Charles Nicholls of SeeWhy on driving your web conversion with retargeting
Reach for your ecommerce buzzword bingo card and you'll see 'website optimisation' and 'conversion analysis' bang in the middle. Behind the industry buzz there is a genuine commercial challenge:how do you turn your visitors into customers and increase the profitability of your web channel? Retargeting is one technique to help deliver results.
Retargeting is the process by which a website owner contacts a customer who has abandoned their conversion (whatever that conversion might be) in order to continue the communication and encourage that customer to take further action. Retargeting is more popular in the US than the UK. However, UK companies are starting to wake up to the commercial value that retargeting via email can play in their website optimisation.
Having had the opportunity to work with and learn from the brains behind SeeWhy, I asked founder and conversion optimisation blogger Charles Nicholls to share his expertise on the value of retargeting for UK web owners.
iPhone moms are waiting for the right marketers
Mothers of young children are a rapidly growing segment of the smartphone population, and considering how important the demographic is in household purchasing decisions, marketers should take note of how they're using their phones and the mobile space generally.
According to mobile ad network Greystripe, “iPhone moms” (female iPhone owners with young children) use mobile media more than other iPhone users. But from previous studies, we know that moms also don't take to iPhone ads. What's a marketer to do?
The new CNN.com: the good, the bad, the ugly
CNN is one of the world's leading news organizations and it's website is arguably one of its most valuable assets today. In an effort to make it even more valuable, CNN has launched a new design for CNN.com over the weekend for both its U.S. and International versions.
According to Nick Wrenn, Vice President of Digital Services for CNN International, "We had a look on how our users use the site, and put a lot of thought and research behind it". The finding: "Breaking news is our core brand and will continue to have a prominent spot. But we wanted to showcase a lot more of the deep, rich content we have. It was falling off the main page too quickly and people couldn't find it".
Five easy freemium tricks Hulu can use to make more money
Hulu made its name by turning a seemingly bad business idea into a widely popular website. Before the site launched, techies dubbed the television network focused web venture "Clown Co." And for the past two years, Hulu has impressed many with the quality of its content and viewing experience.
But as advertising revenues have dropped and his other properties flounder, Rupert Murdoch has been dropping hints that the company will soon charge for access.
News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey laid it on the line this week, saying that Hulu will begin charging for content in 2010. Putting Hulu's video collection behind a paywall has the potential to choke off its viewership and tank a thriving business. That said, the potential to charge a subscription fee is clearer getting News Corp. hot and bothered. So here are a few ideas that Hulu could use when it starts charging for content next year.
Five killer new features in the Google Analytics update
Google announced a significant update to the capabilities of Google Analytics this week. If it were software rather than service, I would call it a dot release, maybe 3.2?
In an earlier Econsultancy post the emphasis about the release was on the enhanced mobile tracking. But for me, and I guess most marketers where mobile isn't significant, these are the features which will be most important...
CMS guide highlights need for seamless content delivery
Econsultancy has this week published its 2009 CMS Buyer's Guide, containing profiles of 23 leading platforms and a discussion of key market trends. A lot has changed since the last version of this report in early 2007, including the explosion of social media and much wider use of mobile phones to access the web.
Defining trigger, remarketing and behavioural emails
It is important, I think, to define what is going on and what is out there in the market regarding trigger email marketing, behavioural email and remarketing, phrases thrown around and often confused but which have key differences.
I want to hazard some definitions of these terms, and of course I am open to having these challenged...
Twitter laughs all the way to the bank as Google and Microsoft fight over real time search
Yesterday Microsoft's Bing announced a partnership with Twitter and Facebook to make its "decision engine" more social. And not a day later, Google's Marissa Mayer was up at Web 2.0 announcing that Google would be launching similar services soon.
It appears Google is a little worried about Bing. And that's great news for Twitter.
Is social media marketing making search campaigns cheaper?
Have you been wondering why Google's make such a big push into display and social over the last few months? Well The Wall Street Journal has a theory: Google's revenue growth is down 25% this year and marketers are getting more bang for their buck in search. Meaning that Google has to look to other revenue streams if it wants to continue the impressive growth its experienced over the past decade.
New York Times devotees want to pay for articles. That doesn't make a pay wall a good idea.
This week The New York Times announced that it would be making another round of newsroom layoffs (100 to be exact) before the end of the year. The news is sad, and many of the paper's readerstook to the comments of the article announcing the layoffs to show their support for the paper, saying they want to pay for access.
According to Mediaite, 37% of the commenters said they'd be willing to pay for access to New York Times content. That's great for morale at the newspaper, but it still doesn't make a pay wall a good idea.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
