Chart of the Week: 87% of business video views take place on desktop but what types of videos are people engaging with?

Video marketing is highly engaging and increasing in popularity, especially with the ability to share and view them via social media platforms. In fact, people are more likely to choose video over other forms of content, with 72% of people saying they’d rather use video to learn about a product or service if it is on a page alongside text. As well as being engaging, video can also help influence decisions in both B2B and B2C industries. Research from Wyzowl reveals that 79% of people have been convinced to buy a piece of software or an app by watching a video. [si_guide_block id="23343" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Video and YouTube marketing guide" description="Our guide shows you how to review the full opportunities from video marketing…

A record-breaking year for digital advertising as mobile and video dominate revenue in the US

The IAB’s internet advertising revenue report is a survey commissioned by the IAB and conducted independently by PricewaterhouseCoopers. It’s released in full twice a year and provides an overview of digital revenue performance and the influencing factors. Although this report is from the US, many of the trends provide a strong indication of the direction digital advertising is taking in other western countries, including the UK. The 2018 report has revealed some interesting insights, most notably in relation to desktop vs. mobile, formats and market share by media. [si_guide_block id="98899" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Paid media and digital advertising playbook" description="This paid media planning guide will provide marketers with a structured approach to paid media planning to help exploit these opportunities while managing the risks."/] The report contains a lot of information so…

87% of marketers state that AI and machine learning are already vital to their organization’s success, yet this has the largest skills gap present in the data and marketing industry. Tim Bond, Head of Insight at the DMA discusses why these skills are essential to the future of intelligent marketing

Data and technology have already transformed the way businesses engage their customers in the 21st Century. The prospect of artificial/augmented intelligence (AI) and machine learning revolutionizes the speed with which we, as marketers, can take action on this insight to offer better, more relevant and engaging content to customers. Much has been said about AI in recent years, but one thing that continues to be overlooked is the need for marketers who are driven to explore and develop their own skills sets, as well as organizations that embrace a continuous learning environment. In the not-too-distant future, marketers will need to be equally proficient…

Discover what marketing channels were effective for online stores in Europe and how consumer behavior has changed in 2018

"There is nothing so stable as change," Bob Dylan once said and perfectly described all areas of life, including business. To stay relevant and successful, you should observe and analyze the current situation on the market. That is why I'm going to share with you some figures that demonstrate what marketing channels were most efficient for e-commerce in east and central Europe over the last year.

Average order value dropped, number of sessions jumped

For the CEE e-commerce Report, the Promodo digital marketing agency studied 150 e-commerce websites within 11 niches and found out that the number of user sessions has rocketed by 97% compared to 2017. This progress is almost three times less than in the previous year. In turn, the number of transactions significantly falls behind the visits volume. Its growth…

See the latest email marketing and automation statistics to help benchmark your current performance and plan improvements

We've recently updated our State of email marketing report, Email Marketing and Marketing Automation Excellence report 2018, in partnership with GetResponse. This year's report shares some interesting findings from an analysis based on over 500 respondents working in a senior position across B2C, B2B or both. Use our findings to help benchmark your current performance and map digital improvements. Throughout the report, we highlight the features businesses should try and start implementing straight away, whilst exploring how current marketing automation is used in the industry. The report covers a range email marketing and automation results, challenges and use of features, including: Investment in Email Marketing Evaluation and tracking Targeting Communication strategy Testing and optimization Open and CTRs based on industry Lead generation Read our summary below, or download the full report today, for free. [si_guide_block id="59002"…

Benchmarks, budgets, and trends to help you streamline your content marketing strategy in 2018

Every year we ask what marketing activity will be in most important for our readers' businesses or clients. In our trends polls for the last 3-4 years content marketing has always been the top topic with 20% of the vote this year. The annual report by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) describes, for the eighth year, the implications of content marketing and how it can be utilized to provide better results and engagement. Content marketing is an important part of any business and fuels all forms of inbound techniques (email, social, paid and organic search). Having a clear and defined content marketing strategy will not only help you create content but audit and set goals, improve content distribution and help evaluate and measure ROI. Findings…

80% of retailers have a welcome programme in place. So, is having the ability to push an email message to your subscriber (prospect) valuable or not?

Holistic Marketing recently analysed 80 retailers signup processes and what amazed me the most was how 87% of retailers have their subscribe below the fold, invisible to all, with the exception of those who are determined to work hard and find it. Yet, 80% of retailers have a welcome programme in place. So, is having the ability to push an email message to your subscriber (prospect) valuable or not? It would appear that the website team says no, and the email teams say yes. The problem, I believe is due to a disconnect between two teams and what they’re rewarded on. The email marketer fully understands the value of a subscriber, and indeed the value of a ‘new’ subscriber, who is eagerly opening, clicking and converting,…

Reworking your acquisition plan, beginning with your subscribe forms, will help you do a better job of connecting with customers and launching email conversations

We've been hearing many conflicting stories about how well EU marketers are preparing to handle all the many changes that GDPR will bring to their acquisition. So, we decided to see for ourselves. Now the verdict is in: Some retailers will be ready to go on May 25, when GDPR goes into full effect. Some need to do a little tweaking. The rest? They'd better read our report: Preparing for GDPR - The State of Retail Email Subscribe Forms, which is applicable to all sectors, to see what they must do now to update their practices. But doing this work does have a major upside: Reworking your acquisition plan, beginning with your subscribe forms, will help you do a better job of connecting with customers and launching email…

Most of these companies are dominating online, but where is all their traffic coming from?

Digital marketers, web specialists, and online-business owners alike have been seeking out digital solutions to serve their marketing needs for a long time now. Today, I’ll be diving into how some of the top marketing SaaS companies drive online growth. Specifically, I’ll be examining their sources of traffic. What makes this study interesting is that it will challenge each company's product offering. Each of the 100 companies that I included falls into a certain category such as SEO, social media, content marketing, web analytics, etc. Are these companies “eating their own dog food” or do they talk a big game about the benefits of their product without leveraging the “benefits” themselves?

Let’s break down how the study was done

First, I set out to collect 100 websites that fall into the marketing SaaS company category. Using both Alexa and Similar Web…

What challenges impact the ecommerce industry and how can you overcome them according to your customers?

With advancements in technology, the ecommerce industry has become an intensely competitive space. As an ecommerce business, you are bound to face competition from not just industry giants but also from nascent brands that are coming up as we speak. As a result, you are in for a tough ride, especially when it comes to attracting and engaging buyers and reducing cart abandonment rates. We interviewed 1,000 online consumers from the US and the UK on their buying habits and their experiences with the current ecommerce enterprises. This allowed us to understand the challenges that ecommerce enterprises face and how you can build strategies and tactics to counter these challenges. You can download the full VWO eCommerce Consumer Survey Report 2017. This ecommerce report addresses different challenges including: …