76% of adults use multiple devices to access content- only a tiny minority uses desktop only
The results of Comscore's 'Cross-platform future in focus 2016' make for interesting reading. One of the most interesting charts from the report show just how tiny the number of people not using a combination of devices to access content online is. For those aged between 18 and 34 only 3% are only accessing content on a desktop device - if trends continue then the figure for December 2016 will be less than 1%.
But we're not seeing a dramatic shift to pure mobile - instead users are making the most of both mediums and utilising desktop and mobile together in order to suit whatever their needs are at the time. This explains why we are seeing high levels of mobile traffic on ecommerce sites but very low mobile conversion rates. Those people browsing on mobile are converting…
Flat Website Design: A Fad or the Web’s New Look?
Like the hottest fashion fads, website design trends come and go. The days when carousel sliders and sidebars ruled the Web are long gone. In the last few years, flat websites have taken over.
The reason? Modern Internet users are savvier than their predecessors. They know how to navigate a webpage, so there’s no need to use shading and textures to guide their eyes.
Flat designs also have faster load times and a clean, professional look. According to Bluehost, these sites offer perfect scalability for mobile devices. These attributes not only enhance UX but also improve a site’s PageRank.
But is flat design a bottle-rocket fad that will burn out as fast as it took off? Or will it be the Web’s new wayfarer – a trend that remains popular through the decades…
How to utilise continuous improvements and ‘big bets’ to achieve operational and strategic excellence
As part of any digital transformation agenda, the ability the test and learn gives businesses the opportunity to experiment, iterate and grow skills and competences throughout the organisation. For digital marketers, this opportunity is becoming increasingly important as technology continues to advance and larger companies face new and emerging threats from more nimble, innovative competitors.
To drive meaningful digital transformation at scale, businesses must therefore be open to the adoption of a test and learn culture, which will enable marketers to optimise digital media activation, create first-class digital experiences and develop learning across the organisation. Much of this will be dependent on each organisation’s stage in the digital transformation journey:
Three big digital trends
The importance of developing a test and learn culture is reflected in the numerous …
Dynamic content features are key to making your emails more engaging
Email marketing over the years has evolved in leaps and bounds. In fact, what seemed impossible in the previous decade can now be easily achieved with help of HTML-based emails. Rich design layouts including visual delights like photos, videos to GIF’s are all epitomes of a HTML-rich email. This drastically improves customer experience, boosts customer engagements and in turn increases sale possibilities.
Studies have revealed that personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10%. Dynamic content can allow you add personalisation into your emails. If you have not already implemented it, this should be something you are working towards.
In the below Email example from EEC, you can see the subscribers in U.S receive greetings for their Independence Day and non-U.S subscribers are greeted with a Rocking Summer, all thanks to Dynamic Content.
How Dynamic Content in Email Works
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How Trade Shows can thrive when combined with Digital Marketing
Trade shows were once the cornerstone of one’s calendar. Before the days of Google Hangouts, Skype and in fact e-mail, trade shows were a hub for industry professionals to network and for businesses to launch initiatives which they hoped would keep consumers and competitors talking for months to come. As Lima Curtis discussed in her article, what made trade shows so special is quickly being surpassed and made irrelevant in the digital age. Despite this trend, trade shows for pretty much every industry imaginable continue year on year and hundreds of thousands of people annually clear a space on their calendar to attend.
So when products and services can be launched in an instant online, fellow professionals can be contacted with the click of a button and all of…
Using video content on your blog will make you a search engine favourite
Ranking on search engines is the top-most priority for all content creators. Chances are you’ve landed here to read this article to learn what more you can do to outshine others in the SEO-race.
Extensive keyword research, targeted topics and flow of link-juice to your articles is what you’ve all been doing for a while. Right?
However, with evolving audience types and decreasing attention span, diversification is important. You cannot just stick to the written word.
This is where video content comes in. Accompanying the text with a high-quality video makes it stand out. Almost 80% of users recall watching a video in the past month, and 46% report taking some action on it! This alone is the biggest reason why you should start creating video content.
A video not only lends credibility to your message, it also showcases authority to the…
Email retains its position as one of the most powerful marketing channels
It's two chart's of today instead of one today, for the simple reason that I couldn't include one without the other. One is great news for marketers, the other for consumers.
The good news for marketers is that ROI from email remains extremely strong. Long regarded as one of the most cost effective marketing channels, it's lead over others shows no sign of falling away.
Email thus remains a key channel for investing in for 2016 and 2017, with newer tactics like personalization, dynamic content, and embedded gifs & videos helping to increase engagement on the part of users.
The worry of course is that the effectiveness of email will cause marketers to ruin it with overuse. As more and more attempt to use the platform users will feel increasingly bombarded…
Does your blog or site run on Wordpress? If so, use these WordPress Plugins to optimise your content marketing, SEO and more
WordPress is the most popular CMS (Content Management System) due to its ease-of-use, flexibility, and scalability; especially for entrepreneurs, aspiring bloggers, and businesses looking to expand online. But one feature of WordPress where it really stands out from other content management systems is the sheer availability of different Plugins. Some are well known, others are diamonds in the rough. Certainly, there are plenty that are more trouble than their worth. But by using Plugins selectively you can achieve better results more efficiently than without them.
Without further ado, here are 37 of the best WordPress plugins will want to consider for your business website:
Search Engine Optimization
1. Yoast SEO Plugin for WordPress
The Yoast SEO plugin covers everything you need for on-page SEO. It helps you optimize ranking factors…
3 rules to inform your content marketing strategy
Many B2B companies are still adapting to the new opportunities of content marketing, and too many are still playing by the old rules. This involves with massively wordy, downloadable eBooks and content designed for the Desktop Era. Content marketing has changed along with the larger trends in technology and with shifting consumer preferences for how people access information and engage with content online, and your B2B content marketing strategies need to change along with it!
Here are some new rules of content marketing that any B2B firm can benefit from:
Make it "mobile first."
Mobile devices now represent a majority of internet usage, and many people are using smartphones as their primary device for accessing the Internet. But mobile devices aren’t just for teenagers or millennials, and they’re not just for consumers – more and more B2B buyers are using mobile devices to conduct research about…
We interviewed Paul Farnell, CEO and Co-founder of Litmus about their new partnership with Microsoft
If you work in email marketing you may well have heard of the new partnership Litmus have just announced with Microsoft. Because it's such a big industry first, we talked to Litmus' CEO to find out more about the workings of the deal and how it will affect both email marketers and the future of email itself.
Congratulations on the new partnership with Microsoft, can you give us an idea how this will affect how email marketers use Litmus? Will Litmus’ capabilities be changing?
Thank you! We’re very excited about the partnership and anticipate some great work with the Outlook team. There will not be any differences in how email marketers use and test in Litmus. The goal is that when viewing an Email…
