How retailers can prepare their mobile apps for Black Friday
Up and down the country, retailers look towards Black Friday with a characteristic mix of excitement and anxiety.
Up and down the country, retailers look towards Black Friday with a characteristic mix of excitement and anxiety.
It’s a fact universally acknowledged that millennials (of who I am – just – a member) are a lost generation.
Now do you think we’re sexy?
Let’s be honest, digital website or media campaigns audits don’t sound all that sexy.
Why are we still talking omni-bollocks, when we should be talking retail?
Why all the jargon?
Why all the omni-channel cliches and the multi-channel job titles? Why all the endless debates about whether digital is right for a brand or not, or digital versus in-store?
Sadly, for years affiliate marketing has been seen as the poor relation of the digital advertising family.
Tracking networks and technology companies typically selling the channel as a no-frills, “no-win no-fee” way to pad out marketing plans.
Research from Emerson College’s Engagement Lab, suggests luxury brands performing well in social media engagement often lagged behind in word-of-mouth (WOM) performance.
At the same time, brands who performed well in the WOM arena were making less impact in social media.
According to our friends at Google, the most searched for fashion term in 2015 was “How to walk in heels”.
This may come as a disappointment to fashion brands who have been told search is all about sales.
Customers were NOT hungrily Googling the latest pictures from catwalks in Paris or Milan and working out where they could ‘get the look’.
Earlier this week I wrote an article on Econsultancy about Black Friday and whether UK retailers will abstain or get involved with the American inspired retail holiday.
Well, like in politics, a week is a long time in retail. Today might be Armistice Day in Europe, and a day of sombre reflection, but in China it’s the wildly popular Singles’ Day sales frenzy.
It’s that time of year again; the weather’s miserable, tear jerking Christmas ads are back on the telly, and everyone in British retail is trying to decide what to do about Black Friday.
Last week, Snapchat’s announcement that it will charge $750,000 for a disappearing ad on its platform drove an audible gasp from the industry.
Although this has resulted in mass shock across Marketing Directors and Community Managers, it does highlight one thing: the (always inaccurate) myth that social media is free is certainly over: 2015 is the year for paid amplification on social.
Are you just throwing money away on your PPC generics, or even questioning the worth?
An emerging trend from the brands that I speak to on a day to day basis, as well as industry leaders, is the questioning of the value of spending money on generic paid search adverts and whether this budget is better reallocated into solely brand terms, or even other marketing channels.
So whilst profusely stating the benefits of this approach as a customer acquisition strategy, I am often shocked when auditing brands’ existing PPC accounts (monthly spend ranging from £5,000 – £150,000).
The overall quality of search campaigns from a range of boutiques, high-street brands and multi-nationals are worringly sub-standard.
It is only then that I begin to understand the scepticism that this digital media tactic can effectively and efficiently drive greater branding awareness and ultimately revenue.
It can sometimes get a bit murky in the digital marketing world, with slander, extortion and Google penalties all potential weapons for practitioners of negative SEO.
This article aims to look at the current state of negative SEO, its place in the industry, how search engines are reacting/might react and significantly, ways to proactively detect negative SEO.