David Moth

Six examples of B2B companies that shine on Twitter

I recently blogged about consumer brands that had come up with successful Twitter strategies, highlighting ASOS and Nike among others as companies that knew what they were doing with social.

Many commenters mentioned that it would be useful to see a similar post focusing on B2B examples and I was obviously happy to oblige.

Twitter is a difficult medium for B2B companies as it’s all too easy to simply view the platform as a broadcast medium and churn out dull corporate messages.

But here are six examples of businesses that have managed to buck the trend and create interesting or useful Twitter feeds...

by David Moth 09 May 2013 11:18am 6 comments

Six case studies and infographics on the optimal time to send emails

Email has the potential to deliver a strong ROI for marketers, though the precise response rates depend on a number of factors including the subject line, type of offers and the time of day the email is sent.

Obviously the only way of accurately finding the optimal time of day to send your emails is to run tests, and you also need to take into account fluctuations around pay day and annual events such as Christmas and bank holidays.

There is even a way of running tests using Google Analytics, which we blogged a few years ago.

According to the Econsultancy/Adestra Email Marketing Industry Census 2013 only half of businesses (49%) are currently testing the time and day of their email messages, so either the other 51% already know the optimum time or they're working off a hunch.

by David Moth 09 May 2013 09:25am 2 comments

How General Electric uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

B2B companies can often struggle to make social work as people don’t tend to use Facebook and Pinterest for professional reasons.

There’s always Linkedin of course, but that presents an entirely different challenge from the four main consumer networks.

General Electric has managed to buck the trend and achieve a strong social presence, though it’s true that the company blurs the lines between B2B and B2C.

In an interview with Digiday last year, GE’s executive director of global digital marketing Linda Boff said that social platforms have allowed the company to get closer to its customers and tell stories about the human impact of what it does.

by David Moth 08 May 2013 14:55pm 1 comment

Budget and lack of resources are biggest barriers to optimization: report

The perennial business problems of budget and resource availability are the main barriers to adopting or improving testing processes, according to a new survey by Adobe.

Just under half of respondents said that budget (45%) and lack of resources (42%) were “very challenging” problems when it came to testing, while “knowing how to test effectively” is the third most challenging area (37%).

But these results are unsurprising when compared with the report’s broader findings.

The data shows that a majority of companies (53%) spend less than 5% of their total marketing budgets on optimization activities, while a further 49% of respondents stated that testing is not a priority at their company.

by David Moth 07 May 2013 13:00pm 0 comments

How Evans Cycles uses QR codes in-store to deliver product details and reviews

The high street’s struggles with ecommerce and the digital age have been well publicised in the past 12 months as a number of previously dominant brands have gone to the wall.

And in general the brands that have thrived are those that were quick to adapt and integrate digital technologies in-store, such as John Lewis and House of Fraser.

In our report How The Internet Can Save The High Street we detailed some of the new tactics and strategies that retailers should be trying to take advantage of, such as click-and-collect, mobile search, apps and QR codes.

QR codes are a much-maligned technology - particularly by us – however they can be used in-store to allow customers to access additional product information and reviews.

by David Moth 07 May 2013 11:50am 4 comments

11 useful examples of copywriting for product recommendations

All ecommerce sites could benefit from having product recommendations, with research showing that they can potentially increase revenue by up to 300%, improve conversions by 150% and help boost the average order value by 50%.

However, the precise format varies from site to site and should be tested to make sure it’s converting the maximum number of customers.

The copywriting needs to fit with the brand identity and it’s also important to strike an emotive chord and pique the customer’s interest.

This isn’t an easy task considering the fact that you generally only have room for about three or four words, but there is still a great deal you can do with the limited space.

by David Moth 07 May 2013 10:43am 9 comments

Media planners were the most in-demand digital staff last year

Media planners were the most in-demand digital staff last year while mobile job vacancies are increasing at the fastest rate, according to data from Propel.

Its new Digital Salary Insights report shows that average salaries have increased every year since 2009, however the rate of increase slowed from 3% in 2011 to 1% in 2012.

This is supported by a recent Econsultancy survey which found that 66% of digital marketers had received a pay increase in the past 12 months and 73% expected to get a pay rise next year.

But if you’re one of the 33% who didn’t receive a pay increase and are looking for a new challenge then check out the range of roles currently available on our digital jobs board.

by David Moth 03 May 2013 12:05pm 1 comment

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 mobile strategy, desktop use in Australia, personalisation, mobile search, tablet apps, ad targeting, international ecommerce sales and conversion rate optimsation.

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

by David Moth 03 May 2013 11:01am 1 comment

This week's finest digital marketing infographic

It’s that time again where we present the week’s finest digital marketing infographic.

This time it comes from Quick Sprout and looks at optimising contact forms for conversions. Admittedly the colour scheme is quite bland, but the quality of the information elevates it above the others I’ve seen this week.

It includes stats on the optimum number of fields per form and the kind of personal information you should avoid asking for.

To find out more on this topic read our blog post detailing three case studies about optimising lead generation forms or check out our Conversion Rate Optimisation Guide.

by David Moth 03 May 2013 10:34am 1 comment

45% of businesses still don't have a mobile site or app: report

Despite the massive growth in mobile traffic over the past two years almost half (45%) of businesses still don’t have a mobile-optimized site or app, according to a new report from Adobe.

Only 7% have built mobile apps and around a fifth (21%) have implemented both a mobile-optimized site and a mobile app.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for mobile and organizations need to devise their approach based on their business needs, but even so it’s surprising that so many are still relying solely on a desktop site.

The Adobe 2013 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey, with analysis carried out by Econsultancy, received global responses from more than 1,800 digital marketers across North America, Europe and Asia.

by David Moth 02 May 2013 11:07am 10 comments