Early to mid March saw the annual SXSW conference take place in Austin, Texas. This is increasingly influential in highlighting marketing trends and technology. Thanks to David Sealey for his summary of 5 inspiring lessons from marketing. If you’re following the latest trends, then I also recommend Altimeter’s take on the technologies that matter from SXSW.
This year it seems that Omnichannel is the new term for managing multichannel marketing to emphasise the growing importance of social media marketing. If it’s new to you or you’re looking for examples, read more in our Introduction to Omnichannel marketing and these examples of Omnichannel retail.
One of our most popular posts on planning this month is an Digital media introduction infographic courtesy of Hallam Internet Marketing.
We think this is a great visual way of introducing the digital media channels to non-digital specialists. I’m not sure whether SEO should be at the centre though?
The main developments on the social media platforms this month were these developments on Facebook and Pinterest.
Facebook Lookalike Targeting launches - advertisers can now upload customer emails or phone numbers and then Facebook will automagically find audiences sharing similar profile characteristics. Marie Page will be writing more about her experiences of using Lookalike targeting in April in a tutorial - watch out for that if you’re considering this option.
New Pinterest Analytics - a free tool within Pinterest for reviewing the popularity and reach of your Boards and Pins.
In advice on social media and content marketing I recommend this post on a common marketing challenge for all companies: How do you persuade others in your organisation to create content for you? Thanks to all the marketers who contributed ideas for this.
The main SEO change to watch for in March was the latest in a long line of Google Panda updates - #25 penalising low quality content. It is thought that this will be the last of the major notified Panda updates. Meanwhile in the SEO Zoo, this analysis suggests that Google’s Penguin update penalising low-quality links is getting stricter.
Of course social signals are becoming more important within SEO and it’s worth planning for how you can increase the ranking of your site on this basis. We had a popular guest post on the importance of engagement in Social SEO this month.
Another more strategic post on SEO that provoked a lot of comments this month was Gavin Llewellyn’s post on Forecasting the benefits of SEO for investment.
At a less advanced level, providing advice on SEO for non-specialists, you may be interested in Google’s latest guides and videos on how Search works and SEO - we’ve added them to end of the SmartInsights SEO hub page.
Image credit: Panda and Penguin
What is an average conversion rate? is a FAQ whether it’s for Ecommerce sites or other types of site. I updated our compilation of conversion rates
I’ve also included a compilation of rates for non-ecommerce sectors.
In March James Gurd updated our guide for landing page optimisation and to support this I recommended this formula for landing page optimisation to help guide CRO planning. How well do you think this works?
If you work in Email marketing check out this infographic on Email design best practices - it’s a neat summary.
We also covered What Email marketers need to learn from retailers in this post from Ed Hallen suggesting 3 phases of Behaviour email marketing.
I hope you found this compilation of latest alerts and advice is useful. Please get in touch if you’re interested in sharing your experiences, views or examples on best practice through a guest post. Alternatively, ideas on what you’d like us to cover or questions on Best Practice - see our Marketing Answers forum.
This summary was created by Dave Chaffey of Marketing strategy advice site SmartInsights.com.
By Dave Chaffey
Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.
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