1. State of the digital nation 2016
Trends
A comprehensive and insightful, if a little biased look at the context, trends and prospects of digital agencies. This article will take around 30 minutes to read but it is well worth it.
In my opinion the article nails a lot of relevant points and issues digital agencies currently have. Where I feel it misses the point is in answering a larger client's product or service development requirements.
These requirements don't simply rest with creating a gimmicky app that no one downloads. Clients have an opportunity to create digital products and services that extend their current business and by doing so drive acquisition, conversion and loyalty. Think about the benefits banks are getting from their various digital products.
The development of these client products requires a similar skill set to some outlined in the article but also requires the ability to educate and temper the expectations of clients within larger companies as well as their wider stakeholders.
2. A peek at A/B testing in the wild
Data informed
An analysis of the top 100,000 sites in Jan 2016 uncovered 3,306 websites using the A/B testing platform Optimizely. Scraping these sites identified 51,471 experiments and some interesting examples.
3. Where predictive analytics is having the biggest impact
Data informed
Predictive analytics is helping businesses predict demand, improve pricing and automate maintenance. With any of these programs it's critical that the benefits far outweigh the infrastructure and maintenance costs of these programs.
4. How Facebook warps our worlds
Trends
Those who’ve been raising alarms about Facebook are right: Almost every minute that we spend on our smartphones and tablets and laptops, thumbing through favorite websites and scrolling through personalized feeds, we’re pointed toward foregone conclusions. We’re pressured to conform.
5. Marks & Spencer: what does 'putting the customer at the heart of everything' mean?
Customer obsessed
Giving the brand a face through improved customer service
Getting rid of white label confusion
Taking customer experience back to basics
Knowing what price a modern customer is willing to pay
6. 13, right now
Trends
This is what it's like to grow up in the age of likes, lols and longing.
7. Jobs-to-be-done book
Customer obsessed
This book helps you look at the whole product picture from the point of view of your customers. For anybody looking for a powerful framework to guide your product building, this is it.
8. Why you’re getting rotten NPS data and how to fix it
Data informed
Like any other tool, the results you get from NPS are simply determined by how invested you are. In order to succeed, you need to dig in and iterate on the feedback you receive. NPS won’t do your job for you, but it gives you a starting point you can use to increase customer happiness, boost retention, and grow.
9. Word on the street: Four tips for using slang in marketing
Copy
For companies, words are a really useful weapon, and many have cottoned on to the fact that talking like a real person is far more engaging than using dry, corporate and jargon-filled language.
But when does conversational language go too far? Can brands use colloquialisms and abbreviations? What about text-speak and swear words?
10. appier
Tool of the week
Cross-device marketing—across tablets, smartphones, PCs, etc by using AI algorithms to reach customers on the right device at the right time.
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