The concept of caution in digital marketing
We’d like to hazard a reasonable guess and assume that not many people reading this article are trained soldiers. It’s likely that none of us has actually seen battle at all unless it’s at home when the toilet seat is left up! (But that’s a whole different conversation.)
So when we talk about the concept of firing bullets, then cannonballs in a business setting it’s totally reasonable to expect a sea of blank faces and some uncomfortable muttering about confusing metaphors.
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However, the concept of firing bullets first, and then cannonballs, is a critical element of business in general, and more specifically, of digital marketing.
Defining the concept of bullets then cannonballs
While we’d love to lay claim to this exceptional…
5 ways to develop a better marketing automation strategy
In the age of automation, it’s easy for businesses to rest on machine efficiency while eschewing strategy. After all, if you can use a few software programs to send your emails, schedule your social media, and initiate Push notifications, why not use all of them? The underlying theory is maximum outreach, maximum results, but that simply isn’t true.
Instead, businesses would do better to narrow the scope of their automation practices and develop a well-focused strategy that focuses on meaningful contact rather than just maximum contact. Employ the programs at your disposal, but don’t overwhelm your customers.
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For a digital marketing strategy that drives sales home, consider these five tips. With the right suite of programs and a…
The 5 key steps for hiring an agency that’s right for your business
As readers of Smart Insights will know all too well, digital marketing is a vast field with many different elements and nuances. From media planning and strategy, through to SEO, CRO, and UX, digital marketing is constantly evolving and keeping up with all the trends can be very time-consuming.
Many companies opt to bring marketing expertise in-house, which can be advantageous for keeping a grip on resourcing costs, maintaining control and building a strong team for the future. However, there are also pitfalls to this approach, mainly around the attraction of creative talent and the lack of an independent, outside perspective that agencies bring to a creative brief.
Having worked both agency and client-side throughout my career, I believe there are many benefits to working with an agency to partner on strategy, campaign planning, and capability building. However, the…
Marketers need to become even more agile to reach their audience with the right message, at the right time and through the right channel
The world of DevOps is evolving, with more and more enterprises integrating this approach into their overall operations. This does wonders for the technical operations of your business. But it is also useful for marketers as well.
The point of DevOps is to increase efficiency, productivity and agility. It streamlines the build, development and launch process, infusing key data and insights into each step.
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Marketers can learn a thing or two from this shifting mindset. Marketers need to become even more agile to reach their audience with the right message, at the right time and through the right channel.
DevOps requires…
UK desktop ad viewability improvements, Google's first-price auction rollout, Facebook's political ad policies changes, YouTube's inappropriate content removal update
This week has brought with it the news that the UK is seeing great rates of desktop ad viewability, with viewability reaching a record high in the second quarter of the year - great news for digital advertisers!
In other advertising news, after months of testing, Google is set to start rolling out its new first-price auction rollout, which has reportedly had good results so far.
Facebook is also making changes to ad policies, this time relating to political ads and those that tackle social issues. These changes are aimed to provide greater visibility over political advertising ahead of the 2020 US elections.
Our final big news story is the week is that YouTube has provided an update on its efforts to remove inappropriate content from the platform, with thousands of hate speech videos being…
A study reveals that 94% of the marketers surveyed see personalization of the web experience is vital for business success.
When you plan your website, you think about things like design, web copy, and calls-to-action. This isn't wrong, but your competitors are doing the same thing.
If you want to create a true connection with visitors and do something most of your competitors aren't, you should consider marketing personalization. If you're wondering what personalization is, the answer is simple enough.
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According to Newco, Personalization is one of the biggest trending topics when it comes to marketing and data trends. Essentially, it refers to using the information…
The right tools can make it easier to plan your marketing strategy but also improve the results you get from your activity
Leveraging tools can help you plan your marketing strategies more easily, but they can also help you improve your plan’s results.
But there are so many tools today that it can be difficult to pick the right ones. Meanwhile, picking the wrong tools would lead to waste of money – and precious time.
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In this blog posts, I've compiled five useful tools that can help you plan your marketing strategies; you’ll not only find some useful planning tools that you can use for all of your marketing plans, but also tools that target specific marketing strategies:
1. Trello
Despite …
Marketers can expand relationships between existing customers and their brand at a lower cost than attracting new clients
Don’t you just hate it when someone only shows up when they want something? You know the type; the fair-weather friend who is suddenly chummy after weeks of absence because they want to call in a favour. It’s a social etiquette faux pas that can act as an important lesson for marketers because businesses do it too.
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The relationship between a brand and its customers is all too often transactional and stilted, with companies only getting in touch when they want to sell a product. This is a trap that travel marketers should avoid for…
Chart of the Week: 37% of marketers say increasing brand awareness is the main goal for 2019 but it is not a measure of success.
Increased brand awareness brings with it a range of benefits, including increased traffic, brand advocates and possibly more sales. It’s not surprising then that that over a third (37%) of marketers cite increasing brand awareness and brand health as their top priority for digital marketing in 2019.
According to Altimeter by Prophet’s global survey of 500 senior digital marketers, brand awareness is still a big priority across the world. However, the research revealed that there are a lot of different priorities when it comes to digital marketing, with the focus being split across several areas.
2019 digital marketing goals
Over a quarter (26%) of marketers say that their primary goal for their digital…
Chart of the week: Only 2% of marketers have integrated all processes throughout their marketing funnel.
Creating a funnel that ticks all the boxes is a vital part of marketing. Your funnel should attract, nurture, qualify and convert, leading customers through to the checkout as seamlessly as possible in order to get the best conversion rates.
Unfortunately, few funnels are completely perfect. Most of us will find that our marketing funnel isn’t performing as well as we might like, with at least one section causing issues at any one time. While you can work to deal with these problem areas, it’s unlikely that all the issues will be solved.
More often than not, this friction between sections of the funnel is caused by how integrated all your process are. Poor integration will naturally slow other process and see your overall results impacted.
Currently, according…
