Techniques to encourage more use of personalisation
The topic of web personalisation continues to be a priority for Ecommerce marketers. In addition to this Forrester says that personalisation is now the top priority for 55% of retailers.
However, website personalisation comes in many different formats; it could be about better use of a CMS to change user experiences on the fly; it could be product recommendations; it could be linking your CRM database with the website.
The key is that whatever format you are doing it in, it’s a big driver for e-commerce in 2014 and beyond.
However, the big question is, are you in a position as a business to maximise the effectiveness of web personalisation? I wanted to just put down in this blog a few things I think are critical from a company structural perspective to ensure that you can get the most from this exciting technique.
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6 trends for future consumer mobile use
With the current rapid rise in mobile usage, it's interesting to see these predictions of the path of the mobile consumer into the future. This infographic from Vouchercloud identifies six streams shaping, changing use in mobile devices:
1. Cloud and Mobile Data: By 2018, 90% of mobile traffic will be from cloud applications including video/audio streaming, social networking, online gaming and online storage.
2. Mobile Commerce: M-Commerce is expected to grow over the next 4 years, as already 90% of consumers are using their smartphones for 'pre-shopping'. Did you know that more than 50% of Amazon shoppers bought their purchases online in the first quarter of this year!
3. Mobile in Retail: Retailers are focusing on interactive in-store experiences, in future, they will use more QR codes and NFC (Near Field Communication), for engagement and ease of payment with voucher and discount offers.
4. Mobile Visuals: Anticipated growth in mobile video as consumers…
A recent court case could set a legal precedent to limit behavioural email marketing
Importance (to retail email marketers): [rating=5]
Recommended link: Sky News: Spammer To Pay Damages After Court Victory
There has recently been an interesting, useful and somewhat scary discussion on the Smart Insights LinkedIn discussion group about the risks of email marketers being seen as spammers and action take against them. Worth checking out if you’re involved in email marketing.
It alerted me to this recent case where John Lewis has had to pay damages because of their email marketing and data privacy opt-in approach on their site. I’ve created an alert on it since the finding seems to suggest the common practice of pre-ticking a box during purchase and following that up with an “Abandoned Shopping cart email”
The case was brought against the retailer by Roddy Mansfield, a Sky news producer. It was a private action and the finding…
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04 Jun 2014
Your Google Analytics Post-launch checklist
In my last post on using Google Webmaster Tools to audit a site post-launch I showed how after the creation of a new or redesigned website, there are many other issues to consider before a new website can be considered to be fully functional. Another key post-launch activity is to check that the effectiveness of the site will be measurable using Google Analytics. Here it’s important to make sure to have a Google Analytics checklist in place to review how to best customise Google Analytics to report on your business success.
[Editor's note: we agree that setting Google Analytics up is often missed on new sites. In particular we see that many don't have goals setup, so thanks to Vagelis for his detailed review and recommendations in this post. In fact we'd advise considering goal setup and tracking at an early stage in site development rather than post launch. Smart Insights Expert members can…
10+ tips to plan, build and share more engaging quizzes
This New York Times article highlights the reasons behind the growing popularity in online quizzes amongst consumers. Quizzes are great fun and can be an excellent way to drive traffic, but not all quizzes are created equal. There is a certain art to building and distributing a quiz that must be perfected in order to maximize the effect of your efforts. After analyzing over 1000 quizzes built using Interact, here’s what I’ve learned.
Building a quiz
1. Get the name right
80% of people make a decision about whether or not they should check out an article based on the title. That’s why you should spend a minimum of 20% of your time researching and testing out headlines.
When Upworthy first began their rise to power, they became famous for their '25 Headline' approach, in which…
Home page examples featuring simple persuasive designs for desktop and mobile experiences
Creating simplified, focused Landing Page is a standard approach for digital campaigns, particularly for engaging a prospect to get ROI their first visit from Google AdWords.
But more and more savvy brands are applying the principles of landing page design to their home pages and optimising them by testing to see whether Less is more!
An early sign of this trend was from two presentations I listened to way back in May 2010 at theEmetrics Marketing Optimisation summit. Craig Sullivan of Autoglass and Michael Gulmann of Expedia explained how they have boosted conversion through simplifying their home designs as a results of AB and multivariate testing. Since then, the increase in smartphone usage and popularity of responsive and adaptive web design has given a further reason to simplify home pages.
We're not saying this is true in all cases. More complex product offerings may demand a more…
Which LinkedIn features are best for lead generation?
In B2B marketing, we know that lead generation is key and it's about generating good quality, targeted leads, which can be qualified as much as possible rather than focussing on the volume of leads. To assess which social networks is best at B2B lead generation across B2B sectors. Oktopost has analysed over 100,000 posts across LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+, and LinkedIn ranked the highest for lead generation for B2B companies.
The findings covered in the Infographic below included highlights that:
96% of posts, in discussion groups, generated leads which resulted in up to 86% conversion rates.
1 out of 3 converted posts, included a ? in the subject line of the post.
To learn more about LinkedIn, access our Smartinsights LinkedIn Guide which we have recently updated.…
Copywriting best practice: Opening Lines - How They Make Or Break
A good opening line draws you in. A bad one tells you to put the book down. Opening lines are the most important sentences a writer will put down in pen and paper. They are crucial for commercial success.
If readers cannot go beyond an insipid opening line, they cannot reach the thousands of beautiful sentences that lie just beyond the first page. If a reader does not read, then the subsequent lines will virtually not exist. In a sentence, a good opening line leads to a strong literary start.
A must for commercial success
The start of any literary work begins with the first two lines and continues to the first two chapters. Agents and publishers read a work before readers do, and they are not afraid to cancel the novel if they find it uninspiring. Their most said excuses are:
If readers…
Why is content marketing so popular yet so few have a content marketing strategy?
This infographic features a nice curation of research from the Content Marketing Institute showing that content marketing is more effective when marketers follow a strategy. We agree - we saw a similar finding in our EMEA research with Hubspot and our infographic Competing on Content!
While 88% of marketers in the UK are now implementing elements of content marketing only 42% actually have a documented content strategy.
We though you'd find the infographic useful since it summarises the top content challenges marketers are facing and gives guidance on how to overcome them. As well as five key benefits of following a content marketing strategy.
Source: JBH Marketing Infographics
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12 May 2014
Harnessing the 4 key drivers of customer control
The overwhelming choice of apps, websites and other digital platforms that customers have at their finger tips through multiple devices creates a swirling galaxy for brand owners to navigate and understand when looking to build customer relationships.
Brands need to take advantage of and be part of this technological 'galaxy of delights', as more and more time is spent by customers on electronic devices and the penetration and usage of tablets and smart phones continues apace. Since customers will interact with brands across this range of platforms, it's important to remember the context within a wider customer journey and develop integrated propositions.
But how do you make sense of all of this as a marketer? In this post I will explain a framework on how to approach different technology platforms to create advantage and deliver better customer…
