Jeff Rajeck says, “Improving customer experience requires as much attention to how things work inside the company as how customers are interacting with the brand. What internal initiatives do marketers feel are essential for improving customer experience from within the company? To find out, we Econsultancy has conducted a a range of research, including a recent survey of over 300 marketers in India, Customer Experience Maturity in India in association with Epsilon. Here are the top three high-level responses to the question. 1) Improve internal collaboration Respondents were most enthusiastic... [...]

Maz Nadjm says, “We may not give it a lot of thought, but artificial intelligence is already part of our daily lives in a number of ways. When it works well, it makes our life slightly easier – from trying to anticipate our needs (e.g. Amazon’s suggested products or Netflix’s recommended shows) to preventing us from being victims of fraud (e.g. our bank’s fraud detection systems). As a result, our experiences as consumers and humans becomes more seamless and pleasant. It doesn’t take long to get used to this, to the point that some of us are now starting to expect a certain level... [...]

Rose Barnett says, “The boom in the B2B big data market (from a sub-$100m industry in 2009 to $130bn today) mirrors an enterprise-led scramble to invest in data mining, reminiscent of the California gold rush, accompanied by a similar media buzz. Although much is still written about the near-magical potential of data analytics for business, this fervour is now giving way to a more serious debate on where the real business value can actually be found. It’s clear that data prospectors are diverging into two camps: the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-not-yets’. A recent KPMG survey showed... [...]

Jordan Kasteler says, “You might disagree, but I see Search Engine Optimization as both an art and a science. You need to be creative in your approaches to please search engines and outsmart competitors while also applying solid research and analytics-based strategies. To do this, you need to employ a variety of techniques and tools. Unfortunately, however, most people tend to stick to what they know. That can be dangerous in the rapidly evolving SEO space, as the search engines continually adjust what they’re looking for and how they display results. Following, some of the significant... [...]

Marcus Tober says, “Managing your online reputation in search is not something you can leave to chance. What are the key things you should consider? UC Davis (part of the University of California) is an example of what happens when things go wrong: the school was reportedly forced to spend $175,000 to help clean up negative references about it that appeared online after an incident when student protesters were sprayed with pepper spray by campus police. As so much of what people do online starts with search, a big part of managing your online reputation relates to search engines: trying... [...]

Bryan Stenslokken says, “The importance of schema.org has significantly grown in the SEO world since its introduction in 2011. Schema.org is a collection of schemas for structured data markup (sometimes called “schema markup”) that helps search engines better understand content on websites. Implementing this markup on a site can also improve how that site’s listings appear in SERPs. By properly implementing structured data markup from schema.org, you can gain a competitive advantage, increase click-through rate, drive additional traffic and cost-effectively improve organic search... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “Researchers at Princeton and Stanford University have created a super ad blocker that could deliver a devastating blow to the efforts of publishers and advertisers to block the now widely-used ad blockers. Here’s what publishers and advertisers need to know about it. 1. It uses “perceptual ad blocking” Most ad blockers in use today look for the footprints of digital ads. For example, they scan the contents of a page, identifying snippets of code and URLs that are commonly associated with ads and ad networks. This approach is very effective at blocking... [...]

Sean Donnelly says, “Econsultancy would like to invite marketers working at all levels to participate in a short survey about how marketers learn. The link to the survey is available here. The first 50 people to complete the survey will get a free copy of the report. Still need convincing? Here’s some more information about the research and what you can expect to learn. 1. What is the purpose of this research? The report’s overarching purpose is to bring together different professional perspectives and experiences on learning and development (L&D) within marketing in a way that... [...]

Ben Davis says, “At Facebook’s F8 2017 event, the unveiling of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology caused quite a stir. Whilst the AR features showcased are mostly still in private beta, the VR stuff is out there now, though admittedly available to a more limited audience of Oculus Rift owners. In this article, I’m going to look at some of the key functionality and what it could mean for marketers. AR: The Camera Effects Platform Snapchat on steroids gives creative power to the consumer The best way to think of the Camera Effects Platform is as Snapchat... [...]

David Freeman says, “Links have always commanded significant focus when it comes to increasing organic search performance. Over the years, SEOs have built them by any means possible — legitimate and otherwise. Recently, the market has adapted to significant algorithmic shifts and adopted a content marketing approach to link building. This move has led brands and SEOs to create huge volumes of content, often in a silo, with the pure purpose of building links to drive organic search performance. This approach rightly focuses on hitting channel KPIs, but it overlooks the wider business performance... [...]