Digitally Crafted – this week in online marketing

In this week’s round-up of the most important topics within digital marketing, we learn that Google Shopping ads have experienced an increase in clicks and impressions during the last 12 months, Google+ celebrates securing its position as the second most popular social network behind Facebook and 83 per cent of all online shoppers require some form of support in order to complete their purchase.

Social media

Pinnerific: Pinterest’s new navigation and look rolling out to select users
Pinterest is soon planning to roll out a sleek new interface for a select group of its users, featuring larger images, improved navigation and a faster overall experience. The navigation is designed to be more intuitive and, if the trial period goes as well as expected, it shouldn’t be long before it is implemented universally. Read more

Google+ rolls out a new page manager dashboard
Google+ has unveiled its new Page Manager dashboard with increased functionality, including some very basic statistics regarding the pages users manage. While its old dashboard contained very little functionality, merely display the different pages managed, the new dashboard still shows all the pages managed but includes stats for each page, notifications for page activity and more. Read more

Report: Facebook drives most social B2B traffic, but Twitter is top for conversions
A new report from Optify revealing the traffic and leads for American B2B websites revealed that social media still accounts for only a fraction of conversions. Social media accounts for just 1.9 per cent of traffic in comparison with 41 per cent for organic search. However, companies with active social media campaigns have experienced comparatively high conversion and engagement rates. Facebook drives the most traffic compared to Twitter and LinkedIn, while Twitter achieves the highest conversion rate of 2.17 per cent. Read more

Andrew Doyle, Crafted's SEO Manager, commented: "According to a recent report from Optify, Facebook is the largest driver of traffic from social channels and accounts for around 50% of total social media B2B visits. Twitter however provides the greatest conversion rate at 2.17% compared the other major social channels which sit at around 0.8%. For many B2B companies this data will solidify the belief that Twitter is the tool of choice for many B2B businesses. In overall terms organic search still massively outperforms social by 41% to 5%."

Google+ passes Twitter to take number two social network slot behind Facebook
There appears to be a prevailing wind for Google+ in the social marketplace at present, with the community having leapfrogged Twitter into second place as the world’s second largest social network with 343 million active users. While this figure may surprise some people it is perhaps understandable when you consider Google pushes its network hard to anyone with a Google profile. Facebook continues to lead the way with almost 700 million active users. Read more

Search marketing

Report: Google Shopping ads see increase in clicks and impressions during 2012
In October Google Shopping evolved from a free to a paid commercial service in the United States and the network is set to roll its commercial model out in the UK from 13th February. Thousands of retailers benefitted from their Google Shopping inventories with advertisers launching Product Lisiting Ads (PLA) campaigns. The click share for PLAs increased by 4.5 per cent from January to December 2012, suggesting that shoppers are increasingly finding relevant ads in line with their search queries. Read more

Andrew Doyle, SEO Manager at Crafted comments: "To the great disappointment of many UK businesses, Google announced that it would be moving its shopping search to a paid model during 2012. This will end the free traffic and sales many sites enjoyed through this channel in the past. However, since the move to a paid model in the US, many advertisers who currently engage in Product Listing Ads have seen some very positive returns. PLA campaigns in the US saw their click share increase from 2.1% to 6.6%. Additionally, PLA ads ended 2012 with a higher CTR then standard text ads. Overall PLA’s are an excellent opportunity to generate extra revenue from Google paid traffic."

Foursquare launches specialist business app
Geo-location social network, Foursquare has launched an innovative app that enables businesses to update customers about themselves straight from their handset. Foursquare for Business is designed to allow businesses to better connect with their consumers and is available for both iOS and Android operating systems. Read more

Marketing

Half of all senior executives ‘unaware’ of EU data protection reforms business threats
Recent research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) found that half of senior executives among brands, agencies and suppliers are wholly unaware of the possible affects the draft EU Data Protection Regulation may have on their business. Following a poll of 250 direct marketing practitioners, 50 per cent admitted they were oblivious to the possible impacts regarding the definition of personal data and the limitations on customer profiling and so forth. Read more

PR

Trinity Mirror to cut more than 90 regional roles in digital content move
Nationwide publisher, Trinity Mirror is cutting 92 posts from 800 editorial staff throughout its regional papers as part of a strategy to move from a print focus to digital content and e-editions. The firm will be recruiting for 52 new digital roles as it seeks to deliver a “digital-first” strategy over the coming years, embracing technological advances to become a digitally-focused news operation. Read more

Mobile

Report: Consumers increase time spent in retailer mobile apps by 525%
Current barriers to mobile app adoption don’t appear to be affecting retailers as new data unveiled last week by mobile analytics firm, Flurry, indicates that time spent in apps offered by major retailers such as Walmart, Macy’s and Saks 5th Avenue had increased by an enormous 525 per cent between December 2011 and December 2012. Consumers are therefore spending more time in retailer apps than in any other single shopping category. Read more

Infographic: 66% of smartphone owners are worried about privacy
As many as two-thirds of smartphone owners are more concerned about privacy on their handheld devices than they were 12 months ago, according to a new report from TRUSTe. Additionally, 79 per cent of respondents surveyed admitted they avoid using smartphone apps that they don’t believe protect their online privacy. Almost half (43 per cent) of users revealed they didn’t trust companies with their personal information, indicating mobile has a long way to go to gain the trust of the masses. Read more

Report: iOS and Android capture record 92% of global smartphone market in Q4 2012
Following the latest release of figures from Strategy Analytics which measures global smartphone operating system shipments and marketshare for Q4 2012, it appears iOS and Android together accounted for a record 92 per cent of all shipments. That is a year-on-year marketshare increase of around 17 per cent with the fast-decreasing popularity of other platforms such as BlackBerry, Symbian, Bada and Windows. Read more

eCommerce

83% of online shoppers need support to complete a purchase
As part of LivePerson’s ‘Connecting with Consumers’ report, 83 per cent of shoppers surveyed revealed they required some form of support throughout their online journey, particularly those with limited experience of shopping online. The study of more than 5,700 online consumers from the UK, USA, Australia, France, Germany and Italy highlights the demands of web shoppers, with many expecting receive online assistance within five minutes of browsing a site otherwise they will buy elsewhere or abandon a purchase altogether. Read more

Crafted’s Head of Design, Barnie Mills, commented: “Offering your users the comfort that they’re getting the service they expect is more important than ever, if you don't offer it someone else will.

“Offering easy to find and useful support falls in line with all of the other key aspects of designing a successful eCommerce shop front. If your customers have to leave the buying process to find the answers they’re looking for, chances are they won't come back. When you’re not face-to-face with your customers, user experience (UX) is everything and it's often the little things that can make a big difference in conversion rates”

Web development

Report: Twitter prepping launch of advertising API
In a bid to keep pace with Facebook’s revenue growth, Twitter is preparing to launch its advertising API through which advertisers can purchase ads and manage ad campaigns via Twitter across multiple platforms. Sources indicate Twitter is beginning to ramp up discussions with advertisers, suggesting that the API will be “very close to what their current self-serve model is” in terms of what it supports. Read more