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A Look Ahead in Retail Shows Ecommerce Growth Continuing

posted on March 21, 2012

Often research is not meant to necessarily inform us. I rarely come across research where there isn’t a moment of “Yes, I have thought that was case” or “I figured as much” especially when it comes to growth in the online space. We all know there is still plenty of room for growth and that growth should continue for quite some time.

When I saw the report from Nielsen entitled “Retail USA: What’s in Store 2016” it seemed like something to check out from a general marketing perspective because the nature of retail is changing so rapidly that it feels like it is not just evolving but almost being re-invented. This chart shows why (click image to enlarge).

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Marketers Say Email is Best but Could Be Better

posted on March 20, 2012

What do you do when your best isn’t good enough? This is the dilemma faced by marketers struggling to meet sales goals.

Crain’s BtoB Magazine and Bizo conducted a survey of B2B marketing professionals in the US and what they found was a general case of “we’ve got what we’ve got.”

59% of marketers said that email was the most effective channel for generating sales. This is good because 49% said email took up the majority of their time and resources. Trouble is, 63% of respondents said their current marketing mix wasn’t meeting their needs.

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Was Analytics Google’s REAL Social Media Missing Link?

posted on March 20, 2012

We all like to debate the merits of Google’s social media efforts. It makes for some spirited back and forth but the truth is that Google is not a social media giant today and may never be.

With today’s announcement of social media integration into Google Analytics we may now have a vision into one way that Google could put a hurt on the likes of Facebook and Twitter without having to be a social media giant. You see, the world of social media is a lot of hype and promotion. However, the industry gets painfully clumsy when talk of measuring success and failure comes around the table. With this product introduction, Google could hold an important key for marketers. As a result maybe, just maybe, marketers will be looking more closely at more social media channels (including one Google+ ;-) ) and see the value of being in even more places. The Google Analytics blog tells us

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Men Who Shop With Phones

posted on March 20, 2012

It’s not a well known fact, but there are indeed men who shop with phones. . . and laptops. . . and tablets.

Hidden before now, eMarketer has shined the light on them and I’m here to say, be not afraid. We, the shopping women of America, welcome you.

The tip comes from a survey by Men’s Health magazine, which kind of tells you a little about the respondents right there.

What they discovered is that men go online to check for best prices and seek out reviews in all categories, not just the manly ones.

A smaller segment also like brand pages on Facebook, tell their friends about their favorite products and post shopping-related comments on forums. The only thing missing from this list is how many of them use coupons when buying. Not many, I’d guess.

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Google Points Out 5 Common SEO Mistakes [VIDEO]

posted on March 20, 2012

It appears that Google may now be getting deeper into the business of helping SEO’s if a video posted yesterday to the Webmaster Central Blog is any indication. It’s not Matt Cutts this time either, it’s the new Google video SEO star, Maile Ohye developer programs tech lead. The following video points out 5 common mistakes and 6 ideas for effective SEO moving forward. The level of the video is set at beginner to intermediate.

What is interesting is this type of advice coming from data while one well known SEO, Wil Reynolds, had written over at the SEOmoz bemoaning the fact that despite SEO’s following Google’s pleas to do certain things to rank better the rewards often go to those who are avoiding the real work to get rankings.

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How to Prepare for Google’s Search Makeover

posted on March 20, 2012

Are you worried about Google’s upcoming search makeover? Whether you agree that Google’s upcoming refresh is a big deal or not, a storm of change is brewing on the search horizon, and it’s best to be prepared. Even though semantic technology has been embedded in search for years, Google is planning to include more of it. Focusing on named entities and marking up content with semantic microdata could keep your search traffic (mostly) intact.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal

Google is planning to revamp search and feature more facts and information generated from semantic technologies. Recently it grew its database of named entities (people, places, and things) from 12 million to over 200 million. The forthcoming changes have potential to impact billions of search queries. It’s Google’s effort to get way ahead of Bing and keep up with Siri on Apple’s iPhone 4S.

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Facebook’s New Privacy Policy Isn’t All That Private

posted on March 19, 2012

Facebook has just released their proposed changes to their privacy policy and it’s got the masses upset. (Surprise!).

First and foremost, they’ve changed the name of the document from Privacy Policy to Data Use Policy and that should tell you all you need to know.

Let me pause a moment to reiterate my feelings on internet privacy. I see it as an oxymoron. If you put content in a public space, I don’t care if you mark it private and lock it up six ways to Sunday, you have to understand that it’s not secure. If someone wants that information badly enough, they’ll get it and spread it around as they please. So don’t put information online you don’t want your mother or girlfriend to see.