Integrated campaigns are effective at balancing both short-term sales uplifts and long-term brand-building effects by combining a range of different channels

The advantages of creating a joined-up, integrated marketing communications (IMC) plan are well-documented and go back over twenty years. Even before the internet really took off businesses, brands and agencies were looking for ways to create consistency across content and media touchpoints. Although not all campaigns have to be fully integrated (e.g. short-term guerrilla campaigns or PR stunts), brands looking to make an impression and raise awareness as part of a product launch or seasonal sales push should consider how the different elements of a campaign come together as one. Integrated campaigns are effective at balancing both short-term sales uplifts and long-term brand-building effects by combining a range of different channels: [caption id="attachment_147672" align="aligncenter" width="640"]…

Benchmarking your performance allows you to understand how well you’re actually performing, compared to real life competitors

Measuring digital success is no easy feat; even if you’ve reached your digital marketing goals and KPIs, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good enough. After all, what if your competitors are all outperforming you? What if the industry is growing at a faster rate than your business is? That’s why it’s extremely important that you benchmark your business against your competitors: it allows you to understand how well you’re actually performing, compared to real life competitors. [si_guide_block id="28969" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Online marketing benchmarks statistics compilation" description="Benchmarking shouldn't only be done against your competitors. See how you compare on a global scale by using our compilation of the latest industry-wide benchmarking stats."/] In this blog post, discover useful tips and tools for benchmarking success in the digital landscape: from social…

Nine out of ten marketers expect to increase digital marketing budgets in 2020, but how do you make sure your budget is effective?

Digital marketing has proven itself to be one of the most effective types of marketing. Email, social media, content marketing, search engine optimization - all of these tactics are essential to business success in 2020. It’s probably why as many as 95% of organizations have increased their digital marketing budget in recent years – and why nine out of ten marketers expect that their budgets will grow in 2020 as well. [si_blog_banner_cta] That said, digital marketing is very complex and involves numerous strategies, all extremely important. As consumers increasingly expect omnichannel experiences and want to be able to reach brands on all their preferred channels, marketers have the big challenge of stretching out that budget for countless channels and strategies. So how do you create a budget that…

Answering the real questions your customers are asking can form an important part of your customer retention plan.

Customers have questions. You have answers — or so they hope! By leaving any key questions unanswered, you risk: Your prospects bailing out of your lead generation and sales funnels. Your customers feeling like you know and care about them, and thus looking to do their business elsewhere. Your bottom line revenues showing the effects of your customer neglect. But by discovering these questions and addressing them proactively, you’ll stay one step ahead of your competition. Now that we’ve established why it’s important to actively discover the top questions being asked  — or thought of — by your prospects and customers, let’s dive into how to discover them.

Begin by discovering customer questions

A recent Harvard Business Review article states that acquiring a new customer is anywhere from…

Will smaller ad agencies end up ultimately trampled to death by yottabytes of Facebook and Google data?

Along with being reigning leaders of the tech industry, Google and Facebook run the most prominent advertising networks. The rest of the no-names pale into insignificance compared to the great and terrible Duopoly. Will smaller ad agencies end up ultimately trampled to death by yottabytes of Facebook & Google data? "Who owns the information, he owns the world." This 300-year old quotation is more relevant today than ever. Like it or not, it is personal data and its quality that defines the success of advertising campaigns. Get the right data about the customer and this customer is likely yours. Facebook and Google grew from unicorns into giant datavorous raptors that absorb all info about their users. No wonder they account for a combined 60% share of digital advertising in 2019. While such…

Content isn't really king, it's the kingdom. It is made up of various pieces that combine to create something greater: an effective content marketing strategy

You’ve no doubt heard marketers proclaiming that “content is king,” but that’s a vague and misleading statement. Really, a content strategy is more like the kingdom because it’s made up of various individual pieces that combine to form something greater. There are many different facets to an effective content strategy, and — unbeknownst to many marketing departments — there’s isn’t just one type of content that rules them all. What content marketing ultimately boils down to is reaching your potential customers in a way that intrigues and engages them. Actually reaching them is the crucial first step, since you have to stand out from the crowd of 20 billion web pages that are viewed each month. With so much content competing for views, it’s up to you to…

Google has released the new Speed Report in Search Console – what is it, how do you use it, and what’s so great about it anyway?

Following several screenshots teasing the release of the new Speed Report in Search Console, Google has finally released an ‘experimental’ beta version. The report enables users to assess the speed of their site’s URLs quickly and accurately. You can find it beneath the ‘enhancements’ tab:

The advantages of Search Console’s new Speed Report

Prior to the release of this report, speed testing was a troublesome task. SEOs and site owners have been reliant on third-party tools, masses of PageSpeed Insights tests, or complex Big Query requests to test page speeds. The new Speed Report improves on these tools in a number of ways. [si_blog_banner_cta]

Ease of use

One of the main perks of Search Console’s Speed Report is that…

When it's time for execution, brand marketers and agencies need to be on the same page about what defines success. Here are three ways they can ensure precision control and usage of the right data to accomplish brand goals. 

Brands and their agencies often have healthy disagreements about strategy. As a brand marketer, you might not always enjoy debates, but hopefully, you’ve seen that they can make your marketing so much more focused and compelling. That has certainly been my experience. But when you shift from planning to execution, everyone needs to get on the same page about what success looks like. It seems like a no-brainer, but it’s much harder than you think because there are more people making decisions on your behalf than ever before.  If you mapped your team’s organizational structure, how would it line up next to your digital supply chain? On the…

Only 16% of companies focus on retaining a customer when all data points to the fact that acquiring a new one is at least five times more expensive.

In this modern digital world, with fleeting loyalties and diminishing attention span, brands and businesses are continuously trying to come up with new plans and ideas to keep their customers in the fold. Today, this is largely driven by the data an organization can collect on its customers. Thanks to the proliferation of the internet and social media, much of this information is available freely. Brands are now studying customers’ behavior, expectations and motivations to learn more and more about what goes into their purchase cycle. A large part of this is trying to engage with the customer once the purchase has been made. One common mistake that most brands (especially those in the e-commerce sector) make here is assuming that the customer will re-enter…

Chart of the Week: 57% of people in the UK spend most of their time on social media or messenger apps, but Facebook is no longer the favourite app.

Facebook is no longer as indispensable as it once was, with an increasing number of people saying it is the app they most consider quitting. Throughout the last two years, it has fallen from being the most important app in the majority of markets to one that is failing to keep its audience. As well as people getting rid of their accounts as part of a digital detox, younger audiences are turning to new social media platforms rather than Facebook. Although this means more people opting for Facebook-owned apps like Instagram and WhatsApp, it shows just how volatile the world of social media and apps currently is. [si_blog_banner_cta] We’ve taken a look at AudienceProject’s new app and…