67% of companies that don't hit their multi-year Black Friday average will fail to hit their multi-year rest of the holiday season average

The days are getting shorter and all of the decorations are out. You know what that means. Pumpkin and maple flavored everything and your massive holiday season to-do list just became more urgent. The NRF 2017 Holiday Playbook reports that more than half of holiday shoppers start researching potential purchases in October or earlier. With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, there is no time to waste. eMarketer expects digital commerce to climb 15.8%, even while total retail growth will slow this holiday season. Make sure your eCommerce engine is firing on all cylinders because there is a lot at stake. …

How to meet today's marketing compliance challenges with an online BrandHub

Marketing departments are bursting at the seams with opportunity. Upstream they are in overdrive producing content for niche targets, using multiple agency partners and designers. Downstream, content needs to be seamlessly distributed across a range of social, web, print and broadcast media. The challenges today are not only getting great work out the door, on time and on budget, but ensuring the work is compliant from a brand and legal perspective as well. As such, having a system in place that can cater for the full lifecycle of content from creation and collaboration, to creative approvals and the centralization of final artwork, is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but rather a must-have to streamline marketing operations. Especially, when working with tight marketing deadlines and multiple stakeholders. According to Tessa Court, the CEO of IntelligenceBank DAM, “most companies are undergoing a wave…

New report download - the Definitive Practical Guide to Influencer Relationship Management

Influencer marketing has grown in importance in recent years as the popularity of content marketing has grown. Influencer marketing is an exciting strategy with “84% of marketers worldwide saying they would launch at least one influencer campaign within the next 12 months” according to eMarketer For the lack of a better analogy, if influencer marketing were to take human form, it would be an awkward just post-pubescent teenager. It’s growing up yet not quite mature; it’s gaining a voice but isn’t always taken seriously. But teenagers do eventually mature, they just need some guidance along the way. The exact same goes for influencer marketing.

What is influencer marketing?

You'll know that influencer marketing is not a new concept. Word-of-mouth, social influence, PR and Public Affairs are all closely related. Influencer marketing has many different definitions and forms as you would expect in such…

5 powerful nudges that influence human behaviour

Consider the following puzzle: A bat and ball cost £1.10. The bat costs one pound more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? The number that many people arrive at is 10p, dividing up £1.10 neatly into £1 and 10 pence. However, the correct answer is 5p (if the ball costs 10p then the total cost will be £1.20 - 10p for the ball and £1.10 for the bat). Now consider another question: How many animals of each kind did Moses take into the ark? This question is commonly referred to as the ‘Moses Illusion’. Moses took no animals into the ark; Noah did. The incorrect answers many people give to these questions offers just a glimpse into the overwhelming evidence that indicates that one of the underlying assumptions of social science, that humans are generally rational and their thinking normally sound, is flawed. Many of us believe that we know…

I have finally made time to read the Google Starter Guide to SEO PDF which was published in November. This is a summary of the recommendations. I had a quick check back in November to see whether it added to conventional wisdom on best practice, i.e. what any competent SEO would advise. On a second, detailed reading, it doesn't add anything to standard best practice, but its value is in educating non-SEO specialists through it's summary of the main issues and nice use of examples. It also helps validate your advice, so make relevant sure content owners and designers take a look. If you haven't had a chance to read ityet, I can save you time - these are the main issues addressed.

Summary of Google-recommended SEO practices

Some of the important points from the Google Starter Guide which we find are often neglected by designers or content owners are: 1.…