How to engage your site visitors with your brand in 7 steps

Ever been to a web site and wondered 'Why am I here?', 'How does this help me?' or 'Does this site give me what I need?'. And then left shortly afterwards? A succinct online value proposition is a crucial way to hook new visitors into your site and brand in those crucial seconds (not minutes!) that a visitor is deciding to click-on or leave your site. It also encourages continued usage and advocacy about your site, so it's vital to an effective web strategy. An online value proposition is closely tied to your brand positioning which answers questions like: who we are, what we offer, which markets do we serve, what makes us different? But the OVP extends this the difference is that it identifies the reasons why customers will click on, return, register or buy from your site…

Social media is more popular but less effective than PPC for B2B companies

If you're a B2B marketer wondering how to get ahead in the digital arena, you might be frustrated with the lack of statistics available about B2B marketing. While the web is rife with stats on the latest B2C trends, B2B marketers often struggle to find data which can influence their digital strategies. Bubblegum Search have created an infographic that highlights some of the most vital B2B statistics in 2017 and has some fantastic insights which can translate into actionable strategies for B2B marketers. Let's look at three important takeaways that demonstrate key gaps and opportunities in B2B marketing.

1. Twitter is an effective platform for 55% of B2B marketers

51% also report that they have great success with YouTube, and even Instagram is proving effective in generating B2B interactions. LinkedIn just takes the lead with 66% reporting success, which isn't…

Interview: Roberto Abbondio, Managing Director of Eurostar

We spoke to Roberto Abbondio, MD New Digital Business of Eurostar, to find out how they plan, optimize and manage their digital transformation and long-term marketing strategy. Roberto is one of many senior keynote speakers at Digistrategy 2017, London on December 14th.  Roberto joined Eurostar in 2017. As MD New Digital Business, he is in charge of strategic projects aimed at engaging the customer with innovative and relevant ancillary propositions. Roberto joined from Cathay Pacific where he served as Managing Director Cathay Pacific Holidays in Hong Kong, leading its transition to a modern digitalised one-stop shop for the airline. Prior to that he was part of the start-up of Hostelbookers.com and he worked for Expedia as Business Development Director for their b2b division, based in Paris. In his early career, after his Political Economics degree at Bocconi in Milan, Roberto covered various roles at British Airways,…

Chart of the day: AB testing is the most popular method of improving conversion rate optimization (CRO) - personalization is the least used technique

Feedback and insights from surveys and usability testing are also popular methods of improving conversions.

Are CRO and UX becoming one entity?

Over the years there have been two distinct ways of improving conversions, the testing approach of trying different methods (like AB testing) and the insight approach (getting feedback from surveys and doing user testing). Now the two are coming together more than ever, UX practitioners and CRO specialists are slowly becoming one, as they realise AB testing isn't enough. But it still is the most popular technique. Copy Optimization is also a very popular technique - but marketers realise that copy is so incredibility important. Marketers have really bought into the value of copywriting and content marketing, so ultimately copy optimization being a popular method, does make…

Chart of the Day: How verticals differ in their email campaign performance.

Out of the top six sectors, who would rate their company's email campaigns performance as excellent? The chart shows amazing growth from the print/publishing & media sector. To go from 40% effectiveness in 2014 to 73% in 2016 is astounding. This shows the importance of keeping up to date with current trends and getting the most out of your Email Service Provider (ESP). At the other end of the spectrum are tech and telecoms. They are the only sector to be under the 56% average in 2016 for how it uses email. In fact, it has a 9% drop from 2014 to 2015. It isn't surprising to find that those who don't have an email strategy or use email optimisation, end up having low-performance rates and poor Return on Investment (ROI) figures. The king of…

Chart of the day: Heavy users of messaging apps are extremely likely to want to use different emojis and have more variety

Emojis are one of the fastest growing languages worldwide. With more than 60 million emojis sent each day and 2,666 emojis in the Unicode Standard to choose from, it's hard not to notice the popularity of these small icons. They have gone far beyond simple characters. We are now seeing many brands tapping into emoji, stickers, GIFs, geofilters and other forms of content in a more conversational way. Despite this demand, the opportunity for brands in mobile messaging has been limited by the experience. If users want to expand their range of emojis they had to download separate emoji keyboards, apps or sticker packs to expand their choices. This chart shows that heavy users of messaging apps are extremely likely to want to use different emojis and have more variety. Therefore brands can tap into this desire…

Chart of the day: How data give opportunities to grow a business

I think it's fair to say that improving the quality of marketing data isn't a fashionable or sexy topic. Indeed in a recent article by Keith Weed,  Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Unilever reviewing discussions at AdWeek US he says as much: "The very unsexy topic of measurement has become a hot conversation Sorting out the digital ecosystem should be a priority for everyone in our industry. It has been heartening to see this become an increasing focus of conversation over recent months and certainly this past week. As an advertiser, I want to be able to see one consumer, paid for from one budget, not separated out for online and offline". In this quote, he is specifically talking about measurement of paid media, but he goes on to look at the importance of customer data more generally across the customer journey. In…

Econsultancy and Harvard Business Review are amongst the most popular

Last month we asked our members and readers what sites they use to keep their marketing knowledge up to date. Respondents were worldwide, many from the UK, US, Canada and Poland, but also extending into the APAC and EMEA areas too. It's no surprise that our own blog outweighed others in popularity - as voters were coming through our blog content to vote. However, the second and third most popular marketing blogs to read were Econsultancy and Harvard Business Review. The blogs provide all levels of marketers, from CEO's to Executives, marketing knowledge and updates in all industries. We also wanted to know any other sites that we didn't feature that are also great sources of knowledge. 'Other' examples include: Zest.is - A Google Chrome extension that collects suggested content from…

Create an inbound marketing strategy that facilitates lead generation and sales

Marketers who have learned the inbound methodology are already familiar with the complexities that are involved in formulating a holistic inbound marketing strategy. The starters in inbound marketing may know the concept and the components; however it becomes inevitable to get a pathway that leads to smooth execution of the campaign. The list of The list of questions goes on when you decide to build a marketing plan – what to do, how to prioritize, what will work for your business model and how to implement the proper infrastructure, tools, and technology to facilitate lead generation via inbound. A robust plan could only help in differentiating between an amateur and master campaign. Only 68% of marketers believe their marketing strategy is effective.

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Seven predictions to act on for your future marketing plans

The start of 2018 is in sight, So, it’s the start of seasonal predictions about the forthcoming year’s marketing and branding trends. In this article, I gaze into the crystal ball to make seven predictions relating to 2018’s marketing trends. These cover trends in audience engagement, branding and advertising. For more coverage of digital marketing, see Dave Chaffey’s Marketing trends 2018 article .

Prediction 1: Personalisation gets even more savvy

Marketers have long understood that consumers are preoccupied with one question: “what’s in it for me”?  Accordingly, personalization through the use of big data has become one of sales and marketing’s important campaign considerations. [caption id="attachment_96564" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Stub Hub lists all my favourite artists and venues first[/caption] For example, StubHub, an online ticket exchange operated by eBay, reported a 42% improvement with a personalized call…