We just received this email in our inbox and felt obliged to share it, not because we like specifically ‘naming and shaming’ but because it shows that even the bigger brands can get it wrong. Badly wrong!
So, let’s do a very quick ‘deconstruct’ job on this: Continue reading “How Not To Do Email Marketing: 4 Tips From a Recent Inbox Arrival”
If your website is not mobile enabled, then you’re probably missing a trick. Currently, across a broad range of our clients: 5-10% of visitors are using tablets or smartphones, and up to 40% are opening HTML emails on mobile devices. That’s already 60% up on January 2011.
The ‘hit’ of not optimising for mobile devices is clear: from smartphones in particular, the bounce rate can be close to twice as high, and the number of pages viewed halves – so for as long as you don’t have a mobile site, you’re limiting your opportunity to reach and sell to your mobile visitors.
With tablet sales predicted to exceed laptop sales in 2013 and smartphone penetration continuing to soar… your future market will increasingly be using such devices Continue reading “Tips to Help you Create the Right Mobile Website For Your Business”
Happy New Year from all at Ergo Digital. 2011 was quite eventful for us: from speaking at Wembley Stadium, to launching many successful websites, to sending more emails than ever before (for our clients, of course)… it’s been a year of growth.
As we look ahead, we’ve spotted six things that anyone involved in digital marketing should take note of… here goes: Continue reading “6 Key Digital Marketing Trends for 2012”
The clock is ticking… and soon the final curtain will come down on what was the founding father of PPC – Yahoo! Search Marketing (nee Overture).
All we can say is: the end can’t come soon enough. The clunky interface was delivered late and was dated even before it was birthed. Little was done to improve it, and as Google evolved and Microsoft entered the market, there it stood, stuck in time.
However, that was just about bearable as long as the performance worked. But, as the months went by the slide continued… 20%, 15%, 10% … now about 5% of Google’s reach.
Yet, this article is not about that… What has become increasingly unbearable is the active encouragement of click misbehaviour on Yahoo’s part. We won’t use the word ‘fraud’ for fear of litigation – but let’s call it click ‘flawed’.
We give you a tale of increasing desperation which has led to the final insult as Yahoo! enters it’s last days. Continue reading “Yahoo! Search Marketing – The Final Insult”
Back in the early days of Pay Per Click advertising Google had one of it’s usual brainwaves. It looked at Overture (which became Yahoo! Advertising) and saw that it’s direct ‘you pay more, you position higher’ approach had two main flaws:
So, Quality Score was Google’s smart balancing act. The premise was Continue reading “Google Quality Score is Not About Relevance, It’s Revenue”
Just the other day the MD was with a tree surgeon in his back garden. A Leylandii needed cutting, again… and we were chatting about his work. The surgeon said:
“The amount of these £$*%£$ trees I have to see EVERY week. They’re a real pain. An imported blight. It would be better if it were chopped down.”
We replied
“True. But where would your business be if it weren’t for these trees?”
The surgeon went very quiet.
One of the challenges many businesses have is how to view the Internet
– and yet in many respects there is much to be learnt from the real world and applied to Internet activity.
Real World Learning No.1 – Your Website IS Your ‘Store’
We are often asked by clients to ‘fix’ their Pay Per Click campaign, or to get more traffic to their website and yet when we visit the site, it’s clear that the site needs attention first.
Why Put the Site First?
You can read the full ruling from Google here, but finally a triumph of sense over solicitors.
For most, the above page is a dull footnote in the ocean of Google blog posts, but for those using Adwords, this is exactly what we were expecting (and hoping) for.
What Was the Problem
A few years ago, brand owners threatened Google by arguing that they were using their trademarks unlawfully by allowing businesses to use their brands in keywords and adverts.
Just like the instant version of coffee, Google Instant has ‘freeze dried’ the flavour of search and reformed it in a more immediate format. But, just like instant coffee, what you get is a poor imitation of the ‘real thing’.
‘It’s even better and it saves you time’ goes the Google Inc. mantra, yet we’re not convinced. Not really that sure at all.
Continue reading “Google Instant ‘Coffee’”
Even if you don’t work in digital circles, you cannot fail to have noticed one of the big corporate spats from recent times kick off in ‘The Flash Wars’.
If you don’t know what we’re referring to, let me get you up to speed: Flash, a software owned by Adobe, is responsible for most of the attractive moving graphics on the web including adverts and games. This software is free to download and use, but whoever uses Flash to design needs to buy licensed software to create Flash applications.
