What Works Online | Business to Business Digital Marketing Blog

Autumn Series Now Available On-Demand

2012-02-15T10:46:59Z

In October and November of last year, What Works Online delivered a total of 4 live digital marketing webcasts which featured experts from Reed Business Information presenting their tips and advice in the areas of:

Website Usability
SEO
PPC
Online Advertising
Email Marketing
Social Media.

These presentations are now available for you to view in your own time, on-demand. Simply follow the links below.

Go to the On-Demand Auditorium

If you have any questions, feedback or for further information email: whatworksonline@rbi.co.uk

20 Things to Improve Your User's Experience This Year

2012-01-05T09:46:07Z

The new year is as good a time as any to review and improve the way you work. With a good user experience now widely seen as the key attribute of many high-tech products, it makes sense to review your own products to see how you can give them that user experience edge.

Here are 20 quick, simple and virtually free ideas you can apply in 2012

Run a usability test
Improve your navigation
Review your user guidance
Refine the UX vision
Launch a survey
Identify your top 5 red routes
Describe your primary user
Run a cognitive walk through
Measure yourself against best practice
Review your mobile channel
Stand on the shoulders of giants
Define a user experience objective
Deign a paper prototype
Make a site visit
Take your user's perspective
Think beyond the obvious
Review your visual design
Evaluate your error messages
Audit your system for accessibility
Embed usability into your company's processes

The Sideways Scrolling Email

2011-11-15T14:21:35Z

In an age of busy mailboxes, 'media saturation' and semi-spam - the need to make your email catch the recipients eye is greater than ever.

So - how about an email that scrolls sideways? You don't see those everyday.

'There's a reason for that!' , cry the sceptics. Certainly, there is no need for every email to scroll sideways. However, if you look at this selection of examples compiled by Style Design, it is a novelty, a break from the norm that might lend itself to a particular campaign/product or service, there are even a few B2B examples. You can't say you wouldn't enjoy receiving this.

View entire showcase here

If you were to consider building and sending one of these however, it is important to test how it render in different email clients. Having a novelty that breaks is hardly worth having at all.

@WhatWorksOnline Twitter Roundup - #3

2011-11-14T13:00:25Z

Here are the top links to external sources that we tweeted this past week:

A one-stop shop from Google for consumer trends, marketing insights and industry research. - #digital #marketing http://t.co/RS8dECdU
Marketing Interactions blog by @ardath421 well worth a look for #b2b marketers - get a psychic pizza http://ow.ly/7kUXU #b2b #marketing
A stats round-up of mobile commerce in the UK - good section on obsatcles - http://ow.ly/7kV54 Via @Econsultancy #mobile #marketing
"Survey Finds a B2B Content Gap" - interesting, good stats on lead times, online frustrations and social media too - http://t.co/6KeOn9uD

For more links like these follow @WhatWorksOnline on Twitter

15 SEO Charts and Diagrams for Marketers

2011-11-11T13:10:17Z

This selection of SEO charts and diagrams, compiled originally by Pamela Vaughan over at Hubspot , is great for if you are trying to get your head around search engine optimisation.

You may want to leave the 'doing' part to the professionals but these charts should certainly help you to understand how and why SEO can help your business' digital marketing strategy.

Cycle of Social & SEO by TopRank Online Marketing

]]> 2. Google's Collateral Damage by SEOBook and Jess.net (click to enlarge)

3. SEO Diagram by MentorMate

4. SEO Success Pyramid by SmallBusinessSEM.com

5. The SEO Process Chart by SEOBook

6. Link Building 101 by ProspectMX (click to enlarge)

7. The Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors by Search Engine Land (click to enlarge)

8. The SEO Flow Chart by SEOBook

9. On-Page Optimization and Link Acquisition by SEOmoz

10. SEO Tactics by Response Mine Interactive (click to enlarge)

11. Link-Building Risk vs. Reward by Conversation Marketing (click to enlarge)

12. SEO Process by Digital Clarity Media

13. The SEO Hierarchy of Needs by Bruce Clay, Inc.

14. SEO ROI From Link Building Tactics by SEOmoz

15. Search Engine Marketing Process by Komarketing Associates

Ad Galleries for Inspiration

2011-11-10T15:50:22Z

Looking for display advertising inspiration?

The links below are a good selection of advertising showcases, giving you good creative and strategic examples in a variety of different formats. Credit to Jack Walkington at Brand Republic for compiling the original list, to which I have added a few:

Bannerblog

Collective Video Ad Creative Gallery
EyeWonder Online Ad Showcase
Flashtalking Showcase
Google DoubleClick Rich Media Gallery
IAB US Rising Stars
MediaMind's Creative Zone
Microsoft Advertising
Mojiva Mobile Creative
Unanimis Campaign Gallery
Yahoo! Rich Media Gallery

For more links like these follow What Works Online on Twitter @WhatWorksOnline

@WhatWorksOnline Twitter Roundup - #2

2011-10-31T10:21:07Z

Here are the top links to external sources that we tweeted this past week:

Trying to link social media and #email? This post is a good place to start (random share buttons is not) ow.ly/70wHq #b2b
10 informative B2B marketing infographics via @Econsultancy - j.mp/r4dN4u
Marketers building a funnel - A good resource to have is this guide to lead nurturing from @Eloqua ow.ly/71P9Q #b2b
Following closely the Storyboading & #UX series on @johnnyholland - Part 1 ow.ly/6ZAmR and Part 2 ow.ly/6ZAwH so far...

@WhatWorksOnline Twitter Roundup - #1

2011-10-11T09:00:35Z

Here are the top links to external sources that we tweeted this past week:

"Amateurish photoshoppers like I - Grab a copy of this, one page of useful shotcuts - ow.ly/6XgtL #design"
"Reaching an audience on the move? This infographic on designing emails for mobile should help - ow.ly/6XfXM #b2b #email"
"Need to swat-up on social media? This collection of @slideshare presentations is a good place to start - ow.ly/6VTuy #b2b #sm"
"Increasing product engagement using #email - Good case study, relevant to #b2b products/services @MarketingSherpa - ow.ly/6UIvh"
"Interested/intrigued by mobile ads? @Mojiva have a great showcase of mobile ads by type http://ow.ly/6SfDd #b2b #mobile"
"Considering using infographics? Learn the 4 different types and what each is good for here - http://ow.ly/6SfyE Via @Eloqua #b2b"

Google Working On 'Making Display Advertising Amazing'

2011-09-07T11:25:14Z

Google has recently been looking to make display advertising more accessible and inclusive. This activity is presented in a series of colourful videos on a new microsite elusively entitled Watch This Space. If you look around this site you can get some great ideas about how you can make your online advertising space work best for you. These include:

Targeting
The more relevant your advertising, the better the response will be. This is even the case on B2B sites where positioning your ad in the right channel can be far more effective than merely being on the right site.

Creativity
We have moved beyond just banner ads. There is now a trend amongst publishers towards bigger, but fewer, ad formats on the page. This not only means that the advertiser has a greater presence but you can also do so much more within the space. There are virtually no restrictions.

Measurement
There is more to an advertisement than a click. You have to consider interactions and also conversion rates. A click is only useful in the context of what the user does once they visit your site (acquisitions/ actions).

Click the image below to launch Watch This Space.

Creating an effective Landing Page

2011-08-22T10:44:27Z

Below is a good infographic from Formstack highlighting 10 key landing page features that draw in users on a landing page. It also includes a summary of 'what types of colours are good for different sites' - the devil really is in the detail.

Combine this with Jamie's recent Lead Generation post on optimising PPC landing pages and you should be on to a winner.

Click to enlarge.

Email Buttons: How to Dodge the Image Blockers

2011-08-11T10:58:55Z

Images are now turned off by default in every email client. It is therefore important for marketers to account for this when designing and sending emails. Recipients need to be able to make clear sense of the email without downloading the images. Your call-to-action needs to be visible as soon as the email is delivered. This will not be possible when the button is one single image, as below:

The way to get around this is to cut up the image:

This allows for each of the separate images to be placed in a table in HTML code and for the same colour to be used as the back ground colour for the middle section. The text can also be edited easily and used over and over again and it. So the button above will display like this with image blockers on:

It is important then to make sure that your button's design does not contain a gradient colour like those shown below. As the above solution will not work because there is no one background colour. Examples of these below:

Useful email marketing resources:
Lyris
Clickz

How To: Use Remarketing

2011-08-03T16:08:23Z

This short video form the Google Business Youtube channel shows how to use remarketing, a great AdWords feature that allows you to show ads to your site visitors as they browse other pages across the Google Display Network.

Further resources:
Google Ad Innovations - Remarketing
What is Remarketing and why should I use it?

How To: Set Up Conversion Tracking

2011-08-03T15:52:54Z

This short video from Google's 'Google Business' Youtube channel shows you how to implement Google's free conversion tracking,which allows you to see which AdWords clicks led to a valuable action on your website, such as a sale.

Further resources:
What is Adwords Conversion Tracking?
Conversion Tracking Installation Guide

Introduction to Google's Webmaster Tools

2011-08-03T15:44:03Z

The video below does a good job of explaining what Google Webmaster Tools are and how they can help you to optimise your site for search.

Case Study: Using Google's Webmaster Tools

This video demonstrates how to utilise Google's Webmaster Tools to get an insight into how Google views the pages on your site. Use the various features of this tool to ensure that the most important pages on your site have the best chance of appearing in Google's search results.

Video: Lead Nurturing Mistakes

2011-08-03T13:47:22Z

Here's a quick video from Jeff Ogden of Find New Customers on some of the biggest mistakes businesses make when getting into lead nurturing. Jeff talks about 'drip marketing' and how content needs to craft a story for the customer, guiding them through the buying process.