Monopolies are a bad thing, we all know that. It is a universal truth that greater consumer choice creates competitive pricing, innovative products and a fairer world for all. Giant corporations that merge, acquire, undercut and annihilate their way to total domination are looked upon with fear and distaste. I remember, as a student, reading ‘No Logo’ by Naomi Klein and being enraged by the plight of the independent coffee shops, delicatessen’s and family run enterprises that had been crushed by the giant corporations.
As a result I, like most people, have an instinctive predilection to root for the plucky underdog as a response to the dominance of a competitor. It is this basic human instinct that companies like Virgin, Apple and Airbus have used to their advantage to become the global corporate giants they are today. In all areas of my life I will always give the little guy my business, even if it takes more of my time and comes at a premium. All areas, that is, except for the search engine I use. When I’m looking for anything online I’ll always choose Google.
Google Analytics is a fantastic FREE tool for showing you everything you would need to know about your website: who’s viewing it, how many are viewing it, what they are looking at, how long they are looking at it and whether your advertising campaigns are working. But with so much information available at your fingertips it’s difficult to see what you should be looking at and how you can use it.
Below is my detailed guide that should help make things clearer. It shows the top reports you can get through Google Analytics and more importantly how they can provide insight that will help when making important business and marketing decisions.
If new products can come and go, why can’t the stores that display them do the same? Well they can, and this is known as ‘Pop-up retail’. Over the last year there has been a surge in the pop-up phenomenon. You may ask the question what exactly is pop-up retail? As I discovered, it can only be described as something that is a temporary venue — the space could be a sample sale one day then a host to a private cocktail party the next.
Pop-up retail is specifically an idea or mindset that allows a company to create a unique environment that engages their customers, as well as generates a feeling of relevance and interactivity. The main trend encompasses “popping-up” one day, and disappearing the next – creating a sense of being fresh and relevant – fantastic attributes for any brand. Read more…
On a recent scouring of the web for marketing news, I stumbled across this fabulous story about copywriter Alex Brownstein. Fed up of not being able to get in front of some of New York’s finest Creative Directors, he devised a PPC strategy to get himself noticed by the likes of Scott Virtrone and Ian Reichenthal… by playing on that egotistical moment when these guys would Google themselves!
Marketers have for a long time now realised that by focusing on long-tail keywords that have less competition, not only will you pay less per click, but you will also have a higher conversion rate. In fact this conversion rate can be as high as 200% when compared to short-tail, or generic, keywords.
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube… not what first springs to mind when you think about politics. But over the last few years, more and more politicians have started using the internet as a tool to drum up political support.
When the Presidential elections in the US got under way in 2008, Democratic candidate Barack Obama used the internet to great effect to raise funds and gain supporters in his race to be President. His success has seen UK politicians follow suit and with the current general election, UK political parties have been pushing their online activities more than ever. Below are some examples of what they’ve been up to:
Here’s a scary fact for you. 20% of legitimate email never actually reaches its intended destination; the inbox. Can you imagine if the Royal Mail only delivered 80% of its mail? Mmmm actually, let’s not go there! Anyway, you understand the point I’m attempting to make. Deliverability is a big issue.
The culprits for this statistic have to be the ISPs, right? Wrong! Well, they are partly to blame as they are certainly making things harder for legitimate email marketers like you and I. However, when 90% of all email is spam then they really do have quite a job on their hands if they want to keep one step ahead of the spammers. I’m afraid if there is any doubt as to the legitimacy of your email messages then you are going to be spammed. You can’t blame them can you? When 9 out of 10 emails are spam then they’re bound to lean on the side of caution.
But the real culprit for this frightening statistic is you and I. We are to blame. It’s our sending practices that determine whether our email message reaches their intended destinations. However, with blame comes responsibility and with responsibility comes the ability to change and improve. We have the power to control our deliverability rates.
As fellow marketers it can’t have escaped your attention that the marketing landscape in which we work is changing at an amazing rate. The way we communicate with our customers isn’t the same as it once was and it is certainly going to continue changing over the forthcoming years.
Traditionally, we have spoken to our customers via direct mail, email, tv, radio and the telephone. However, due to the boom of social media this one-way communication flow is changing into a more dynamic two-way conversation.
In my view, the major change that has occurred is social media is giving our customers a voice; it’s giving our customer’s power. So whereas the customer was only able to affect our business through their purchasing behaviour they can now have the power to influence our future by what they say about our brand, product and service offering. However, although these are undoubtedly exciting times they are times that should be treated with caution as we have very little control as to what our customers say about us and we have even less control over who they speak to.
Last year, like many brands and organisations, London Fashion Week flirted with Social Media by having event details, links to stories and comments posted on Twitter and Facebook… so far so very 2009!
This year, though, sees London Fashion Week take a great leap forward by embracing even more Social Media technologies and making London Fashion Week open to the masses rather than the privileged few… and they’ve done it in some predictable and also some surprising ways.
Earlier this week I gave a talk on digital video and how advertising agencies are changing to facilitate a wide range of video needs that are required by clients. From high budget brand TV adverts to medium budget DRTV adverts right to low budget web-video… the demand is increasing and now’s the time to invest in skills and training.
I gave the talk on behalf of GBM at ‘Band on the Wall’ in Manchester and have split it into three parts of around 10 minutes each. Thanks to GBM and everyone who came to the talk, I hope you found it informative… I certainly enjoyed putting it together.
Parts two and three can be viewed by clicking the red button below.
No matter how hard you may have tried, not many people managed to escape the ‘Big Freeze’ that hit Britain a couple of weeks ago. The whole country pretty much came to a standstill when snow and ice covered the UK, in what was some of the worst weather we’ve seen in thirty years.
Businesses and schools across the country were forced to close when roads became impassable and public transport ground to a halt. Even us hardy folk at Red C struggled to get into the office, with only those that come on foot making it here. With so many people off work, you’d have thought the high street would be bustling, but figures from Footfall indicate that shopper numbers on 5th January were down 13.5% on last year. 53 of the 285 stores in Meadowhall shopping centre, Sheffield were closed on this day, and The Trafford Centre in Manchester only managed to open half of its stores and restaurants - before closing the entire complex at 4pm. Read more…
No matter how hard you may have tried, not many people managed to escape the ‘Big Freeze’ that hit Britain a couple of weeks ago. The whole country pretty much came to a standstill when snow and ice covered the UK, in what was some of the worst weather we’ve seen in thirty years.
