Posted on January 23rd, 2012
How channel management is evolving –
How can you integrate offline channels into the mix when balancing your digital efforts?
The first thing we need to understand when considering including offline spend as part of your digital channel management is how to accurately measure the success of offline marketing on online sales, and importantly how these impact sales across your different (easily tracked) online channels.
Posted on December 6th, 2011
Attribution is fundamental to understanding the true value of your awareness driving marketing efforts, traditionally your “Push” marketing channels, Display and Email (although there is certainly some cross over with other channels).
The question we continue to come across is how do you use attribution to constantly monitor the performance of these channels on a week by week and day by day basis rather than simply looking at the average customer journeys once a quarter?
The key to this is to put in place an accurate attribution model that gives appropriate weight to each different touch point on your marketing path. Importantly to measure the significance of your awareness driving activity this needs to give influence to ad views as well as clicks and site visits.
Posted on October 25th, 2011
For people to find out about your site they have to be able to track it down, and ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ or SEO is the method to get your website noticed by search engines and by your target audience (or at least those who use search engines, but these days, who doesn’t?)
The trouble with SEO is that the basic principles of building engaging, unique content that other sites will link to is a mid to long term strategy; so what can you do in the short term to improve your website SEO profile?
The quickest thing a site owner can do is to change on-page factors as you control what’s on your site. So let’s target seven of the most common SEO on-page problems that when resolved can improve your website’s ranking in search engines: (more…)
Posted on October 14th, 2011
Push marketing channels are those that create demand for your product, such as Display advertising and email, rather than reacting to existing demand (Pull channels). With a focus on creating demand, it is essential that these channels are aligned and working together towards a common goal.
The key to managing these Push channels is to look at the overall goals of these channels as a whole. (more…)
Posted on September 28th, 2011
Many marketing teams continue to work in a fairly disparate way, with their online and offline functions operating from different departments in different locations with often no communication between them; this is despite operating to extremely closely aligned metrics and KPIs.
By failing to link on and offline channels you miss out on significant optimisation opportunities and the full benefits of those online channels that enjoy high conversion rates. So, while an offline marketing campaign for an e-commerce brand can generate significant product awareness, without coordinating your online activity with this, interested customers will undoubtedly go unconverted.
So, here are five simple ideas for integrating your on and offline marketing: (more…)
Posted on September 19th, 2011
As we all know, getting your data right is the key to a successful email campaign. One of the simplest but most effective ways of segmenting is by lifestage. Here’s Stream:20’s quick how-to guide to what to say and when. (more…)
Posted on September 15th, 2011
Affiliate marketing has been around for a while now and many companies are taking advantage of this unique way of paying only for sales made. Even though the affiliate channel has become a central feature in many eCommerce company’s digital strategies, it’s always worth looking at some quick wins, which should enable your program to generate more sales. So here are our four ways to impact sales in four weeks. (more…)
Posted on September 5th, 2011
Implementing a successful email campaign can seem like a daunting prospect at times, especially when you’ve got high targets to hit and limited time to do it. That’s why we’ve shortlisted our top ways to get quick wins in email. Let us know what you think:
Posted on March 14th, 2011
As a digital marketing consultancy we spend a lot of time looking at websites, at what works and what doesn’t. And we just thought we’d share our thoughts. So, here’s a review of the latest site to catch our eye….
Abel and Cole: www.abelandcole.co.uk
Total score: 16/20
Homepage
- Clear messages give a good overview of service USPs
- Offer shown clearly with eye catching headline above fold
- Obvious sign up / log in buttons for immediate action
- Simple email newsletter sign up to capture prospect data
- Recipes and additional info available to engage customers more
- Clear, consistent calls to action
Score: 5/5
Navigation
- Straight forward tabs at top to direct to key areas of the site
- Shopping pages have easy to use navigation and clear breadcrumbs
- Search function includes suggested searches and provides results for common misspelt words
- Limited filtering is possible on search results, but products are categorised clearly within the search results
Score: 4/5
Product Pages and Checkout
- Templated product pages including product image
- Detailed product descriptions, supplier details and storage & preparation advice
- Links to recipes for individual products, however this moves the customer away from the purchase journey
- Clear calls to action & steps through conversion journey
- No cross-sells used to increase basket size
Score: 4/5
Additional Features
- Recipes using the products available to buy
- ‘How to’ videos for selected recipes
- Blog with entries covering variety of topics
- No customer interaction apart from blog responses. Opportunities to include customer recipes and suggestions
Score: 3/5
