Some of Alan's views on this digital marketing malarkey ... there's more on: AlanCharlesworth.com

Sunday, October 23, 2016

What a waste ...

Whilst a lot of attention is given to the use of email for direct marketing, I have always emphasized that 'non-direct-marketing' emails can also be used as a medium for marketing messages. This is even more the case in the era of 'big data'.

Recently, I purchased a pair of training shoes on JD Sports website - this is a range they sell in store, but the full range of colour and size are only available online. I received a host of emails: order received; order accepted; order arrived in store - and then this one ... 



Whilst the other emails could  have included marketing messages, this one - as it comes at the end of the transaction - is ideal for doing something to engage me as a future customer. As I have purchased the same brand and type of training shoe [in a different colour] from them in the past, and that they should have been able to link my home PC's IP address with the order, there is a wasted opportunity in offering me some kind of discount for a future similar purchase? Or, as the shoes are often released in limited edition colours, an offer to be contacted before a new colour goes on general sale?

Nothing like rocket science - just good old sales. 

Oh, and let's not ignore the wasted ad space with the 'free delivery to over 500 stores' message - yes, I know, this email is to tell me my order was delivered free to one of their 500 stores. D'uh.

PS as an aside, this email could have included some kind of security message; e.g. ' ... collected. Was this you?'   

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Content marketing shows its age

Online newspapers are now little more than blocks of ads extolling us to read about the '7 most ... ' - or something similar.

On such a site I came across this 'news' story ... only it's a couple of years old. 

Note also the two poor examples of advertising. Yes, they are for cars - but nothing like the car in the ad, and so unlikely to have been of any interest to folk who chose to look at the article about the sports car.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

SEO incompetence

I get a number of this kind of thing – but if you do not have a blog, you will not be aware of the practice. 

This is a ‘comment’ made on an entry on my blog. I have my settings such that every comment has to be ‘vetted’ by me before I release it to the blog. Other bloggers allow comments to be published automatically.

This is spamdexing/SEO spamming, the intention of which is to develop inbound links to a website and so improve that site’s listing in the SERPs. 

Or should I say, the perpetrators think that such links improve their site’s listing. They don’t. 

Google looks to see if content on the linked-from page has any association with the linked-to page before ‘rewarding’ the link. If there is no relationship between linked-from and linked-to pages then Google actually penalises the linked-to site. 

In this case, the comment is automated and is there because the software used is matching keywords in the blog. In this case, the key term is ‘locked out’. But as you will see if you look at the blog entry in question, I was talking about being locked out of a website. 

Furthermore, if I was actually blogging about a problem that a locksmith might help me with ... I’m around 5000 miles from Denver. So Mr Crocker has used software that doesn’t use any geographic filters – or he hasn’t used the filters if they are there. 

So why do the likes of Mr Crocker use this kind of spam? Easy answer. They don’t know what they’re doing – or they have hired someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. 

Needless to say, I clicked on the tab 'mark this comment as spam'.

FOOTNOTE

It's wrong for so many reasons ... so I'll limit my comment to stating that it proves my point above - but today someone called Mayazoe posted this comment as a reply to my original post. Note how he/she includes a link to 'buy backlinks' - another practice penalised by Google. 

I'll finish with a little quiz. Which of the 3 options do you think I clicked on?


FOOTNOTE II 

Mr/Mrs/Ms mayazoe just doesn't give up!


FOOTNOTE III

And another for the 'mark as spam' list


FOOTNOTE IV

Another new entry to the 'don't know what they're doing' competition ...



FOOTNOTE V

And another, same person, different message ... 

FOOTNOTE VI

Another new entry to the 'don't know what they're doing' competition ...

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Do-it-yourself = bad website.

Bad website design seems to go on and on. This site – I am guessing – uses one of the ‘design-your-own-site’ services on offer. But something has gone wrong with the screen size ... note how the text on the left is cropped.

Furthermore, that text is recommendations from customers - so, potentially, the most important 'selling' content on the page.

And I’ll not even mention white on black for the text.