An overview of the implications of the new 01/03/2011 marketing guidelines
Importance: [rating=5] (if you're based or market within the UK)
Link: ASA Advertising CAP code - see guidance on "Recognition of Marketing" in the non-broadcast media which is relevant to social media, content marketing and native advertising
Our commentary: The ASA's new online extension is important for UK marketers since it now covers marketers own marketing claims on their own websites and in other non-paid for space they control.
According to the ASA the scope is as follows - you can see it applies to both B2C, B2B and not-for-profit / charity activities. The CAP code extension covers:
Advertisements and other marketing communications by or from companies, organisations or sole traders on their own websites, or in other non-paid-for space online under their control, that are directly connected with the supply or transfer of goods, services, opportunities and gifts, or which consist…
The latest advice on the UK response to revised e-privacy directive on site cookie usage
June 23rd update: The impact of the cookie law on analytics
I find this scary - a death knell to the "most measurable medium anywhere". Thanks to analytics specialist Vicky Brock asking for information on visits tracked by Google Analytics to the Information Commissioners website - we can get a pretty good idea on how many would be happy to opt-in to analytics - the answer is very few and certainly enough to skew the stats so they're meaningless. The massive drop in traffic recorded is due to the implementation of an opt-in to cookies as shown in the next entry in this post. Time to dust off those old log-file based analytics tools in a years time I think...
Vicky filed a freedom of information…
Tools and frameworks to answer the questions: "How do we compare?" "What does good look like?" and "What should we be delivering online?"
This is a presentation I gave to the Linked In Web Managers Group. I recommend joining this group since it covers a diverse range of topics from web strategy, content management and E-communications Best Practice. They also have regular London meetups and I think there is a US group too.
If you're not aware of it, I've also recently setup a group on Linked for Smart Insights which I naturally also recommend for our discussions of best practice in digital marketing: http://www.linkd.in/smartinsights.
View more presentations…
A new infographic (we do love them at Smart Insights!) to have in mind for your planning this year. I think that the Facebook registration volumes in 2010 compared to total Facebook registrations is a real eye-opener, as is the 35 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute!
Like you needed another reason to ensure that social and video are two major considerations for your marketing this year ;-)
[caption id="attachment_3935" align="alignright" width="600" caption="Infographic from Focus.com"][/caption]…
ASA regulations now cover websites and company-controlled social media presences
Value: [rating=5]
Our commentary: The UK Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) has announced an extended remit to their CAP code guideance according to this useful summary from digital law specialists Pinsent Mason. The announcement explains that the regulations now cover:
"Advertisements and other marketing communications by or from companies, organisations or sole traders on their own websites, or in other non-paid-for space online under their control, that are directly connected with the supply or transfer of goods, services, opportunities and gifts, or which consist of direct solicitations of donations as part of their own fund-raising activities".
Marketing implications: The main points to note are:
1. Communications on your website will be subject to the standard ASA regulations which aim to control efforts to "mislead, harm or offend" and in particular communications about "alcoholic drinks, health and beauty claims, children, medicines, financial products, environmental claims,…
Forrester's research highlights that social behaviours are changing to content consumption over creation
Value: [rating=4]
Our commentary: Forrester share more insights from their regular research into online social behaviour. They note that for years we"€™ve seen increases in more complex, interactive social behaviors such as 'Creators'"€”those who generate social content including YouTube videos and blog posts. But for the first time, we"€™re seeing a change in the growth trend towards 'Joiners'"€”those who maintain a social networking profile.
If you haven't seen the Forrester Social Technographics Ladder we reference the latest version below and you can use the interactive consumer or business social profiling tool. It's essential technique to think through your engagement and content strategies for social media.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="573" caption="Social Technographics Ladder Source: Forrester Groundswell Blog"][/caption]
Marketing implications: There's not a single answer to this - other than ensure you factor this…
Our recommended tools for comparing your visitor numbers against competitors
All site owners want to know "how do we compare to our rivals" in number of visitors, but of course web analytics tools don't give you that. Instead you have to turn to independent benchmarking tools. I still hear a lot of folk saying they use Alexa, but they really shouldn't unless force to - there are much better tools available - this is what we recommend.
Although the main purpose of these tools is comparing trends in visitor number, they also have other less well-known features that are also helpful to marketers when completing these activities:
Benchmark number of site visitors against competitors - can be useful for justifying investment in traffic building, reviewing their seasonality or comparing campaigns
Review audience composition e.g. demographics for competitors
Review the reach and audience of potential partner sites such as blogs or publisher sites
Find basic information on…
Our guide to benchmarking competitors for effectivness in customer acquisition, conversion and retention
In this guide, we take a look at the what, why, how and when of competitor benchmarking for digital marketing and provide a step-by-step guide showing the tools and KPIs you can use.
You can download the guide or read our introduction below.
Competitor Benchmarking Guide - Smart Insights
What is online competitor benchmarking?
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Review of consumer and business access and usage levels of digital technology should inform long-term strategy development for Internet marketing. The trends show adoption of new digital technologies that can be used to create a roadmap of when new services like social networking or mobile marketing can be introduced. These statistics sources also suggest changes in consumer behaviour and perceptions of privacy and trust influenced by digital media.
Here we highlight the best free Internet statistics information sources from around the world, mainly from Government sources.
UK digital technology adoption statistics
In the UK, the five primary sources for digital technology adoption and usage by consumers and businesses are:
1. Office of National Statistics The official government source - search for Internet
2. Telecoms sector report from Department of Business, Innovation and Skills
3. Ofcom research on telecommunications adoption Includes broadband, mobile penetration
4. Digital Britain initiative from the Department of Culture, Media…
This E-marketing Essentials Interview with Fred Bassett of digital strategy consulting strategy firm Blue Latitude outlines a structured approach to online marketplace analysis in order to inform digital marketing strategy.
Whether it's business strategy, marketing strategy or digital strategy, understanding your marketplace positioning is crucial. For traditional business or marketing strategy, environment mapping, situation analysis or marketplace analysis, call it what you will, is a well established approach.
But what is the best approach for online marketplace analysis? It seems to me that this core part of digital strategy is often neglected despite all the rich data available from web analytics and audience media consumption data from the likes of Hitwise and Comscore.
So I was delighted to be taken through a rigorous methodology for e-marketplace analysis and mapping…
