Despite GDPR coming into effect over 18 months ago, new research shows that many marketers are still concerned about their organizations' compliance
It’s been just over 18 months since the enforcement date of the GDPR. The latest research from the DMA shows that while the majority of professionals in the data and marketing industry have been given some form of GDPR training, there are many marketers out there who are still concerned about their organization’s compliance.
The consequences of non-compliance have been well-publicized through a series of high profile investigations by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), ultimately leading to punitive sanctions for those organizations deemed to be acting unlawfully and with intention.
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There have also been a number of data breaches over the last year, a cause of which may well be that staff were not effectively trained in how to manage customers’ sensitive information and maintain the necessary safeguards to protect their…
A robust link building strategy is critical. Being discoverable online means having high domain authority and ranking for the keywords your customers use
Companies like Amazon and Google have forever changed the way consumers find and purchase goods and services. As a result, both B2C and B2B companies must consider the role online visibility plays in their campaigns to attract customers.
In the digital world, a robust link building strategy is critical. The modern consumer journey is driven by search engines, and being discoverable online means having high domain authority and ranking for the keywords your customers use.
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High-quality backlinks increase domain authority, ultimately increasing your Google page ranking. When pages have high-quality backlinks pointed…
Integrated campaigns are effective at balancing both short-term sales uplifts and long-term brand-building effects by combining a range of different channels
The advantages of creating a joined-up, integrated marketing communications (IMC) plan are well-documented and go back over twenty years. Even before the internet really took off businesses, brands and agencies were looking for ways to create consistency across content and media touchpoints.
Although not all campaigns have to be fully integrated (e.g. short-term guerrilla campaigns or PR stunts), brands looking to make an impression and raise awareness as part of a product launch or seasonal sales push should consider how the different elements of a campaign come together as one.
Integrated campaigns are effective at balancing both short-term sales uplifts and long-term brand-building effects by combining a range of different channels:
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Benchmarking your performance allows you to understand how well you’re actually performing, compared to real life competitors
Measuring digital success is no easy feat; even if you’ve reached your digital marketing goals and KPIs, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good enough. After all, what if your competitors are all outperforming you? What if the industry is growing at a faster rate than your business is?
That’s why it’s extremely important that you benchmark your business against your competitors: it allows you to understand how well you’re actually performing, compared to real life competitors.
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In this blog post, discover useful tips and tools for benchmarking success in the digital landscape: from social…
Nine out of ten marketers expect to increase digital marketing budgets in 2020, but how do you make sure your budget is effective?
Digital marketing has proven itself to be one of the most effective types of marketing. Email, social media, content marketing, search engine optimization - all of these tactics are essential to business success in 2020.
It’s probably why as many as 95% of organizations have increased their digital marketing budget in recent years – and why nine out of ten marketers expect that their budgets will grow in 2020 as well.
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That said, digital marketing is very complex and involves numerous strategies, all extremely important. As consumers increasingly expect omnichannel experiences and want to be able to reach brands on all their preferred channels, marketers have the big challenge of stretching out that budget for countless channels and strategies.
So how do you create a budget that…
Answering the real questions your customers are asking can form an important part of your customer retention plan.
Customers have questions. You have answers — or so they hope! By leaving any key questions unanswered, you risk:
Your prospects bailing out of your lead generation and sales funnels.
Your customers feeling like you know and care about them, and thus looking to do their business elsewhere.
Your bottom line revenues showing the effects of your customer neglect.
But by discovering these questions and addressing them proactively, you’ll stay one step ahead of your competition.
Now that we’ve established why it’s important to actively discover the top questions being asked — or thought of — by your prospects and customers, let’s dive into how to discover them.
Begin by discovering customer questions
A recent Harvard Business Review article states that acquiring a new customer is anywhere from…
Will smaller ad agencies end up ultimately trampled to death by yottabytes of Facebook and Google data?
Along with being reigning leaders of the tech industry, Google and Facebook run the most prominent advertising networks. The rest of the no-names pale into insignificance compared to the great and terrible Duopoly. Will smaller ad agencies end up ultimately trampled to death by yottabytes of Facebook & Google data?
"Who owns the information, he owns the world." This 300-year old quotation is more relevant today than ever. Like it or not, it is personal data and its quality that defines the success of advertising campaigns. Get the right data about the customer and this customer is likely yours.
Facebook and Google grew from unicorns into giant datavorous raptors that absorb all info about their users. No wonder they account for a combined 60% share of digital advertising in 2019. While such…
Content isn't really king, it's the kingdom. It is made up of various pieces that combine to create something greater: an effective content marketing strategy
You’ve no doubt heard marketers proclaiming that “content is king,” but that’s a vague and misleading statement. Really, a content strategy is more like the kingdom because it’s made up of various individual pieces that combine to form something greater. There are many different facets to an effective content strategy, and — unbeknownst to many marketing departments — there’s isn’t just one type of content that rules them all.
What content marketing ultimately boils down to is reaching your potential customers in a way that intrigues and engages them. Actually reaching them is the crucial first step, since you have to stand out from the crowd of 20 billion web pages that are viewed each month.
With so much content competing for views, it’s up to you to…
Google has released the new Speed Report in Search Console – what is it, how do you use it, and what’s so great about it anyway?
Following several screenshots teasing the release of the new Speed Report in Search Console, Google has finally released an ‘experimental’ beta version. The report enables users to assess the speed of their site’s URLs quickly and accurately. You can find it beneath the ‘enhancements’ tab:
The advantages of Search Console’s new Speed Report
Prior to the release of this report, speed testing was a troublesome task. SEOs and site owners have been reliant on third-party tools, masses of PageSpeed Insights tests, or complex Big Query requests to test page speeds. The new Speed Report improves on these tools in a number of ways.
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Ease of use
One of the main perks of Search Console’s Speed Report is that…
When it's time for execution, brand marketers and agencies need to be on the same page about what defines success. Here are three ways they can ensure precision control and usage of the right data to accomplish brand goals.
Brands and their agencies often have healthy disagreements about strategy. As a brand marketer, you might not always enjoy debates, but hopefully, you’ve seen that they can make your marketing so much more focused and compelling. That has certainly been my experience.
But when you shift from planning to execution, everyone needs to get on the same page about what success looks like. It seems like a no-brainer, but it’s much harder than you think because there are more people making decisions on your behalf than ever before.
If you mapped your team’s organizational structure, how would it line up next to your digital supply chain? On the…
