Retailers need to focus on online customer service
When confronted with poor standards of customer service online, 94% of respondents to a survey said they would seek out a competitor or stop using the company's website altogether.
The survey, commissioned by nGeneraCIM, highlights the importance of meeting the needs of customers online, with 91% of UK web users saying thet customer service is important when buying online.
10 videos from the Traveling Geeks roundtables
A few weeks ago Econsultancy hosted the Traveling Geeks roundtables in London, where the US digerati turned out in force to discuss and debate trends and issues.
The Geeks - featuring the likes of Craig Newmark, Robert Scoble and Susan Bratton - found that there is far more in common between the UK and US than is sometimes suggested, albeit with some notable differences (“fear of failure”).
The UK-based attendees included Poke’s Iain Tate, lastminute.com’s Marko Balabanovic and Steph Gray from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
After the roundtable discussions had taken place we shot a little bit of video, where we interviewed a bunch of the attendees to figure out what they’d learned from the day. Do check them out…
Tomorrow's news companies: small, lean and venture capitalist
Future news organisations, the ones that make it out of the recession, will look much different than pre-recession times. They'll be smaller and leaner. But if they're smart, they'll also have a big role in VC for companies developing products that could help them gain a competitive advantage.
Q&A: Richard Spalding of The 7th Chamber on viral marketing
Richard Spalding is CEO and co-founder of Diffusion Media Group, which runs viral marketing agency The 7th Chamber, as well as social media marketing agency Grape Digital.
The company recently sold entertainment site Kontrabrand to Dennis Publishing for an undisclosed sum. I've been talking to Richard about the sale, and his plans for the future...
The importance of recession decision-making
During a recession, many companies are forced to make very difficult decisions. This has been especially true in the current recession, which has been not only been deep, but global.
Most recession decision-making is pragmatic. The future is not guaranteed and depending on your company's financial situation, short-term survival often trumps long-term strategy. But while surviving may be your priority, decisions made during a recession can have a significant impact on the future of your business well beyond the recession.
Are Bing users flocking to advertisers — or away from Yahoo?
Are web surfers that use Bing more susceptible to advertising? If they are — and continue using the search engine — that could be very good news for Microsoft.
A new study by search-advertising network Chitika found that Bing users clicked on an ad 1.5% of the time on average, versus a 0.97% clickthrough rate for Google visitors and a 1.24% clickthrough rate for Yahoo.
If that means Microsoft and Yahoo users pay more attention to advertising, it could be very good news for the smaller search engines. But it could also spell trouble for both if users are simply switching between the two services depending on which has the best advertising at any given moment.
Lost magazine ad pages aren't coming back
September is forecasted to be a depressing month for magazines this year. Ad pages are down significantly for that month, which is usually the most profitable issue for many magazines. But the economy isn't the only reason numbers are down. Ad dollars are shifting elsewhere and they aren't likely to come back any time soon.
Magazine ad revenue is down 21.2% in the first half of 2009, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, and ad pages at publishers like Conde Nast, Time Inc. and Hearst titles were down at many publications in September by between 20% and 60%. Usually a rebound from the slow summer months, a slim September issue spells trouble for many publications.
After releasing September ad numbers (fashion leader Vogue is down over 200 ad pages from September of last year) Conde Nas't seniro VP Lou Cona said that: "This is not about magazines, this is about the recession. Given the media recession and the overall economic recession, I think we are incredibly proud."
But there are many factors indicating that magazines won't be bouncing back when the economy recovers.
The A-to-Z of online copywriting
Online copywriting can make all the difference between a website that engages and converts, and one that stagnates.
Words communicate to your visitors and influence actions (both positively and negatively). Furthermore, good copy is, as far as the search engines are concerned, the food of the Gods. Words are to Google what oxygen is to you and me.
So I thought I’d try to nail an A-to-Z of online copywriting. As ever, these recommendations are guidelines, rather than firm rules. They're broadly applicable to web copywriters and bloggers, as well as journalists who have their work published online. I hope it makes for a handy bookmark-friendly checklist...
Social media: myth versus reality
The nature of the internet economy has given myth new importance in the digital age. One need only look at the field of SEO to see just how prominent (and destructive) myth can be.
Social media has a lot in common with SEO and one area where that's especially true is in the number of social media myths that have become entrenched. From the belief that social media ROI can't be measured to the idea that your business can thrive if you get to the right influencers, social media myths run rampant today.
Should I buy PPC ads if I rank organically?
Picture this, you've optimised your website and now rank in the top ten for all your major keywords, and first for several. Organic search engine optimisation (SEO) has really paid off.
So what now? Should you pack in the pay-per-click (PPC) adverts? After all, you probably only got them to increase visibility while you boosted the site's natural optimisation, didn’t you?
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
