Mobile web experience letting users down: report
After years of too much hype, it's safe to say that the mobile internet is here. Sure, a lot of the activity is taking place in closed gardens (App Store, cough). But thanks to the wide availability of internet-enabled handsets, the rise of smartphones and 3G networks, more and more people are accessing websites through their mobiles.
Unfortunately, access and demand haven't yet produced the ideal mobile web experience. In fact, according to a recent study conducted by Gomez, Inc., in the past year two out of three mobile users have run into problems while trying to access websites on their mobiles.
Holiday shopping forecast 2009: a lot like 2008, with more coupons
Many believe that the worst is behind us but a key economic indicator is still a few short months away. Will Santa deliver strong retail sales this holiday season or will the holidays serve as a reminder that times are still tough for consumers?
According to the RetailMeNot's Second Annual Benchmark Survey on Consumer Coupon Behavior conducted by HarrisInteractive, Holiday Shopping 2009 will look a lot like Holiday Shopping 2008.
Email marketing stats round up
Here's a selection of recent email related stats, taken from a range of source, including Econsultancy's Email Statistics document, which forms part of the Internet Statistics Compendium, and other reports...
Will BusinessWeek bring social media to Bloomberg?
Times are tough for many magazines these days. BusinessWeek knows that first-hand. The weekly business magazine will reportedly lose some $40m this year.
But after a long bidding process, it has found a knight in shining armor: Bloomberg LP. The privately-held financial software, data and news company is acquiring BusinessWeek for an undisclosed sum rumored to be in the range of $2-$5m (yes you read that right, million). It will also take on BusinessWeek's liabilities, which could far exceed that amount.
Unhappy customers turn to social media: survey
Customers who experience problems when conducting transactions online are sharing these experiences on social media sites; 13% this year compared with 8% in 2008.
This is one of the findings of a Tealeaf survey of online customer behaviour, and provides another reminder that online retailers need to focus on customer experience, especially as 74% of online adults said negative comments read online have an influence on whether they will do business with a company.
39% of companies unhappy with their conversion rates: survey
Online businesses have plenty of room for improvement, with 39% saying they are dissatisfied with their conversion rates, and just a quarter claiming to be either 'very' or 'quite' satisfied.
This is one of the findings from our Conversion Report, produced in association with RedEye, which presents the results of a survey of 700 company and agency respondent about their approach to conversion rates.
Just how sophisticated is click fraud? You may not want to know
Click fraud is a real problem for advertisers. Not many deny that. But just how big of a problem is it? If you listen to companies providing PPC advertising services, it's manageable. They've got things under control.
But a click fraud ring recently uncovered by click fraud monitoring firm Anchor Intelligence may lead you to believe otherwise. The size of this ring is remarkable: it employed over 1,000 people, 10,000 websites and 200,000 IP addresses. All told, Anchor Intelligence reports that it generated $3m worth of fraudulent clicks in a two week period of time before it was discovered.
UK marketers at the head of the multichannel marketing pack: study
It seems that everybody talks about multichannel marketing these days. But how many walk the talk? According to a study conducted by marketing solutions provider ExactTarget, UK marketers are walking the talk more than marketers in other countries.
The result: they're better connecting with their customers and that boosts the bottom line.
Microsoft: in-game advertising is doing great
JJ Richards, general manager of Massive, the in-game ad network Microsoft purchased in 2006 for an amount estimated to be between $200m and $400m, has a message for anyone who believes that in-game advertising must have been overhyped due to steep layoffs in his unit and rumors that Microsoft has been shopping it to potential buyers. That message is: in-game advertising is doing great thank you very much.
In a post on the Microsoft Advertising Blog, Richards states "I want to set the record straight by divulging five basic facts about in-game advertising".
Internet ad spend now higher than television ad spend in the UK: report
The economy may not be great, but the internet isn't complaining. In fact, the economy has likely helped internet advertising achieve a significant milestone in the UK. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), internet ad spend surpassed television ad spend for the first time ever anywhere in the world.
Total spending on internet ads in the UK hit £1.75bn in the first two quarters of the year, a 4.6% year-over-year gain. That's good enough to account for almost 24% of all ad spending. Television, on the other hand, now accounts for just 21.9% of ad spend following a painful 16.1% year-over-year decline.
Holiday shopping forecast 2009: a lot like 2008, with more coupons
The NLA explains why it is going after the news aggregators
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
