Twitter's new design, Amazon anti-competition investigation, UK digital tax plans, Facebook's scam ad tool, Instagram removes like count
This week has seen Twitter launch it's new design for desktop users, with the jury still being out on how it is being received.
Amazon is set to face a probe to see if it is using third-party seller data unfairly.
The UK government has announced that it will push ahead with a plan to tax tech giants more going forward.
Facebook has responded to a lawsuit by introducing a new tool for reporting scam ads in the UK.
Finally, Instagram is testing out the removal of it's like count in six new areas.
Get more detail on all of these news stories below in our latest news roundup.
Twitter updates desktop site
Twitter has updated the look of its primary desktop website in a bid to improve personalization…
There’s no more direct source when it comes to customer research than the human brain and the physiological signals it gives out as it experiences things
One truism that I’ve learned over my years in digital marketing: the closer to the ‘source’ of what you’re measuring, the better data you’ll get. When it comes to customer research, there’s no more direct source than the human brain and the physiological signals it gives out as it experiences things.
[si_guide_block id="126084" title="Download our Business Resource – Practical neuromarketing for e-commerce marketers" description="This briefing will enable you to understand how humans perceive information and make buying decisions."/]
While some amazing brain scanning technologies have emerged recently — such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positive-emission tomography (PET) — these tools are intrusive and expensive, and thus beyond the reach of most digital marketers.
So here I’ll take a pragmatic approach. I’ll share five awesome and affordable…
14 ways to segment your target audience for effective e-commerce personalization
As defined by Smart Insights, segmentation shows approaches to grouping prospects and customers to deliver more relevant communications and offers. The result is to give better response rates to these communications.
In the marketing arena, personalization is a term often misused for segmentation. Personalization and segmentation, while both valuable tools for marketers, couldn't be more different.
[si_guide_block id="140972" title="Segmentation and targeting workbook template" description="Review techniques to increase relevance and response across paid, earned, and owned media with our easy-to-use segmentation and targeting template."]
The personalization v segmentation debate
Segmentation is grouping customers together according to identifiable characteristics. Often, these are demographic characteristics such as age, geography, gender, favourite brand or AOV.
Personalization is the optimizing of experiences and messages to individuals themselves — not the group they…
KFC's "Chicken Town" campaign demonstrates the value that can be found in imitations, as it looks to repair and enhance its brand image in some unexpected ways.
Have you ever been asked “Fancy a VFC?”, or found yourself in a YFC at 2am? KFC’s imitations can be found in most towns and cities. Indirectly, they've become one of its most powerful marketing tools, with fried chicken shops desperate to achieve the levels of success that KFC has managed.
It’s unsurprising that KFC has now decided to play on this in its latest campaign, where we take a Wild West-themed ride through “Chicken Town”.
Overwhelmed by the myriad of imitations, it’s clear that the driver of the cherry red Lincoln Continental is not about to be tempted by any of the imitations on show.
In this Campaign of the Week, we’ll take a look…
A review of some of the most interesting and important insights from this year’s report
Mary Meeker’s annual internet trends report has become one of the most eagerly anticipated moments of the year (well, for internet/ data nerds at least!). Previously of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and now Bond Capital, Mary Meeker has been presenting key trends, statistics and predictions on the internet since 1995.
[si_guide_block id="81859" title="Download our Free Resource – 10 digital marketing megatrends 2019" description="To ensure you’re always aware of the most important marketing practices, we’ve created our free guide to digital marketing megatrends 2019."/]
I personally find the report fascinating. It gives me the inspiration and ammunition to back new ideas, explore new concepts and take a step back and look at the world from a broader perspective. Meeker’s reports cover a wide range of macro (economy, immigration) and micro (e-commerce, digital advertising) topics that deliver a very…
Facebook changing business Page info, the CMA investigating impact of digital advertisers on consumers, Twitter's updated search results and MPs call for digital political campaigning electoral law changes
Following the excitement of Google's updates last month and several changes to social media platforms, the start of July seems to have been fairly quiet. It seems the marketing world is taking the beginning of this month at a slower pace, which is reflected in the big news stories of the week.
This week comes the news that Facebook is scrapping some of the Pages info sections on August 1st, so you need to get these updated.
A UK government agency is launching an investigation into the possible harm that digital advertisers could be doing to consumers, which could have huge implications for platforms like Facebook and Google.
Twitter has added some more context to search results in a bid to make…
A scientific approach to writing paid search ads can be beneficial to creating effective ads
The ever-changing parameters of search engine marketing are no secret. It can be time-consuming to keep up with the latest trends in the industry, making it important to be efficient while writing quality and catchy ads. A scientific approach to writing paid search ads can be beneficial to creating effective ads for yours or your client's site. Below I explain the steps to take to follow a scientific approach for PPC.
[si_guide_block id="71497" title="Download our Free Resource – Google Analytics Fast Start - 10 mistakes to avoid" description="This Free guide brings together a series of common mistakes that we have seen made by both experienced and new Google Analytics alike, grouped into 10 easily identifiable areas."/]
Use science when in a situation of uncertainty
Conversion optimization is what inspires advertisers. Before creating a PPC ad that brings your target…
Understanding the specifics of the lifestyles, habits, preferences, and needs of people of various cultural backgrounds can be the key to rapid campaign success
If you really want to engage your customers, then you should know what it is like to be in their shoes. Understanding the specifics of the lifestyles, habits, preferences, and needs of people of various cultural backgrounds can be the key to rapid campaign success.
If you have already dabbled in international marketing, the following is nice to keep in mind: your customers are people who come from different countries, with different goals, purposes and daily challenges. They may not have equal access to the internet and particular web sources where you could communicate with them. Understanding this should be the first step towards growing a robust, diversified marketing campaign.
[si_guide_block id="39230" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Marketing campaign planning guide" description="This guide is designed to enable you…
Google to launch RCS messaging, brands failing at acting on social purpose, influencer marketing under fire, TikTok explodes in China, Facebook Top Fan targeting
We've taken a look at some of the news stories you should know about this week, including:
Google made an interesting decision when it announced that it was no longer waiting for phone makers and networks to roll out RCS messaging. The tech giant is set to make the improved messaging service available for select Android features by the end of the month after a lot of delays.
A survey has revealed that while social purpose is important to brands, they are failing to walk the walk when it comes to actually putting initiatives in place. This could ultimately leave to issues when attracting both customers and talent.
Influencer marketing has come under fire after it was revealed that a 'surprise' life event was actually part of a marketing opportunity,…
Tactics and opportunities to bring your idea to life
We’ve all been there. We come up with an idea, share it with colleagues but before you know it, the idea is dead. Stopped in its tracks.
More often than not, an idea might be killed not because of malice, envy or other nefarious reasons, but as a result of perfectly good intentions. When we block an idea or find ways in which it may not work, it’s likely we’re trying to think rationally: cost, time, resources are all good reasons to stop and think again.
[si_guide_block id="39230" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Marketing campaign planning guide" description="This guide and the companion Campaign planning template (Word) are designed to enable Smart Insights members to review and refresh their existing approach to campaign planning in order to develop a more structured process which integrates the latest digital marketing techniques better."/]
But the road to hell is paved…
