Digital Strategy

Why Brazil-bound brands should be wary of cultural mistakes

It’s been well over a decade since the acronym BRICS was introduced into the marketing lexicon.  

While steps from foreign brands entering these markets have been largely tentative to date, the World Cup means the eyes and curiosity of the marketing world are now firmly rising to the B of the BRICS, Brazil.

Brazilian culture and consumer spending power (not to mention football) can be beguiling, but brands trying to capitalise on the event need to be wary of succumbing to the dreaded FOMO: fear of missing out. 

The Guardian’s agile processes showcase digital best practice

Digital has changed our world. The web has transformed the way we gather information, make purchases and carry out daily tasks.

Social media is altering the way we interact with friends and even the nature of society as a whole. And mobile has nurtured the 24/7, always on culture.

Organisations are scrambling to adapt to this new reality. Some businesses have been too slow and digital has forced them to close their doors. HMV, Tower records, Kodak and Blockbusters are all high-profile victims of the digital revolution.

But some organisations are making the transition, even in sectors harmed by the arrival of digital. One such organisation is the Guardian newspaper.

Evaluating change: How data must lead decision making

We need to measure what matters and steer clear of the things that don’t, so we all need a little bit of Mr Spock in us when it comes to digital marketing.

I have been talking a lot recently about measurement and evaluation, and there are three things that I ask delegates to take away with them:

Senior level employees have greater digital knowledge: stats

So, you think your manager is an idiot? Looks like you’re wrong, as senior level employees have better digital knowledge than their juniors.

That’s according to preliminary averaged results from the Econsultancy Digital Skills Index, designed to test digital knowledge across marketing.

It seems that senior level digital employees can put their money where their mouths are as they scored higher than mid-level respondents, who in turn scored higher than junior respondents.

The average scores for each level of seniority were 67% for juniors, 72% for mid-levels and 74% for senior respondents.

The assessment will remain live and continue to hoover up data, so take the test if you’d like to benchmark your skills against those of your peers.

In this post I’ll reveal a few findings from the assessments so far and discuss them in light of the skills of the modern marketer (incidentally, the title of a new Econsultancy report in our Digital Transformation series).

Digital banking insight from three leading Norwegian banks

Norway is a digital savvy market and has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world (68%).

The digital banking solutions are at the forefront and customer adoption rates are high.

As a result developments and trends seen here may be things that will be launched in other mature markets. 

In this article we give you a rundown of some of the latest developments in the Norwegian market which we hope will be interesting for anyone working with digital banking strategy and developments.

Are consumers killing Madison Avenue?

Marketing, as we know it, is obsolete.

So say Simonson & Rosen in their recent book ‘Absolute value’. Theirs is not a lone voice,  similar sentiments date from as early as 1999, in the Cluetrain Manifesto.

As it came in the peak of the dot-com bubble, though, that message was largely ignored.

Why do they say we’ve no use for marketing? It’s because of the rising power of the voice of the customer. With the growing availability of consumer opinions, the importance of brand messaging is diminishing.

Consequently, things are changing in the world of advertising. Slowly, but surely.

When can Facebook advertising challenge Google?

As Google approaches its 16th birthday, it is virtually impossible to question its value to online businesses.  

Over the last decade, companies from almost every sector have used the search giant to grow and reach customers that were previously inaccessible.

But with costs and competition rising, when can we look to Facebook as a real alternative?

I thought it would share some of my experiences to help invest your budget in the most effective way.

The real reason your marketing costs are increasing

If you ask anyone in the industry what the biggest trends and challenges of the last 12 months have been you will receive a range of answers.

Chances are the answer will involve ‘not provided’ and content marketing if you are speaking to someone working in the SEO field.

If you are talking to someone with a PPC focus they will probably cite PLAs or rising CPCs.

If it’s a social guy you’re chatting to he will tell you how his channel is finally starting to deliver an ROI.

They will probably all talk about the phenomenal growth in mobile and tablet usage.

What there seems to be very little discussion about right now though is the marked increase in the amount of times potential customers visit your site before committing to a purchase.

This is partly influenced by the changes in device usage but is also symptomatic of changes in user behaviour – price comparison, voucher usage, and the convergence of offline and online worlds all contribute to this trend.

The challenge it creates is how to limit the amount of times we are paying to bring these same users back to the site, and how to pay as little as possible each time.

It’s a challenge which affects everyone working in digital and will hopefully drive more unified strategies, and make us all work closer together.

Three key takeaways from the new Econsultancy Mobile Maturity Briefing

A few years ago businesses could be forgiven for their failure to react quickly enough to the massive shift to mobile technologies, as it was difficult to predict just how big an impact smartphones would have on the customer journey.

However new research from Econsultancy and Adobe shows that even now many companies still haven’t implemented an effective mobile strategy.

In fact only a third of respondents (36%) agree that they have a mobile strategy compared to 45% who disagree.

The Finding the Path to Mobile Maturity Briefing provides data and insights for those wishing to benchmark their own activities around mobile, and to elevate the importance of related business initiatives within their organisations.

The report is based on a global survey of 600 client-side and agency marketers carried out in March and April 2014.

Here are three key findings: 

15 essential skills for modern marketers

What are the skills needed by marketers to be succesful in the future?

In our research for the Skills of the Modern Marketer report, we asked senior level marketers that question and have come up with 15 essential skills – organised into three ‘top five skills lists’ for marketing.

Why three lists? When we asked respondents about the skills essential to marketing there was a surprising focus placed on the soft skills.

So in addition to the usual broad knowledge areas and vertical skills areas, marketers need the right soft skills to be able to work across the organisation. The best ideas will founder without buy-in across the organisation and support from multiple teams.

Marketers also need to be able to adapt quickly in response to the rapid pace of change all around us.

So that leaves us with three top five lists, one each for soft skills, broad skills and technical skills.   

Three reasons why customers abandon your site and how to make them stay

In the classic late 80s film “Field of Dreams,” Kevin Costner is inspired to turn his cornfield into a baseball field after hearing a mysterious voice whisper the famous line, “If you build it, he will come.”

Indeed, the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson soon shows up, followed closely by the Chicago Black Sox and half of the town.

Unfortunately, many marketers believe that if they only build an ‘awesome’ website, the customers will start pouring in. But what happens when visitors show up and, instead of playing ball and inviting all their friends, turn right around and leave? 

Building a ‘site of dreams’ requires a whole lot more than a pretty hero image and scrollspy navigation. To truly capture and engage today’s consumers, brands must focus on creating an immersive, interactive user experience that spans channels and devices.

Here are three UX pitfalls causing your customers to abandon your site, and how to make them stay.

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