David Moth

Homebase develops its multichannel strategy with new mobile site

Homebase has unveiled a new mobile optimised site as it seeks to expand its multichannel offering.

As well as being fully transactional, the mobile site has a store finder function that allows users to check if the product they need is in stock and reserve it for collection later that day.

The idea is to use mobile to help drive footfall in-store, which is a strategy we’ve seen recently from both L’Oreal and Guess Watches.

In May Homebase revealed that more than a third of its customer research online before going into a store, which highlighted the need for multichannel commerce tools such as reserve and collect.

The launch of the new mobile site shows that Homebase is continuing to develop its multichannel strategy, but is the site any good?

by David Moth 17 October 2012 09:45am 3 comments

Asda designs 'most convenient photo site in the UK'. But is it?

Last week Asda launched a new photo website claiming that it is “the easiest and most convenient to use in the United Kingdom.”

It sells a range of personalised products including canvases, pet beds, mugs and stationary.

Customers can upload images directly from their computer or social networks. So now any photos you’ve uploaded to Facebook, Picasa, Instagram or Twitter can be turned into a personalised dog’s bed.

Never one to turn down a challenge, I thought it would be interesting to test Asda’s claim that it’s the UK’s most user-friendly photo site and see if there were any glaring UX errors.

by David Moth 17 October 2012 11:23am 7 comments

The Daily Mail beats rivals to achieve most pins on Pinterest

As readership and ad revenues continue to decline, national newspapers are searching for new ways to attract visits to their sites and monetise content.

Social media has proved to be a great source of traffic, with The Guardian predicting earlier this year that Facebook would soon drive more visits to its site than search.

Furthermore, many publishers use social blogging platform Tumblr to extend their audience by sharing their most interesting short-form content.

So it’s not surprising to find out that many of the UK’s top newspapers have also established Pinterest accounts.

by David Moth 16 October 2012 11:39am 1 comment

10 brands making great use of Tumblr

Tumblr may not be the most high profile social network doing the rounds, but its blogging platform offers unique opportunities to engage with new audiences that are too good to be ignored.

It hosts just over 77m blogs and 33bn blog posts, which is a very healthy community of people creating, viewing and sharing content.

So how should brands be using Tumblr, and which brands’ blogs are worth checking out?

by David Moth 16 October 2012 10:24am 2 comments

How to optimise products for Google Shopping and Product Listing Ads

When you search for products in Google there are several ways that retailers can choose to target you.

Aside from the paid search ads at the top of the page, there are also Google Shopping results which are determined by the relevance of the products stored in the Merchant Centre.

A high optimisation effort is necessary to successfully work with Google Shopping, so up until this week Google had compensated retailers by offering this service for free.

But as of this week Google Shopping results in the US will only come from merchants who are Product Listing Ads (PLA) customers. The same model will be rolled out in Europe early next year.

by David Moth 15 October 2012 13:26pm 0 comments

How usability testing and call tracking can help your multichannel strategy

Multichannel marketing isn’t a new concept, but it is one that many businesses struggle to implement.

It throws up a number of different challenges, from tracking customers to joining up marketing activities, so it can be difficult to know where to even being.

During a talk on multichannel optimisation at Econsultancy’s JUMP conference Belron’s group e-business manager Craig Sullivan discussed several issues that brands need to consider as they move towards an effective multichannel strategy.

He said the benefit of multichannel is that it allows brands to get great customer insights, which in turn allows them to build better products and drive higher revenues.

Here we look at two themes from Sullivan’s talk: user testing and cross-channel analytics using phone tracking...

by David Moth 15 October 2012 12:03pm 3 comments

60 fascinating digital stats from the London 2012 Olympics

Back in 2005 the internet was a simpler place. Twitter didn’t exist, the mobile web was a new fangled idea that hadn’t really caught on and broadband had only just become more common than dialup.

So with that as a background, the team given the job developing the new media strategy for the London 2012 Olympics must have had little idea of how drastically their task would change.

What started out as a team of two ended up involving 14 people who built 77 digital products, sites or services in six years.

At Econsultancy’s JUMP 2012 event LOCOG’s head of new media Alex Balfour revealed some of the impressive stats achieved by his team during the Games...

by David Moth 15 October 2012 10:37am 10 comments

Start Me Up! A profile of Taggstar

It’s not easy for publishers to make money online. Competition for eyeballs and ad revenues is fierce, so website owners need to be savvy to any possible avenues for monetisation.

Taggstar aims to give publishers a new way of monetising images by adding layers of content to make them interactive and shareable.

The company is already working with a wide range of media partners including MSN, Sky Living, The Telegraph, Hearst Magazines and The Independent, and last month launched a public version of its technology platform.

Early engagement rates have been consistently high, ranging from an average of 12% to almost 40% for certain high profile celebrities.

So to find out more about how Taggstar works and its plan for growth I spoke to CEO and founder Fraser Robinson...

by David Moth 12 October 2012 10:53am 0 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 the increase in mobile ad spend, JUMP 2012 takeaways, how the French use the mobile internet, affiliate mobile stats and a range of new YouTube channels.

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

by David Moth 12 October 2012 10:26am 0 comments

This week's top six infographics

Once again we round up six of the best infographics we've seen this week.

The topics include how to optimise mobile landing pages, big data, why email still matters, the top 1,000 YouTube channels, Facebook at 1bn and eBay's 100m mobile app downloads.

by David Moth 12 October 2012 11:31am 1 comment