Chart of the Day: Millennials  (18-34 year olds) utilize a greater range of channels before purchasing products online than Gen-X and Baby Boomers

As consumers, we are more savvy with our purchases that ever before. By the time we have finally decided to buy a particular product we will have spent a good chunk of time researching our options to try and find the best deal we can for the product that suits our needs. In research conducted by Salesforce surveying 4,000 consumers across the UK, USA and Canada, it was found that while the respondents spent most of their time researching on the internet before purchasing online they also spent a significant amount of time using multiple channels including email, in person, on mobile apps and more. Interestingly, there are significant differences between the behavior of millennials, Gen-X and Baby Bloomers. Millennials seems to not favor a particular channel after using websites with…

Chart of the Day: Do you need a separate, defined digital marketing plan or should it be integrated with your marketing strategy?

In 2017 you will often hear that we live and work in a post-digital world. That is to say since consumers naturally use a mix of traditional and digital media, as businesses, we shouldn't treat digital media and communications separately from other media and they should be integrated. 'Post-digital' is a compelling idea and I certainly believe that integration of digital activities into all marketing activities is essential, but what is the reality in businesses? Our recently published research report Managing Digital Marketing in 2017 in collaboration with Technology for Marketing 2017 (where we'll be exhibiting and I'll be speaking on the 27th and 28th of September), shows an interesting pattern of how businesses manage digital marketing through a planned approach: The green sector…

Make sure you avoid these classic campaign planning mistakes

We’ve all seen it. The #fail where a company that’s big enough to know better, completely messes up. The odd thing is that this continues to happen and I guess until the machines take over, that will continue. Whether it’s politics or business, rarely do organisations learn from their predecessors. At Smart Insights we share best practice, hope that you find our content useful and can apply this directly to your organisations, so in this new guide we have explored 10 marketing campaign planning mistakes, with case study companies such as Absolut Vodka, Admiral Insurance, British Airways, Coca-Cola, HMV, Kodak, McDonald's, Southern Rail, Starbucks, and Waitrose, as well as the two primary candidates in the US presidential campaign and the recent Olympics. [si_guide_block id="85326" title="Download Expert Member resource – Marketing Campaign Planning Mistakes" description="Our practical and actionable guide will help you plan your marketing…

How content marketing has evolved over the last decade

Content marketing has gone through a transformation over the past 10 years. As the pace of content marketing has grown exponentially, so too has the number of content marketing pieces being published online. This has led to a shift in the approach to content marketing and a continuous change of best practices. Taking cues from Google’s constantly changing algorithms, content marketers and SEO experts have changed their opinions on keywords, platforms, and the definition of quality. What started as a way to provide useful information to users slowly became a platform for link building and monetization. This has led to oversaturation and a generally lower standard of quality.

The current state of content marketing best practices advises against shallow and valueless content for the sole purpose of having content, opting instead for creating a content strategy which works towards…

Each teacher is a gateway to hundreds of pupils and parents. Here's how to reach them.

It's back-to-school season for more than just students and teachers. It's time for marketers, too, to dust off their school supplies. What do I mean by that? I'm not talking about today's marketers needing additional education (though some of them would certainly like it). I'm talking about business opportunity.

Earning and Learning

According to the National Center for Education Statistics' May 2016 data, the U.S. spends an average of $9,200 per full-time elementary and secondary student. At the post-secondary level, that figure jumps to $27,900 per full-time student. With more than 70 million students in the U.S., that's some serious untapped revenue. What's more, educators make a grade-A audience for brands. Teachers spend an estimated $1.6 billion per year out of their own pockets on school supplies. And when you reach teachers, you reach parents. At the elementary level, each teacher influences the buying habits of 30 or more…

Avoid these mistakes to prevent digital transformation failure

There's no doubt that Digital Transformation initiatives have been a major trend in 2016 which look set to continue into 2017. This chart from 2016 research by Smart Insights shows the popularity of digital transformation initiatives. You can see that over one-quarter (30%) of businesses already have a transformation programme in place, with many businesses looking to launch their digital transformation programme imminently. Yet shockingly, according to Forbes, 84% of digital transformations fail.  For each one of you reading this from an organization about to embark on the process, only one in eight of you will succeed. But perhaps the high failure rate is unavoidable. 86% of leaders think digital transformation is necessary within their organization yet only half feel that they fully understand it.

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Tap into freelance creative talent for your next campaign

When I started my career in 1999, the best and brightest creatives still worked full time. The freelancer revolution was close to 10 years away, and independent contractors were not yet thought of as a valuable resource for many companies. In some situations, they were treated like a bit of an afterthought: warm bodies that could come in to complete the low-level work the internal creatives turned up their noses at. Then, during the first dot-com boom, something changed.

The Evolution of the Freelancer

Suddenly, there were all these new companies starting from scratch all fighting for attention. Simply existing and offering a service wasn’t enough anymore. So to stand out from the competition, smart companies began prioritizing their product design, their branding, and the quality of their advertising messaging. Many of these new companies started in-house creative groups to vertically integrate their businesses. They used colorful…

Marketing your restaurant is a mobile game.

The emergence of the smartphone has created a culture of connectivity. With 77% of U.S. adults population carrying around smartphones to stay connected, it makes sense that your restaurant follows suit with the big names to capitalize on this growing need to know. If you look around at what many restaurants are trying, you will see many innovative and forward-thinking strategies that are yielding some great success. Today there are a number of ready-made app solutions that provide access to many of these features being used by the big names. The rise of app builders now allows you to implement the same strategies used by large chains without all the necessary developer fees. You can easily borrow some of the thinking behind the success of these big brands and develop your own mobile strategy based on what's working. As a small business or even a string of…

At the tender age of 20 I started my digital agency Optix Solutions. 18 years on we are still going and employ almost 20 staff. Here are 5 useful tips if you're thinking of starting your own business.

At 38 and as a relative old timer of the industry, I thought it would be useful to tell my story. Hopefully I can inspire the next generation because although the internet might have changed dramatically in the time I've been going, good old common sense business fundamentals haven't.

When I started my agency back in 1999 Google and Ebay were both in a garage somewhere. Many companies didn't have websites so my job was to persuade them this Internet thing was worth investing in! 18 years on and its a little different! In that time we went through the dot com bubble bursting, the birth of ecommerce,…

Neuroscience reveals how you can nudge your customers into converting

Dr. David Lewis, neuroscientist and author of The Brain Sell, delivered a fascinating keynote speech about customers’ brains when they buy at Ecommerce Conversion World 2017 in March. Here are 3 fascinating insights about your customers and suggestions on how to apply them to your website to increase conversion rates.

Fact 1: People Notice What's Different (or the Same!)

While this may sound contradictory, Dr. Lewis suggests that there are actually 4 factors that make a person stand out in a crowd. There’s something inherently different about the person, such as exceptional beauty or a striking feature The person has made themselves look different, such as with tattoos or colored hair The person looks familiar to you, like someone you know in real-life or from a film It’s someone you’re specifically looking for …