Only one month from today to comply with the new law
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Recommended link: Ecomplished survey
We’re getting close to the deadline for compliance with this law, it’s a month away today.
In previous posts we’ve alerted readers to the latest guidance from the ICO on implementation for the cookie law and different solutions (Solution #1, Solution #2 and Solution #3).
With a month to go, here is a timely survey of 100 retailers’ response to the directive published by Ecomplished. The survey suggests:
29% of UK retailers believe on-site 3rd party cookies are someone else’s problem
34% plan to use compulsory pop-ups for opt-in
47% believe their cookies are non-intrusive and therefore exempt
Implications of the survey results
The Ecomplished survey suggests if you…
How to create an inbound marketing strategy - some case studies of tools and tactics
I've found setting up and running a small business is both daunting and exciting in equal measure.
The combined economic downturn and increasingly crowded competitive landscape mean the need to promote your business and get your message ‘out there’ is as important as ever.
The small business marketing challenge
Marketing is a huge challenge for small businesses, particularly start-ups with no established customer base or community around them.
Traditional advertising is an absolute necessity to let people know who you are.
But if you’ve limited money and resources, what other options do you have to get your message about your fantastic new business out there?
Inbound marketing is one strategy I would highly recommend.
An introduction to inbound marketing - ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’
For any business, large or small, there are three key media types you can use to connect with consumers;…
21 reasons to persuade yourself or your colleagues you need to blog, blog more or blog better
Are you needing a bit of ammunition to justify the time and energy to invest in a blog? Or perhaps you have a blog and you're looking to increase the frequency or quality of your posts. At Musicademy, blogging is core to what we do to engage existing customers and attract new customers, so this is how we justify our efforts and it certainly is a lot of effort!
So, here are 21 good reasons to get blogging or blog better. And rule number one of good blog writing – blog readers love lists! (As long as they're useful or inspire)
Because blogging drives traffic to your website. The blog can feed a stream of tweets, Facebook updates and newsletter content as well as leaving…
Five top tips to ‘twitter’ more effectively
Social media marketing can be a difficult beast sometimes, but small and medium businesses who struggle with social networks can take comfort from the fact that even the big brands get it wrong too at times.
Effective use of social media is part art and part science – there are techniques and procedures that work, but creativity and flexibility are also an integral part of any successful campaign.
Here are five of the most common Twitter mistakes made by major brands who ought to be big enough to know better...
1. Only Tweeting during office hours
B&Q have made no secret of the fact it has invested heavily in its social media presence over the past couple of years, and made it a key part of its overall marketing strategy.
Below is a Xefer graph…
Key points to implement an effective global SEO strategy
Ecommerce sales are set to exceed $1trillion next year (according to Goldman Sachs) and, in the current economic climate, many businesses are considering exporting their goods and services abroad.
However, going global can be daunting. The process of localising and optimising your website for overseas territories requires careful consideration before you launch your SEO strategy.
Here are the top 10 common multilingual SEO mistakes to be avoided……….
1 Using the wrong keywords
The keyword a person in your domestic market might use to search for a specific product may not necessarily be a literal translation of the keywords or phrases used by buyers in other countries.
Despite this being the most basic of errors, it is one people continue to make.
Do not translate your keywords and don't forget to research new target markets…
While researching for a presentation I was delivered for a client, I found these two videos from the Google Inside Search website which really made me sit back and realise how much the web, technology, marketing, and human interaction with technology has evolved, even in my relatively short career its has drastically moved forwards. We have all no-doubt seen the Social Media Revolution video from Socialnomics which is as equally as eye opening as these two videos (below) in terms of highlighting the potential of the internet as it stands in 2012 and looking forwards.
Evolution of Search
This short video from Google has highlighted to me just how much the web has changed, because we have adopted technology into our lives so heavily now it is easily forgotten that…
Six top tips for ensuring a harmonious agency:client relationship
Getting an agency or freelancer in to take care of your content marketing strategy can bean excellent way to get fresh ideas and expertise for your marketing strategy, as well as freeing-up your internal team. However, relationships between clients and their external partners often require careful management and mutual understanding.
Here are six absolute musts to achieving a harmonious working agency: client relationship:
1. Determine what you need and set clear objectives
One of the biggest challenges for any content agency or freelancer arises when a client doesn’t really know what they want, but has a very clear idea of what they don’t want.
To some extent, freelancers will be familiar with this and many have honed a technique to get the right information out of their clients. This doesn’t mean, however, that you can rely…
How to answer common objections about the value of social campaigns
I was working with a business a few weeks ago that wanted some help with its social campaigns.
Its latest campaign produced disappointing interaction levels.
And, because of the campaign’s failure to attract a significant following, the business was tempted to pull out of social media altogether and focus on other areas - at least until people in their vertical market sector were deemed to be 'ready for social'.
Disappointing social campaign results can prompt good questions
The failure of the campaign prompted some interesting questions, such as;
“Did the business’s potential clients (people working in hospitals / health care) have the ability and inclination to access social networks.“
“Was it feasible to be 'friends' with businesses? Was it possible that customers didn't want to form this kind of relationship with a business entity?”
Finally, the business outlined…
How to convert more B2B prospects
In the entire history of business you have never been able to access as much data as you can now, thanks to the plethora of analytics programs around.
And, today you can find out more about your customers than you could a few months ago - because analytics software is constantly being upgraded.
In fact, companies are now swimming with so much data that analysing it in any meaningful way is often too difficult.
Which vital data is unavailable from analytics?
According to the business intelligence company, BuiltWith, Google Analytics is by far the most popular service; used by just under half the top one million websites worldwide.
Google Analytics presents each site with thousands of pages of up-to-date information covering every aspect of their current and historical website use - in other words, what people did.
There is, however,…
A breakdown by country of the most popular app download services to help make the business case
As you hear so often, “there’s an App for that”. Yes indeed. Around 1 million, with 500,000 available on Apple’s iTunes App Store, and a similar number on Google’s Android Market at the last count, and multiplying at breakneck speed.
Apps are a truly global phenomenon, with mass consumer appeal. Apple’s App store has now reached 25 billion downloads, tracking at 1 billion downloads a month, a figure nine times greater than McDonald’s sells burgers. Apps have made a healthy contribution to Apple’s revenues, generating an estimated $6 billion, comprising the 30% Apple takes in the cost of App downloads, charges from in-App payments, and revenue from iAd, its in-App advertising business that is still finding its feet.
Android to over take Apple soon
If we…
