By NewsCred Contributor, Lauren Mangiaforte According to Google, searches for the term “infographic” have increased over 800% in the last two years. In the last four hours alone, the hashtag #infographic has been used 3,300 times, with monthly totals bouncing up to 342,000. While all of these numbers are interesting, don’t you think you’d be able to process them quicker if I’d have represented them visually? Science says yes: we process visual imagery 60,000 times faster than text, and this is part of the reason that infographics are so appealing in the age of the short attention span. But making a [...]
By NewsCred Contributor, Dawn Papandrea Millennials – also referred to as digital natives or Gen Y – created the art of consuming copious amounts of content across multiple devices at all times. Despite this ongoing consumption, 45 percent of Gen Y simply are not impressed with the content that marketers are serving up. That according to a new study, “Content Marketing Best Practices Among Millennials,” by Yahoo and Tumblr, in partnership with Razorfish and Digitas. While the oft-ridiculed generation may seem easy to dismiss, millennials have a lot of purchasing power and are expected to shell out $1.4 trillion by 2020. It [...]
Here are the Top 10 2015 social media predictions and the challenges each social network faces. Included are 27 social media marketing tactics to help you.
As Econsultancy sets its out of office reply to ‘can’t talk, stuffing mince pies in my face’ all that’s left to do is publish one final missive before we disappear into a fog of sherry, then forget to use that Heston Blumenthal turkey brining kit we bought while a bit tipsy in Waitrose last night.
Before that happens though, all of us here at Econsultancy would like to say a huge thank you to all of our readers, subscribers, delegates and clients.
It’s been an incredible year and it would have been significantly less incredible without you.
We’ll be signing off now until after Christmas, when we’ll return with our usual high-quality mixture of expert research, stunning insight and terribly useful best practice guidance served with a healthy side of irreverence.
However there’s still masses here to keep you entertained and informed if you happen to be online over the next few days...
However you’re celebrating the holidays, we hope you have a brilliant one.
Finally, in honour of David Moth who for the past six months has been including a Taylor Swift Gif in every internal email he sends and who also can't go 45 minutes without listening to 'Shake it Off’, just for him here’s the Swift Gif he’s been bugging me to include in the last five posts I’ve written...
More than ever, customers are using a variety of ways to interact with your business offline or online.
This multichannel connectivity means it’s difficult to measure the impact of one particular marketing effort on a conversion, particularly if that conversion happens offline.
Just because someone sees an online ad, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll click through immediately to your ecommerce site.
They might just make a phone call to your helpline later in the day, or walk into your high street shop the following week.
The outcome is the same, you’ve driven traffic to your business with a campaign, however it’s difficult to accurately measure its effectiveness.
Although we tend not to cover every last update to a particular product, the latest update to Google AdWords, which purports to allow you to measure store visits from online ads, is an interesting one to look at.
According to eMarketer roughly 95% of retail sales still take place in physical stores, but according to Google’s own data, 32% of consumers say that location-based search ads have led them to visit a store or make a purchase.
Here are a few more stats I’ll throw at you while we’re here:
More than 70% of consumers who have used ad features such as directions or the call button say it's important to have location information in ads.
74% of shoppers want to see how much inventory there is for a product at a nearby store.
It’s clear that businesses need to understand the impact that paid search ads have in driving visits to physical locations, and to get better insight into how complex purchase paths can help optimise marketing campaigns and most importantly design better experiences for customers.
Store visit measurement
The new metric will help you:
See which campaigns and devices drive the most store visits to your business.
Understand your return on investment (ROI) and make more informed decisions about your ad creatives, spend, bid strategies, and other elements of your campaigns.
In order to be eligible to measure store visit conversions you need to have a Google My Business account linked to your AdWords account. Currently the measurement is only available to businesses with multiple physical store locations in the US, so UK users will have to wait for their turn.
There is no set-up required. If you're eligible, conversions from store visits will be added to the Estimated Total Conversion columns in your campaign reports.
You'll also see a new conversion action called 'Store Visits' added to your conversion reports. There is lots more practical information on how to access the feature here: about store conversions.
Google has insisted that it never provide anyone’s actual location to advertisers.
Instead, store visits are estimates based on aggregated, anonymous data from a sample set of users that have turned on Location History.
This data is then extrapolated to represent the broader population.
Examples
Google has provided a couple of case studies from businesses using the insight.
Office Depot uses insights from store visits data to understand which products, such as laptops, printers or backpacks, are driving people to visit one of its 2,000 retail locations.
These insights help it decide which products to include in its local inventory ads. These ads show whether or not a product is available in a nearby store and where the nearest store is located.
This makes it simple for customers to discover what products are in stock as they’re shopping and researching online.
PetSmart uses store visits data to improve its customer shopping experience.
Based on the insight that 10-18% of clicks on search ads lead to a store visit, PetSmart is now investing more in ads that reach customers across screens.
For example, PetSmart has increased use of location extensions in its ads to show maps and directions to help people find nearby stores when they are searching for related products.
Further reading...
For lots more information on the blog about search marketing, check out:
1. Black Friday was a daytime event, Cyber Monday an evening one
This year marked the first time Black Friday went fully mainstream, receiving acres of press coverage in advance of the big day.
This hype seems to have translated into traffic peaks between 7am and 9am, in marked contrast to the comparative restraint of Cyber Monday which correlated more with a normal day’s trading with resultant lunchtime and evening spikes:
Only late in the day did Cyber Monday overtake the sales performance of Black Friday, as the online feeding frenzy waned.
Interestingly a significant number of consumers appeared poised and ready to check out the biggest and best deals as Black Friday began, with the sales gap between the two days particularly wide in the early hours of the morning.
For retailers the importance of capitalising upon that early interest and consumers’ sense of urgency is obvious.
2. Smartphones influence, tablets convert
The difference in click to sale conversion rates between smartphones and tablets across the course of the day was significant.
Both platforms saw sizeable increases in traffic and sales but smartphone conversions slumped at certain times in the day.
Tracking performance across the day shows even more startling divergence. The pre-work peak saw a fourfold difference in conversions between tablets and handsets, perhaps a classic case of consumers researching products, offers and deals whilst on the go, before transacting, potentially on another device, later in the day.
Clearly the cross-device impact of the Black Friday weekend is brought into sharp focus and illustrates why it will be central in understanding the full contribution that smartphones bring to the path to purchase.
3. Black Friday’s traditions boosted average basket values
Typically known in the US for its killer deals on tech, Black Friday has traditionally been more focused on big box items like televisions.
This was emulated in many of the deals, promotions and offers available in the UK, resulting in a decent boost in average order values (AOV). Understanding the mix of affiliates who are most adept at driving this interest is clearly critical in maximising sales:
Tablets trumped all with AOVs in excess of £100 for several hours on Black Friday while smartphones trailed someway behind.
4. The cut-price frenzy found perfect bedfellows in different affiliate models
As a channel whose commercial model is premised on conversions, killer deals and offers are a huge consumer trigger in the affiliate channel.
Contrary to opinion, consumers who redeem vouchers and codes are not poor quality customers but will seek out the best deals available.
The Black Friday weekend was an obvious trigger for affiliates featuring the best offers, many securing additional coverage well in advance of the big day.
It is no surprise that this traffic dominated across the four days:
5. It wasn’t all about the big brands
Whilst John Lewis, Currys and M&S may have grabbed many of the headlines, we were pleased to see a smaller brand claim the biggest valid transaction of the weekend across the entire network.
Wex Photographic proved that smaller retailers could muscle in on the brands, securing a single sale of almost £12,000 including a camera and associated photographic equipment.
As Black Friday showed, the pre-Christmas momentum has shifted, now dominating the tail end of November rather than the traditional second Monday in December (that saw year-on-year growth of 10% compared to Black Friday’s 140%).
When the dust settles in 2015 and brands look back on the successes and more salutary lessons of 2014, it will be interesting to see whether they choose to fully embrace the occasion with such fervour again and, if so, how more detailed insights will help shape their approach.
Every year, as the calendar starts to wind down, we look to the new year with great hope and optimism. Maybe the coming year is the year when brands start to “market like the year we are in” as Gary Vaynercheck has eloquently said. In my top marketing predictions for 2011, I predicted that marketing automation would become a required part of the marketing technology stack (right), that marketing attribution would become a hot topic (not so right), Display media would make big budget gains (right) that we would stop asking about social media ROI (not so right) and that [...]
As we draw towards the end of the year, it’s always interesting to review what products or services sold well to whom around the world.
It’s also a time when we try to foresee opportunities for the next year ahead.
I’m a big believer in learning from the market, in order to be best-placed to deliver according to its demands.
For me and my business, the trends that have been of particular interest include:
The rise in global tourism and “authentic” holidaymaking.
Wearable technology.
Mobile technology.
API usage and the importance of localisation.
I recently had a very pleasant Sunday morning reading through Euromonitor’s latest report on trends and predictions for the tourism industry, and how some people are now taking localisation to a whole new level.
Going “glocal”
While I strongly advocate the importance of local culture and adapting to it, it seems that consumers now want to get really “local” on their holidays around the world.
The rise of Airbnb is one obvious example of this, but there has also been significant interest in travellers choosing to take their meals in private homes, hosted by regular families in regular communities.
With the help of various websites and apps, holidaymakers looking for more authentic local culture can be paired with willing hosts who can provide cooking lessons and meals, and afterwards, meal visitors can review their hosts in terms of food quality, venue and cleanliness.
Integrating technology
To me, this signals advancements in both the leisure industry and in the technology industry, in being able to provide localised and fit-for-purpose software and devices to meet consumer needs.
The increased popularity of sites such as Airbnb has paved the way for new apps which have been built to respond to a demand from the 'sharing economy'.
Indeed, being into my gadgets, I’m really excited about the new wave of wearable technology we can expect to see on the market next year.
Some pieces are designed specifically with the traveller in mind (ever considered that your watch could also be your hotel room key?), while developments like Google Glass and the Apple Watch have been on the cards for some time.
However, that’s not to overlook the impact of and developments in mobile technology of course, as often the two can go hand-in hand.
Mobile madness
What interested me the most about the sales reports produced relating to Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year was the rise of purchases made through mobile devices.
Depending on whose figures you look at, proportions of all transactions made via mobiles vary from 20-40% (check the Econsultancy Internet Statistics Compendium for up-to-date figures).
That’s a staggering amount, when to think not so long ago most of us barely had access to the internet on our phones.
In order to facilitate many of these transactions APIs are now absolutely commonplace. But the sites that are most successful are those that are able to localise themselves according to their market, including accurate and relevant translations.
Instant translation for instant messages and cultural empathy in communication are vital to connecting with foreign markets.
So while globalisation may have been last year’s buzzword, we think localisation is what’s going to stick around.
Want to improve your 2015 content marketing? Then check out these 2014 content marketing highlights with actionable content marketing tactics. (Charts too.)
I think this captures the essence of Digital Cream. We all know and agree on what we should be doing - but what we are all actually doing with our digital marketing is quite different.
And this event, where people can speak freely without anything being attributed to them, lets us share our past successes and failures - and our future hopes and fears.
Only when we get together and exchange such experiences and views can we truly grow as digital marketers - so hopefully you will get some of what we all experienced on the day from the notes below.
These bulletpoints give an overview of what was discussed on the day:
Social Media
Most are moving away from vanity metrics - 'likes', shares, and comments.
We're now looking for the real ROI of social.
It could even just be referrals.
There's a desire to see how it generates revenue.
For example, a fashion company:
Has no choice but to be on social.
Young females are only on Instagram.
Cannot reach them any other way.
Even though we cannot measure it, we have to keep at it.
ASOS on Sina Weibo
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is becoming more powerful - even in China.
Most agree that advertising on LinkedIn doesn't work.
Facebook seems to work, but LinkedIn people are very negative.
Not just about ROI and results, but how inflexible LinkedIn is with its advertising packages.
SAP: B2B recommended that people download a white paper from a competitor. Very brave and build up credibility
Gorilla glass: see what they are doing
SGAG: Community on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Silly content, but engaging, timely and relevant.
Beat Facebook algorithm - organic reach is what it was.
Only trick SGAG is using is the engagement - the SGAG army and quality of production.
Mobile
1) Put a lot more focus on multichannel analytics
Mobile is too silo'd today.
Find out how a web user interacted with mobile.
One company found engagement started on web, then WeChat, then an app.
2) Attribution - offline/online very difficult
Tough to attribute 100%, but certain tools will help.
IT will have to help.
3) Should we even have a mobile strategy?
Do we need to have a mobile site / ad?
Relates back to the core value of the product.
Does it make sense to develop a mobile app to help with the customer experience?
If yes, then do it.
If no, then don't use the tactic for the sake of doing it.
Summary: Mobile should not exist in a silo. It's not an additional channel that you try to bring on board, it has to be part of the customer experience.
Content marketing
There are still a lot of challenges regarding what content to create.
What kind of content?
How long to produce it?
What content should be delivered at each part of the sales cycle?
Econsultancy themselves are a great example of a typical strategy:
Host events to get leads, then convert them into users of the site.
If moving along, becoming warm - might do demonstration or trials.
Hot prospect - content bits, comparison charts, compare with competitors, what value we give.
Suggestions
Produce evergreen content - content that works months and even years after it's published.
Create your own audience and community.
For B2B - write for the individual not the company.
Target it to the person you are trying to sell to.
Behavioural marketing
From social, mobile, we try to attract people with retargeting and email marketing.
And strategies are fairly well-known, but it takes a lot of resources to run a program. Everyone agreed that people, budget, and time are common constraints.
Suggestions
You don't need to do massive things.
Start small, build a case, and then sell it to the management.
It takes the whole company for it to be successful.
To get the resources
Assemble all of your insights
Give management profiles of their brand fans
And get their buy-in with things that matter to them
Best way to talk to CEO about digital is to drop "digital" from your vocabulary. Talk customer and business instead. #DCSG14
It’s the blog equivalent of turning the television on to watch The Simpsons, only to find it’s a clip-show.
Yep it’s a collection of all the best stuff from our weekly round-up of weird/funny stuff, loosely stitched together to make it look like it’s a brand new thing.
Be under no illusion though, it definitely isn’t. However it’s still a good excuse to look back over a year’s worth of nonsense and pick out the bits you may have missed.
So sit back, relax and lose yourself to a good 10-15 minutes of thundering balderdash.
Hack the menu
What I thought I knew about the world is wrong. There are layers. Multiple layers that live far, far below this rigid, rule-based society of ours. It’s a wonderful place down there. One full of wonder, invention and type 2 diabetes.
Welcome to the world of the ‘secret menu’.
Do you know that you can order a Big McChicken from McDonalds (a Big Mac with chicken instead of bread) or a Twix Frappuccino from Starbucks?
Mind blown! Just try not to tell many people about it okay.
Super addictive game of the year
Hextris will ruin you. I mean seriously be careful with this. It’s a Tetris level of addictive.
Totally worth it though.
Hey trend-conscious executive, get your business Pogs right now!
Business Pogs and QR codes! Wow, it’s as if the crappy past and the crappy present have collided to make a wonderful future. First here’s the sales pitch.
And here’s the brain-melting website where you can place your first order.
The Toilet Guru
Answering such questions as: do foreigners have strange toilets? What is a bidet? Can you clean a toilet with fire? Plus the very salient... why am I so obsessed by toilets?
Metal albums with googly eyes
Click on the image below to be taken to a Tumblr page that combines Cannibal Corpse's Butchered at Birth and Sesame Street. Finally!
Only 35,136,019 bricks to go
Movoto worked out how many bricks it would take to build full-size versions of 17 famous movie homes. Below is the Ghostbusters firehouse.
Sure it's pricey, but a relative bargain compared to $204m it would take to amass 1.1bn bricks for a life size version of Hogwarts.
Skeletor is having an existential crisis that only positively affirming memes can solve.
The award for best dad ever goes to…
This guy makes short films of his son and adds special effects to make him look like an action hero, displaying the three most important traits a father can have: technical skills, a love of Star Wars and recklessness.
Nothing really mattress
Celebrities who look like mattresses. You’ll be surprised how funny and uncanny these pictures are. Courtesy of the Walthamstow (unofficial) Tourist Board.
A complete history of the world (of memes)
Here's every meme's origin explained in surprisingly only five minutes. You probably won't go on the internet for at least a week after watching this.
Tumblr of the year
Awful Review Posters replaces film poster pull-quotes with one star Amazon customer reviews. Shawshank Redemption's "it’s like Stir Crazy only without Gene Wilder" is a particular highlight.
All by myself
When Richard Dunn found himself stuck overnight at Las Vegas airport without a single soul around, he did the only logical thing anyone would do. Made this majestic music video…
This is one for my very favourite things of the year, although do be warned, steer clear if you’re not quite the degenerate that I am.
This collection of wholesome all-American ads have all been given a much needed darker twist.
How do you make boring old time photos better?
By turning them into spine chilling gifs…
Kevin J Weir has been raiding old photographs from the library of congress’s Flickr account and giving them a spooky makeover.
List of the year
HFP has a bemusingly awful and hilarious list of the bemusingly awful and hilarious Richard Madeley’s best ever quotes.
Example: “Do you find that people patronise you? That means that they talk down to you.” Click below for 38 more.
My Life with Bradley Cooper
New Jersey mum Danielle Davies has been documenting her life with a cardboard cut-out of Bradley Cooper in this blog.
Can you imagine being so delusional that you think a cardboard cut-out celebrity is your friend and that you can take him anywhere with you? How unhinged!
The state of New York would like you to stop doing this…
Weirdo.
The Washington Post reported on a disturbing and probably fake trend for online dating site users posing with tigers and other animals you probably shouldn’t mess with.
The Ladybird Book of wrongness
Bag of Delights has Photoshopped old Ladybird books and made them weird.
Star Wars related thing of the year (prior to that trailer)
I self-imposed a temporary moratorium on posting anything Star Wars related in this round-up for fear of over saturation (along with Game of Thrones, Stanley Kubrick and Hollyoaks).
However, these genuinely breath-taking images from photographer Thomas Dagg were just too good not to share.
Become Wrath
This time on Morgan Freeman’s series of ‘unboxing videos… I think you know where this is going.
May your brain explode because of the cuteness
Here are 14 Japanese meals courtesy of Bored Panda that will make you resent you boring ham sandwich.
