A new report reviewing how we use data to take business decisions
One of my passions within digital marketing has always been around improving online activities using the data available on online customer interactions. It's why we're called Smart Insights and a lot of our posts and guides show how to make the most of this data by asking the right questions to improve performance and take the right investment decisions.
But this focus on data-driven improvement is a mindset and not one that everyone in marketing holds; it's not necessarily why they went into marketing as a career or they feel they must rely more on intuition and gut feel.
This infographic based on research from Nesta from their useful report, Rise of the Datavores, shows that Datacores are surprisingly rare. I wondered how this compared to Smart Insights readers, so please let us know in this poll.
How…
My goodness, how I love a good argument……..
One of my favourite Monty Python sketches in the distant past was the one about the “Argument Clinic”. It was a great idea…the outlet that allowed disputation a place to play out….for money.
“Excuse me I’ve come in here for an argument.”
An argumentative proposition I heard recently was “no one gives a toss about brands any more”.
Well, true or false?
Actually, neither … how’s that. It’s clear enough isn’t it? No it’s not. Yes it is. No it isn’t…
The fact of the matter is that more rubbish is talked about brands than anything else. Linda Barker (God bless her, calls herself a brand – Linda? You know the Interior Designer and TV Presenter). Jordan née Katie Price probably thinks she’s one too.
This is brand Barker or barking…..
…
Use questions and filters when planning for digital - don't just follow 'what's hot'
We're just ending the period of 2013 predictions, something I am fascinated by, find useful, but also dread each year.
There are undoubtedly some great posts out there with valuable opinion and insight. Yet it can get a little overwhelming and in most cases leave you feeling a little depressed around all the things that "you should be doing." Maybe that's just me?
The thing is, in marketing (as any job role), you can't do everything, so there's no point getting anxious about the million things that you could do, prediction posts heap that pressure on; they're good and bad, in that way.
We too ran our first online summit a week ago advising on a number of topic areas and recommended priorities for 2013, (you can see the recordings and slidedecks here if you missed them). It's easy to get…
A review of 9 updates to Google Analytics
Google Analytics have rolled out a series of fairly big changes to their User Interface. They do this every so often, either to incorporate extra functionality, or simply to clean up the user interface & improve user experience. (See the tweaks they made last time, for example). This time around most of the changes are purely around the interface, though there are some large, useful functionality tweaks too.
Editor's note: At the time of writing there isn't a new post on the Google Analytics blog to point you to for more detail, but we'll add that once available.
This post covers the 9 main changes made to Google Analytics:
1. Top Navigation Changes
The top navigation (and the overall information architecture) has changed quite considerably. There are still 4 options, but they’ve altered:
Here was the old top nav:
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16 Jan 2013
A briefing on the implications of recent acquisitions for companies selecting marketing solutions
2011 and 2012 saw major software vendors rushing to offer digital marketeers a one-stop solution for creating, publishing, analysing, managing content and measuring the performance of their social media properties.
Many acquisitions have been involved. To name but a few, Salesforce.com bought Buddy Media after acquiring Radian6. Adobe has also been busy inflating their marketing cloud, as has Oracle with their recent December $871 million acquisition of Eloqua .
You can see the aim of these acquisitions as the major vendors seek to provide a single marketing service covering customer acquisition, conversion and retention marketing activities. Here are two examples from the largest vendors.
Salesforce marketing cloud services
Oracle marketing…
Trends in Ecommerce and E-retail based on year-on-year comparisons
The world of ecommerce seemed to go through a more major mainstream media awakening in 2012 with most focus being on the bearing of fruit of mobile commerce which finally proved, then exceeded longstanding hopes.
In 2013 we can expect to see a rush of retailers attempting to get ‘mobile’ to try and capitalize on the mobile revenue stream. SME and enterprise level retailers will most likely opt for mobile optimisation of existing sites through third party solutions such as Mobify, with only the larger retailers or retailers with a very specific tactical reason opting to go native with apps. See the recording or slide deck of the Smart Insights webcast by mobile specialist Rob Thurner on mobile priorities for 2013.
This recent data from network Affiliate Window across their range of UK retail clients shows the growing importance of handset…
A roundup of key new features for you to apply in 2013
In October 2012 Google officially retired the old version of Google Analytics meaning that everyone will now use the new version 5 which has been in beta test for around a year. This coincided with a flurry of activity with new features introduced. So it’s a good to time to think about how you’re using Google Analytics to improve the results from your digital marketing.
Most businesses will have been using the new version, but users will likely need education or training to understand how to use the new features. It’s also a prompt to check that Google Analytics is set up to tailor analysis and reports specific for your business, more on the details of this in my article next month.
In this post, I will summarise the main changes introduced over the last year, so you can check you’re…
These stats prove it!
This video (only a few minutes long) is worth a watch, some great insight into Facebook usage.
You can see the clip on Facebook here.
Here are 10 things that I learnt
1. Two thirds of Brits use Facebook
2. It's popular with 1 in 5 of online minutes being spent on the site
3. We average 130 friends, with 30% of all users being over 50
4. 71% of users connect daily - with 67% of 18-34 year olds connecting several times per day
5. 62% of users watch TV whilst on Facebook
6. More 18-34 users can be reached through Facebook than through TV
7. 19 million people use the mobile app, that's 62%
8. 37% ask for brand recommendation via Facebook
9. Where most active midday but tablet usage is higher in the evening
10. 60% of users are…
A review of the digital marketing year
Well, that’s the end of another, interesting but challenging year for marketers to keep up-to-date and work out how to best apply all the innovations. To help review marketing opportunities in 2013, earlier in the month I wrote this review of marketing trends for 2013. Thank you if you voted in the poll or shared the article. If you take a look, there are two clear winners for priorities.
What are your personal memories of 2012? Perhaps some of these events will ring a bell?
Check out the most important ones in your country. Google’s annual Zeitgeist this year reviewed an aggregation of over one trillion Google searches.
YouTube also has a Year in Rewind tailored for your country (http://youtube.com/rewind).
All of the main providers of digital marketing platforms have been active…
The Information Commissioners Christmas Message On Cookies
Importance: [rating=5]
Recommended link: ICO 18.12.2012 PDF summarising Enforcement action
Our commentary on the new report
Do you remember back to May 2012 - it seems like ancient history now… At the time most site owners were concerned with becoming compliant with what most referred to as the “cookie law” (technically, the 2011 amendment to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation Act).
Many larger companies did respond with the law as we showed in this post reviewing how companies were responding to the law.
On 18th December the UK ICO released a “must read” PDF reviewing their enforcement action. These are the main points site owners need to be aware of as I see them.
1. The cookie law is a lower priority for consumers and so the ICO than unwanted marketing communications (mainly junk texts and email spam).
2. Between 25 May and 21 November 2012 the ICO…
