For ecommerce folk, it’s all about the testing

It was strongly agreed that while everyone knows testing is important, for many marketers other pressures mean it becomes much of an afterthought rather than a priority. This rings true with the findings of other Econsultancy reports such as the User Experience Survey Report.

There remains for many clients a lot of low-hanging fruit waiting to be picked, providing the time and resources are there to help.

There’s lots of data – but it just isn’t being used

One cliché often thrown around liberally within the industry is that marketers are “drowning in data”.

For marketers at Digital Cream Melbourne, they felt that they were not yet getting the most from their data.

This is also backed by a study from IDC that was mentioned in our last Digital Shift webinar, which reported that out of the data available in the digital universe, only around 7% was tagged and 1% is actually being used.

But it needn’t be that way. Delegates stressed that much value can be gained through the use of simple, straightforward approaches.

Content marketing – definitions and approaches abound

A common theme in the talks was a lack of consensus or agreement on a definition of content marketing. But marketers agreed that there were many opportunities for content.

Points stressed included the importance of the curator, understanding how content can help streamline the customer experience and the need to break down organisational siloes to make the creation and use of content as efficient as possible.

Digital Cream Melbourne

Orchestrating marketing means different things to different marketers

To get the most from marketing efforts and spend, all approaches should work together in the interests of driving customer action.

However, this is easier said then done, as departments often disagree on what the right marketing mix for the business is. Sometimes unclear objectives hamper efforts.

Various forms of analysis from customer surveys through to attribution can help, although marketers need to drive a commitment to ongoing investment to get the most from this.

There is no single way to do online advertising right

Different businesses have different products and target audiences. Therefore there is no single ‘right’ approach to advertising.

For example, while some brands will do well from paid social advertising, others might not. Trials are essential to understand what works before any campaign is rolled out at scale.

Businesses that are more agile in their approach are likely to have the upper hand here.

Social media requires buy-in from senior management

Although many businesses have seen great success with social media, others are still struggling to get approval from senior management and other stakeholders.

For those interested in getting the ear of the board, our Securing Board Buy-In report can help.

A lot of businesses jump into mobile without thinking it through

With mobile being such an exciting area that is growing at an exceptional rate, it was felt that too many businesses had ploughed money into the area without first tying it back to broader business and digital strategy.

An insight-driven approach fuelled by quantitative and qualitative data was highlighted as a method by which more companies should be approaching this area.

Integration and legacy tech holding companies back in email

While some companies have enterprise-grade email service providers and are able to do advanced segmentation, the majority of companies are still held back by legacy technology or integration issues with other databases.

For this reason, many were exploring new email service providers (such as those in our Email Buyer’s Guide).

Want to attend the next Digital Cream in Australia?

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