Simple ideas to review for more impactful Pinterest, Google+, Facebook and Twitter Posts

We like useful infographics that prompt you to think about the way you do things and change them. Myclever Agency have designed a 'clever' (excuse the pun!) practical infographic to showcase how to create the perfect social media post and timings for engagement, across Pinterest, Google+, Facebook and Twitter, gathering insight from sources available on Bitly and Salesforce.

One size doesn't fit all for different networks, so it's interesting to see their point-of-view on how you should communicate differently through the different networks. Their infographic addresses key points for layout, content, CTA across the different platforms to leverage engagement and social sharing. We like it as it's simple and most of all practical.

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New report summarises best and worst only copywriting practices

Value: [rating=4]

Recommended link: State of Digital Copywriting: Sticky Content Survey results 2013

This report makes for interesting reading if you're involved in writing content, in the on or off-line world, and feeling the pressure to optimise your process for copywriting so it gets the delicate balance right between benefits for brand, content marketing, SEO, the UX and social interaction. It's also useful reading if your managing copywriting within an agency or as a client marketer managing an agency.

Sticky Content have realised these increasing demands on copywriting and ran their own survey, to 'poll the market on qualitative issues around digital copywriting, content production' and to find out how attitudes are changing.

Sticky Content collated findings from an on-line survey and onsite exhibitions, comprising of Marketers, Copywriters and Content Editors, to identify best practice and challenges which companies are still facing, including industry insights…

Research on the top mobile sites and apps as rated by consumer experience

Earlier this year, Episerver carried out consumer research in the UK with over 1000 consumers, to evaluate use of the mobile internet and use of apps. Consumers were asked if they are using mobile sites, the importance of features and their engagement with mobile apps. To ensure representation, the data findings were benchmarked with data from 30 retailers on the IMRG Experian Hitwise Hot Shops List. This research gives a useful list of the leading retailers to benchmark your Mcommerce site and apps against:

Retailers were awarded points and scored to 100% on the following criteria which probed into key areas around UX including performance, engagement and zooming support. The full report can be downloaded from…

Facebook launches new 15 second video service on Instagram

Value/Importance: [rating=3] Recommended link: Instagram's Getting started on Video Help pages We recently showed how Instagram can be an effective marketing tool for small businesses. So the recent announcement by Mark Zuckerberg has been followed with great interest by small business marketers in particular. Increasingly free, bite-sized video is being used to support engagement through social media, whether it's through Vine,  the short 6 second looping video on Twitter, Google+ Hangouts or Youtube video being integrated across multiple channels.  Social media users are loving visual content sharing, shown by the use of vine already used by 13m iOS users by June when it was first released on Android. Now Facebook has responded by offering a video option to its  130m Instagram users.

What is…

When to use specific subject lines (and when not)

The more people open your email, the better. So your subject line should go for maximum opens, right? Probably not, actually. Here's why...

First, take a look at your email list. Don't they look happy?

You're going to send out a standalone promotion for Widgets. The red people may want to buy one. The blue ones have no interest.

(The orange one is a competitor monitoring your emails. And the green one is an email marketer collecting creative for her swipe file.)

Should you use a specific or more general, inclusive subject line? Here's what others say:

Claude C. Hopkins wrote in Scientific Advertising in 1923 (yes, 1923!):

"Address the people you seek, and them only"

In their seminal 2008 study of subject line length Alchemy Worx concluded (my emphasis):

"Getting more people for whom the message is relevant to open the email requires a subject…

What are you your plans to trial new tactics in the Year of Content Marketing?

2013, if you haven't realised it as yet is the year of Content Marketing. Study after study have shown that content marketing can turn the unaware into aware, the non-engaged into advocates and web browsers into customers. It does though require effort, resources and quality creators. To be successful, content marketing relies on sharing a regular dose of quality content and producing this takes a big investment in time; not to mention being creative with it. 

This recent joint DMA-CMI report on 2013 Content Marketing trends in the UK, US and Australia is worth checking if you haven't seen it. It shows that half of all marketers surveyed are planning to increase their budget on content marketing in the next 12 months, encouraged by the effectiveness of existing tactics.

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Using customer surveys and feedback data as part of a methodology for improving customer journeys

If you want to improve your customer’s experience, listen to what your customers are saying.

Like any cliché, it is easier said than done... Over-simplification can be misleading and it misses the most important point: what are the drivers for customer to follow the path-to-purchase?

If you want to improve your customer experience you need to be focused on the path or the journey and the reasons behind it. Along the way you may find that some aspects you previously considered as the only way to do things are actually not enough. Marketing automation is not enough.

As shocking as it seems for some of us, many businesses worldwide still prioritise outbound marketing and customer acquisition; by speaking at customers, rather than inbound marketing and retention; actually listening to what customers are saying with the objective to provide a good…

6 Essential steps to create a content marketing plan

Last Friday, Stephen Bateman took us through his 6 Steps to creating a content marketing plan in the latest Smart Insights-BrightTALK  Digital Marketing Priorities 2013 webcast. At the end of this post we share the deck and recording as requested. We again had some really interesting questions on the webcast - thanks for those! We covered the majority of them at the time, but Stephen has picked out 3 questions where we thought his answers would be of general interest.

Resourcing content marketing - should we use content curation?

Question: If we don't have enough content experts in-house to create well-rounded content, do you suggest we link to other sources from our site, or should we pay outside sources to create content for us? Answer: Yes, linking to other sources is known as curating content and is a widely used approach to present yourself as an authority…

Guidance and examples for Buying Guides relevant for other sectors too

‘Buying Guide’ or 'Buyer's Guide' content are a common SEO tactic particularly amongst retailer ecommerce sites, but they can be used in other types of site too such as financial services. They're popular since they tick many of the boxes for effective on page SEO. They're naturally rich in keywords, dense in character count and recognisably original, it’s an easy target to hit on your SEO checklist. They also enable you to link to your main target category and popular product pages with relevant anchor text, so boosting their effectiveness.

Potential customers also love Buying Guides, since, done well, they’re a great research resource in the early ‘information gathering’ stages of the purchasing decision process.

If they provide great advice and a good experience in navigating them,…

Impact and usage of Tripadvisor for companies marketing in the tourism sector

MediaMosaic have compiled a useful Infographic on Tripadvisor, collated from  sources including Comscore, Tripadvisor and Forbes to provide insight into marketing travel destinations. As the tourism industry is growing, WWTC forecasts that by 2023 it will be worth 10% of global GDP and creates 115 bn for the UK economy each year - it's still a growing sector. Marketers working in tourism are seizing the opportunity to use Tripadvisor to promote their services, holiday destinations, accommodation, attractions flights  and restaurants to name afew. Tripadvisor connects with a large audience; content is viewed by 300m people monthly across other sites,  has more than 20m registered members and 60m reviews. We feel that Mediamosaic's Infographic is a great resource to show…