The evolution of the inbox in 2020: Combining seamless customer experience with security

In recent years we’ve experienced a great shift in the way in which businesses are engaging with their customers. Giants of the gig economy, like Airbnb and Uber, have created highly potent customer engagement mechanisms right at the very heart of their operations. Today, because of this, UK consumers have come to expect contextualised, seamless and highly relevant communications.

Whether ordering food, looking for transport, or getting an update on a delivery, consumers today...

15 January 2020 | Content Marketing

Making your marketing more sophisticated: Engage customers and save time with intelligent output

Many marketing departments will say there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done, however, the problem is that quite often they’re focusing on the wrong things.

For example, most marketers report that building an email takes between 30-50 minutes and landing pages up to two hours. Others simply don’t have the time to complete such tasks. Why is this still the case?

Throughout 2020, savvy professionals must be prepared to readdress the balance so...

10 January 2020 | Automation

Nurturing your customers through powerful communications: A guide

Whether targeting a consumer via an email, SMS or direct mail campaign, the underlying goal for any marketer remains the same – to encourage each person to buy their products or services.

However, in a world dictated by online noise, how can a busy professional achieve the critical cut-through it takes to keep individuals motivated enough to engage with their online channels and continuously purchase from their organisation?

On average, it takes six commercial touches...

3 October 2019 | Customer Experience

Six killer marketing metrics that really matter: Segmentation and engagement

The life of a digital marketer is rarely straightforward. Whilst other communicators may perhaps argue it’s easier for their digital peers to evidence ROI, those within the world of email marketing, for instance, may be quick to defend their position. Because yes, they have a wealth of metrics at their fingertips, but it can be difficult to know where to start. Death by data anyone?

Focusing only on open and click rates?

In his book How to Win Friends and Influence...

3 April 2019 | CRM

Consumers will walk away from brands who go against their values – but brands have their heads in the sand

It’s time for brands to shape up or ship out when it comes to ethics with two in five consumers already having walked away from organisations which have violated their personal values, according to a new industry report.

The study from agency Hotwire, which alongside Sapio Research polled more than 6,000 consumers, as well as more than 1300 CMOs and business decision makers, argued that while consumers are willing to start afresh, business leaders are adopting a more...

18 March 2019 | Advertising

Effective email marketing for millennials: How to make the most of the opportunity

Millennials are a top priority for marketing teams. Their long-term spending potential makes them a valuable target, with World Data Lab revealing that global millennial spending power is set to overtake its preceding generation X by 2020. It’s subsequently unsurprising that marketers are recognising the importance of catching millennials’ attention early.  The big question is, how does this generation need to be marketed differently?

Born between 1980 and 2000,...

14 February 2019 | Automation

Data strategies: Fix it, don’t stitch it

The quality of (big) data has for a long time been a crux for CMOs. Instead of creating a true view that positions their brand to make sound decisions, CMOs are having to "stitch together" their data from different sources. They’re creating data Frankenstein monsters from different warehouses, assembling disparate findings, and failing to optimise decisions around the customer journey. This isn’t efficient, easy or effective. It’s therefore...

14 January 2019 | Advertising

Jon Buchan: On how to secure leads and meetings by disarming – then charming – your prospects

It’s 9am on a regular working day, sometime around 2012. The computer has just been fired up, the coffee is starting to cool, and you ease yourself into proceedings with a cursory scan of your inbox. The vast majority of what you find is not to your taste; emails that are full of jargon, with a cliched call to action, and so lacking in personalisation that they all blur into one dirge of dullness.

It certainly doesn’t pique your interest, nor does it anger you. In fact,...

29 November 2018 | Best Practice

Customer comms giant Twilio to acquire SendGrid for $2bn

Twilio has entered into an agreement to acquire email API platform SendGrid in a $2bn (£1.82bn) bid to build out its leading Platform-as-a-Service, which virtualises the world’s telecoms infrastructure through APIs.

Used by more than 40K companies globally such as Airbnb and Netflix, Twilio lets software developers add capabilities such as voice, video, chat and messaging into their applications, backed by a “Super Network” connecting communications networks...

16 October 2018 | Customer Experience

Four ways in which marketing automation is evolving

Marketing automation has been somewhat of a blessing to many employed in the field; it’s freed up a lot of time and reduced the tedium associated with repetitive tasks.

Automation swooped in providing a range of tools to save time and effort needed day to day. Still, the digital marketing landscape is evolving further, driven by changing consumer behaviour and demands; on average, consumers now spend more time online than ever but they’re after a more personalised...

8 August 2018 | Automation