The monthly Smart Insights round up of the latest developments and advice for marketers
There were three major digital marketing platform developments to be aware of in November - these are the changes to the Facebook newsfeed and Twitter tools covered below in our social media section and Google introduced mobile SEO-friendly site labels as featured in the @SmartInsights alert in our SEO and content marketing section.
Digital Marketing Strategy and planning for 2015
Well, it’s already that time of year where it becomes popular to look at marketing trends for the year ahead. Many readers will naturally have been planning and prioritising how you invest in marketing in the year ahead for some time already.
In my article on digital marketing trends for 2015 we asked readers of Smart Insights to vote on what they saw as the most commercially significant trend for their business in the year ahead. We have now had over…
Fewer than half of businesses are responding to Digital Disruption by Digital Transformation
Business leaders today know that Digital technology is disruptive, the question is, how do they respond it as part of 'Digital Transformation' - as shown in the stages of our infographic.
Pwc's 6th annual Digital IQ survey reveals that:
'having a strong Digital IQ, the by product of leveraging these five interlocking behaviours, were 2.2 times more likely to be top-performers in revenue growth, profitability, and innovation.'
Their findings show that many larger businesses still trying to overcome challenges and 70% of those who are successfully driving Digital Transformation, are ensuring that their Chief Information Officer and Marketing Managers/Directors are working closely together to engage in 'digital discussions'.
How many businesses are concerned about the Digital Disconnect?
The findings show that 75% are ill-prepared to respond and adapt to technologies, and 69% can not keep up with the speed of technology, even though…
Plus three ingredients that you can combine to create a powerful name and strap line
The name you select for a brand, product or service will clearly have a major impact on how prospects and customers perceive your service, but what are the options for choosing the best name? There are lots of ways to name a business, a service, or a product. The addition of a strap line can take the name a little further. From nonsensical words, like Google, to highly descriptive names, like Compare the Market – there are just so many ways to think about naming! Whilst it's true that naming is a bit of an art and today we are often constrained by domain name availability, there are certainly a few issues to consider to guide you to choose a name that can work much harder for you.
1. Nonsense names – e.g. Google
The benefit of a name like this is that once you’ve lodged…
Including 4 practical tips on mobile optimisation
With 2015 fast approaching, we within the marketing industry start to ask ourselves, what’s next? When prompted about their thoughts on the digital marketing trends of 2015, a large number of industry experts gave a similar response as shown in our recent survey Digital Trends for 2015. The answers given by many suggested that mobile marketing is now, and will be the pinnacle of brands' marketing strategy.
There's a similar pattern in the Smart Insights poll of Digital Marketing Trends in 2015 with mobile marketing in third place behind content marketing and marketing automation.
Rand Fishkin of Moz suggested that:
‘for many consumer-focused tasks, mobile is likely to eat away at desktop share’.
Jason Falls suggests that ‘2015 will be all about figuring out mobile in some way, and Google will penalize you for not having…
5 key themes of Modern Marketing innovation
Innovation is a concept that is referenced regularly in marketing content: from blog posts to keynotes, it is widely acknowledged as a critical ingredient for success in the digital age. Yet, for all the importance attributed to innovation, it is rarely analysed or explored.
We decided to take a closer look to understand how marketers perceive innovation both inside and outside their own organisations. How do marketers define innovation? What are the main enablers of innovation? Do they feel their own marketing is innovative? We wanted to answer these questions, and more, to understand the key drivers and challenges. We went about doing this by surveying the attendees of our 2014 UK Roadshow in London. This group was made-up of senior-level marketers, representing a wide variety of sectors; both consumer and business-to-business.
The Five Key Marketing Innovation themes
From the survey results, we distilled five key themes,…
Examples showing why B2B website visitors deserve a great experience too
Whichever business sector you are in, it is still crucial to consider your digital marketing as a holistic process created around your website. In a 2013 blog post here on Smart Insights I detailed a number of areas that all effective B2B websites should have. Many remain relevant even though the technology and customer expectation has moved on.
The objective of this blog post is to build on this theme of centrality and align it with the delivery of powerful and engaging user experience that draws visitors in and keeps them coming back again and again.
Only by creating a website rich in customer focused content and that is built to respond to the device it is being viewed on, has the chance of catching and maintaining attention. I'll also be covering this topic as part of 6 key tactics to Turbocharge your digital…
Which 'Demandgen' channels and content marketing techniques are most effective for B2B marketers?
Allocating budget and resources to the right channels is always a challenge, even after fully analysing your personas, past campaigns and competitor activity. Properly defining demand generation and then integrating into your strategy is key to developing a future-proof marketing plan.
The B2B Demand Generation Report from marketing technology SoftwareAdvice.com explores what companies are investing in to 'fuel their Demandgen'.
Which are the most effective channels for generating high quality leads?
This four quadrant presentation can help prioritise your focus according to your business goals. For generating high quantity and quality leads, Trade Shows, Referral Marketing and in-house email marketing were the best channels. Bear in mind, that this is from a sample of 200 B2B marketing organisations in the United States.
Which content…
Our monthly round-up of the main developments in marketing
The main platform developments this month were Twitter Digits and the relaunch of Facebook Atlas which we report on in our Social Media section. We also heard about Google's reinvention of email through Inbox - although there's not much to report on just yet, we'll have to see when it officially goes to Public Beta - request your invite here!
Strategy and Planning
This month we’ve been focusing on an aspect of Digital Marketing that you don’t hear discussed very often, but we think will be discussed a lot more in the future as more businesses start to get the fundamentals of digital marketing right. That’s Digital Marketing Optimization - check out our post for why we see it is important and how the best results will go to those businesses who succeed in getting People, Process and Tools to work effectively…
Expanding your affiliate program to the US the right way
The globalization of e-commerce, coupled with a growing American demand for British goods, has many U.K. retailers eyeing the U.S. market. And with global B2C e-commerce expected to reach $1.5 trillion this year, they’re not alone. Retailers across the world are tapping into this lucrative consumer base with sophisticated affiliate programs.
With global retail affiliates like RetailMeNot, rewardStyle, and ShopStyle gaining in popularity, homing in on consumers who crave your products is becoming easier than ever.
However, it’s important to note that not every retailer is ready for the competitive affiliate landscape across the pond as there are a number of differences you must consider when launching an affiliate program in the U.S. These include program management services, industry standards, compliance, and interactions with merchants and networks.
Without a thorough understanding of how…
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29 Oct 2014
Re-imagining the recruitment process in a digital world
Using digital to provide a human touch
In relationships between two people, the person instigating the break up may feel they may have little to lose, especially in the early days of the relationship. 'You never return my phone calls, my emails. You never told me why you don’t accept me for who I am? I just get voicemail. Tell me why you don’t love me.'
Unnecessary behaviour
This behaviour appears to me, to often also manifest itself in the HR recruitment processes of companies. Even in a digital age when a prospective employee could also be a customer or even a shareholder. They could be left thinking that if this is how they treat their prospective employees then this is how they might treat their current employees. Worse still, it could mean they walk away as a customer or shareholder.
Marketing Directors and Customer Service Directors are…
