Chart of the week: Only 2% of marketers have integrated all processes throughout their marketing funnel.

Creating a funnel that ticks all the boxes is a vital part of marketing. Your funnel should attract, nurture, qualify and convert, leading customers through to the checkout as seamlessly as possible in order to get the best conversion rates. Unfortunately, few funnels are completely perfect. Most of us will find that our marketing funnel isn’t performing as well as we might like, with at least one section causing issues at any one time. While you can work to deal with these problem areas, it’s unlikely that all the issues will be solved. More often than not, this friction between sections of the funnel is caused by how integrated all your process are. Poor integration will naturally slow other process and see your overall results impacted. Currently, according…

Recent research shows that bots can communicate better and faster than humans

It seems that almost every day, pundits warn us about the dangers of implementing AI-based apps too quickly. One oft-cited Oxford University study predicted that nearly half of total US jobs could be lost through automation. But fear not, when it comes to automation in the context of higher education. Because here, AI-powered messaging apps are actually a very good thing. [si_guide_block id="29978" title="Download our Free Resource – Essential marketing models" description="This free guide has been created to help today’s marketers apply our pick of the most popular established frameworks to aid their decision making."/] These apps significantly lower administrative costs while also raising student satisfaction and enrollment rates. Specifically, these apps have: Lower service costs. Schools just need to pay for the 'startup' costs of their chatbots and related apps. Very few human support agents…

Plus techniques that can boost retailer loyalty

This new research from Emarsys explores the well-known thinking in marketing that it costs a lot to acquire a new customer, yet many will make a single purchase and not purchase again. A repeat purchase, on the other hand, costs far less than acquiring a new customer, estimated at between 4 and 7 times less. Despite this 'truism', many brands are failing to develop true loyalty according to this research. Although brand marketers talk about loyalty, this research show that few consumers have true loyalty. The implications? Measure loyalty to understand how your brand rates and the factors that drive or prevent loyalty. What's the reason behind this lack of loyalty? Well, marketers need to research this for their business, but it seems that poor communications is one reason... If we get our email marketing or other…

Ideas to humanise your online communications

As we all now become digital natives, it makes you step back and think and ultimately realise that those who follow us, will be born into a purely digital society, where eBooks and augmented reality will have gone from exotic to everyday. Thinking about what this means in the future is intriguing, but it's equally interesting right here and now in 2013. Technology, software and the devices we use, have of course shaped our social and human behavior on a number of levels, from shopping, to leisure, to business. Lives are lived online, and the opportunity to have a live feed into the minds of those you care about is becoming a clearer reality. People are more willing to share and consume horizontally through their social networks, rather than vertically. The organic spread of ideas, relationships, and trade can now be observed and measured on scales…