop a customer acquisition strategy for your e-commerce business.
What does a customer acquisition strategy imply?
Customer acquisition is, basically, the process of bringing in…
Security of data in an era when everything is connected via the internet is an increasingly worrying concern
For a business, data is one of the most valuable resources in the world. So, protecting their data against thefts and breaches is a great challenge for organizations of all sizes and domains.
Believe it or not, the effectiveness of your data security measures can either make you or break you. Especially if you are an e-commerce business, instances and intensity of data breaches can be unbearable and irrecoverable for your growth.
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Security of data in an era when…
So, what are the different types of featured snippets and what’s their value?
Ever since they first appeared, there are plenty of reputable articles online that explain how to gain featured snippets. However, most of these don't analyze the value of the traffic using real-life examples and give you a true sense of a business case for acquiring these. We’ll take a look at different types of featured snippets and offer some key findings.
One simple reason for the rise in importance of featured snippets for digital marketers is the sheer amount of Search Engine Result Page (SERP) "retail" space these take within search results. They dominate the results page and offer greater visibility for a specific query that a potential customer is actively searching for and thereby interested in. Furthermore, in a previous Smart Insights article,…
A growing patchwork of domestic and international data privacy bills are being rapidly bolstered and enacted
Recent data privacy scandals have sharply focused the attention and regulators and lawmakers on big data, ad tech and direct marketing. In response, a growing patchwork of domestic and international data privacy bills are being rapidly bolstered and enacted.
Digital marketing, by its very nature, involves the collection, use and dissemination of personal information, in one form or another. The recent onslaught of data privacy legislation has left marketers scratching their collective heads as to what "personal information" means nowadays and how they can comply. Interestingly, very similar considerations have the Federal Trade Commission calling on Congress to enact federal privacy legislation that balances consumers' concerns with business' need for clear rules of the road.
How has all of the legislative activity actually impacted digital marketers? How is it likely to do so moving ahead?
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A quick-fire guide to making the case for greater investment in market research
There’s so much you can learn from customer satisfaction surveys, exit-intent surveys, claims testing, ad testing, concept testing and by simply getting closer to your customers.
Market research is always changing but maybe isn’t talked about as an industry as much as other parts of marketing, such as SEO, paid media and even CRO.
There’s a whole new world of opportunity out there to get insights, quicker, faster, and cheaper than ever. Research should always be done to the highest quality, with standards respected – and I think, combined with its often-lengthy timescale, this scares people off. But it shouldn’t. You wouldn’t produce a blog post without typo checking it and you wouldn’t write an ad for Google Ads without making sure the message is relevant to the audience you’re targeting. Market research is no different.
It’s easier than you may…
