Fight the Big Data Backlash and use Smart Data help you identify purchase intent
Big data is starting to experience some significant backlash. A ‘case in point’ comes from a recent popular article in VentureBeat: ‘Big data’ is dead. What’s next? The backlash is more to do with the buzz than the data but the reason relates to the difficulty of extracting meaningful insights from big data.
Born from the backlash comes another buzzword; smart data, a means of extracting these meaningful insights from big data.
Looking past the marketing hype, smart data is actually the metamorphosis of big data into something actionable. Here we look at recognizing purchase intent as an example of actionable data extraction.
Big data vs Smart data rundown
So let’s start with the basic question of what is big data? Big data refers to massive volumes of structured and unstructured…
A 4 Step guide to maximising your own resources for your content strategy
When it comes to building a strong digital campaign, many businesses underestimate the value of the information and resources they already have – particularly if they are specialists such as negligence lawyers and recruiters who have a wealth of statistics at their fingertips.
The key to creating engaging content is to assess how you can transform the information you already have into a resource that portrays user-friendly and valuable facts about your industry. This will automatically increase the chance of someone who requires your services finding your business organically online.
4 ways to create shareable and unique content using your own resources
1. Define your end goal?
As with all marketing strategies, identify your goal before devising a plan to achieve it. This will give you the information required to assess the customer you are looking to attract and the type of…
Just head to http://analytics.twitter.com when signed-in
Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Twitter Analytics
Previously Twitter's analytics service has been limited to advertisers, but that changed this week with an announcement via Twitter:
Absolutely thrilled to open up access to http://t.co/wcU6oj9hFM to EVERYONE. Check it out, and let us know what you think!
— Ian Chan (@chanian) August 27, 2014
How to access Twitter analytics?
Just as it says in the title to this article, if you're already signed into Twitter in your browser, if you go to http://analytics.twitter.com. There is no registration process, but a little bizarrely, you just have to access the dashboard URL and you should then see updates. Until then you will just see a blank dashboard:
For more information on what you can see in Twitter's analytics see this post from Twitter introducing the Twitter Analytics dashboard.
Enjoy!
This is…
Changes to how you share photos, clickbait and likegating on Facebook
Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Facebook announcement on algorithm updates
Given the amount of traffic that Facebook drives to sites, any significant changes to Facebook’s algorithm are now big news in the way that Google’s algorithm updates have been for years. So in our alerts we look to update readers on all the major changes made by Facebook. This data on visits prompted by shares of articles via social networks shows that Facebook is far more important for driving visits than other social networks across all sites, although this may be different for B2B sites.
The major change to the Facebook algorithm announced this week has two main parts: a Clickbait filter and a change to processing of links related to status updates. While most commentary on the changes has focused on Clickbait, this…
Examples and research showing why content marketing is now key for driving Ecommerce customer journeys
Ecommerce is constantly evolving alongside the development of new digital media and technologies, yet one aspect has not changed. That is, the importance of search intent in the buyer journey. Consumers continue to use search to find, research and buy the products that they want.
However, though this basic fact may not be changing, the way search works is. Search algorithms and in particular those by Google are regularly updated to focus more on quality and relevance of content. So now ecommerce businesses have to think differently about content's position in the buyer journey.
Long gone are the days of keyword density, link farms and ghost pages. Want your products to rank well for search? You need quality content.
The intersection of content marketing and ecommerce
How are ecommerce businesses using content marketing? New research from Econsultancy…
Should your CEO be blogging?
Should your CEO have a blog separate from your company’s blog? Although it does depend on sector, it’s an increasingly important question, since many CEOs are emerging (or are already well established) as the 'public face' of the organizations they lead.
Richard Branson (Virgin Group), George Colony (Forrest Research), Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavericks) and Martha Heller (Heller Search Associates) are only a few of the many chief executives who have successfully taken to digital media to communicate on a more informal basis to employees, customers and other stakeholders. Many of these also run a LinkedIn blog shared via LinkedIn Pulse alongside their personal presence.
Pros and Cons of running a blog
Here’s a look at some of the pros and cons for CEOs contemplating a blog of their own:
Pros of CEO blog
These include:
It gives your company a personal touch. Any effort that helps to humanize your brand should be strongly considered.…
Don't forget the bigger picture
When writing emails, we do like to "optimise" each individual element of the message. Which is a good thing, provided that optimisation takes account of how those elements interact with each other.
If it doesn't, you end up with mails like this:
From line, subject line and preheader are all individually optimised to ensure people recognise the message. But the combined impact is over the top and ignores the potential of, say, the subject line and preheader to better highlight why someone would want to take a closer look at the mail. (And, yes, I have seen mails like this!)
There's a broader impact to consider that depends on the combined impression generated by these elements as people work their way (or not!) through the email. It's why you might ask your copywriter for a headline change and find them rewriting the rest…
By
14 Aug 2014
An introduction to measuring and managing online sentiment
Love. Hate. Frustration. Happiness. Security. Excitement. Satisfaction. Desire. Apprehension. Impatience.
Just a small selection of common emotions that we feel pretty much every day, as we go about our lives. Many of these emotions are felt and experienced as we interact with hundreds of brands throughout the day. Perhaps it’s the steaming hot coffee and service of Starbucks in the morning, making you feel satisfied, or the feeling of desire of the latest 7 series BMW, as you take the bus home from work, through to the painfully complicated payment system for something you wish to buy online, leaving you frustrated and angry.
The power of social media channels has created a new world of venting and consumer voice. For example with a Product recall—you can sure there’s more than one blog post about it. And then there is disappointing customer service? A quick mention of the…
Are you using all the options for email marketing?
For smaller business without a full-fledged email programme, it's not always obvious that email marketing needn't just be limited to the good old newsletter. To help you review all the other different email options, we’ll go through the ‘usual suspects’ available from email marketing that can help you as a marketer, achieve many different goals.
Best practices for encouraging opt-in to email marketing
In the wake of the recent prosecution and fine of John Lewis, the department store chain, for sending of unsolicited spam emails, we need to take a second look at communications we sent out. In almost types of emails, but not all, subscribers should be able to opt-out. To help avoid any legal issues, bear in mind it is best practice for email subscription to:
Leave the email opt-in box blank on the sign-up form. I.e. do NOT pre-populate it with a tick.
Operate a…
Creating more relevant personalised communications
Receiving messages from a company you have never spoken to can be annoying and intrusive at best, often referred to as spam. Therefore, gaining permission to speak is a critical element in building a relationship with your customers, but using this right to broadcast the same communication to all customers will eventually turn your message to “noise”. Having a conversation is not a one way speech, but an interactive communication which listens and speaks to, not at the customer.
Within the travel and tourism industry the need to provide the personal touch is a key differentiator of single and smaller hotel chains, with the service and attention to detail making the experience memorable and distinctive. This unique and distinguishing service is often carried across to the digital world, with some very elegant, evocative images and…
