David Moth

Six basic tips for improving homepage product banners

Providing tailored product recommendations is a proven way of boosting online sales, with two-thirds of companies (66%) stating that personalisation improves both customer experience and business performance.

Speaking at a Screen Pages ecommerce event recently, Emailvision personalisation director Neil Hamilton ran through some best practice tips for how to create effective homepage product recommendation banners.

The effectiveness of these blocks can be improved using personalisation, whereby the products shown are specifically tailored to the customer based on their past on-site behaviour.

Our new Realities of Personalisation Report, published in association with Monetate, found that just 30% of businesses currently personalise their websites based on a visitor’s previous behaviour, so a majority of businesses are yet to implement the technology.

by David Moth 15 May 2013 13:09pm 0 comments

Just 14% of businesses say their CMS gives a complete view of engagement across channels

Two of the major digital trends of 2013 have been content and inbound marketing, both of which rely to an extent on having an effective content management system (CMS).

New research from Econsultancy and Adobe shows that although organisations are very aware that their ability to implement an effective content strategy is tied to the integration of their CMS with the other technologies, the promise of the technology far outstrips their current reality.

The data shows that 94% of businesses believe that it’s “quite” or “very important” to tie content management together with the ability to measure its performance on site (i.e. web / mobile analytics).

Digital asset management (91%) and personalisation (88%) are also seen as key areas that need to be integrated with the business’ CMS.

by David Moth 14 May 2013 14:07pm 0 comments

Bricks-and-mortar stores are failing to take advantage of mobile search

Mobile search has grown massively in the past few years and is predicted to overtake desktop search by 2014.

Furthermore, according to Google 40% of mobile search has local intent and 55% of mobile search conversions happen within an hour, so there is a huge opportunity for local businesses to take advantage of this new consumer behaviour.

However we’ve previously seen evidence to suggest that although businesses are aware of the opportunity in paid search, they’re failing to properly optimise their campaigns.

Last year I looked at three valuable keywords (mortgages, insurance and loans) and found that only six out of the 15 paid search results linked to mobile sites.

by David Moth 14 May 2013 12:11pm 0 comments

Seven tips to help create awesome Vines

Video sharing app Vine turned 100 days old last week and according to new research it has proved to be quite the success.

Data from Unruly shows that five Vine clips are shared every second on Twitter and branded Vines are four times more likely to be shared than branded online videos.

It’s also interesting to note that weekends are the most popular time to share Vines and in most cases they are more popular than all the previous weekdays combined.

We’ve previously looked at fashion brands and football teams that have begun using Vine, as well as highlighting both good and bad uses of the platform.

by David Moth 14 May 2013 10:26am 0 comments

More than half of businesses achieve 10% of sales through email marketing

In the fast moving world of digital marketing the value of email for driving sales is occasionally overlooked as shiny new technologies emerge and distract our attention from what actually works in terms of bringing in revenue.

However the new Econsultancy/Adestra Email Marketing Census again highlights the importance of email as a sales channel, as just over half (55%) of all company respondents could attribute more than 10% of their total sales to the email marketing channel, with 18% of respondents stating that email accounted for over 30%.

The Email Marketing Census looks at the amount and type of email marketing carried out by organisations, the way that email marketing is conducted, issues affecting the industry and the effectiveness of email compared to other digital marketing channels.

by David Moth 13 May 2013 12:24pm 1 comment

Six things to consider when writing product descriptions

A great product description is one of the most important features needed for an effective product page alongside user reviews, images, bold calls-to-action and delivery information.

The benefits of writing unique product descriptions are obvious – firstly you avoid getting penalised by Google for having duplicate content on your site, and secondly it’s a great sales opportunity.

There are few areas where sites can really differentiate themselves from their competitors and copywriting is one of them.

It’s a chance to entice the customer, upsell your products and inject a bit of excitement and personality into your site.

by David Moth 13 May 2013 10:37am 2 comments

ASOS launches new virtual fitting tool in bid to reduce returns

Product returns are a major problem for online retailers as each unwanted order obviously incurs a cost, which then raises the dilemma of who is to pay for postage.

Passing the cost onto customers is certain to put people off ordering again in future, but absorbing the cost might not be feasible for all businesses.

Ideally retailers should try and reduce the need to return items in the first place, and we’ve previously written about a shoe fitting app that reduced fit-related returns by 23%.

Now ASOS has launched a new tool, Virtusize, that has the potential to achieve an even greater rate of success, as it has already proven to reduce fit-related returns by up to 50% on other ecommerce sites.

by David Moth 13 May 2013 09:31am 4 comments

10 interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week

Here are some of the most interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week.

Stats include UK adspend, barriers to optimization, the digital jobs market, social logins in ecommerce, mobile adspend and the increasing amount of time spent online by US consumers.

For more digital marketing stats, check out our Internet Statistics Compendium.

by David Moth 10 May 2013 11:31am 2 comments

This week's finest digital marketing infographic

Taobao is China’s largest online shopping platform and today is its 10th birthday, so what better way to commemorate the occasion than an infographic?

According to the stats, in 2013 the Chinese are expected to spend more than £177 billion shopping online making it the world’s largest ecommerce market.

And despite the fact that internet penetration is just 40% in China, the country’s online population is still 242 million people.

For more information on this topic check out our Digital Market Landscape Report which focuses on the emerging market in China, or read our interview with Net Media Planet on how European businesses should approach paid search in the country.

by David Moth 10 May 2013 14:50pm 3 comments

Content management systems are failing to deliver on brand expectations: report

Just 38% of businesses believe that their content management system (CMS) helps to deliver a brand-enhancing digital presence, according to the latest Econsultancy/Adobe Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing.

The report also shows that nearly all (87%) respondents stated that a CMS should help them to improve user and customer engagement, while 78% said it should help to build the brand though positive experiences.

But despite a widespread grasp of the fundamental role played by a CMS in delivering great experiences, the reality is that all too often the technology is actually the problem rather than the solution.

The report, entitled ‘From Content Management to Customer Experience Management’, is based on a web content management survey of more than 1,000 business professionals spanning marketing, web development and other business departments, carried out in March 2013.

by David Moth 10 May 2013 10:28am 0 comments