Richard Maven

Richard Maven helps run the E-consultancy blog as well as contributing to our Buyer’s Guides and other reports. He’s 29 and has several years’ experience in the telecoms/media/ecommerce space, both in the UK and the Middle East. You can contact him at richard@e-consultancy.com.

Seedcamp CEO plans fund for internet startups

Tech startups across Europe are currently preparing their entries for Seedcamp 2008, the annual contest that offers five or so winners the chance to secure early stage funding and advice from a panel of expert VCs (in return for a chunk of equity).

But any not making it may not have to wait for another twelve months to get their hands on the organisation’s cash.

by Richard Maven 25 July 2008 11:13am 0 comments

Q&A: Dr Dave Chaffey on Managing Digital Channels

This week, we ask Dr Dave Chaffey, author of the new E-consultancy Best Practice Guide to Managing Digital Channels (published today) to run us through the results and insights arising from the report.

Dave is director of Marketing Insights and author of several best-selling internet marketing and e-commerce books. He was recognised in 2004 by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing gurus who “helped shape the future of marketing”.

Dave is also author of three other practical E-consultancy Best Practice Guides, including those on search engine optimisation and website design.

by Richard Maven 22 July 2008 13:16pm 1 comment

Q&A: Bounty’s Andrew Thomas on marketing to Mums

Andrew Thomas is the e-business director at Bounty, the UK parenting club perhaps best known for the free stuff it hands out to new Mums in their post-natal wards, and regular correspondence thereafter.

Since joining in 2005, he’s been spearheading a campaign to expand its membership and boost loyalty via the web, including the development of online community Bounty.com. The firm now says it has 700,000 members signed up online, and 2.1m+ overall. And last year, it was bought by Canadian company Kaboose to expand its portfolio of parenting websites.

Here, Andrew tells us about his online ambitions, including the impending launch of a new educational video site, the addition of new skills to its in-house digital team and potential expansion abroad.

by Richard Maven 15 July 2008 12:48pm 0 comments

Q&A: Jill McDonald on McDonalds’ digital marketing rethink

Jill McDonald, McDonald’s chief marketing officer in the UK and Northern Europe, hasn’t wasted much time since joining the company from BA in 2006.

She was named as the UK’s top marketer at the Marketing Society Awards in June, having helped to breathe life into the business and instigated more “rigour and discipline” in the way it goes about advertising.

Now, she tells us, the same thing needs to happen in its online activities. She says she wants to “take a step back as a brand and look at how we should be using the digital space”, and recently commissioned what looks like a fairly wide-reaching review of its web strategy.

We talk to her about what that might mean for McDonalds and how it measures success in the digital world.

by Richard Maven 09 July 2008 11:50am 1 comment

Mobile roundtable - best practice debate wide open

Mobile is not a subject that attracts widespread agreement, as shown by our recent list of analyst forecasts .

And it was no different at our recent Mobile Internet Roundtable, where a lot was discussed but I don’t think was necessarily settled.

by Richard Maven 02 July 2008 11:20am 0 comments

Q&A: ‘super-affiliate’ Jamie Harwood

Six years ago, Jamie Harwood, like many new affiliates, was working out of his bedroom and wondering how long it would all last. Now, he’s sitting on an estimated fortune of £18m and is one of the most successful players in the affiliate space.

Here, we talk to the head of UK Web Media about the secrets of the affiliate game and where he sees new opportunities emerging in the industry. He also tells us what retailers could be doing to improve their use of the channel and lays out his plan for international expansion.

by Richard Maven 01 July 2008 14:30pm 1 comment

Q&A: Incisive Media's Tim Weller on B2B publishing online

Tim Weller is the group chief executive of Incisive Media and talks to us about his successful approach to B2B publishing.

by Richard Maven 17 June 2008 13:32pm 0 comments

Q&A: Dabs.com’s Jonathan Wall on e-commerce

Jonathan Wall is the marketing director at Dabs.com, the online technology retailer bought by BT in 2006.

Here, we ask him about the company’s latest efforts around acquisition, conversion and retention, including a current project to digitise its print catalogues.

He also gives us some interesting thoughts on cashback affiliates and shopping comparison sites, as well as the good stuff IT manufacturers are doing to support retailers like Dabs.

by Richard Maven 10 June 2008 13:26pm 0 comments

Q&A: Lovefilm's Craig Sullivan on A/B and multi-variate testing

Here, we speak to Lovefilm's digital and usability product manager Craig Sullivan about the work the DVD rental company has been doing in multi-variate testing (MVT).

Craig is a bit of an evangelist on MVT - a hot topic right now - and has some great insights into when and how best to use it, the differences with A/B testing and how to intepret results.

by Richard Maven 24 June 2008 14:16pm 0 comments

Q&A: Jeff Molander on affiliate marketing

Jeff Molander is the CEO of Molander & Associates, which provides strategic guidance to entrepreneurs, private and institutional investors, agencies, multi-channel retailers and service marketers.

We asked him a few questions about the thorny issue of cannibalisation of sales by affiliate marketing and what retailers can do to solve it.

by Richard Maven 28 May 2008 12:33pm 0 comments