A briefing on the new segmentation features for Google Analytics
Probably one of the most significant updates to be rolled out of Google analytics in recent times is the revamped segmentation feature, it is hard to understate its impact! In fact, when it was introduced Justin Cutroni of Google called it "one of the most important changes ever".
Leaving aside the dazzling new layout and looks there are three incredibly strong new features which bare mentioning, in no particular order of importance they are:
the ability to segment by "users" (...for which, read visitors)
the ability to build sequential segments
the ability to create cohort segments.
Users
The first of these is pretty emblematic of all that's changing in the world of digital analytics. Until recently the base level metric underpinning all web analytics data was the humble visit, that's now being usurped by The Visitor or User.
The long term goal for all this is the…
Our monthly round-up of the developments that matter in digital marketing
The main platform developments to be aware of this month were in Twitter and LinkedIn - see the posts in our social media section for details. Given that we're well into Planning season for many companies, our strategy advice focuses on goal setting and KPIs.
Dan Bosomworth also reviewed the BIG strategic questions to help get focus as you refine your customer acquisition, conversion and retention strategies.
Strategy and planning
Setting realistic goals, objectives and KPIs are at the heart of effective marketing planning and management, so this month, as part of our #PlanToSucceed campaign we have advised on best practices for creating marketing dashboards for performance management in these posts. Here’s a visual summary of some of the tools we reviewed with links to more detail.
From SMART to SMARTER marketing objectives
The differences between marketing objectives and goals…
Our 7 key questions to ask yourself and your team
This post is the second in a short series looking to help give a focus to improve digital marketing effectiveness. In the first I defined 7 strategic questions to increase site traffic as part of a customer acquisition strategy. In the final post I review customer retention and engagement strategy, while in this post, I look at 7 key questions to increase conversion.
Naturally, all site owners want to increase conversion, but it's really tough to do this in practice for a mature site. Yes, there are some great examples of using testing to improve conversion, like those we see on Marketing Experiments, WhichTestWon or the $300 million button.
To achieve these improvements almost certainly means you've already made the case for working on conversion rate optimisation and have the people, process and tools in place to help make these…
7 must-check questions for your acquisition strategy
All site owners are looking to reach more prospects, existing customers and raise awareness about their products through a website or other online presence. So, there is plenty of advice on how to increase site traffic through the 6 main online communications channels.
Although you can definitely gain improvements in volume of acquisition through optimising how use these channels like SEO, advertising or social media marketing, you may be missing parts of the bigger picture that will make your online marketing more effective.
To help you think through how to improve your site traffic, Dave Chaffey and I have developed these seven key questions to help improve your results. We hope they're helpful - let us know how you find them. You can find more detailed guidance in the Reach section of our RACE digital marketing planning course.
This is the first in a short series…
Why you need a Content Engagement Calendar in 2014
2014 is almost upon us and it’s that time of year when we all start to look forward and plan marketing activities for the coming year. Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past two years, you’ll be all too familiar with the fact that content marketing is on the rise.
In fact, 64% of UK marketers are planning to increase their budget for content marketing next year, and according to Forbes, the top marketing job in 2014 will be a Director of Content.
If these stats are anything to go by, we better fasten our seat belts and knuckle down to do some strategic planning on what content to publish during the coming year, and decide which websites and publications to target so that your content contains the right messages and…
The tech and tools to keep your Contact Centre at the cutting edge
Cloud Computing and social platforms may be the IT trends dominating the contact centre landscape, but there are a host of other technologies that are helping businesses drive value from their call centres.
While Cloud-based infrastructure is the fastest growing area in the call centre industry - doubling in size over the next two years according to DMG and social media is being wrestled from the hands of the marketing department to support customers over new channels, Contact Centre Managers are also at varying stages along the adoption curve of a number of other disruptive technologies.
Technologies for the Contact Centre
MyCustomer.com spoke with some of the leading experts in the contact centre industry to discuss what technologies you would find within leading-edge call centres of today and that could be…
A primer on Information Architecture (IA) approaches for cross-channel design
We can no longer think of a computer as something that just sits on our desk at work or at home. There are computers all around us, literally. In fact, in most situations where there are groups of people there are likely to be more computers than people and this is only 2013. Imagine the situation in 2018 and beyond...
We are now living with computers in a much more intimate way since the inception of Apple’s first generation smartphone back in 2007. In turn, such close and constant proximity has resulted in many interesting changes. Firstly, how we use computers. Secondly, the information we use them for. Source: Amit Burstein / Flickr
This article is a primer for people that want to gain an overview of cross-channel design. It will also address…
Which processes and tools does it take to make Inbound Marketing effective?
Companies are still trying to understand and make the business case to focus on Inbound Marketing, to secure resources for content or educate others on the difference between Inbound vs Outbound marketing.
We thought this infographic from Salesforce Pardot sheds some light onto this with survey findings summarised from HubSpot's survey. For example,
92% of companies who blog multiple times a day, report it is key to acquiring customers.
It also highlights well the difference between inbound and outbound marketing and free tools in the marketplace across blogging, SEO, analytics, social and webinars.
Interested in ideas for your campaigns, read Rene Power's 10 examples of …
Blending personas and personalities to increase conversions in email marketing [Part 1]
It’s a well-known fact that some of the greatest results can be gained by combining personalisation and persuasive architecture to deliver what the customer wants.
In this 2 part post I will look at approaches to leverage 2 types of buyer personas to use to increase conversions within your email marketing programme.
When combining both of these buyer persona styles we’re ensuring that we deliver not only the copy, TOV, and offers/merchandise that our buyer wants and expects from us but we’re also delivering the experience that will enable them to convert according to their temperament.
So let’s look at the two different types of Buyer Personas. For clarity's sake, I’m labelling them differently to how they’re labelled elsewhere:
Persona: This addresses the motivation (i.e. what the buyer needs, what are their challenges and goals, what motivates them etc)
Personality: This addresses their temperament (i.e…
Using data for marketing campaigns
Even with all the discussion of content marketing, buying in data to support sales campaigns and increase the customer base is still crucial to many companies to grow their business, even though the starting point for some businesses is to focus on relationships with their current or lapsed customers and advocacy/referrals. Although the traditional sales funnel has changed and social media provides more opportunities for outreach, this doesn't mean that buying in external data lists is extinct. Far from it, you can still supplement data collected from other sources.
If you're looking for data and how to use it effectively for your marketing channels, whether email, direct mail, outbound or mobile? This infographic from The Data Octopus provides tips for addressing this process :
Proposition and Target market: I won’t explain how to suck eggs as we are all familiar with this.Legally compliance: Ask the right questions…
