We live in a world where there is more information captured on a minute-by-minute basis about our daily lives than ever before. Practically everything we do leaves a trail. With IoT becoming more of a reality each day with almost every home appliance potentially getting an IP address. Data analytics is the art of recognising the patterns in this melange of data and extracting meaningful behaviour altering insights from it. The career of a data scientist is relatively new. As a degree (yip; you can get a degree in data science now) is one of the fastest growing disciples in varsities today. The...
As sales specialist Chris Murray puts it: "The salesperson you’d ideally like to be and the salesperson you’d like to encounter as a customer should roughly be the same, shouldn’t they?". That’s a true, transparent statement that showcases the value of empathy and authenticity in sales and marketing. One means of making this a reality for customers is by introducing video as a channel. Video goes beyond what’s possible when you’re only using voice calls, emails or online chat as sales and marketing mechanisms (or a combination), it presents an intimate, face-to-face experience that provides many opportunities for enhanced sales and...
Like many other areas of digital marketing, SEO content has evolved a great deal over the last two decades. As search engines get smarter and algorithms get tougher, content has had to adapt in order for pages and websites to continue ranking in the SERPs. Many websites that previously enjoyed top positions have found themselves pushed to the back, while others have battled to get ahead in the first place. Although content is one part of a far bigger picture within the SEO landscape, it is important enough to be a major deciding factor when search engines crawl websites. Some of...
Over the last month, since Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s meaningful interactions update, brands have been trying to find a way to keep their stories in follower feeds. Although Facebook may not have intended to cause panic, the thought of losing hard-earned followers has had many marketers wondering how to avoid getting lost in a sea of family news and group updates. Those who have invested in cross channel marketing strategies will likely not have too much to worry about, but those that have not diversified traffic will definitely feel the pinch. One thing that the latest algorithm update has brought home,...
If you’re anything like me, a person who plans and makes lists for everything, you will probably appreciate that I lock important events into my diary long before tickets to the best digital conferences are sold out. Each year I research upcoming conferences, networking events and expos that relate to my job as a digital transformation consultant. The problem is, there are dozens to choose from and some of them don’t always live up to expectations. Don’t fret though. Here is my curated list of industry events with a short breakdown of what you can expect from each. If conference budgets...
Lead scoring offers a highly useful tool, not only for increased engagement but also for conversion. For lead nurturing, scoring simplifies the process of handing over qualified leads, helping to align sales and marketing teams in a way that drives ROI and reduces wasted time and effort. Despite the benefits lead scoring offers, many businesses end up scoring leads manually, using a combination of guesswork and customer track record. In order to see genuine results from this strategy, you first need to ensure that your lead scoring model is set up for success. Leads typically fall into two broader categories: explicit...
It seems like everyone is talking about artificial intelligence (AI) being a game changer, but how many marketers really understand how AI is changing marketing today? Albert Einstein famously remarked in conversation with Werner Heisenberg: "You know in the West, we’ve built a beautiful ship, and in it, it has all the comforts. But actually, the one thing it doesn’t have is a compass and that’s why it doesn’t know where it’s going". AI is the compass that steers our ship and keeps us as marketers on the journey. AI is sure to transform the universe and world in ways we...
Authentic is a word that is all too often abused in the digital space. From a lead nurturing perspective, however, authentic connections have become crucial in a space that has become increasingly cold, competitive, and crowded. The average consumer will receive countless messages on any given day -- emails, SMS messages, social media posts, blog posts, SEM ads. Of those messages, the ones that will be heard are almost always those that do not seem like they are trying to be heard. Think about it this way. Which do you respond to personally: a sponsored social media post or a post...
Facebook has said it will ban ads related to financial products and services like cryptocurrency, binary options and initial coin offerings. The move is a bid to "improve the integrity and security of ads", as it believes that many companies promoting cryptocurrrency are scams and not operating "in good faith". Facebook has issued a ban on cryptocurrency ads for fear of scams With its technical jargon and complicated premise, cryptocurrency is a natural medium for scammers to lure in the uninformed. Initial coin offerings (ICOs) -- which offer buyers the chance to get in on a new cryptocurrency before launch -- provide a barely-regulated avenue...
South Africa will soon get its own edition of Business Insider, thanks to a partnership between the latter and Media24. Launched in 2007, Business Insider covers a host of topics, from business (obviously) to technology, finance and "other industry verticals". Business Insider South Africa will become the 15th and latest international edition of the brand, known for also publishing the likes of Markets Insider. "We’re thrilled to launch Business Insider South Africa as our latest international site," said Henry Blodget, the publication's CEO. "Media24 has a deep understanding of business media -- and the digital space -- so it's the perfect partner to...
Do you have a post-purchase strategy in place? Are you focusing your efforts not only on bringing in new customers but also nurturing existing customers? If you have not begun to think about how you can target customers at every stage of their journey, from the moment they arrive on your site, to their initial purchase, and subsequent purchases, you are missing out on the chance to improve your average order size, value, and frequency. This year, it’s time to take a closer look at your post-purchase strategy to see how you can turn a one-time customer into a brand advocate. Request...
During the 2016 US presidential election, "fake news" was a hot topic. Articles about Hillary Clinton declaring Sharia law permeated the web, as did the likes of one that claimed Donald Trump had called Republicans the "dumbest group of voters". These stories were largely coming from places like Macedonia -- where companies (known as "troll factories") were earning massive ad revenue -- and Russia, where it's alleged the Kremlin had a part to play in the election's outcome. But just because these motives were rooted in the US, as well as its potential for clicks, doesn't mean other countries aren't susceptible...
In the rush to seal the deal and bring in leads, it is all too easy to forget what an important role trust plays in the process. Without trust, however, even the warmest leads will end up going cold before you have had a chance to convert them into actual sales. Trust is hard to win and easy to break. The good news is that when trust is there, reputation, engagement, conversion, and loyalty quickly follow. How do you go about increasing trust with your lead nurturing efforts? For starters, you could try the following simple steps. Know your audience Before you can...
They say no publicity is bad publicity, and they may be right in the case of Namibia. This week marked the second time the country has been the recipient of an insult from US President Donald Trump. But it seems that calling African countries "shitholes" was the last straw, at least for one Namibian. A YouTube video published by German-Namibian rapper EES takes Trump's remarks and transforms them into a novel tourism reel. Wearing the putrid adjective as a badge of honour, the video paints Namibia as a hotbed for potential visitors, alluding to its various destinations shaped like shitholes and elephants...
Uber's first advertisement highlighting the plight of commuters in southeast Asia may just trigger a nerve for those stuck in traffic in Cape Town and Johannesburg daily. Filmed in Bangkok with 200-odd extras, the company's ad trades automobiles for Flintstone-inspired box cars. But that doesn't mean there's any less chaos. From drivers stealing parking spots, to others cutting in ahead of lanes, to those select few who believe one-ways are in fact safe for bidirectional traffic: the video is practically what every road user experiences every day. Perhaps with less cardboard. While the ad is undoubtedly stupid, remarkably silly and deliberately extra,...
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