Examples of how build your ecommerce brand in a changing landscape
Research suggests many people are getting fed up of being ‘sold to’ thanks to incessant retargeting, yet we’re buying online more than ever before. That’s the oxymoron of our current ecommerce industry — how to sell, without seeming to sell.
In a saturated marketplace, marketers need to create more immersive shopping and retail experiences. Largely, ecommerce brands are evolving to meet the demands of the fractured user journey and the fractious user.
How?
Big brands tend to throw all their money and weight at influencers and programmatic advertising, whereas smaller brands focus on communities and stories. New retailers periodically flood the markets, capitalizing on the latest consumer trends and cashing in on the ‘fad economy’.
So what ecommerce evolution (or devolution), can we expect in the coming year? (Before you read on — check out our marketing megatrends for 2017 to be fully…
6 examples showing the power of parallax-based designs to engage and impress at the same time
Parallax scrolling is undoubtedly one of the most popular recent web design trends that first surfaced several years ago and is still common on certain types of site. Parallax gives a visual effect to add a feeling of depth to the visual presentation of content or projects.
Parallax is the effect that we can come around on a daily basis. Just pay attention to the way everything moves around while driving a car. The clouds in the sky appear to move at a slower pace than the houses and trees in the foreground. That is how the technique is achieved in the natural environment. Have you ever thought about this? Impressive, right? However, that's not the point of this article. Since all of us are involved in online marketing and web design, let's find out how to use the parallax scrolling effect…
Twitter gives brands the opportunity to reach niche audiences through video
As video continues to take over social media as the preferred mode of content and live streaming has grown rapidly over the past year as a key part of many leading brands marketing strategies.
Video allows for a new dimension of real-time engagement, giving your brand more personality and emotion. Brands are increasingly using live streaming to reach audiences. Its importance has grown significantly thanks to social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat.
Twitter has ramped up their video effort this year. In May, Twitter announced it would be live streaming video 24 hours a day, 7 days a week inside its app and desktop site. Video is now Twitter’s largest revenue-generating ad format partnering with key brands such as BuzzFeed, The Verge and Bloomberg.
Other major news channels such as BBC have seen the value in live…
Are you embracing AI to improve your ad campaigns?
Throughout the last year, artificial intelligence (AI) and its multitude of uses for marketing have become more and more obvious. While many brands were hesitant to explore the plethora of benefits it offers, 2017 is seeing brands dipping their toes into the AI waters, ready to embrace it as a beneficial component of their marketing strategies.
Take a look at these 3 ways artificial intelligence will affect marketing even more in 2017.
Impactful Ads
The creation of better advertisements is one of the biggest ways artificial intelligence will impact marketing in 2017. The ability for brands to use AI to research and develop crucial marketing aspects, such as keyword searches, empowers marketers to build smarter, more effective ads that should lead to more conversions.
For years, companies have focused on who to show ads to and when to show the ads. AI allows marketers to, instead,…
Happy birthday iPhone
120 months ago on the 29th June at 09.41am (California time) the world changed forever. Six months after being introduced at the Macworld Convention by Steve Jobs, the $499, 4GB storage iPhone was finally in stores.
Since then, over a billion iPhones have been sold globally. In 2007 Apple had $6bn in cash. Today the company’s accounts are reportedly in the final stretch to being valued at $1trillion.
But things could have turned out very differently. Back when the iPhone wasn’t even a glint in Steve Jobs’ eyes, telecoms giants like Verizon held a tight grip over the specification of handsets. Weighty manuals read like a bible of ‘thou shall nots’. Such restrictions went against everything Jobs believed in. It certainly wasn’t a sector that he wanted to get into.
Some three years before the iPhone said ‘hello’. A team of Apple engineers were fiddling…
Social Media Essentials: Facebook hit a new milestone, Instagram lets you reply live streams and Messenger just got more fun
Firstly, Happy Social Media Day! This day, launched by Mashable eight years ago to recognize and celebrate social media’s impact on global communication. The way social networks impact our personal and professional lives is far greater than many would have anticipated. Each week there are new updates and developments in social media, opening up new opportunities for businesses.
To celebrate all things social, here are 6 updates we saw happen this week that could help inform your social media strategy and help keep you up-to-date with what's happened in the world of social media.
1. Facebook community-building tools
Facebook has rolled out some great new tools for group admins that will help them manage their groups more effectively. The aim of rolling out theses changes are to help group admins…
Social Media Essentials
Welcome to our weekly summary of what's happened in social media this week. We highlight the top stories to help you stay up to date with social media, here is what caught our attention this week.
Spotlight story: Twitter has a new look
The most talked about change in social media this week has been Twitter's new look. As many have already seen Twitter has redesigned their layout, introduced some new features and updated old ones. You will now see a rounded profile photo, more intuitive icons, a new side navigation menu and articles and websites opening in Safari’s viewer. So make sure you adapt your profile photo to fit in the new circle shape.
It is clear Twitter have listened to their user's feedback and made changes according to this. Even though Twitter received some backlash from this update its good to see a social media platform adapting to their user's needs. Read our full…
Chatbots are now key to increasing engagement rates and motivating users to buy
Whether you’ve realized it or not, it’s very likely that you have spoken or corresponded with a bot at least once in your life. In fact, chances are you’ve had long and insightful conversations with a bot, some of which you couldn’t possibly have had with a member of the human race. Chatbots are on the rise, and it seems that in 2017 they’re becoming more effective, more engaging, and easier to use than ever before.
The rise of bots could be plainly attributed to an increasing usage of messenger apps and is built on the premise of instant messaging. Predictions show that by 2019, more than one-quarter of the world’s population will be using…
Why influencer marketing will go from strength to strength this year
If you thought influencer marketing was big in 2016, you thought wrong. At its core, Influencer Marketing is about to explode this year. This year, marketers are doubling down on their influencer marketing efforts, increasing their budgets to include the tactic as a strategic piece of their overall marketing mix. With newer types of marketing methods being introduced each day, influencer marketing is likely to stay in the limelight.
A recent survey has it that around 84% marketers have at least one influencer marketing campaign planned for 2017. Simply put, the Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on using key leaders to drive their brand’s message to the larger market segment. In other words, it helps you concentrate on the central figures in marketing rather than focusing on marketing as a niche. These key leaders can be…
Why You Should Use Bots to Supercharge Your MarTech Strategy this Year
How long do we have before AI-powered bots become the primary channel for us to read and share content on? From newspapers and magazines to social media and apps, what does the future of content have in store for us?
Unlike traditional media and the printed press which stayed stagnant for decades, it’s no secret that the digital marketplace as we know it changes drastically on a year to year basis.
With the evolution of how we create and consume content, however, staying in the game goes hand in hand with staying on top of the changing types and hacks of content marketing. After all, meeting audiences where they are and how they like it is what will make or break you.
For the past few months, marketing gurus like Rand Fishkin and Neil Patel have been emphasizing on how…
