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We&#8217;re delighted to share that we&#8217;ve been nominated again in this year&#8217;s Digital Media Awards for Best Integrated Campaign and Best Website.
Following our win for <a href="https://www.friday.ie/blog/friday-win-best-in-e-commerce-at-the-spider-awards/">Best in eCommerce</a> at the Spider Awards earlier this year, we&#8217;re hoping to add to that in a couple of weeks&#8217; time.
<h3>Best Integrated Campaign</h3>
We are excited that our digital strategy and marketing work with the brilliant team at <a href="https://www.iqeq.com">IQ-EQ</a> has been nominated here.
This category recognises brands and businesses that demonstrate successful results across different digital channels using best practices, innovation and excellence in promoting, advertising, and communicating their services or products.
<h3>Best Website</h3>
Friday Agency has also been nominated in the best website category for our work with leading games developer, <a href="https://www.starbreeze.com/">Starbreeze</a>.
The category recognises best practices in navigation, UX and UI design, use of content and the positive results related to the overall user experience.
These nominations are further testament to the talent and hard work of the Friday team and our brilliant clients who put their trust in our people and process.
The event takes place on Friday, 29th September in the Clayton Burlington hotel.

Friday nominated again at the 2023 DMAs, including Best Integrated Campaign

Friday Agency is an award-winning digital agency based in the heart of Dublin city centre. Whether we’re deploying digital strategies, designing powerful web &amp; mobile experiences, or creating engaging brand campaigns – we transform organisations using digital.
We’re looking for a Digital Marketing Specialist to join our team. Someone who loves digital and is bursting with potential.
The successful candidate will have solid experience in executing search and social media campaigns and will have a solid grasp of analytics and reporting.
You’ll be working closely with our Client Services, Digital, and Creative teams to execute, manage and analyze digital campaigns for some of Ireland’s leading brands and businesses. The role will also combine some account management duties.
Brands we work with include Fyffes, Starbreeze, and Digit Gaming. Attractions like Dublin Zoo and online merchants such as Baby Elegance, Folláin, and Arachas.
<h3>Key Skills &amp; Responsibilities</h3>
<ul>
<li>A minimum of 1 year of professional experience working in a hands-on digital marketing role is required.</li>
<li>Implement digital marketing campaigns for agency clients involving a mix of digital channels including Search, Content, Social, and Email.</li>
<li>You have experience building and managing PPC campaigns in Google Ads (and currently, Google Ads certified).</li>
<li>You have experience creating and publishing content on social channels, in particular, Facebook and Instagram.</li>
<li>Work with agency management to align digital marketing activities with projects such as websites and apps, and work closely with our team of talented designers, UX specialists &amp; developers.</li>
<li>Report targets for awareness, engagement, and conversion for client organisations using digital platforms.</li>
<li>You will have experience in SEO, content writing, and link building.</li>
<li>Utilise various analytics tools to acquire insights, monitor competitors, and report campaign results including Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, Search Console, and SEM Rush.</li>
<li>Implement market research activities/processes both internally and externally and report results to agency directors.</li>
<li>Engage clients directly and give outstanding customer service in line with Friday’s values.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Organisational Skills</h3>
<ul>
<li>Self-motivated, you’re comfortable working independently and as part of a team. You thrive in a fast-paced, multi-task environment and maintain excellent relationships with clients and partners.</li>
<li>Take responsibility for tasks, projects, and priorities to ensure they are delivered on time and to a high standard.</li>
<li>You can solve problems by applying user-centred thinking and logic.</li>
<li>Brilliant time management and task organisational skills.</li>
<li>Strong interpersonal and communication skills.</li>
<li>Adept at budget management.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Desirable Skills</h3>
<ul>
<li>Experience in planning and executing a digital strategy.</li>
<li>Experience creating and executing Content Calendars for social.</li>
<li>Experience working in a fast-paced start-up culture, preferably agency side.</li>
<li>Possess a 3rd Level marketing or digital marketing qualification.</li>
<li>Experience working with the TikTok ad platform.</li>
<li>Knowledge of web technologies – basic knowledge of HTML and CSS would be a plus.</li>
<li>Experience using Facebook Ad Manager to manage social marketing campaigns.</li>
<li>Experience with WordPress CMS.</li>
<li>Company promotion: Experience writing content, particularly content such as blog posts, and press releases as well as day-to-day social activity on Twitter and Facebook.</li>
<li>Knowledge of user experience design and UX design process.</li>
<li>Knowledge of marketing attribution and how to implement it.</li>
<li>Be abreast of and contribute to digital marketing trends.</li>
<li>Having fun and an appreciation for good food.</li>
</ul>
Friday is building one of the most talented digital teams in the country. To achieve our goals we want to hire the best.
<h3>Permanent Role</h3>
Salary: €40-45k depending on experience, plus up to €5,000 worth of benefits. 
Minimum Experience: 1 year.
Benefits include:
<ul>
<li>Flexible, remote and hybrid working options</li>
<li>Company healthcare contributions</li>
<li>Monthly work-from-home allowance</li>
<li>Pension plan with company contributions</li>
<li>Mobile phone plan</li>
<li>Generous holidays</li>
<li>Extra day annual leave on your birthday</li>
<li>Paid sick leave</li>
<li>Paid Maternity Leave</li>
<li>Access to Bike to work and travel TaxSaver schemes</li>
<li>Opportunities for further training and development</li>
<li>The challenge of working with a large variety of major national and international brands</li>
<li>A fun and collaborative working environment</li>
</ul>
If this is you, please say hello and email your CV to <a href="mailto:careers@friday.ie">careers@friday.ie</a>
(Strictly no agencies. Please and thank you).

Digital Marketing Specialist role at Friday Agency

User Experience (UX) is a fundamental component of successful digital marketing strategies. And rightly so.
From e-commerce websites to mobile apps, <a href="https://www.friday.ie/expertise/user-experience/">UX</a> plays a pivotal role in ensuring user satisfaction, influencing purchasing decisions, and ultimately determining whether customers become loyal advocates or turn to the competition.
As an agency, we’re consistently highlighting the essential role of UX in <a href="https://www.friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/">digital marketing</a>, including its impact on user-centric marketing, trust and credibility, SEO, and the ability to drive customer loyalty.
We firmly believe (and why wouldn’t we?) that if you&#8217;re spending money to get users to your brand experience then you should give them the best one possible.
I’ll say it more than once in this blog post, but I can’t help myself: it’s a no-brainer.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14476" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/no-brainer.jpeg" alt="no-brainer" width="624" height="351" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/no-brainer.jpeg 624w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/no-brainer-250x141.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/no-brainer-120x68.jpeg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px" />
<h3>User-Centric Marketing</h3>
In the modern digital landscape, a shift towards user-centric marketing has become imperative. Gone are the days of a purely product-centric approach.
User-centric marketing is a strategy that prioritises the needs, preferences, and behaviours of the consumer above all else.
Instead of making assumptions about what customers want (often based on complacency or ego), businesses leverage data and insights to gain a deeper understanding of their target audience.
The UX process utilises usability testing, user research, analytics deep dives, UX audits and other core activities to take you out of your own building and into the minds of your customers.
This knowledge allows us to create personalised experiences that resonate on an individual level.
Unfortunately, not enough businesses recognise the importance of focusing on the user and their experience throughout the marketing journey. UX lies at the heart of this approach, aiming to provide users with seamless, efficient, and enjoyable experiences when interacting with digital products or services.
<h3>Every Touchpoint</h3>
When businesses prioritise UX, they simplify the path to conversion and address the user&#8217;s needs at every touchpoint.
By doing so, they create a frictionless experience that makes it easier for potential customers to navigate through their website, understand the product or service, and ultimately make a purchase.
This user-centric approach has been proven to significantly improve conversion rates, resulting in higher business success.
There is no simpler way to put this: If your website converts better then EVERY digital marketing channel converts better.
It is that straightforward. A no-brainer, if you will (sorry!).
To implement user-centric marketing effectively, businesses must understand their customers&#8217; needs, pain points, and motivations.
By developing a comprehensive understanding of their target audience, businesses can create valuable solutions that address specific challenges or desires. Moreover, effective communication of these solutions is key to establishing a meaningful connection with customers.
<h3>Why Listen to Users?</h3>
At its core, UX is all about enhancing the overall experience for customers. By prioritising the needs and wants of customers, businesses improve their satisfaction and engagement levels.
This, in turn, leads to increased conversions, repeat business, and positive word-of-mouth.
Businesses need to cut through the noise and deliver relevant and tailored experiences now. Today&#8217;s consumers are inundated with marketing messages, making it, at best, noisy and annoying. Consumers are tuning out&#8230;
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14477" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/giphy.gif" alt="" width="480" height="320" />
By leveraging customer data and analytics, businesses can gain insights that enable them to customise interactions, products, and services to match individual preferences. This personalised approach resonates with customers, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.
UX serves as the bridge that connects businesses with their customers in the digital world. It encompasses every aspect of a user&#8217;s interaction with a digital product or service, ensuring that they find value in what businesses provide.
A good UX design goes way beyond aesthetics; it focuses on creating intuitive and user-friendly interfaces, delivering seamless navigation, and providing relevant content.
From the moment users land on a website to navigating through products or services and reaching the final checkout, the entire customer journey should be smooth and enjoyable.
UX design utilises data-driven decision-making to continually refine and improve the user experience, aligning it with the evolving needs and expectations of customers.
So don’t be a data denier… we have enough of those! Let the data lead the way.
<h3>Building Trust and Credibility</h3>
In the digital (and mostly faceless) world, building trust and credibility is more challenging yet more important than ever.
Establishing trust through UX design is crucial to creating meaningful connections with users.
A user-friendly and intuitive website not only enhances the user experience but also builds confidence in the brand. When users find a website easy to navigate, aesthetically pleasing, and functional, they develop trust in the brand&#8217;s credibility.
Transparency is another critical factor in building trust. In an era of data breaches and online scams, customers are increasingly concerned about their privacy. Businesses must be clear about their privacy policies and how they handle customer data. Making these policies easily accessible and understandable contributes to establishing trust.
Just try not to make your user’s privacy journey too annoying or intrusive. Far too many are doing this and websites are losing revenue there.
A study titled &#8220;The Impact of Privacy Laws on Online User Behaviour&#8221; (<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3774110">Goethe University</a>, revised 2022) found that the enforcement of privacy laws like the EU&#8217;s General Data Protection Regulation (<a href="https://gdpr-info.eu/">GDPR</a>), which mandates the use of cookie notices, had a negative effect on user quantity and usage intensity on websites.
The study suggests that these effects could translate into revenue losses for websites. Let that sink in.
<h3>Relevant Content</h3>
Providing high-quality and relevant content is another way to build trust and credibility.
Regularly updating a blog, resources, and social media platforms with informative and valuable content not only helps in ranking better on search engines but also establishes the brand as an industry expert.
Customers are more likely to trust a brand that consistently provides helpful and authoritative content. Of course, this also lends itself well to your <a href="https://www.friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/search-engine-optimisation/">SEO</a> efforts.
Leveraging social proof is another powerful strategy for building trust and credibility. Customer reviews, testimonials, case studies, and endorsements can significantly influence potential customers&#8217; perceptions of a brand. Positive reviews serve as proof of a brand&#8217;s reliability and trustworthiness, thereby enhancing credibility.
<h3>Consistency</h3>
Consistency is also crucial in building trust and credibility. Consistency across all platforms and touchpoints helps establish a credible brand identity.
Whether it&#8217;s on the website, social media channels, or email campaigns, maintaining consistency in branding, messaging, and tone of voice reassures customers and strengthens the brand&#8217;s identity.
UX can provide a consistent experience while digital marketing uses these same insights for consistency of messaging.
<h3>Influence on SEO</h3>
In recent years, search engines have started giving more weight to user experience in their ranking algorithms.
They understand that websites that offer a good user experience are more likely to provide value to users. As a result, these websites are rewarded with higher rankings in search engine results pages (<a href="https://www.semrush.com/blog/serp/">SERPs</a>).
User engagement metrics play a significant role in determining the quality and relevance of a website. Metrics such as session duration are believed to influence a website&#8217;s search engine ranking.
When users have a positive experience on a website and engage with its content, it sends positive signals to search engines, indicating that the website is valuable and relevant.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14479" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/make-google-happy.jpg" alt="" width="575" height="320" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/make-google-happy.jpg 575w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/make-google-happy-250x139.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/make-google-happy-120x67.jpg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px" />
<h3>Mobile</h3>
Mobile optimisation is another aspect where UX and SEO intersect. Search engines have prioritised mobile-first indexing.
This means that search engines primarily consider a website&#8217;s mobile version when determining its rankings. Having a mobile-friendly UX is no longer optional but necessary to rank well in search results and provide a positive experience for mobile users.
Website speed is another critical factor that affects both UX and SEO. A slow-loading website not only frustrates users but is also frowned upon by search engines.
Speed is a confirmed ranking factor (for now), and it directly impacts user experience. Users typically leave a website if it takes too long to load, which increases the bounce rate and signals to search engines that the website might not provide a satisfying user experience.
<h3>Navigation</h3>
A clear and logical navigation is crucial for both UX and SEO. A well-structured website with intuitive navigation allows users to find what they&#8217;re looking for quickly and easily.
This positive user experience leads to increased engagement, lower bounce rates, and longer session durations, all of which contribute to better SEO performance. Moreover, search engine bots can crawl and index a website more efficiently when its navigation is clear, leading to improved visibility in search results.
UX and SEO are no longer separate entities but intertwined components of a successful digital marketing strategy.
By aligning UX with SEO best practices, businesses can create a more enjoyable user experience, drive organic traffic to their websites, and ultimately improve their search engine rankings while doing so!
<h3>Driving Customer Loyalty</h3>
A positive user experience can be a significant factor in driving customer loyalty.
When your customers find a website or app easy to use, visually appealing, and pleasant, they are more likely to return and make repeat purchases.
By continually improving and updating the UX, businesses can foster a loyal customer base that not only remains engaged but also becomes brand ambassadors, recommending them to others.
To drive customer loyalty through UX, businesses must focus on creating delightful experiences at every touchpoint.
This includes designing intuitive user interfaces, optimising website performance, and personalising interactions based on individual preferences.
By consistently delivering exceptional user experiences, businesses can build trust, foster loyalty, and establish long-term relationships with their customers.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14478" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/giphy-1.gif" alt="" width="450" height="253" />
<h3>No-Brainer</h3>
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the role of UX in digital marketing becomes increasingly crucial.
User-centric marketing, built upon a foundation of exceptional UX design, empowers businesses to prioritise customer needs, enhance satisfaction, and drive revenue. It is a no-brainer. No, really.
By building trust and credibility, influencing SEO, and fostering customer loyalty, businesses can position themselves for success in the digital realm.
Investing in UX is not just an option but a necessity to thrive in today&#8217;s highly competitive digital marketplace.
By prioritising the user and delivering exceptional experiences, businesses can unlock the true potential of their digital marketing efforts and cultivate strong, lasting relationships with their customers.
Of course, you can also generate a sh*tload more revenue along the way.
Reach out to <a href="https://www.friday.ie/contact/">Friday</a> today to see how UX and Digital Marketing can transform your ROI.

The Crucial Role of UX in Digital Marketing

For most, data privacy, consent, and the laws that govern it are about as appealing as watching paint dry. But are the tools we use every day that are designed to help control our consent really working?
Getting around the web is often a pain in the ass.
Newsletter pop-ups, display ads, and location alerts  &#8211; not fun.
And this pain manifests not least in the form of Consent Management Tools and their pop-up controls or Cookie banners. We&#8217;ve all been clicking, or at times ignoring some form of OK, Accept, Reject, etc almost every day for 5 years.
<h3>Consent with the GDPR</h3>
The GDPR is now 5 years old. It is a necessary and important EU directive that sets out laws and guidance on how personal data is controlled, stored and processed.
In front of that personal data sits the consent to have it in the first place, and that&#8217;s what this post is about.
<blockquote>&#8220;Most people are simply not thinking about their privacy or data rights. They just want to move on with their lives.&#8221;</blockquote>
<h3>Transparency</h3>
One of the core principles of the GDPR regulation is that it requires companies to provide consent notices to consumers in “concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language.”
But what are the design principles that ensure those notices and their user interfaces are clear and transparent?
Can organisations that design for a myriad of things &#8211; web, mobile, wearables, voice assistants, connected cars and every sort of IoT device really live up to these ever-changing laws and principles?
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Do consent tools even work?</h3>
As is our nature, we tested this out.
In a set of usability tests with 20 people on a compliant consent tool pop-up, we found that the majority of users, 70%, clicked to Accept cookies.
When asked why they chose their action, answers from those who accepted included &#8220;That&#8217;s just what I always do&#8221; and &#8220;&#8230;it&#8217;s the fastest way to get rid of it.&#8221;
The problem is clear. Human nature prevails, and as <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/cognitive-miser" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cognitive misers</a>, through simple repetition, we follow the path of least resistance.
Most people are simply not thinking about their privacy or data rights, they just want to move on with their lives.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-14463" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-250x133.png" alt="" width="500" height="266" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-250x133.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-700x373.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-768x409.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-1536x817.png 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-120x64.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept.png 1586w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" />
&nbsp;
But do consent tools actually work?
We tested this too.
Out of a quick straw poll selection of 12 random websites (May 2021), we found that just 7 of them (58%) did not fire cookies when Marketing Cookies were declined.
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Good Cookie?</h3>
When it comes to content streamers and IoT stuff, many of these services need to collect data from you to give you a better user experience.
For example, Netflix.
When you’re milling around thinking about what to watch next, content streamers use first-party cookies and data to show you content that you might like based on your viewing history, gender, etc.
If Netflix kept showing you the same viewing options every day, including things that you’ve already watched that would get annoying.
While this use of personal data improves the user experience, there are other ways your data is used from deciding what content to produce to more grey areas such as <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/netflix-data-tracking-privacy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how data is shared with 3rd parties</a>.
In the case of Netflix, the only opt-out is to stop using the service.
<div id="attachment_14461" style="width: 936px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14461" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-14461 " src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/path-of-least-resistance-250x131.jpeg" alt="" width="926" height="485" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/path-of-least-resistance-250x131.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/path-of-least-resistance-768x401.jpeg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/path-of-least-resistance-120x63.jpeg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px" />The path of least resistance. (Michael Sankey)</div>
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Privacy by Design</h3>
Despite the clear challenges of getting consent, education for those who process and store personal data is critical.
I spoke some time ago at a webinar hosted by the brilliant <a href="https://fpf.org/">Future of Privacy Forum</a> who invited me to give a talk on consent transparency and designing for trust.
Interesting takeaways included:
<ul>
<li class="graf graf--p">The biggest challenge to increasing User Experience transparency may be encouraging people to make deliberate decisions from a UX design perspective.</li>
<li class="graf graf--p">Designers’ colour and shape choices in User Interface design can be subtle ‘dark patterns.’ These dark patterns might even prevent, e.g., colourblind users from understanding the options at hand.</li>
<li class="graf graf--p">Organisations should ask themselves whether they should be collecting certain data in the first place.</li>
<li class="graf graf--p">Organisations need to take steps to prevent user manipulation, both by UX/UI (e.g., cookie banners) and by algorithms.</li>
</ul>
There&#8217;s a link to the webinar at the end of this post.
<h3>What should change</h3>
This is usually the part where you get &#8216;the answer&#8217; but there isn&#8217;t a definitive one or at least one that will make browsing websites and apps a little less annoying.
Google plans to phase out cookies with its <a href="https://privacysandbox.com/">Privacy Sandbox</a> but consent banners are not going to go away soon, so they may continue to annoy.
But, the real message here is that regardless of what level of consent users and consumers give (or how engaged they are when they do it), as businesses, data controllers and data processors, the responsibility lies with us to ask for, use and store their data responsibly.
There are two things I would advise:
<ul>
<li>Understand where your greatest data risks lie and ensure that your processes around processing and controlling that data are airtight.</li>
<li>Educate and train your staff on the laws and best practices around data protection, particularly how they relate to your greatest risks.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
Thank you for reading.
&nbsp;
But wait, there&#8217;s more:
<ul>
<li>A piece I contributed to in the Sunday Business Post on the Death of Cookies: <a href="https://www.businesspost.ie/tech/will-google-kill-the-cookie/">https://www.businesspost.ie/tech/will-google-kill-the-cookie/ </a></li>
<li>You can check out a recording of my keynote with the Future of Privacy Forum here: <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://fpf.org/blog/event-recap-dublin-privacy-symposium-2021-designing-for-trust-enhancing-transparency-preventing-user-manipulation/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-href="https://fpf.org/blog/event-recap-dublin-privacy-symposium-2021-designing-for-trust-enhancing-transparency-preventing-user-manipulation/">https://fpf.org/blog/event-recap-dublin-privacy-symposium-2021-designing-for-trust-enhancing-transparency-preventing-user-manipulation/</a></li>
<li>Note: Consent Tool Usability Tests were conducted in May 2021.</li>
</ul>
And if you want to go full geek, check out this 30-minute piece on GDPR after 5 years from Voice of ESG. It has some sound advice at the end on engaging in training and awareness for your team.
<iframe title="Spotify Embed: Special: 5 years GDPR in the EU" style="border-radius: 12px" width="100%" height="152" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/5xXR5MvBjalaZOLOA2a1tW?si=x072yDeGTjWCT3Rlcfg1XQ&#038;utm_source=oembed"></iframe>

Clickety-click: 5 Years of Consent with the GDPR

If you use ChatGPT to write your blog posts then you&#8217;re turning up to a gunfight with a knife.
So no, you absolutely should not use it for this. I&#8217;ll explain why….
Don&#8217;t get me wrong, AI is incredible and I fully welcome it.
ChatGPT is great for certain things such as text completion, language translation, sentiment analysis, summarising text, and answering questions&#8230; it&#8217;s even a useful tool for a wide range of real-world applications such as chatbots and customer service.
It really is a game changer, but just not for your content strategy.
It&#8217;s no surprise that ChatGPT has garnered a lot of attention in the SEO industry. After all, it&#8217;s a chatbot that utilises natural language processing to answer questions. In fact, it may even be one of the most widely discussed AI tools to date.
When it comes to ChatGPT and SEO, I was keen to wait until the dust settled before forming an opinion.
In a short space of time, it very quickly went from just being an awesome new tool to sudden cries of “SEOs will be out of work now!”.
Which is, of course, total nonsense. In my lifetime I do not expect AI to be able to replicate human emotion or creativity.
It can mainstream some SEO tasks very well, such as keyword and content research, but it should not be used to fuel your content strategy.
<h3>Not capable</h3>
Firstly, it amazes me that so many are jumping the gun in assuming that ChatGPT is the answer to their content drought. And they do so without even asking the very tool that they place so much trust in for no apparent reason.
If you did ask it, it will tell you that it is not capable of creating original content or ideas, not to mention that it recommends you do your own research and not use it as a substitute for a human writer:
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14359" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1671532184600.jpeg" alt="Should you use ChatGPT to create your blog posts" width="734" height="407" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1671532184600.jpeg 734w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1671532184600-250x139.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1671532184600-700x388.jpeg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1671532184600-120x67.jpeg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 734px) 100vw, 734px" />
Of course, many attempts have been made to generate content – in bulk or otherwise &#8211; using ChatGPT, but the results have been less than satisfactory in terms of relevance.
While some of the content produced may have driven traffic, it failed to attract the right audience, and it did not typically generate revenue.
For most businesses, creating content in bulk using AI would be a challenge in terms of maintenance and impact, particularly without a substantial marketing team or revenue.
The cost of maintaining such content would eat into the bottom line, with little or no return on investment.
Furthermore, since generic content is often removed from the buyer&#8217;s journey, it becomes increasingly difficult to justify allocating resources towards its improvement.
<h3>Ineffective approach</h3>
Years ago, many people tried publishing thousands of posts using content mills for as low as 2 cents per word, and it proved to be an ineffective approach. This is no different.
The same is true for using ChatGPT or any other automated tool to produce content. It&#8217;s simply old-school SEO, and these strategies do not work in driving business growth.
The key to success lies in understanding what your audience needs and delivering it with authority, rather than spamming content around non-competitive, high-volume keywords.
The business acumen to recognise that AI-generated content is not the solution required to move the needle is missing.
Most businesses require high-level content that communicates expertise and addresses consumer concerns. Unfortunately, AI is not currently capable of generating such content.
<h3>No acumen</h3>
I recently came across this post on Twitter by a copywriter. It’s grim, to say the least. And the business that chose to do this? There is clearly no acumen on display by this particular client:
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14360" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751.jpeg" alt="" width="800" height="443" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751.jpeg 800w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751-250x138.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751-700x388.jpeg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751-768x425.jpeg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751-120x66.jpeg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />
You could argue that most blog posts should not be for SEO, and this is true. But even those created for trust, optics and usefulness by ChatGPT will fall very short of requirements.
<h3>Content that satisfies</h3>
It is imperative to reiterate (once more) the paramount importance of creating content that aligns with Google&#8217;s expectations.
While not particularly complex, this is a facet of creating content that is frequently overlooked.
Google places a premium on content that satisfies the following criteria:
<ul>
<li>Offers original information, reporting, research, or analysis</li>
<li>Provides an extensive, exhaustive, or complete overview of the subject matter</li>
<li>Offers insightful analysis or intriguing data that goes beyond the surface level</li>
<li>References and cites other sources rather than simply duplicating or rehashing their content, thereby offering additional value and originality. ChatGPT, for instance, is a prime example of this approach.</li>
<li>Is the kind of content that would prompt you to bookmark it, share it with others, or recommend it?</li>
<li>Is similar to the calibre of content that you would find in a reputable publication, such as a magazine, encyclopedia, or book? This is an essential consideration; Google effectively prioritises journalism.</li>
<li>Offers greater value than other search results pages? Trust me, ChatGPT is not expending such extensive effort solely for your benefit.</li>
<li>Is crafted with care and attention to detail, avoiding any hasty or sloppy errors</li>
<li>Is not mass-produced, thereby avoiding neglect and disregard for individual pages or sites.</li>
</ul>
As you can see this is not the work of AI. This is humans. It’s critical thinking, applied knowledge, originality and opinions.
I have not even yet mentioned the trust factors that Google often references. You might know it as <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/12/google-raters-guidelines-e-e-a-t">E-E-A-T</a>.
<h3>Authority of content</h3>
Google&#8217;s ranking algorithm considers multiple factors when determining the authority of content.
Among these factors are questions related to the author&#8217;s expertise, including whether the content provides clear sourcing, evidence of the author&#8217;s expertise or the website&#8217;s authority, and links to relevant pages such as an author page or an About page.
The algorithm also considers whether the site producing the content is well-trusted or recognised as an authority on the topic. Additionally, the algorithm evaluates whether the content is written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrates a deep understanding of the topic.
Finally, the algorithm checks for easily verifiable factual errors in the content.
Now, do you really want to trust ChatGPT with any of this???
<h3>Not a solution</h3>
ChatGPT is a tool and NOT a solution. It can be an effective starting point.
If you have writer’s block then by all means ask it for suggestions on sub-topics – but you’d best be prepared to write about these topics in an original, thoughtful, and perhaps opinionated way.
Think about a world filled with AI-generated content. It&#8217;s a world where quality is no longer the deciding factor, where homogeneous content reigns supreme.
After all, why bother with a half-decent writer when you can just rely on ChatGPT to generate something similar? But if everyone is using the same tool, where is the differentiation?
If your competitor generates articles on the same topic using the same AI tool, how do you stand out?
The answer: you don&#8217;t.
You&#8217;re left to compete solely on backlinking and technical SEO, which are smaller pieces of the puzzle compared to content itself.
<h3>Often wrong</h3>
But even if you manage to get your AI-generated content indexed, there&#8217;s another problem: accuracy. ChatGPT may be confident in its writing, but it&#8217;s often wrong.
It&#8217;s like using predictive text on your phone &#8211; it can lead to nonsensical statements. Except with ChatGPT, the mistakes can be subtle and dangerous.
It may use insecure libraries in code snippets, or get facts wrong. And let&#8217;s not forget its inability to count words and characters properly. At the time of writing this, if you ask it for ten headlines with 50 characters or fewer, it&#8217;ll spit out ten headlines of arbitrary length, assuring you that they&#8217;re within your parameters.
<h3>Risky proposition</h3>
So, is relying on ChatGPT for SEO content generation a good idea? In short, no. Not really. The lack of differentiation and the potential for inaccuracies make it a risky proposition.
Sure, it&#8217;s an impressive tool, but it&#8217;s not a substitute for human creativity and expertise.
When ChatGPT exploded on the scene, I became very tired of reading articles only to get to the end and be told “Surprise, this was written by ChatGPT!”
This was not clever, it was obnoxious, and I could usually tell that it was written by AI anyway.
Well, I’ll just finish by saying&#8230;
Surprise, ChatGPT could NOT have possibly written this one.
Because it’s actually original and voices an opinion.
If you want to know more about how Friday can help you with <a href="https://www.friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/search-engine-optimisation/">SEO</a> and <a href="https://www.friday.ie/expertise/content-marketing/">content</a>, then <a href="https://www.friday.ie/contact/">get in touch</a> with us now.

Should you use ChatGPT to create your blog posts

Should you use ChatGPT to create your blog posts?

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When demand slows, many digital leaders instinctively increase or tighten marketing spend, or ramp up activity. While this may be necessary, it&#8217;s important to look at your particular situation carefully before making radical changes to your strategy.
Market conditions are very different to those we all operated in 12 months ago.
Yet despite global uncertainty, the Irish economy is expected to grow by 3.8% in 2023 and 3.9% in 2024.
On the back of a 20% increase in digital advertising spend in 2021, digital channels (video, display) represented almost 70% of all Irish digital advertising spend in 2022, so our view remains positive.
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Consumer behaviour changes faster than businesses can keep up. If you need to make a change to your marketing strategy, before you do something mental, you should consider some of these questions:
<ul>
<li>Are there assumptions behind your offering to customers that should be adjusted or validated?</li>
<li>Do you have an up-to-date understanding of customer intent?</li>
<li>Are there gaps or new opportunities that you could take advantage of?</li>
<li>Are there actions that you could take in the short term to improve conversion?</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<h5>&#8220;Just because economic winds may be uncertain, it does not mean you cannot grow business.&#8221;</h5>
&nbsp;
<h3>Where should you focus?</h3>
Your focus will depend on what you sell and the markets you operate in, but the first step is to benchmark and assess your current situation.
Here are three areas I recommend looking at:
<h4>Your Customers</h4>
What is it in your toolbox that you do best and gives you a competitive advantage?
If you understand who your best customers are and their needs, you can focus this advantage on them to increase their loyalty to retain and grow their business.
Tip: Try usability testing on your website or app. Simple surveys with intelligent questions focussed on customer needs. You will always learn something new that you can use to improve your strategy. 
<h4>Data</h4>
Adopt a data-driven mindset, and actively work with quantitative and qualitative behavioural data about your customers and audiences. When you do this, you can test and adjust the approach to your user experience and content.
Tip: Universal Google Analytics will stop tracking data on 1 July 2023. You should install and configure the new Google Analytics 4 now on all of your digital platforms.
<h4>Marketing</h4>
Focus on your highest-value acquisition channels.
Some marketing channels will have a higher return, and when you focus here and improve your conversion rate it will have a compounding effect on your numbers.
You should at all times have a clear picture of the impact all your marketing efforts have on your performance. We call this simply ‘money in, money out’. Know where spend is having the greatest impact and why.
Tip: ChatGPT is exciting but it is unlikely to ever create content suitable for SEO.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_14333" style="width: 984px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14333" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-14333" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-250x151.jpg" alt="Look at the data" width="974" height="588" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-250x151.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-700x422.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-768x463.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-120x72.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 974px) 100vw, 974px" />&#8220;What if, and I know this sounds a bit kooky, we looked closer at our data?!&#8221;</div>
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There are two activities I recommend that will help to focus and optimise your digital strategy for growth:
<ul>
<li>Digital Benchmark 
Benchmark reporting is one of our most powerful tools. It uses a combination of audience research, deep-dive analytics and competitor analysis to give a clear data-driven view of where you sit amongst your competitors in terms of visibility, market position, social and content. You will understand areas to improve, new opportunities to target and the places you should focus on to retain and grow business.</li>
<li>User Experience Audit 
A UX audit or review of your website or app will identify performance, conversion and technical issues. It will uncover issues that can be addressed in the short and medium term. By making small adjustments we have seen conversion rate increases of up to 40%.</li>
</ul>
<h3> 
The Friday Method</h3>
It should be obvious, but as an agency, we follow the advice we share, particularly when it comes to understanding our customers’ needs.
Of course, they want to see we have the skills, experience, and creativity to deliver growth. And our rare ability to deliver results across demand generation to user experience and conversion gives our customers a distinct advantage.
But more than this, we have learned that on a human level, our own customers also want to be understood, to be supported, and to get a level of service that shows we are invested and committed to their success.
So, just because economic winds may be uncertain, with some smarter focus on your customers, you can maximise your growth.
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Thanks for reading.
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Sources:
<ul>
<li>The <a href="https://www.esri.ie/publications/quarterly-economic-commentary-spring-2023">ESRI Quarterly Economic Commentary</a>, March 29th 2023.</li>
<li><a href="https://iapi.ie/blog/default/magna-advertising-forecasts-december-2022-update">Magna Advertising Forecast (IAPI)</a>, December 2022.</li>
</ul>
Also, McKinsey&#8217;s <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-ten-rules-of-growth">The 10 Rules on Growth</a> is very good. August 2022 (read or listen).
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Maximising Growth in Uncertain Times

Have you ever supplied your recent brand images or video shoot to a digital agency only to hear it will cost more money to re-edit them before they can be used on Social Media? Brand images and video dimensions need to be suitable for social media Ads or organic social platform placements for the best results.
I hope this post seems obvious and unnecessary to it&#8217;s readers and if so, you&#8217;re free to leave now with my full blessing. Unfortunately it&#8217;s a consistent problem we see from brand&#8217;s photo and video shoot results so perhaps this post might help you save money.
<h2>Why do Social Media friendly image dimensions matter?</h2>
One of the key components of a successful <a href="https://www.friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/social-media-advertising/">social media strategy</a> across both your Ads and organic social posts is the use of high-quality visuals. Your brand needs to get the greatest return on investment possible when planning a photo or video shoot to fulfil this need.
If you plan to work with a professional photographer or videographer then Social Media friendly dimensions must be kept in mind. It&#8217;s no longer enough to consider the formats and dimensions that look well on the mantlepiece, wall or TV but crucially what works across Social Media and on a mobile device in particular. Each Social Media platform has its own unique image and video size requirements.
For example, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have different required aspect ratios for images and videos. If brands fail to take these dimensions into account, their visuals may be cropped or resized when used in Ads or organic posts, resulting in a loss of quality and a negative impact in advertising costs and results.
Social Media platform algorithms are designed to prioritise visually appealing content which engages the user. This means that images and videos that are correctly sized and optimised for the platform tend to perform better than those that are not. By creating visuals that are optimised for Social Media, brands can increase engagement, reach a wider audience, improve ROI and their overall Social Media presence.
Essentially, by creating visuals with the appropriate dimensions, brands can ensure that their content appears as intended, and is more likely to catch the attention of their audience.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14288 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/girl-lying-down-with-hair-swept-over-her-face-for-Social-Media-photography-700x515.jpg" alt="girl lying down with hair swept over her face for Social Media photography" width="700" height="515" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/girl-lying-down-with-hair-swept-over-her-face-for-Social-Media-photography-700x515.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/girl-lying-down-with-hair-swept-over-her-face-for-Social-Media-photography-250x184.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/girl-lying-down-with-hair-swept-over-her-face-for-Social-Media-photography-768x565.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/girl-lying-down-with-hair-swept-over-her-face-for-Social-Media-photography-1536x1130.jpg 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/girl-lying-down-with-hair-swept-over-her-face-for-Social-Media-photography-2048x1507.jpg 2048w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/girl-lying-down-with-hair-swept-over-her-face-for-Social-Media-photography-120x88.jpg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h2>The benefits of high quality social images and video</h2>
One of the key benefits of having high quality Social Media friendly images and video comes back to &#8216;Retention&#8217;. In other words, once someone sees your content they need to remember it and better yet, click on it.
Good quality brand imagery increases the click through rates on your Ads and organic social posts, reducing overall cost per conversion. It&#8217;s simple really, if you have great looking images for your brand, it increases your chances of users clicking through to find out more about you and where they can buy from you.
The same applies when it comes to organic social media posts also. Having high quality photos taken at brand events or shoots which fit into these dimensions makes a huge amount of business sense.
<h3>Three good reasons why you need Social Media friendly images from your brand&#8217;s shoot:</h3>
<ol>
<li>The results can be used for both ads and your organic social posts providing high quality visual content for the future.</li>
<li>Retention. The more impact your creatives have, the more likely they&#8217;ll be retained by users viewing them.</li>
<li>Increase your sales. The main reason why you should invest in creating great looking Social Media friendly images is because they increase sales. If people see high quality imagery, that&#8217;s what they&#8217;ll associate with your brand and chances are they&#8217;ll click on it and visit your website. This means more traffic coming into your site and ultimately more sales!</li>
</ol>
<h2>What does poor formatting on Social media placements look like?</h2>
When advertising on Social Media or any other digital Ad placement, it&#8217;s crucial to make the best possible use of the screen real estate available to you. Suitably adapted images or video content will fill the entire screen and place your core message right where the user is focused.
See an example of a poorly formatted 9:16 Facebook or Instagram Story image versus the correct formatting below.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14291 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Poor-Social-Media-image-formatting-example-on-Facebook-and-Instagram-Story-placements-700x500.png" alt="Poor Social Media image formatting example on Facebook and Instagram Story placements" width="700" height="500" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Poor-Social-Media-image-formatting-example-on-Facebook-and-Instagram-Story-placements-700x500.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Poor-Social-Media-image-formatting-example-on-Facebook-and-Instagram-Story-placements-250x179.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Poor-Social-Media-image-formatting-example-on-Facebook-and-Instagram-Story-placements-768x549.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Poor-Social-Media-image-formatting-example-on-Facebook-and-Instagram-Story-placements-1536x1097.png 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Poor-Social-Media-image-formatting-example-on-Facebook-and-Instagram-Story-placements-120x86.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Poor-Social-Media-image-formatting-example-on-Facebook-and-Instagram-Story-placements.png 1680w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h2>Which Social Media image &amp; video dimensions do I really need?</h2>
If needed, find a full detailed list of <a href="https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-image-sizes-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">all Social Media sizes</a> from Hootsuite. In reality, you&#8217;ll really only need the current main ratios and minimum pixel sizes below to be well prepared for pretty much all social media platforms:
Images:
<ul>
<li>1.91:1 (1080 x 567 pixels) &#8211; Less important than the rest of the dimensions</li>
<li>16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels)</li>
<li>1:1 (1080 x 1080 pixels)</li>
<li>4:5 (1080 x 1350 pixels)</li>
<li>9:16 (1080 x 1920 pixels)</li>
</ul>
Videos:
<ul>
<li>16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels)</li>
<li>1:1 (1080 x 1080 pixels)</li>
<li>4:5 (1080 x 1350 pixels)</li>
<li>9:16 (1080 x 1920 pixels)</li>
</ul>
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14289 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Social-Media-image-dimensions-on-mobile-devices-700x155.webp" alt="Social Media image dimensions on mobile devices" width="700" height="155" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Social-Media-image-dimensions-on-mobile-devices-700x155.webp 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Social-Media-image-dimensions-on-mobile-devices-250x55.webp 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Social-Media-image-dimensions-on-mobile-devices-768x170.webp 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Social-Media-image-dimensions-on-mobile-devices-1536x340.webp 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Social-Media-image-dimensions-on-mobile-devices-2048x454.webp 2048w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Social-Media-image-dimensions-on-mobile-devices-120x27.webp 120w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h2>How can Brands avoid this common mistake?</h2>
Thankfully most modern professional photographers and videographers will keep Social Media dimensions in mind when shooting. However, a gentle reminder of their importance to your brand at the start of any photo or video shoot will serve your business well.
Keeping social media-friendly image dimensions in mind during photo and video shoots can save time and resources in the long run. Having to later re-work those images or video will cost multiples of what it takes to have them considered at the start of production. The initial shoot is the stage when it&#8217;s easiest to produce the source content correctly and allow the editing and crafting of the dimensions needed for Social Media.
By taking the time to create visuals with the appropriate dimensions during the photo and video shoot, brands can avoid these additional costs and ensure that their content is ready for distribution on social media.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14286 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Phone-user-taking-a-photgraph-in-9-16-dimension-for-social-media-700x467.jpg" alt="Phone user taking a photgraph in 9-16 dimension for social media" width="700" height="467" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Phone-user-taking-a-photgraph-in-9-16-dimension-for-social-media-700x467.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Phone-user-taking-a-photgraph-in-9-16-dimension-for-social-media-250x167.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Phone-user-taking-a-photgraph-in-9-16-dimension-for-social-media-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Phone-user-taking-a-photgraph-in-9-16-dimension-for-social-media-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Phone-user-taking-a-photgraph-in-9-16-dimension-for-social-media-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Phone-user-taking-a-photgraph-in-9-16-dimension-for-social-media-120x80.jpg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h2>How should a photographer or videographer shoot to deliver Social media friendly results?</h2>
Obviously your professional photographer or videographer should know the best way to shoot your brand content to allow for Social Media friendly dimensions. However if you find this task on your plate, here are some suggestions and advice based around the ratios mentioned previously above:
<h4>Shoot in 4:3 or 16:9 ratio</h4>
This is ideal for later cropping to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. If you&#8217;re working within a tight budget, then shoot in everything in 4:3 or 16:9 and later crop down to 1:1, 9:16, 4:5 etc as needed.
Shoot in 16:9 if you&#8217;d like to include landscape images in your campaigns for any reason and they&#8217;re also commonly used on the web. The only downside to shooting in this ratio is that it won&#8217;t work well for Instagram and Snapchat until cropped down.
<h4>Shoot in 1:1 ratio</h4>
Square formats are the standard Ad image dimension and ideal for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and some YouTube placements.
<h4>Shoot in 9:16 ratio</h4>
This is ideal for video placements across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Obviously this perfectly matches the average smart phone screen and takes up the full screen real estate available for your brand. 9:16 images are crucial to help your brand look it&#8217;s best across Facebook and Instagram&#8217;s Story placements.
The key thing to remember when using these ratios is that you&#8217;ll likely need to crop down your images once you&#8217;ve finished. It doesn&#8217;t matter whether you&#8217;re shooting in 4:3 or 16:9, you&#8217;ll still need to crop down the image before publishing on Social for best results.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14287 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/videographer-editing-brand-video-for-social-media-dimensions-in-their-editing-suite-700x467.jpg" alt="videographer editing brand video for social media dimensions in their editing suite" width="700" height="467" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/videographer-editing-brand-video-for-social-media-dimensions-in-their-editing-suite-700x467.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/videographer-editing-brand-video-for-social-media-dimensions-in-their-editing-suite-250x167.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/videographer-editing-brand-video-for-social-media-dimensions-in-their-editing-suite-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/videographer-editing-brand-video-for-social-media-dimensions-in-their-editing-suite-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/videographer-editing-brand-video-for-social-media-dimensions-in-their-editing-suite-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/videographer-editing-brand-video-for-social-media-dimensions-in-their-editing-suite-120x80.jpg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h2>Some other things to consider</h2>
Once you&#8217;ve edited the image in Photoshop or Canva, use the Crop tool to remove any unwanted parts of the image. You may want to add an overlay text box to the top left hand corner with a CTA or logo to help promote your business further.
<h4>Use high resolution photos</h4>
It&#8217;s important that you don&#8217;t just take low resolution photos and expect them to look good. A higher resolution will give you better results.
<h4>Keep your image file sizes small</h4>
Image file sizes shouldn&#8217;t exceed 100MB unless you know exactly what you&#8217;re going to do with the image and that you need larger.
<h4>Create multiple versions of the same image</h4>
If you&#8217;re unsure about which version looks best, then create several versions.
<h4>Make sure you name and tag your images correctly</h4>
You&#8217;ll want to know what it was you were shooting to easily find them again so using sensible naming conventions is key.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
Taking the time to shoot for social media friendly results will save you time and money in the long run. Utilising multiple ratios, good resolution photos, keeping file sizes small, sensibly naming and tagging images are all ways to ensure your brand is looking its best across social platforms. This will help brand retention for users and ultimately your sales!
If you need help from a specialist <a href="https://www.friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/social-media-advertising/">Social Media Ads Agency</a>, talk to us today.
&nbsp;

Photographer pointing camera at the viewer for a social media brand photo shoot

Your Brand Photo & Video Shoots need Social Media friendly results

In 2022, Irish businesses really should be on TikTok, just look at the Irish TikTok demographics later in this article. Can the average Irish brand leverage TikTok for business? Of course, but you&#8217;ll need to be creative, authentic and ideally fun. More on that later.
Smart brands understand the value of building a presence on a social platform while still in its early growth stages and taking that first mover advantage against their competitors. Think Facebook in the mid-2,000&#8217;s, that time is now for TikTok.
While some people still view TikTok as a social media platform that solely caters to its generally younger audience, that would be a misinformed view about who actually uses TikTok today.
If your brand has not yet engaged with TikTok, you&#8217;re missing out on a huge opportunity.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14147 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Seinfeld-serenity-now.webp" alt="Seinfeld clip showing man shouting Serenity now" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Seinfeld-serenity-now.webp 640w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Seinfeld-serenity-now-250x141.webp 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Seinfeld-serenity-now-120x68.webp 120w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />
<h4>But we&#8217;re on Facebook and Instagram already!</h4>
So you should be. According to Facebook&#8217;s own Ad data, businesses can reach 2.7 M people on Facebook and 2.6M on Instagram in Ireland.
The Facebook Ads system is also one of the most effective and rewarding platforms a business can engage. It&#8217;s targeting capabilities and mass of collected data points are hard to beat.
While Paid Search Ads (Google &amp; Bing) are as exact as a surgeon&#8217;s knife for dialling into real user intent to convert by engaging your services or buying your product, Facebook is like the Swiss army knife of marketing tools. Facebook delivers many ways to engage and convert your audience.
As long as you take advantage of Facebook&#8217;s new tracking methods to help <a href="https://www.friday.ie/blog/how-to-protect-facebook-marketing-performance-cookie-free-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">combat visibility losses from Apple&#8217;s Privacy initiatives</a>, it will serve your business well when properly invested in, managed and optimised.
Though <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/facebook-usage-drops-in-ireland-as-tiktok-s-popularity-surges-1.4809994" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook usage in Ireland is dropping</a>, Facebook &amp; Instagram are still the most popular platforms for users in Ireland and most businesses should definitely maintain a presence there. TikTok is catching up fast though and is a serious contender for the Social throne.
<h4>TikTok user demographics in Ireland</h4>
We decided to look at the TikTok Irish user demographics to get a gauge of who exactly is using it in Ireland.
TikTok is now <a href="https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/tiktok-is-catching-up-on-instagram-and-facebook-with-its-irish-subscriber-base-41552010.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">used by 2.25MLN Irish people</a>, which shows rapid growth in the Irish market. That places it 3rd in usage behind Facebook and Instagram.
This means that your brand&#8217;s messaging could in theory reach 1 in 3 people in Ireland if using TikTok both organically and its paid advertising features.
While growing rapidly, data sourced from TikTok&#8217;s Ads Manager platform shows the Irish TikTok user demographic breakdown as of July 2022 as below:
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14159 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TikTok-Blog-Asset-2-1-700x482.png" alt="Irish TikTok User Demographics Ireland Infographic" width="700" height="482" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TikTok-Blog-Asset-2-1-700x482.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TikTok-Blog-Asset-2-1-250x172.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TikTok-Blog-Asset-2-1-768x529.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TikTok-Blog-Asset-2-1-1536x1058.png 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TikTok-Blog-Asset-2-1-2048x1411.png 2048w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TikTok-Blog-Asset-2-1-120x83.png 120w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h4>Is 2022 a good time to join TikTok?</h4>
2022 is definitely a good time to join TikTok, the sooner the better. TikTok is now 6 years old. Social platform years are almost like dog years so by those standards it&#8217;s quite a mature platform.
Since launching in 2016, TikTok has <a href="https://sensortower.com/blog/tiktok-downloads-2-billion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">grown rapidly</a>. The App has been downloaded globally more than 2 billion times. According to Cloudflare, in 2021 tiktok.com was <a href="https://blog.cloudflare.com/popular-domains-year-in-review-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the most popular domain</a> for users, beating even google.com for visitors.
There can be no argument, TikTok is here to stay.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14129 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Organic-reach-and-growth-on-TikTok-700x467-1.jpeg" alt="Lake in the shape of an upwards tending arrow in the middle of a forrest representing organic growth on TikTok" width="700" height="467" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Organic-reach-and-growth-on-TikTok-700x467-1.jpeg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Organic-reach-and-growth-on-TikTok-700x467-1-250x167.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Organic-reach-and-growth-on-TikTok-700x467-1-120x80.jpeg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h4>Organic growth on TikTok</h4>
When Social platforms first launch, there&#8217;s a period where they&#8217;re trying to gain as many users and as much content as possible before monetising the service with Ads. During this time, organic reach will be extended as your content will be pushed out by the platform to keep users engaged. That&#8217;s a golden time to join and invest in building a presence on a platform (if you believe it has a genuine future of course).
While that initial stage has passed as paid Ads are now available on TikTok and the organic reach is not as strong as it initially was, it&#8217;s still extremely strong. The <a href="https://www.marketingcharts.com/digital/social-media-225140" target="_blank" rel="noopener">engagement rates on TikTok</a> are much higher than on other Social Platforms and are likely to stay that way until the platform gets more crowded. Basically, it&#8217;s like Facebook used to be when you could reach your audience for free!
Smart brands are on TikTok already and doubling down both on organic content and paid Ads but there&#8217;s plenty of growth to be achieved for businesses only just getting started on TikTok in 2022.
<h4>TikTok is being used by younger audiences as a Search Engine</h4>
TikTok is not only taking some of Facebook&#8217;s audiences but even Google is feeling a little bit of a pinch though not a substantial threat. As mentioned above, tiktok.com was the most visited domain in 2021, usurping Google. This is no small feat.
Prabhakar Raghavan (Google senior vice president) <a href="https://fortune.com/videos/watch/Brainstorm-Tech-2022-Organizing-The-Worlds-Information/934585a6-7fb6-41a5-8ef3-e497f8ca2986" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told a recent Tech conference</a> that:
<blockquote>&#8220;something like almost 40% of young people when they&#8217;re looking for a place for lunch, they don&#8217;t go to Google Maps or Search, they go to TikTok or Instagram.&#8221;</blockquote>
While these local search terms from people looking for lunch spots only make up a very small portion of user Search volumes, Google is <a href="https://blog.google/products/search/search-io22/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adjusting its platform</a> to appeal to younger users to defend their dominance of Search terms with a local intent to convert. However, Google remains the number one platform to dial into real user intent to convert into a customer across many industries.
The reality is that TikTok will never take over from Google for user journeys that require real research, price and service level comparison. It&#8217;s an interesting development in the world of Search Marketing though and something businesses serving local customers should be keeping in mind.
As global users become less and less patient, they&#8217;re seeking more visual ways to learn rather than reading blog content. Younger users use TikTok&#8217;s search facility to find the guides they want in a short easy to understand video format.
Mental health advice is unsurprisingly a popular topic on TikTok and often a go-to source for younger users as is legal and medical advice for users of all ages. TikTok content can be excellent for delivering a concise visual answer to those &#8220;how to&#8221; questions we all have.
Despite the lack of the same veracity to the information available on TikTok when compared to Google results, this looks like <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/could-tiktok-be-a-search-engine-for-many-users-it-already-is/452871/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a trend that will continue</a>. To help SEO your brand&#8217;s TikTok content to be discovered in TikTok search results, be sure to use the auto-captions over your videos and relevant hashtags.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14133 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TikTok-user-prepares-to-shoot-video-700x467-1.jpeg" alt="Irish TikTok user making video content with a smartphone and light ring" width="700" height="467" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TikTok-user-prepares-to-shoot-video-700x467-1.jpeg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TikTok-user-prepares-to-shoot-video-700x467-1-250x167.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TikTok-user-prepares-to-shoot-video-700x467-1-120x80.jpeg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h4>Won&#8217;t I have to dance to create engaging content on TikTok?</h4>
No. While dance crazes certainly helped get TikTok to where it is today, the variety of content on it today is truly quite astounding. Users are on TikTok to learn, discover and also shop!
What&#8217;s important on TikTok is that your video content is creative, authentic and of course either helpful, visually engaging or funny. It&#8217;s not a place for any boring straightforward marketing creatives that have a strong sales approach. The users there will certainly let you know in the comments (if you leave them on) if they don&#8217;t like it. Your TikTok content needs to be made for TikTok.
One aspect of TikTok content is that it&#8217;s very much focused on trends and challenges. Keeping up on what your audience is engaging with and the topics they&#8217;re talking about will help make your content more relevant. TikTok encourages users to take on their content challenges. Targeting those challenges and using the memes and hashtags that your audience use will help you connect with the right people.
Some brands may initially struggle to conceive of what they might share but there are plenty of <a href="https://www.shopify.com/blog/tiktok-video-ideas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">great examples and ideas</a> out there to take a lead form.
<h4>What types of businesses can benefit from TikTok?</h4>
Pretty much any business that&#8217;s prepared to invest in producing fun and engaging video content will benefit from being on TikTok. Remember that needn&#8217;t be an expensive undertaking, all that&#8217;s needed is a bit of creativity, basic video editing skills, time and a smartphone.
If a brand is producing high-quality content around an area people want to gain knowledge in, they&#8217;ll quickly gather a following. From Lawyers to Doctors, there&#8217;s no shortage of smart professional service brands taking advantage of the free organic reach by producing helpful and engaging video content for their audiences.
More and more, <a href="https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/social-commerce-is-here-and-its-reshaping-how-we-buy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Social platforms are places where people shop</a>. Ecommerce brands will especially benefit from engaging with TikTok. Just take a look at <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/TikTokMadeMeBuyIt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt</a> and you&#8217;ll see users posting about the influence TikTok had on their latest purchase.
The potential for eCommerce brands to benefit from user-generated content (UGC) is huge on TikTok. Getting your products into the hands of your target audience and delighting them can see your product go viral.
There&#8217;s also a plethora of tools and features built into the platform that will let you engage directly with your audience. These include Q &amp; A&#8217;s and Live streams to answer buyer questions and demonstrate your product&#8217;s benefits, driving sales in real-time. TikTok Shop is not yet available in Ireland but once it arrives it will add a Shop tab to your business profile, similar to Facebook and Instagram Shops.
<a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/live-shopping-tiktok/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Live Shopping</a> has conversion rates 10 times higher than other eCommerce placements and formats. It&#8217;s set to be a major trend in eCommerce going forward and TikTok really delivers here.
Partnering with relevant Influencers that have already amassed a strong engaged following can provide a shortcut to getting the exposure a brand needs with its target audience. It&#8217;s crucial to ensure good alignment here between audience and brand though, otherwise, it can lead to wasted spending. A good place to start with finding the right influencer to partner with is <a href="https://creatormarketplace.tiktok.com/home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok&#8217;s Creator Marketplace</a>.
Another very interesting offering for brands is <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/introducing-tiktok-branded-mission-inspiring-brand-and-creator-collaborations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok&#8217;s Branded Mission</a>. Essentially brands can crowdsource their creative needs to TikTok creators. Content creators supply their proposed TikTok creative for your brand which you can then choose to place media spend behind if you like what you see. This could prove to be an excellent option for brands struggling with their own creative production for the platform.
There&#8217;s a lot that can be achieved organically on the platform with the right resources put into producing content. However, it&#8217;s when brands add paid media to the mix that the numbers can really start to get interesting.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14131 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Rocketship-departing-the-group-1st-mover-advantage-700x456-1.jpeg" alt="Rocket ship leaving the group of other rockets representing first mover advantage with Paid Ads on TikTok" width="700" height="456" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Rocketship-departing-the-group-1st-mover-advantage-700x456-1.jpeg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Rocketship-departing-the-group-1st-mover-advantage-700x456-1-250x163.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Rocketship-departing-the-group-1st-mover-advantage-700x456-1-120x78.jpeg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h4>Paid Ads on TikTok &amp; first mover advantage</h4>
TikTok released its self-serve Ads platform in July 2020 and is very capable of delivering results for brands across many verticals. All the usual options are there that we&#8217;ve come to expect from a modern Ads platform making it suitable for driving on-site Conversions or App Installs as needed.
While large volumes of performance data are thin on the ground and of course it depends on each vertical, creative strength, the offer and many other factors including the friction of their user journeys, TikTok Ads can be a very strong option.
Media buying on TikTok is still relatively cheap when compared to Facebook &amp; Instagram. As with any Ad placement costs, supply and demand dictates pricing. TikTok still has a lot of supply of Ad space with less demand than on Facebook&#8217;s dwindling supply as not as many marketers are taking advantage of TikTok yet.
This presents yet another area of opportunity, as well as organic growth with TikTok, where there still remains a first mover advantage for businesses that act soon and start their TikTok journey both organic and paid.
If you&#8217;d like to take advantage of this exceptional marketing channel and engage an expert <a href="https://www.friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/social-media-advertising/">TikTok Ads agency</a>, talk with us today!

TikTok App symbol on smartphone screen with 99 notifications

TikTok’s demographics tell you why Irish businesses need to be on TikTok

When it comes to the metaverse there is a lot to unpack, so bear with me here&#8230;
Yes the metaverse is intriguing, but it&#8217;s not a new concept.
For a long time, people have been playing VR games and immersing themselves in life simulations like <a href="https://secondlife.com/">Second Life</a>, SIMs, and even fantasy role-playing realms like World of Warcraft.
In October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the firm will undergo a rebranding that included a new name, logo, and ticker symbol. So this was a significant step, obviously.
The metaverse, according to some detractors, is just another failed effort at something that hasn&#8217;t succeeded before, largely by IT giants that didn&#8217;t provide enough uses for it to be of value to people.
There are many who believe it&#8217;s nothing more than an elaborate plot devised by the “powers that be” to control our lives and force us into the black hole of advertising. That&#8217;s a bit paranoid, really.
<h3>Wearable technology</h3>
Virtual reality gamers will know that the world of Ready Player One took some liberties in its depiction of the medium.
The technology just isn&#8217;t there to support what the characters were doing in the book or movie, and it might never be. Of course, this is science fiction, so it&#8217;s not a big deal.
However many people instantly connected this film to Facebook&#8217;s rebranding as Meta.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-13751 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/suit-up-suit.gif" alt="" width="498" height="320" />
Well I&#8217;m sorry to let you down, but that’s really not going to be the case.
Wearable technology is still not where it should be, but let&#8217;s hope that it grows in the right direction and provides us with some fun along the way too, because it won’t all be entertainment – monetisation is inevitable.
As part of their journey to make the metaverse more accessible to a wider audience, Meta is also developing it as a data-driven advertising platform.
<h3>Problematic</h3>
I&#8217;m not only referring to Mark Zuckerberg&#8217;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIxPRwgXFQg">questionable presentation abilities</a> when I say that the metaverse&#8217;s debut was problematic from the start.
The timing was also less than ideal. They already had a bad reputation for privacy, and the promise of a more intimate platform has further exacerbated that.
In any case, let&#8217;s take a look at some of the most critical considerations.
<h3>So what is it?</h3>
To put it in simple terms, the metaverse is a virtual world where people can communicate, game and shop online, see virtual concerts, and meet virtually. This may eventually lead to virtual cinemas, competing in sports, and much more.
Instead of relying on its <a href="https://www.oculus.com/">Oculus</a> VR platform to unleash the metaverse, Facebook claims to be working on wearable body sensors that users will use to interact with the digital environment.
But there are a number of problems that must be answered before this &#8220;groundbreaking&#8221; notion can be considered a success.
Is our privacy at risk as a result of this? In terms of digital marketing, what is its significance?
<h3>Metaverse advertising</h3>
Since early 2021, when <a href="https://www.roblox.com/">Roblox</a> went public and <a href="https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/">Nvidia</a> said that the company&#8217;s next step was to establish a metaverse, the word &#8220;metaverse&#8221; has been increasingly searched on Google.
To put things in perspective, in the spring of 1998, the first studies on VR/internet addiction began to appear. So no, this is nothing new.
While some big corporations are only just now starting to really investigate the metaverse’s possibilities, the notion has been around for quite some time. &#8216;Virtual worlds&#8217; and &#8216;an all-encompassing digital playground&#8217; have been anticipated for the internet for decades now.
This forecast was based not just on speculative fiction, but also on technology that was already in the works.
Platforms and content like Roblox, <a href="https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/home">Fortnite</a>, and <a href="https://decentraland.org/">Decentraland</a> are just a few of the numerous participants already in the metaverse ecosystem. They feature designers, avatar technology, social media, and VR technology, to name a few.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) issued by brands like Gucci and Coca-Cola are now being sold on metaverse platforms such as Decentraland.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="810" height="524" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13748" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/supergucci-810x524-1.jpeg" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/supergucci-810x524-1.jpeg 810w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/supergucci-810x524-1-250x162.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/supergucci-810x524-1-700x453.jpeg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/supergucci-810x524-1-768x497.jpeg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/supergucci-810x524-1-120x78.jpeg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/supergucci-810x524-1-80x52.jpeg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px" />
Small and big players are helping each other to develop a second world that mimics the actual world in the metaverse ecology, which is already taking shape. Again, this is nothing new.
From the perspective of advertising, it’s important to realise that just as the internet can’t be owned by a single business, the metaverse can’t be owned by a single brand or a small group of tech giants.
Of course Meta, on the other hand, would like you to believe differently right now.
Make no mistake about it, a large part of that re-naming was an attempt to become synonymous with &#8211; and attempt to own &#8211; a metaverse concept that already existed.
Advertising&#8217;s place in the metaverse hasn&#8217;t been thoroughly examined yet, at least not by a third party.
In the actual world, how will it perform? In the metaverse, can previous advertising research results and approaches be applied?
It&#8217;s not simply another new media like the internet; the metaverse has the potential to become a fully realised concept that changes the approach of advertising and marketing in profound ways.
The basic definitions of advertising may need to be revised to include consideration for avatars since the metaverse is interactive and incorporates embodied individuals via their avatars.
Metaverse concert merchandise will become more commonplace (this is already making artists millions!), firms like Meetings Booker may start supporting the platform that facilitates your team&#8217;s meetings… and these are just two examples of sponsorship advertising alternatives that will expand in the future.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="850" height="425" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13749" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Justin_Bieber_Make_Debut_Metaverse.jpeg" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Justin_Bieber_Make_Debut_Metaverse.jpeg 850w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Justin_Bieber_Make_Debut_Metaverse-250x125.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Justin_Bieber_Make_Debut_Metaverse-700x350.jpeg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Justin_Bieber_Make_Debut_Metaverse-768x384.jpeg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Justin_Bieber_Make_Debut_Metaverse-120x60.jpeg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Justin_Bieber_Make_Debut_Metaverse-80x40.jpeg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px" />
We need to test, reproduce, and expand existing advertising ideas in this new universe in order to understand how advertising will operate in the metaverse, but this hasn&#8217;t happened yet.
In order to test and construct theories that can explain and forecast how advertising in the metaverse works, we&#8217;ll need both qualitative observations and empirical data (i.e., data collected by humans and machines).
<h3>Our everyday life</h3>
As with the internet and smartphones, proponents of the metaverse believe it will have a huge influence on our everyday lives.
Many younger people will find it easy to join a console chat and play a game with pals, but not everyone will be able to.
While certain components of the metaverse currently exist, contemporary online worlds are predicted to swiftly evolve, allowing us to not only mirror the real world but also to be and do whatever we choose.
There is a growing consensus that we will soon be wearing glasses comparable to the virtual reality headsets now on the market, but with fewer drawbacks, to access the internet.
Many more types of virtual reality gadgets and equipment, such as cheaper omnidirectional treadmills, will be available in the future to enable people to experience the virtual environment as if they were truly there.
This is the point at which we begin to enter a virtual world that&#8217;s a tiny bit closer to Ready Player One.
Many roadblocks remain in the way of this completely immersive vision being achieved anytime soon, even among those who embrace the metaverse.
Significant technological advancements are required in order for a metaverse to properly imitate the actual world.
Even while cloud computing, 5G, and artificial intelligence (AI) have all been around for some time, they have only lately begun to take off.
Even if the metaverse has all the technology it needs right now, it would still need to become more inexpensive and more widely accessible if it is to reach its full potential.
<h3>Privacy</h3>
In addition to technological issues, the privacy and security of individuals must also be considered. Many people already worry about what digital platforms know about them, even if they don&#8217;t really know what the issue is (my biggest gripe with this!).
Early versions of the metaverse are already in existence, and they are gaining traction. Global AR and VR tech sales are projected to soar now, and not surprisingly, but not without consideration for blocking of personal information.
Technology firms are taking note of how many people, particularly the next generation of users, have already come to terms with a big portion of their future being located outside of the physical world entirely…
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="640" height="640" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13750" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/this-is-issue-about-trust-and-privacy-stan-marsh.gif" alt="" />
Microsoft has also announced intentions to deliver software and hardware tools relevant to the metaverse in the near future.
For their <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens/hardware">HoloLens</a> mixed-reality device, they&#8217;ve created a platform called <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mesh">Mesh</a> on which other companies can build apps.
A platform for shared virtual environments dubbed Omniverse Enterprise, developed by graphics chipmaker Nvidia again, will also be launched, allowing groups of users to merge parts they have generated elsewhere into a virtual entity they can then work on together.
An avatar must have some of the cognitive abilities of a human in order to be useful. In this, AI technologies like NLP, optical character recognition (OCR), reinforcement learning (RL), and conversational AI will play a key role.
Virtual characters that are more advanced (and will even learn over time) will encourage users to return to a virtual environment, making the experience more enjoyable. Because otherwise, it would be too &#8220;samey&#8221; to stand out.
For the metaverse to succeed, immersion will be as important as website engagement metrics are for user experience and SEO.
In order for the experience to be compelling, it has to be able to do all of these things.
<h3>The healthcare sector</h3>
Psychologists are increasingly using Zoom to communicate with their patients instead of meeting face-to-face, so the sector is no stranger to digital engagement.
Aside from the obvious financial and entertainment advantages of a metaverse, there are also concerns about the mental health of those who use it.
Usage and enjoyment of this new world will bring both issues and rewards.
For example, according to research from the University of Oxford, virtual reality may be beneficial for people with schizophrenia. The results of the research show that virtual reality immersion might be beneficial in regulated settings.
Furthermore, it can be used to alleviate the symptoms of phobias and other mental health issues.
<h3>More accessible</h3>
It&#8217;s reasonable to worry about things like data leaks and malfunctioning technologies, but remember that the advantages often exceed the negatives &#8211; as we&#8217;ve learned from earlier technological advancements such as, well, the internet itself!
For example, we often discuss the necessity of home care and making therapy more accessible to more people. Now that the ‘homes’ of patients will be in the metaverse, the possibilities for outreach and better treatment are endless.
Behavioral healthcare professionals and academics will play a critical role in shaping the metaverse as we advance toward a fully collaborative online environment, both by providing guidance in its creation and by performing impartial research on its impacts.
<h3>Keep an open mind</h3>
As with anything, you&#8217;ll need to keep up with the latest developments in this space – it&#8217;s coming no matter what we do.
So keep an open mind and engage in healthy dialogue with others whose views differ from your own, even if it is unpleasant at times, because it will bring good things with it too.
In general, we&#8217;ve never been known to be early adopters. With the metaverse, we have the chance to change that.
Don’t be scared, let’s have some fun with it.

The Metaverse Advertising Privacy and Everyday Life

Advertising, Privacy and Everyday Life in the Metaverse

I don’t think there is another industry that has embraced acronyms quite like marketing. A handy short-cut for those who understand them and for those who don’t (and are afraid to ask) they are beyond useless. When it comes to marketing and digital performance the 2 biggest acronyms in town these days are CRO and UX.
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) and UX (User Experience) are two of the most important areas of focus that drive success online. These terms are used interchangeably, they work together with the same goals but it is important to note that they are not the same thing.
<h3 class="graf graf--h4">What is CRO?</h3>
CRO is a process that focuses on increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a specific action. This action can be anything from buying a product, signing up to a service, webinar or newsletter. CRO takes an holistic look at the full user or customer journey from first engagement all they way past the point of purchase or conversion and optimises for a better conversion rate.
To calculate your conversion rate, you simply divide the number of conversions by the total number of web page visitors. Lets say a web page gets 10,000 visits a month and on average 400 of these visitors end up buying a product, thats a 4% conversion rate — not bad for many industries.
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote">(400 ÷ 10,000) x 100 = 4%</blockquote>
There are hundreds, if not thousands of ways to improve your conversion rate. Every site needs a CRO strategy, you start by looking at the product or service you are offering, do people want it? Is there a value proposition? Is there a strong brand? You optimise and test your content &amp; messaging, user journeys, your ads and how they are targeted. Refine and test your calls to action, landing pages, SEO, SEM and your websites loading speed… the list is endless.
The foundation of any CRO activity is looking at analytics and user feedback. We explore website analytics and learn about the traffic, its performance and look for opportunities. Ideas are brainstormed, prioritised and turned into a roadmap that goes through a cycle of test and iterate where necessary. This is an ongoing process that UX will play a big part in.
<h3 class="graf graf--h4">What is UX?</h3>
Users don’t come away from an online purchase remembering how the funnel made them feel, they will recall the website and brand experience — this is where UX comes in.
UX is a supplement to CRO that aims at easing the user journey by improving the design of the website or App so that is intuitive, enjoyable, seamless and simple. UX removes the friction through research to find empathy with the user and understand the users perceptions and expectations, these insights give design direction from real users or customers, not assumption.
Where CRO will focus on the numbers and the business goals, UX will be an advocate of the user which will help drive the numbers and business goals by working to help the user achieve their goals. CRO tells you ‘what’ is happening, where UX helps explain ‘why’ it is happening and presents actionable solutions.
Gavin and I had a good chat to see if we could come up with an analogy to explain the difference between UX and CRO. This is what we mustered when applying the principles of CRO and UX to a glass of water.
<figure class="graf graf--figure"></figure>
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“CRO will bring you to the water and tell you that you need to drink it, while UX will make drinking the water as easy and enjoyable as possible.”</blockquote>
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="2121" height="917" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13645" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water.png" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water.png 2121w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-250x108.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-700x303.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-768x332.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-1536x664.png 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-2048x885.png 2048w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-120x52.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-80x35.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2121px) 100vw, 2121px" />
Not perfect but hopefully you get the idea!
<h3 class="graf graf--h4">Hand in hand</h3>
CRO should not or cannot be carried out without UX and visa versa, each feeds and compliments the other. If you invest in CRO without investing in UX you may drive people to your website but risk driving them into a brick wall, they are less likely to convert if the experience is poor. Likewise, you can have great UX on your website but without good CRO few will get to experience it.
CRO and UX is an ongoing process, the world changes as does user behaviour and thats why a continuing cycle of analyse, test and iterate is needed for ongoing success.
At Friday, our digital performance team work alongside our UX team to get the most out of your campaigns and online presence. Talk to us today about how we can use CRO with UX to attract and convert customers for you.

CRO & UX  -  What’s the Difference?

We create messages every day in order to influence others, often without even knowing it.
It may be one of the hundreds of emails you send to your coworkers, acquaintances, or clients on a regular basis&#8230;
Alternatively, if you work in a digital agency like I do, you can be developing advertising, content, a web page, metadata, or meeting slides&#8230;
Most of these things require a lot of mental work and even time/money, so have you ever considered how effective all of these efforts are from the viewpoint of people&#8217;s minds?
What kind of attention can you really get? How likely is it that you&#8217;ll be able to rewire pre-existing attitudes and opinions? Can you persuade your targets to make a purchase or persuade them that they require something?
As digital marketers, it&#8217;s neuromarketing that&#8217;s going to get us to that place.
<h3>Digital communication</h3>
Web analytics and data are now so easy to produce in the digital marketing field that marketers frequently use them to identify the real impact of advertising without any further science &#8211; and this is very powerful.
But what we&#8217;re actually seeing here are outcomes, which are great for analysis and have their place, but are not genuine causes.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have spent millions of dollars trying to persuade us that their algorithms can uncover and anticipate the quality of each digital communication you send. For them, it is a question of life and death. They&#8217;ve gotten pretty damn good at it, too.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-13620 size-medium" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-250x250.png" alt="" width="250" height="250" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-250x250.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-700x700.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-150x150.png 150w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-768x768.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-120x120.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-80x80.png 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates.png 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px" />
Recent events, however, have demonstrated how deceiving analytics may be. Worse, they frequently contain inaccurate definitions, dubious assumptions, and even mathematical mistakes.
They&#8217;re based on behavioral data that provides a skewed picture of how individuals react to messages. They are unconcerned with the unseen &#8216;unconscious&#8217; clicks that occur in people&#8217;s heads.
<h3>Precision targeting</h3>
Procter &amp; Gamble, the world&#8217;s largest marketer, curtailed its Facebook ad spend in 2016, arguing that targeting individual demographics was costly and did not result in a substantial impact.
Facebook (now Meta, of course) and Google both claim to be able to assist advertising in targeting specific audiences. P&amp;G, on the other hand, said that there was no proof that precision targeting was worthwhile.
We continue to see these platforms perform admirably as an agency. But, hey, to each their own.
Meanwhile, Facebook acknowledged in 2016 that it had been overestimating a key video statistic for at least two years. The average time of a video seen was calculated using only video views that lasted more than three seconds. As a result, advertisements&#8217; performance scores were greater than they should have been.
Many advertisers were furious, despite the fact that the social network stated it was a miscalculation of the average time users spent watching videos on its site.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="480" height="355" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13624" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/giphy.gif" alt="" />
Sure you do, Mark&#8230;
Google and Facebook don&#8217;t let outsiders evaluate their platforms, so they&#8217;re practically grading their own homework.
Without a doubt, Facebook&#8217;s error was an embarrassment. They issued an official apology and stated that the error in their algorithm will be corrected.
So be warned: online analytics are fantastic, but their utility is limited, and they can be inaccurate at times. However, they are frequently all we have.
<h3>Unseen decisions</h3>
In the near future, neuromarketing techniques will show the nature and effect of unseen decisions, making you a better buyer of digital advertising. As a result, the advertising industry&#8217;s big data players may not be as enthusiastic about neuromarketing as you should be.
And you most certainly should be.
Analytics does not provide a comprehensive picture of what happens when purchasers&#8217; minds are first exposed to advertisements; you must continually test headlines, change visuals, and generally adjust your message several times.
This makes it difficult to figure out why so much of your advertising isn&#8217;t paying off.
And, most significantly, you may choose an ad that is actually kind of unsuccessful but just happens to be the best performer in your test!
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="480" height="360" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13626" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/giphy-3.gif" alt="" />
&nbsp;
<h3>Brain persuasion</h3>
A/B testing is a trap that pays media networks billions without providing deeper knowledge of how ads influence the brain. The search for ideal messages through testing can get you to a better place but can also be inefficient, expensive, and contradicts the rules of brain persuasion.
When utilised to influence digital marketing initiatives, a lot of traditional marketing research falls short of its aims, especially when it comes to assessing the impact of the advertising message.
In their own right, surveys, interviews, and focus groups are powerful tools, but they don&#8217;t explain the neurophysiological mechanisms that underpin consumer behavior.
Nonetheless, our responses to most marketing stimuli are explained by the subconscious and preconscious regions of our brain.
That is why, when compared to traditional research methods, Neuromarketing may offer unique insights, a fact that is now widely recognised by marketing and advertising experts all over the world.
<h3>So what is it?</h3>
Neuromarketing employs a variety of methods, the most common of which being functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). It also utilises eye-tracking technologies, but most commonly in tandem with other technologies that read changes in brain functions.
The idea is to figure out which portion of the brain reacts to certain pictures, phrases, and slogans, and how that part of the brain reacts.
Integration of neuroscientific methodologies with digital advertising, in my opinion, will be one of the most crucial aspects of advertising and measurement of the same as things like the metaverse increase in usage.
It&#8217;s also known as Consumer Neuroscience and is the scientific study of how people&#8217;s brains react to advertising and other brand-related signals through the use of brain waves, eye tracking, and skin reactions.
It can employ brain imaging techniques like fMRI to show how the brain reacts unconsciously to what it perceives. This detects changes associated with blood flow. Basically, when an area of the brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-13623 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-700x350.jpeg" alt="" width="700" height="350" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-700x350.jpeg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-250x125.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-768x384.jpeg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-120x60.jpeg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-80x40.jpeg 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re.jpeg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h3>Value and relevance</h3>
It is non-invasive and safe. Although there was some initial skepticism and opposition, the advertising industry has begun to realise the movement&#8217;s value and relevance.
Because neuromarketing technologies track the molecular, physiological, and neurological changes that occur in our brains in reaction to marketing, they go well beyond typical data collecting techniques.
These experimental settings will aid in the analysis of instinctual, emotional, and cognitive reactions without putting the interpretive weight on study participants.
You may not know it, but filling out a survey consumes a significant amount of your brain&#8217;s precious energy. Even getting paid to take surveys does not alleviate this stress.
<h3>Act like zombies</h3>
It is impossible to overestimate the value of cognitive energy. Using brain-based approaches eliminates the need for individuals&#8217; conscious and active engagement. You&#8217;re not asking them to act like zombies; all you&#8217;re asking them to do is relax and allow the messages to work their way into their heads.
There&#8217;s also no requirement for the subjects to say anything. The goal is for the stimulus to have an effect on their neurophysiology. The brain will activate and create its own narrative.
When was the last time you were asked what you thought of a movie you had just seen? It&#8217;s a simple question, but imagine how difficult it would be to respond if you had to use emotional measures to describe how pleased, sad, enthusiastic, anxious, concerned, intrigued, and so on you were.
The same may be said for how we react to digital advertising or even a website. We know these stimuli have an effect on us, but we can&#8217;t be sure how much of an emotional or cognitive influence they have on our brain.
<h3>Difficult to recognise</h3>
According to research, when people are asked to explain their moods on a daily basis, they use an average of three words, implying that emotions are difficult to recognise and express. This clouds user feedback.
There are a few essential research questions that only Neuromarketing can answer.
<ul>
<li>Will my message pique the interest of the brain&#8217;s subconscious?</li>
<li>Will that unintentional influence lead to a purchase or a brand interaction?</li>
<li>Is it possible for individuals to express their true feelings? (We have the ability to fool even ourselves!)</li>
<li>What emotions lead to decisions?</li>
<li>Which of your messages has the most impact on people&#8217;s minds, and why?</li>
<li>Can neuromarketing be used to demonstrate a product&#8217;s or solution&#8217;s unique value?</li>
</ul>
And, perhaps most crucially:
<ul>
<li>Can a brain-based persuasion model lead to improved Return on Investment?</li>
</ul>
fMRI scans have demonstrated that a variety of factors determine how and why customers accept specific brands and buy their items, even if they are more expensive than competitors.
It has little to do with logic or reasonable thought. Humans are sensory creatures that react to the way particular stimuli make them &#8220;feel&#8221;.
<h3>Added value</h3>
Its methodologies can investigate subconscious responses and monitor brain activity in persons as well as their reactions to advertisements that they are unaware of.
Ultimately it can also provide customers with added value.
There have been ethical concerns raised, with some referring to it as &#8220;mind-reading,&#8221; although in fact, it employs volunteer participants in a manner that is not fundamentally different at all from established research methodologies.
Furthermore, discoveries from this field are being utilised to investigate solutions and therapies for, among other things, compulsive online gambling and addictive shopping habits.
<h3>What&#8217;s Next?</h3>
Neuromarketing will become more accessible in time as datasets from earlier studies are utilised to develop tools that do not require the use of a lab or fMRI methodology.
Soon you&#8217;ll be able to submit an image of your ad, a video, product page, or piece of content, etc, and get immediate feedback on how it will affect the subconscious.
This technology has already begun to emerge. We have tested some and we&#8217;ll be first in line when these are more commercially available.

Neuromarketing: The Emotions Behind The Data

It&#8217;s obvious that consumers are now concerned about data privacy.
They are more aware of how their data is gathered, kept, and shared, and they want greater control.
This has somehow been accomplished without actually fully informing consumers about the risks of having their data exposed or exploited, and yet they have mostly decided to accept it. So here we are!
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="400" height="208" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13573" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/giphy-1.gif" alt="Consumer Rights" />
If you&#8217;re busy or simply decide not to read on then at least know this: you&#8217;re going to need some very compelling reasons for customers to give you their data.
Because data gathering has grown so inextricably linked to the current customer experience, brands now face a unique set of problems.
Would e-commerce have grown at the same rate without tailored ads and targeted promotions? Most likely not, because both customers and brands have grown to rely on customisation to improve the modern buying experience.
Could small and medium-sized enterprises have gained the same degree of awareness among their cohorts as the major spenders do without customised or targeted advertising? No, not really.
We <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/how-to-protect-facebook-marketing-performance-cookie-free-future/">recently discussed</a> how Apple has modified how it will manage customer data by strengthening privacy and safeguards for consumers&#8217; information. With such a global powerhouse embracing the trend towards enhanced data privacy, marketers must keep these developments in mind as they plan future initiatives.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-13570 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-700x491.png" alt="Apple Privacy" width="700" height="491" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-700x491.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-250x175.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-768x539.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-120x84.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-80x56.png 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03.png 812w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
Increased data restrictions will unavoidably limit the methods brands and marketers can use to get information about customers, altering how we design marketing campaigns and activities.
These obstacles can only be overcome if brands focus on the consumer&#8217;s unique and personal traits and make attempts to develop a meaningful relationship with them.
In many respects, these difficulties will benefit the marketing profession by encouraging innovation and adaptability.
<h3 class="p1">Personalisation in marketing</h3>
Aside from using the tech giants&#8217; aggregated predictive models to provide us with more detailed targeting like before, brands will need to focus more on personalised marketing, which is already gaining traction and has become a popular topic of discussion with the introduction of relevant and supportive technologies such as data management platforms, geotargeting, and varied forms of targeted e-mails.
Many individuals now feel that it is an unavoidable baseline for the future of marketing strategy and brand performance in competitive marketplaces.
Because the likes of Google and Facebook&#8217;s &#8220;workarounds&#8221; for data loss (due to fewer opt-ins) will be widely available to all companies, it will be your tailored advertising capabilities based on your earned datasets that will set you apart.
<h3 class="p1">Adapt to technological advancements</h3>
Companies will need to adapt to relevant technology if customised marketing is to operate as predicted.
They will need to get acquainted with new and popular forms of social media, data-gathering platforms, and other technology that not all existing employees and enterprises are likely to be familiar with or able to purchase.
AI is bringing predictive personalisation techniques closer than any other tech trend. Things like <a href="https://blog.hunchads.com/dynamic-creative">Dynamic Creative Optimisation</a> are already helping to relegate tasks like split A/B testing to the past.
Many companies that can afford it have already implemented machine learning, big data, and AI to automate customisation.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="480" height="480" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13572" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/giphy.gif" alt="Data Gathering" />
<h3 class="p1">Current business models are being restructured</h3>
Adopting a new marketing strategy customised to the most relevant technology needs budget, time and resources.
To successfully adopt customised marketing, companies will need to organise their planning and communication a lot better.
Some businesses will have to recognise that their present processes and marketing strategies will have to alter dramatically and often.
They will have to reassess how consumer data and information are distributed within the company and potentially beyond that.
Individuals&#8217; geographic locations, potential customers&#8217; prior purchases, and so on will be flooded into company databases, and there may be restraints in how that information is obtained, distributed internally and publicly, and used to improve revenues.
<h3 class="p1">Legal ramifications</h3>
Privacy is always a concern, and in certain places, it is more so than in others, so businesses must overcome any legal obstacles before implementing tailored marketing. In particular, the EU has established GDPR, and you’ll all have heard of that by now. 
GDPR limits the types of data that brands may gather on their customers and provides a means for them to sue companies for violating their privacy. In the United States, California followed suit and enacted the CCPA in 2018.
Now let&#8217;s discuss some of the first measures marketers and businesses must take in order to discover, contact and convert customers in the age of data security.
<h3 class="p1">Get to know your consumers better</h3>
We&#8217;ve all heard that the cookie is on its way out for quite some time. They have lost their charm as customers become more suspicious and privacy regulations become more stringent.
Consumers, in my opinion, have been far too ready to accept that cookies are evil, and yet here we are.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="480" height="384" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13574" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/giphy-3.gif" alt="Bad Cookies" />
However, this is beneficial in some respects since it will make some brands less lazy.
Many brands have traditionally depended extensively on background data collecting, which has produced some useful outcomes. With evolving data rules, we will need to get to know our consumers in new and deeper ways. This will have a huge impact on the marketing industry.
Brands and marketers must look beyond conventional third-party data, such as broad demographics or the amount of time visitors spend on a website, to understand their consumers&#8217; unique interests and objectives.
The next generation of marketing will be based on an intentional brand-to-consumer connection in which cooperation &#8211; most likely in the form of data sharing and incentives &#8211; will generate purchasing power.
Consumers want to have relationships with the brands they like, yet many businesses do not prioritise developing this sort of loyalty. Brands may build better consumer connections and loyalty if they strategise and accept these shifts in data privacy.
<h3 class="p1">Restore consumer power via customisation</h3>
Customers demand privacy from companies and advertising, but they also want goods and services that are tailored to their specific requirements. Because of this paradox, as well as new privacy regulations, marketers must understand their clients beyond their clicking and scrolling behaviours.
According to <a href="https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/pdf-77/accenture-pulse-survey.pdf">Accenture research</a>, 91% of consumers prefer to buy items from businesses that provide some level of personalisation. Marketers will find it more difficult to reach customers without third-party data than ever before, yet most consumers will still demand the same level of personalised suggestions, discounts, or promotions.
Personalisation is the answer. They will eventually have more power over which marketing activities they see or don&#8217;t see based on how they interact with a company as personalisation increases.
Brands will have to look for new ways to understand their customers, such as first-party or zero-party data collecting. These approaches will provide more focused insights than any third-party data source, but they will necessitate more effort on the side of brands.
<h3 class="p1">Make clever use of data and technology</h3>
Brands can solve data privacy issues if they use data wisely. They must utilise tools to understand and contact their customers as consumer data gets more difficult to access and marketing technology grows more expensive to use.
They will require technology that spans many channels, collects data in real-time, improves the user experience, and generates reliable data reports. More precise data (collected by first- or zero-party techniques) will necessitate a more sophisticated analysis.
Personalisation will be the bedrock of intelligent data utilisation. Segmentation will give way to direct engagement with the consumer, whether through an AI-powered platform or even things like simple quizzes, competitions or surveys.
Interactive material not only encourages increased involvement but also increases the user&#8217;s enjoyment. At the very least, it enhances the amount of time visitors spend engaging with you, which improves your shareability/linkability and possibly even your rankings.
People mostly want to be involved, therefore good interactive content nearly always enhances your user experience.
This move for interactive content will be part of a larger trend toward personalisation anyway; by allowing consumers to respond for themselves or have their opinions heard, they feel a more personal connection to the business.
Don&#8217;t forget that it may also be used to collect data about user preferences, for example, to enhance products or websites.
<h3 class="p1">Segmentation of customers</h3>
The concept is simple: rather than a limited number of major marketing efforts aimed at broad audiences, it is often preferable to have a large number of small marketing initiatives aimed at specialised consumers.
Customer segmentation is categorising your target customer based on specific characteristics or behaviours, such as demographics or purchasing patterns.
This allows you to more precisely tailor your material to their interests, such as having two separate email lists for large spenders and small spenders and sending various newsletters to each with different items.
You may segment your consumers anyway you choose, but the most frequent divisions are demographic, psychographic, geographic, behavioural, and customer journey.
This technique is excellent for customisation and consumer engagement because your followers will receive material that has been hand-picked just for them.
Aside from email lists, consumer segmentation may be applied to customised advertisements on other sites, categories of blog posts, and social media content for numerous different interests and communities.
<h3 class="p1">Start planning now</h3>
So despite the disruption of nasty and annoying cookie consent notifications, consumers increasingly believe that their data is one of their most valuable assets in the contemporary world, and they want to know that it will be handled properly. That’s not going anywhere.
So this barrier needs to be overcome by using personalisation to satisfy their remaining need for tailored advertising &#8211; and brands must start planning now.
Think about your overall content strategy, your e-mail marketing tactics, newsletter audiences, previous purchasers, social media audiences and website users… segment them all to start planning conversations that they will enjoy.

It’s Time to Get Personal

<h4>Whether you run a business that has an app or website that is either core to, or part of the sales process you will want to keep a close eye on the conversion rate on an ongoing basis. Is the software, content and interface doing its job? Can users find the content and functions they need and are they converting? How can it be improved?</h4>
It may be that you don’t know if your website or app needs minor updates or a major redesign, best not to make assumptions around this as it can be costly. There’s no such thing as a perfect user experience, there’s always room for improvement and discovering where the improvements can be made is where a UX audit can be invaluable.
Research carried out by Forester in 2017 shows that, on average, every €1 invested in UX brings €100 in return. They also found that a well-designed user interface could raise your website’s conversion rate by up to a 200%, and better UX design could increase conversion rates up to 400%.
<h3>The Process of a UX Audit</h3>
A UX audit will go through a series of steps that will help uncover any usability issues. This will provide actionable recommendations that will help eliminate any issues and improve the overall user experience and conversion rate. The process of a UX audit will vary depending on the goals, budget and time allotted. This could range from a day or two to several weeks. During a UX audit, the auditor uses a variety of tools, research methods and metrics to find out where the software is or is not working. The most effective UX audit would include quantitative and qualitative research that involves users, this would include usability testing, interviews or surveys.
As part of a UX audit, a UX professional would usually carry out what is known as a heuristic evaluation of the software. User experience pioneers Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich published an article in the early 1990’s which contained a set of principles, or heuristics, that industry specialists soon began to adopt as a benchmark to systematically determine the usability of an interface. In the absence of enough time or budget for user research, a heuristic evaluation may be central to the audit process.
&nbsp;
<h3>10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design</h3>
As experts, we go through a checklist of criteria to find flaws and areas that can be improved based on the following principles.
<h4>#1: Visibility of system status</h4>
The design should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.
<div id="attachment_12374" style="width: 799px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12374" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-12374 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image.png" alt="" width="789" height="272" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image.png 789w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-250x86.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-700x241.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-768x265.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-120x41.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-80x28.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 789px) 100vw, 789px" />A progress bar tells the user something is happening and indicates how long it might take. This builds trust and patients.</div>
&nbsp;
<h4>#2: Match between system and the real world</h4>
The design should speak the users’ language. Use words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user, rather than internal jargon. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
<div id="attachment_12381" style="width: 1404px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12381" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-12381 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cal.png" alt="" width="1394" height="896" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cal.png 1394w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cal-250x161.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cal-700x450.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cal-768x494.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cal-120x77.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cal-80x51.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1394px) 100vw, 1394px" />Familiarity with something in the real world, the Mac calculator is not too far from the old Casio model we all used in school.</div>
&nbsp;
<h4>#3: User control and freedom</h4>
Users often perform actions by mistake. They need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted action without having to go through an extended process, a bit like the undo command that is common on a PC.
<div id="attachment_12387" style="width: 1312px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12387" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-12387 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/undo.png" alt="" width="1302" height="699" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/undo.png 1302w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/undo-250x134.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/undo-700x376.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/undo-768x412.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/undo-120x64.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/undo-80x43.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1302px) 100vw, 1302px" />The undo feature Google added in Gmail gives the user 5 seconds to stop an email from sending (after they press send), might come in handy!</div>
&nbsp;
<h4>#4: Consistency and standards</h4>
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform and industry conventions and reduce learning.
<div id="attachment_12382" style="width: 1209px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12382" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-12382 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/jakobs-law-utility-nav.jpg" alt="" width="1199" height="525" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/jakobs-law-utility-nav.jpg 1199w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/jakobs-law-utility-nav-250x109.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/jakobs-law-utility-nav-700x307.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/jakobs-law-utility-nav-768x336.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/jakobs-law-utility-nav-120x53.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/jakobs-law-utility-nav-80x35.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1199px) 100vw, 1199px" />Don’t reinvent the wheel, users will find familiar interfaces that follow convention much easier to use.</div>
&nbsp;
<h4>#5: Error prevention</h4>
Good error messages are important, but the best designs carefully prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions, or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
<div id="attachment_12378" style="width: 3407px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12378" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-12378 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/5ccb5076df86e7441a9f761b_modal.png" alt="" width="3397" height="1704" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/5ccb5076df86e7441a9f761b_modal.png 3397w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/5ccb5076df86e7441a9f761b_modal-250x125.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/5ccb5076df86e7441a9f761b_modal-700x351.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/5ccb5076df86e7441a9f761b_modal-768x385.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/5ccb5076df86e7441a9f761b_modal-1536x770.png 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/5ccb5076df86e7441a9f761b_modal-2048x1027.png 2048w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/5ccb5076df86e7441a9f761b_modal-120x60.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/5ccb5076df86e7441a9f761b_modal-80x40.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 3397px) 100vw, 3397px" />Users need to fully understand the outcome of their actions.</div>
&nbsp;
<h4>#6: Recognition rather than recall</h4>
Minimise the user’s memory load by making elements, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another. Information required to use the design (e.g. field labels or menu items) should be visible or easily retrievable when needed.
<div id="attachment_12384" style="width: 2654px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12384" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-12384 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-28-at-09.37.08.png" alt="" width="2644" height="1468" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-28-at-09.37.08.png 2644w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-28-at-09.37.08-250x139.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-28-at-09.37.08-700x389.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-28-at-09.37.08-768x426.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-28-at-09.37.08-1536x853.png 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-28-at-09.37.08-2048x1137.png 2048w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-28-at-09.37.08-120x67.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screenshot-2021-07-28-at-09.37.08-80x44.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2644px) 100vw, 2644px" />In Phtoshop, Adobe present the users with a list of recently worked on files, this helps the user from having to go rooting for them.</div>
&nbsp;
<h4>#7: Flexibility and efficiency of use</h4>
Shortcuts — hidden from novice users — may speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the design can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
<div id="attachment_12379" style="width: 1210px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12379" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-12379 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/130870-phones-feature-what-is-apple-pay-and-how-does-it-work-image1-qjaxkx6zrb.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/130870-phones-feature-what-is-apple-pay-and-how-does-it-work-image1-qjaxkx6zrb.jpg 1200w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/130870-phones-feature-what-is-apple-pay-and-how-does-it-work-image1-qjaxkx6zrb-250x167.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/130870-phones-feature-what-is-apple-pay-and-how-does-it-work-image1-qjaxkx6zrb-700x467.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/130870-phones-feature-what-is-apple-pay-and-how-does-it-work-image1-qjaxkx6zrb-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/130870-phones-feature-what-is-apple-pay-and-how-does-it-work-image1-qjaxkx6zrb-120x80.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/130870-phones-feature-what-is-apple-pay-and-how-does-it-work-image1-qjaxkx6zrb-80x53.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" />Payment applications like ApplePay and Google Pay help users quickly pay for something online without having to enter their payment and personal details again and again.</div>
&nbsp;
<h4>#8: Aesthetic and minimalist design</h4>
Interfaces should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in an interface competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
<div id="attachment_12380" style="width: 2040px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12380" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-12380 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Busy.png" alt="" width="2030" height="1035" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Busy.png 2030w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Busy-250x127.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Busy-700x357.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Busy-768x392.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Busy-1536x783.png 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Busy-120x61.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Busy-80x41.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2030px) 100vw, 2030px" />Less is more. Users like consuming information at a glance. Clean design minimalist design helps with this.</div>
&nbsp;
<h4>#9: Help users recognise, diagnose, and recover from errors</h4>
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no error codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
<div id="attachment_12386" style="width: 1210px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12386" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-12386 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/twitter_Eg3hXdQWoAI0Dgq.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/twitter_Eg3hXdQWoAI0Dgq.jpg 1200w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/twitter_Eg3hXdQWoAI0Dgq-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/twitter_Eg3hXdQWoAI0Dgq-700x394.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/twitter_Eg3hXdQWoAI0Dgq-768x432.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/twitter_Eg3hXdQWoAI0Dgq-120x68.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/twitter_Eg3hXdQWoAI0Dgq-80x45.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" />Help users solve a problem, give them as much informartion as posisble without technical jargon.</div>
&nbsp;
<h4>#10: Help and documentation</h4>
It’s best if the system doesn’t need any additional explanation. However, it may be necessary to provide documentation to help users understand how to complete their tasks.
<div id="attachment_12383" style="width: 1608px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12383" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-12383 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/monday.png" alt="" width="1598" height="989" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/monday.png 1598w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/monday-250x155.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/monday-700x433.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/monday-768x475.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/monday-1536x951.png 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/monday-120x74.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/monday-80x50.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1598px) 100vw, 1598px" />A smart, predictive search can help users find answers to their questions quickly.</div>
&nbsp;
<h3>The Output of a UX Audit</h3>
A UX audit should also take into account the content, layout and the user flow through the interface and uncover any blocks or hurdles that users may have to get past in order to complete a task. 
There is no universal format for a UX audit report, each one is tailored to the process employed for the project. It may consists of some or all of the following.
<ul>
<li>Usability review / heuristic evaluation</li>
<li>Information architecture review</li>
<li>Data analytics</li>
<li>Revised User flows</li>
<li>Review of language, clarity, and Calls to action</li>
<li>Conversion optimisation</li>
<li>Content review</li>
<li>Visual design review</li>
<li>Suggested updates mapped out in a priority matrix</li>
</ul>
At the end of a UX audit, you should receive a comprehensive report with clear and actionable recommendations and advice. The key suggestions from this audit can be mapped out in a priority matrix that will identify the quick wins or low hanging fruit that will have the highest impact on UX with lowest amount of design or development effort — we start from there and work our way through the findings to maximise ROI as quickly as possible.
<div id="attachment_12391" style="width: 1010px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12391" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-12391 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-1.png" alt="" width="1000" height="800" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-1.png 1000w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-1-250x200.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-1-700x560.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-1-768x614.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-1-120x96.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-1-80x64.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />Priority Matrix</div>
A UX audit is an essential process for any software product, app or website. A well-executed review will help businesses fix problems quickly, improve retention and boost conversions.
<h4>Interested in running a UX audit on your app or website?</h4>
Please, get in touch to see how we can help.

What is a User Experience Audit and how is it Useful?

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Traditionally, list building was an e-mail marketing thing. It still is to an extent, but there’s so much more that you need to consider now.
Now you can use your customer lists to target subscribed (opted-in) users across multiple platforms including LinkedIn, Google Display Network, Google Search, Facebook and Instagram.
The term ‘list-building’ in itself even implies a list of email addresses that is, at best, sorted alphabetically.
A few years ago, it typically amounted to a ‘Sign Up For Our Newsletter’ field on a website, after which you may – nor may not – get some useful stuff.
Customer lists are a very powerful tool that is under-utilised. It&#8217;s like blindfolded archery &#8211; you don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re missing! Many of you will know this, but there are VERY few brands doing this right.
We&#8217;ll get to that, but let&#8217;s first take a look at how to get started.
<h3>Target them later</h3>
I’m not concerned about signing up for newsletters and I’ll do so when I’m pretty sure that I might get something of value. Privacy is not usually a concern for me because I’m not &#8220;offended&#8221; when I&#8217;m targeted with relevant ads. Or an irrelevant one, for that matter.
I’m also comfortable enough to unsubscribe when the first e-mail I receive begins with ‘Dear [NAME]’, or if it&#8217;s just plain rubbish.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="525" height="408" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10925" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Screenshot-2020-07-08-at-09.55.03.png" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Screenshot-2020-07-08-at-09.55.03.png 525w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Screenshot-2020-07-08-at-09.55.03-250x194.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Screenshot-2020-07-08-at-09.55.03-120x93.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Screenshot-2020-07-08-at-09.55.03-80x62.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px" />
And given that I am happy to take personal responsibility for my own privacy, you can assume that I am not alone. Users are comfortable to sign up. So be good to them, and then you can target them later across multiple platforms with very specific advertising.
I have personally worked with clients who had up to a 5% conversion rate for newsletter signups, so 1 in 20 people were comfortable enough to do so. But beyond this, nothing was being done to segment and target those as they went about their everyday.
These are people who have explicitly said: “Yes, I want to hear more from you.” That&#8217;s the strongest audience that you can get. That’s something valuable for anyone to achieve and it’s also very powerful. Yes, many brands will e-mail them. But most are not nurturing that relationship by taking it out of their Inbox.
Typically, a good basic e-mail strategy will adhere to several simple things:
<ul>
<li>Give a taster of what to expect</li>
<li>Give clear reasons for them to sign up</li>
<li>Be clear about what they will receive</li>
<li>Compose a beautiful personalised welcome e-mail</li>
<li>Do not surprise them by pushing products or services unless expected</li>
<li>Give them some <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/where-has-all-the-good-content-gone/">interesting, original content</a></li>
<li>Always be honest and sincere in all your communications, and you will always make a good impression with customers.</li>
</ul>
What&#8217;s usually missing is that once they have signed up, you will want to segment them based on the information you have about them. There’s e-mail marketing software for doing this but there’s nothing to prevent SMEs from doing this manually and in a way that is GDPR-compliant. And then you can target them with relevant advertising.
You will have a location, gender and any other information that you have asked for at signup, and you should also have their website behaviours. So if you want to show ads on Facebook to female prospects aged 25-35 in Dublin who are interested in buying necklaces but haven&#8217;t done so yet &#8211; you can do it.
It’s important to note here that having a tickbox next to your signup does not make you <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/gdpr-consent-knowledge-is-no-longer-power-it-is-risk/">GDPR compliant</a>. Only good business practices can do that. A tickbox does not get you out of jail for free.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="600" height="400" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10926" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/56_say_gdpr_one_more_time_v2.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/56_say_gdpr_one_more_time_v2.jpg 600w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/56_say_gdpr_one_more_time_v2-250x167.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/56_say_gdpr_one_more_time_v2-120x80.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/56_say_gdpr_one_more_time_v2-80x53.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />
That’s enough about e-mail marketing. Those are the basics, the requisites that you should absolutely be doing anyway. If you’re not, then give us a call before continuing on to the next part.
<h3>The next part</h3>
So now you’ve got your list of newsletter subscribers and online purchasers. You’ve got them segmented nicely. Let the fun begin.
Firstly, you can upload these lists to the Facebook/Instagram Ads platform. This will allow you to re-target them based on their interaction with your brand &#8211; recency of purchase, non-purchasers, etc. This can be a very powerful cross-selling tool.
Using these lists you can also create <a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/164749007013531?id=401668390442328">Lookalike Audiences</a>. Facebook will find users with similar interests and behaviours to those you have uploaded and you can then target them. For example, you can find people just like those who have recently purchased from you. We’ve done this. A lot. It works very well.
There are other ways in which this can be useful. If you have properly segmented your customer lists then you can also use these to exclude those that you do not wish to target. This can prove to be useful when you know what category of products a user is interested in, so you do not want to show it to those who are not.
LinkedIn has also improved this functionality within their platform. In this case, you can upload your contacts list – in the B2B space, this is commonly a prospects list – and specifically, target them with ads.
Using LinkedIn, you can also upload a list of company names. Which means that you can target every company in your sector while you exclude everyone in your own from seeing those ads.
We are currently using these tactics on LinkedIn for a global client and maintaining a very healthy 7% conversion rate.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="480" height="342" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10928" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/giphy-1.gif" alt="" />
<h3>Great opportunities</h3>
On Google’s platforms, you can have control over which audiences see your ads across YouTube, Gmail, Google Search, and the Google Display Network through remarketing campaigns – and this includes the e-mail lists that you upload. This presents some great opportunities, including:
<ul>
<li>The ability to bid higher and be front and centre for prospects who have been in touch but did not convert yet.</li>
<li>You can exclude current customers from all targeting if you wish.</li>
<li>Promote your new app to current customers.</li>
<li>Only pay for brand clicks from new customers (note: this one is great)</li>
</ul>
Using these techniques. You can, in short, better tailor your Google campaigns to target more qualified and valuable users who are already aware of you &#8211; and get them over the line.
Your mind may be coming full circle here back to GDPR and privacy because I&#8217;ve covered a lot about targeting individuals. Well, that might be because that’s a topic that has been often misinterpreted.
As I mentioned earlier, your business needs to be GDPR compliant (there, I said it again), not just your website. And furthermore, these platforms use encryption on the information that you upload. In Google’s case, they use something called SHA-256. (designed by the NSA, no less), and your customer is matched using the encrypted data, not the uploaded email or phone number.
To be clear, you can do everything I’ve just talked about and be compliant. So there’s nothing stopping you.
<h3>So, what now?</h3>
Have a clear and enticing call-out on your website for users to subscribe.
Give them reasons to.
Now what you need to do is think about your content and your promotions calendar. Think about lining up 6-12 months of activity so that you can give users a reason to stay engaged.
The next step is simple…
Get in touch with Friday Agency and let us show you <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/">what we can do</a>.

You Might be Ignoring your Most Powerful Marketing Tool…

Adapting Your Business to a Pandemic

Covid-19 Coronavirus Business Supports for Irish SMEs

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Business Support for Irish SMEs

It goes without saying that it’s crazy times for digital marketing, but not uncertain times.
Because one thing is certain. If you turn the lights off, nobody will know that you’re still home.
Today I saw a very interesting piece of research by the <a href="https://cxl.com/institute/">CXL Institute</a> in Atlanta, which goes to prove that in the midst of any recession (which this is becoming, without question), those who survive and flourish are the ones who were first out of the gate.
<h2>Past recessions</h2>
Their data looked at past recessions and what separated the survivors from the thrivers &#8211; and it’s very interesting.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="752" height="669" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10742" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/recession.gif" alt="" />
Some may question if it is a selfish response for digital agencies to recommend that you keep your activity running to some extent. For us, it’s not. It really isn’t.
When the government announces (and they will) that the current social and other restrictions are over, you do not want to be on the back foot while your competitors are ready to hit &#8216;go&#8217;. You just don’t.
Thinking in pure &#8220;recession&#8221; terms could be the worst thing to do right now. As morbid as it is to say, there are opportunities in this.
Business owners should be surrounding themselves with information from positive CEOs that are looking for ways to grow leaner and stronger in these tough times.
Businesses could be priming themselves with topical messaging and offerings on social media currently, and seeking SEO gains. They should be engaging long term thinking to rapidly grow when everything returns to normal.
<h2>Bounce back</h2>
Those who bounce back and thrive are right now:
<ul>
<li class="p1">Maintaining some level of brand presence through display/social/search/SEO/content.</li>
<li class="p1">Keeping customers (including potential ones) informed of what’s happening.</li>
<li class="p1">Currently strategizing their activity for re-entry.</li>
<li class="p1">Watching competitor activity.</li>
<li class="p1">Aligning all channels including paid, creative, content and SEO to be ready to hit ‘go’.</li>
<li class="p1">Ensuring your website’s robust performance for when consumers are transactional again.</li>
</ul>
You don’t need to wait for that Government announcement to rebound. It will be reactionary, just like yours. Your own business data, industry trends, search trends, as well as your digital agency can help to advise when and how this is best to do. Some common sense will apply too.
In short, be ready.
Now is the time to use your digital agency to be prepared for when (not if) this passes.
If you have already switched off your digital marketing activity then that’s understandable too, it really is. But don’t forget that this time can be used to reflect, improve, strategise and be ready.
If you need sound and practical advice in the shadow of COVID-19, we&#8217;re still here. And we always will be.

Practical COVID-19 Advice For Crazy Times

The art of effective persuasion in humans is a fairly rare quality. Those who possess it often have a natural balance of charisma, charm and authority. This generation has been brought up to question everything so effective persuasion is getting more and more challenging with time.
Fortunately innate powers of persuasion are not required for effective marketing or UX design, just a little bit of psychology. Persuasive design uses communication and design methods to influence human behaviour and increase motivation. When combined with good usability this can maximise potential conversions in a very powerful way.
All the way back in 1984 when Tina Turner was asking us ‘What’s love got to do with it?’ and Freddy Kruger was freaking us all out in the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie, Dr Robert Cialdini wrote a booked called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. This is widely hailed as seminal book on conversion optimisation in marketing. In the book, Cialdini outlined the 6 Principles of Influence that are more relevant today than they were 36 years ago. Let’s run through them briefly.
1. Liking
Most of the time we like people who like us — we react positively to genuine praise, rapport and common ground. A good brand that is honest, respectful, seeks empathy and is well presented will form relationships with its customers and have more perceived credibility.
2. Scarcity
We all understand FOMO or fear of missing out, this can be a powerful motivator. Research has found that loss language is far more effective than highlighting potential gains. This could be in the form of a time limited offer or limited product availability.
<div id="attachment_10550" style="width: 786px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10550" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-10550 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1dFJz5tQ6JzDcKkXnUoCoTw.png" alt="" width="776" height="866" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1dFJz5tQ6JzDcKkXnUoCoTw.png 776w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1dFJz5tQ6JzDcKkXnUoCoTw-250x279.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1dFJz5tQ6JzDcKkXnUoCoTw-700x781.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1dFJz5tQ6JzDcKkXnUoCoTw-768x857.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1dFJz5tQ6JzDcKkXnUoCoTw-120x134.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1dFJz5tQ6JzDcKkXnUoCoTw-72x80.png 72w" sizes="(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px" />Limited time online offer creating scarcity</div>
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3. Reciprocity
This one is the simple principle of giving what you want to receive. There are many ways to have reciprocity work for you. Small acts of kindness will be remembered, be it treating others with respect, going the extra mile and doing a good deed can all win you points with other individuals.
As an organisation you could enhance the customer experience by giving customers a discount, gift, free shipping, being environmentally aware or not having limiting return policies.
<div id="attachment_10549" style="width: 1420px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10549" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-10549 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1oA6fDZ_ovju3Sbs8tBY5bQ.png" alt="" width="1410" height="734" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1oA6fDZ_ovju3Sbs8tBY5bQ.png 1410w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1oA6fDZ_ovju3Sbs8tBY5bQ-250x130.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1oA6fDZ_ovju3Sbs8tBY5bQ-700x364.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1oA6fDZ_ovju3Sbs8tBY5bQ-768x400.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1oA6fDZ_ovju3Sbs8tBY5bQ-120x62.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1oA6fDZ_ovju3Sbs8tBY5bQ-80x42.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1410px) 100vw, 1410px" />Reciprocity is demonstrated for those who are environmentally aware.</div>
4. Social Proof / Consensus
We are usually open to things that have been tried and tested by those we trust — friends, family, media or the influencers that we respect. One of the most powerful persuasive techniques online comes in the form of social influence…because it works.
<div id="attachment_10548" style="width: 1344px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10548" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-10548 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1HRp4-NNkXmcPOez0ze3Leg.png" alt="" width="1334" height="1174" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1HRp4-NNkXmcPOez0ze3Leg.png 1334w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1HRp4-NNkXmcPOez0ze3Leg-250x220.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1HRp4-NNkXmcPOez0ze3Leg-700x616.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1HRp4-NNkXmcPOez0ze3Leg-768x676.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1HRp4-NNkXmcPOez0ze3Leg-120x106.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1HRp4-NNkXmcPOez0ze3Leg-80x70.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1334px) 100vw, 1334px" />Independent reviews provide social proof.</div>
5. Consistency
Customer loyalty is hugely important, if a customer has made a commitment to consistently do something with you there is a good chance they will stick to it as they will need to make a counter decision to stop doing it. Look at a service like Spotify, users signup and in a lot of cases unless they have a very good reason and make the effort they are unlikely to cancel the contract.
6. Authority
When it comes to convincing someone about something it’s important to establish yourself as an expert or reference someone who is when making a statement. You can see this in a lot of online marketing with headlines that include phrases like “research shows”, “experts say”, or “scientifically proven”.
After all, these 6 principles have been developed by Dr Robert Cialdini, the Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University!
Let’s not forget about ethics, Cialdini is clear that these principles should come from a place of good, with influence being authentic, genuine, and leading others to making positive decisions, not only for themselves, but for everyone else. Use these principles the right way and reap the rewards.

How to be Persuasive: The 6 Principles of Influence

Have you ever worn the same thing as someone else to a party?
What if you went to a party and when you got there, over 100,000 people had the same idea?
That’s what would happen if you write a blog post called “how to optimise my blog post for SEO”.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="786" height="511" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9696" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1.jpg 786w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1-250x163.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1-768x499.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1-700x455.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1-120x78.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1-80x52.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 786px) 100vw, 786px" />
What’s happening everywhere is that original thought and compelling content is being threatened (or at least drowned out) by those who:
<ol>
<li class="p1">write just to rank</li>
<li class="p1">are too conservative</li>
<li class="p1">have no strategy</li>
<li class="p1">have little to say about their product, service or industry</li>
<li class="p1">have little to say about their company</li>
<li class="p1">are just plain lazy</li>
<li class="p1">fall under all of the above&#8230;</li>
</ol>
Personally, I have a real problem with the overabundance of what’s called “topic cluster content”. This is pushed by the likes of HubSpot, the <a href="https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/10/topic-cluster-content/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Content Marketing Institute</a>, and many more. To explain this concept: you simply find your core topic (that people are searching for) and then you write more blog posts about related sub-topics (that people are searching for).
<blockquote>&#8220;The internet is being flooded by content that has absolutely no value. Content for the sake of content. And it must stop.&#8221;</blockquote>
<h3>Kind of Boring</h3>
So for example, if I was to write about how to optimise a blog post for SEO, then I might proceed to write a piece a week later about how to build relevant link to said blog post. Logical, right? Yes, but isn’t it kind of boring?
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="480" height="240" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9712" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/giphy.gif" alt="" />
Writing for SEO is okay to a point, but far too many brands are picking up on this technique and creating content that has little to no value. And it&#8217;s sort of all the same. At best, it might be slightly useful &#8211; but it’s probably been written over 100,000 times before. And much of it ends up in TL;DR territory.
Let’s get to the point of what is considered to be poor quality content, and then stay where you are so that we can discuss what to do about it&#8230;
According to Google&#8217;s own guidelines, your content is of poor quality if:
<ul class="ul1">
<li>It&#8217;s lacking in purpose</li>
<li>It is harmful or offensive</li>
<li>Presents unsubstantiated conspiracy theories</li>
<li>Promotes hate or violence</li>
<li>The page is just a copy of an idea already present on the internet</li>
<li>There are numerous grammatical errors or misspellings</li>
<li>and many more&#8230;</li>
</ul>
And hidden somewhere within their documentation if you look closely enough, there is also this key piece:
<ul>
<li>Little to no time, effort, expertise, manual curation, or added value for users</li>
</ul>
Now that&#8217;s the real problem right there. They do not like lazy content.
Google has felt the need to create guidelines like <a href="https://www.semrush.com/blog/eat-and-ymyl-new-google-search-guidelines-acronyms-of-quality-content/">E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) </a>because most people simply cannot follow their advice by writing with honesty&#8230; and for the user.
<h3>Getting away with it</h3>
The internet is being flooded and, over time, ruined by those creating content time and again that has absolutely no value. Content for the sake of content. And it must stop.
The mere suggestion that you should have an opinion can be met with, &#8220;Yeah maybe if we were Ryanair or Paddy Power then we could get away with that.&#8221; A knowing guffaw will usually follow. Well, guess what &#8211; those brands are getting away with it and it&#8217;s getting them a lot of exposure. Their content is often original, has a supporting strategy, dares to create debate&#8230; and come on, they&#8217;re having fun.
Brands who create content with honesty don&#8217;t give much of a sh*t about what people are searching for, or what they will write about next week based on, well, what people are searching for again. They will write with authority, they will have an opinion, an original piece of thought, a tone of voice, a strategy&#8230; all of the core elements that are missing from most content.
<h3>Not just Storytelling</h3>
The next time you sit down and strategise content, think about all of this. And very importantly, if you have a topic then Google it before you write so that you can ascertain if it&#8217;s already been done a million times or not. And if it has then you&#8217;d better make it bloody good or else don&#8217;t bother. Good content is not just storytelling, it&#8217;s telling your story well.
And don&#8217;t be afraid to have an opinion. If it doesn&#8217;t work then life will go on (assuming you haven&#8217;t said something completely ignorant or offensive). But you MUST have an opinion or a voice, or your content will not stand out. It just won&#8217;t.
Furthermore, there are so many blogs that are chock full of articles about products or services and you&#8217;ve got to wonder why these are not just given a logical/permanent home on their website. Your blog is your place to have an opinion or a voice, not to shove a product benefit down someone&#8217;s neck&#8230; again. Let your product pages be great at doing that.
Don&#8217;t focus on what everyone else is saying and then try to say it better. Instead, focus on trying to say what nobody has said yet. Now that&#8217;s something of value. That&#8217;s something I&#8217;ll read. And so will many others&#8230;
<h3>Where to Start</h3>
We know that this is not easy&#8230; you do need to research your audiences, engage with them and better understand their needs, you need a direct line to those with the authority to greenlight and/or produce this content and have the opinion, you need the resources to produce something compelling.
So if you&#8217;re wondering where to start with often limited resources, then:
<ul>
<li>Look at your own industry &#8211; there are surely developments that you (or someone in your organisation) can have an opinion on. Everyone between four office walls has an opinion so be bold, back that up and talk about it.</li>
<li>Read a lot &#8211; If you are not keeping pace with your industry then you may have an opinion that is out-dated &#8211; or that someone has already had.</li>
<li>Do NOT immediately look for what users are searching on Google for. Most searches do NOT end in a purchase, remember? Instead, use informed <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/strategy/research/">research</a> and ask them what they&#8217;d like to see from you.</li>
<li>Is there any industry experts who would be willing to write for you? They will be less afraid of judgment and might even have some credibility to lend.</li>
<li>Weigh up the risks and rewards and maybe just do something cheap but fun. Like that time Friday created TDer, which is still <a href="https://www.tder.ie/">worth a look</a>.</li>
</ul>
With the right amount of effort and willingness, you&#8217;ll not just be creating content that delights your audiences.. but also your audience&#8217;s audiences.
Now go and take risks with your content, because the answer is always no if you&#8217;re never even asked. Don&#8217;t just be like the rest.
Fancy taking a risk with your content? <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Get in touch.</a>

Where Has All The Good Content Gone?

I’m Dave, the UX director at the Friday Agency. Sitting beside me is Gavin and Martin, good guys and both very experienced digital marketing professionals. Naturally, we work very closely together and like to have the occasional laugh at the expense of each other! They provide me with a wealth of statistical information around user behaviour. I like to think I provide them with more attitudinal research-based user insights. This brings up all kinds of great discussions around usability. While we interpret data differently from our own perspectives, we all have the same goal in mind — to gain user empathy through research and not assumptions.
<h4 class="graf graf--h4">Office banter</h4>
A good discussion started last week about the use of title case vs sentence case in both digital marketing and UX design. Before I go into how I think the lads are wrong let me explain a couple of things.
Title case means that the first letter of each word is capitalised, except for certain small words such as articles and short prepositions. With sentence case, only the first word and proper nouns have initial capitals, the Queens English so to speak!
Title case: 
Gavin and Martin Think They are Right, Dave has Other Ideas.
Sentence case: 
Gavin and Martin think they are right, Dave has other ideas.
Spending a lot of time working in Google Ads, Gavin and Martin need to write attention-grabbing headlines in 30 characters or less. Research has found that using title case for Google Ads is more effective for getting users attention, fair enough. The issue I have is that the lads seem to apply the same logic to almost all titles, subtitles, headings and sub-headings, lists and bullet points. This willy nilly approach upsets me, its all over the place — no rules, no control — it&#8217;s literary anarchy!
There is no doubt that title case works well online for headings, it gives a visual hierarchy to different text elements and helps guide the reader. You don’t want users starting with a sub-heading. My feeling is that title case works when there is less than 10–12 words, after that it just gets messy and hard to read. To my horror Gavin suggested that sub-titles should also be in title case, this is where I draw the line. There is no way the sub-text legibility in the Google Ad below benefits from being in title case… no way, sorry Gav!
&nbsp;
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="750" height="143" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9342" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1gKbN40Wahe3K0qkQJo0ZmA.png" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1gKbN40Wahe3K0qkQJo0ZmA.png 750w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1gKbN40Wahe3K0qkQJo0ZmA-250x48.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1gKbN40Wahe3K0qkQJo0ZmA-700x133.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1gKbN40Wahe3K0qkQJo0ZmA-120x23.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1gKbN40Wahe3K0qkQJo0ZmA-80x15.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />
<figure class="graf graf--figure"></figure>
<h4 class="graf graf--h4">A/B testing</h4>
So, being the research nerds that we are, we decided to do some A/B testing around this. We created 2 almost identical Google Ads for our UX services. The only difference was that the sub-title was title case in one and sentence case in the other. We wanted to see which ad had the highest click-thru rate.
<div id="attachment_9340" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9340" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9340 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1jYvY4FzLSVSihw5qZN0MtA.png" alt="" width="600" height="78" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1jYvY4FzLSVSihw5qZN0MtA.png 600w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1jYvY4FzLSVSihw5qZN0MtA-250x33.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1jYvY4FzLSVSihw5qZN0MtA-120x16.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1jYvY4FzLSVSihw5qZN0MtA-80x10.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />Sub-title in title case</div>
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_9340" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9340" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9340 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1jYvY4FzLSVSihw5qZN0MtA.png" alt="" width="600" height="78" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1jYvY4FzLSVSihw5qZN0MtA.png 600w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1jYvY4FzLSVSihw5qZN0MtA-250x33.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1jYvY4FzLSVSihw5qZN0MtA-120x16.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1jYvY4FzLSVSihw5qZN0MtA-80x10.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />Sub-title in sentence case</div>
<figure class="graf graf--figure"><figcaption class="imageCaption"></figcaption></figure>
<figure class="graf graf--figure"><figcaption class="imageCaption"></figcaption></figure>
To our surprise, there was only a 0.5% difference in performance between the two ads in favour of title case, marginal and inconclusive for most but huge for the likes of Amazon. This may hint that title case will grab slightly more attention but doesn’t offer us any insights into legibility. To be fair to Gav and Martin, we do it not because everyone else does — but because it gets higher click-through-rates and therefore more revenue for our clients!
This got me thinking about what the ‘rules’ are around this for marketing or UX. I did a bit of reading on the subject and it seems there are no rules. It’s highly subjective. There is a general consensus that titles do get more attention in title case but the jury is out on whether longer titles or sub-titles in title case are easier to read. Studies have found the difference in reading efficiency between title and sentence case is actually quite minimal. My views might be based on aesthetics, it looks choppy and for me it is harder to read but you may not agree.
<h4 class="graf graf--h4">Laying down the law</h4>
The hypothesis that I offer is that title case has a high level of prominence but the legibility suffers as a result, you’d never read a full book in title case, would you? The use case depends on what you want to achieve, do you want attention or have easy to read text.
I found a great example below. These are different notification popups on iOS and Android screens. As you can see on the left Apple have a policy of title case on titles while Google uses sentence case throughout. While they are different messages, you can’t tell me the iOS message is easier to read, can you?
<figure class="graf graf--figure"></figure>
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="735" height="604" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9339" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1JK5LEHfHgufxivS9AMmD0w.png" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1JK5LEHfHgufxivS9AMmD0w.png 735w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1JK5LEHfHgufxivS9AMmD0w-250x205.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1JK5LEHfHgufxivS9AMmD0w-700x575.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1JK5LEHfHgufxivS9AMmD0w-120x99.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1JK5LEHfHgufxivS9AMmD0w-80x66.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 735px) 100vw, 735px" />
While there are plenty of well-established rules for how to use title case, there are few rules about when to use it. Everything seems to be subjective and based on assumption. It’s the wild west out there! Somebody needs to take charge and make decisions.
I am going to do what no UX designer should ever do, I’m going to make the rules based on my own opinions and assumptions. From this day forward I will be known as the self-appointed Sheriff of sentence capitalisation.
<h4 class="graf graf--h4">Sheriff Dave’s 4 Golden Rules for Sentence Capitalisation</h4>
<ol class="postList">
<li class="graf graf--li">Only use in main titles</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Only use in titles shorter than 12 words</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Never use in sub-titles, lists, bullets or anything that is not a main title (see point 1)</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Digital marketers may not be the best guide on the appropriate use of title case</li>
</ol>
Take it or leave it.
What do you think? Am I the Sheriff or are Gavin and Martin entitled to put a bounty on my head?
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="400" height="308" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9347" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/giphy.gif" alt="" />

Making the Case for Using Title Case or sentence case in UX Design and Digital Marketing

Whether you’re going through a rebrand, developing a new digital strategy or investing in one for the first time, it’s safe to say that social media will have a part to play.
Before you start to implement your Social Strategy, there are a number of things you will need to consider and our checklist below will help to get you started.
<h2>1. Review Your Current Social Setup</h2>
You can’t create a strong strategy without having a strong foundation to build upon.
Whatever networks you’re focusing your efforts, make sure your social bios are all up to date.
It might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how often it is overlooked.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8703 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37.png" alt="social-bio-example" width="411" height="389" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37.png 411w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37-250x237.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37-120x114.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37-80x76.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px" />
Update all of your locations and contact details. Depending on the size of your organisation, you may have multiple social pages to edit.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8706 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31.png" alt="social-profiles-locations-example" width="412" height="255" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31.png 412w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31-250x155.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31-120x74.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31-80x50.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 412px) 100vw, 412px" />
Make sure all links are up to date and pointing to the correct pages. I’ve seen this on numerous occasions, particularly when there are a number of older pages that have been forgotten about. Maybe there was a previous subdomain used for a specific area of the business that’s no longer in use, but has now merged under the parent domain or simply non-existent anymore.
Use consistent and “on-brand” imagery across all networks for your profile images and wallpaper. There may be variants of your logo that have evolved over time, so make sure everything is consistent and in line with your current strategy.
<h2>2. What have you learned from previous efforts?</h2>
It’s important to assess what has been working up until now. Analysing the performance of previous strategies &amp; tactics is essential. This can involve collating a lot of numbers if there is a lot of historical data, but it is worth the effort. Diving down and getting dirty with your data will pay dividends when done correctly.
Being critical of your efforts can be difficult, especially for smaller organisations, as there can be an emotional investment. The numbers don’t lie, but it is important to remember the overall objective. Here are a few questions you should look at answering to help you understand performance to date.
<h3>What content has been getting the most engagement?</h3>
Review all of your previous posts and ads across all your networks. You should start to see some sort of a trend. What posts did people like, comment on or share?
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8707 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24.png" alt="social-engagement-metrics" width="726" height="296" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24.png 726w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-250x102.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-700x285.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-120x49.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-80x33.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 726px) 100vw, 726px" />
<h3>What content has been driving the most traffic to your website?</h3>
Similar to above, analyse the posts and ads that drove the most traffic to your site. Depending on the content, you may start to notice some differences between content that is good for overall brand awareness and content that is better at driving traffic….and hopefully conversions.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8716 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28.png" alt="social-posts-driving-most-traffic" width="662" height="302" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28.png 662w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28-250x114.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28-120x55.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28-80x36.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 662px) 100vw, 662px" />
<h3>What messaging has been engaging audiences?</h3>
From the data already collected, you could dive down a little deeper to assess was there particular messaging that differentiated those that performed well and those that didn’t. Was it the tone of voice or a particular call-to-action.
<h3>Which media is most effective? Images, Video, Blogs etc.</h3>
Were there particular media that performed better than others? Did your video posts have better engagement than static images? It is important to be honest with yourself as well. Has your media creation up until now done your brand and product offering justice? Did enough thought go into it? You may have tasked the new intern with creating a video for an ad-hoc campaign, and it never lived up to everyone’s expectations. If this is the case, don’t let it deter you from video content.
It doesn’t have to cost a fortune or need a full film crew, but it does need time to plan and to execute correctly. If the recent trends are anything to go by, then you should be investing in video content. According to a report by Cisco, <a href="https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/white-paper-c11-741490.html">by 2020 82% of both business &amp; consumer web traffic will be from video content</a>. Focusing solely on the benefits of video in your social strategy &#8211; video <a href="https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/03/08/video-marketing-statistics">generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined</a>.
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<video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-8696-1" width="382" height="746" autoplay="1" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_.mp4?_=1" /><a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_.mp4">https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_.mp4</a></video></div>
</div>
<h2>3. Who are your audiences?</h2>
This question can sometimes cause divide&#8230;hopefully not too much. As an established organisation you will have a lot of existing customer data you can assess.
&#8220;Differentiating your audiences is crucial. When you start to create your messaging, you’ll need to tailor it to each audience&#8221;
You may have a CRM which has a wealth of information on who your existing customers are. You may have existing intelligence from previous <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/strategy/research/">market research</a> initiatives. Use this! You could start to see clusters of information that make up several audience groups. Differentiating your audiences is crucial. When you start to create your messaging, you’ll need to tailor it to each audience.
Not all businesses have to a CRM database. Either way, you should be diving into your analytics (and layering this on top of your CRM data if you have can). I’m a big advocate of combining as many data sources as possible.
Use Google Analytics to give you insight into demographics, locations, devices, referrals, interests etc. Combine this with your social analytics data. If you have advertised previously, you could break down the various targeting attributes of the ads that performed best. Dive into this further to see what pages these users like as well.
Sometimes this is just a reaffirming exercise if you feel you have a good grasp on who your target audience is, but you can find some golden nuggets from time to time.
If you don’t have a lot of historical data, you can play around with insight tools based on the knowledge you have obtained, and start getting creative. Combining both cookie-based and user-based data can give you a bit more clarity. Rather than relying on a single data source.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8732 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400.png" alt="social-media-audience" width="760" height="400" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400.png 760w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-250x132.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-700x368.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-120x63.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-80x42.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px" />
<h2>4. What Social networks should we invest in?</h2>
It’s easy to dive straight in and start creating profiles across as many networks as possible. After all, you need omnipresent in an omnichannel world, right? Using your audience research, you should have a better idea of where they like to hang out. If you have been active on numerous networks already, assess which ones have been driving the most traffic or have contributed the most conversions. If you have enough data in analytics, you should be able to get some clarity on this.
Your product offering or service will also play a part in this decision. Perhaps your target market is young, but maybe Snapchat isn’t the best platform to consume your content. It also could be simply down to resources. Do you have the team, the time and the content to publish across all the platforms you’d like?
<h2>5. What are your competitors doing?</h2>
It goes without saying, but it’s important to be aware of what your competitors are doing. It’s not about following their shadow. It’s about taking note of what they’re doing or more importantly what they are not doing. You can both be on Instagram and Facebook, but using their advertising features completely differently. For example, rather than showcasing your product lines in a carousel ad, why not offer an immersive experience with Instant Experience ads. Bring those potential customers on a journey, rather than showing them static images that they’ll forget by the next ad.
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<div style="width: 346px;" class="wp-video"><video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-8696-2" width="346" height="670" autoplay="1" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_jeep.mp4?_=2" /><a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_jeep.mp4">https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_jeep.mp4</a></video></div>
</div>
Better yet, why not bring that customer-centric, personal marketing approach up a notch and start using chatbots in your Facebook ads.
<h2>6. What are your goals? What should you be measuring?</h2>
Your social marketing goals should be aligned with your overall business goals. These goals can vary greatly depending on your product or service offering, the industry you operate in, competition etc.
Goals can be split between Branding and Revenue-based. In many cases, you will be combining both. Of course, you will want to see a positive ROI and ROAS, but you will want to see your brand grow.
Examples of Branding-based goals include;
<ul>
<li>Awareness</li>
<li>Sentiment</li>
<li>Loyalty</li>
</ul>
Examples of Revenue-based goals include;
<ul>
<li>Sign-ups</li>
<li>Leads</li>
<li>Sales</li>
</ul>
Now that you’ve decided on what goals align best with your overall marketing objectives, you need to decide what metrics you should be analysed in order to measure success. One thing to note is that you will more than likely be analysing data from multiple data sources. For example, Google Analytics and Facebook. There can be discrepancies when comparing both data sets. Google Analytics by default will report last non-direct, while Facebook&#8217;s UI will be solely reporting on Facebook data. In other words, Facebook will report on a conversion, even if the user interacted with one of your search ads after the initial social interaction. Make sure you&#8217;re set up correctly for this otherwise your numbers won&#8217;t add up.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8737 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493.png" alt="social-media-metrics" width="1138" height="493" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493.png 1138w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-250x108.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-768x333.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-700x303.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-120x52.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-80x35.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1138px) 100vw, 1138px" />
Some basic metrics you will be most likely analysing will include;
<ul>
<li>Reach &#8211; The number of users that saw one of your ads. It’s a great way of measuring awareness.</li>
<li>Engagements &#8211; These can be anything from Likes, Shares and Comments.</li>
<li>Traffic &#8211; Number of sessions, number of new users and bounce rate.</li>
<li>Revenue metrics &#8211; sales, leads, Cost per Acquisition (cost per sale, cost per lead etc). ROAS is hugely important in an ecommerce setting.</li>
</ul>
If you are tracking sales or other conversions, you should also be mindful of the attribution windows that are set up. For example, will you be giving a 30-day attribution window to Facebook ads or 7 days? This will depend on the complexities of your overall campaigns.
When analysing the performance of your campaigns you want your data to tell a story. Understanding this story will help you understand your audience, understand what worked and what didn’t.
Tip: To really understand your customer’s journey and to get a better insight into your marketing spend, play around with your attribution models. They can reveal some incredible insights&#8230;and in some cases justify that spend when everyone else doubted it. You will also benefit by ensuring your channel groupings are customised so that everything can be tracked and measured as accurately as possible.
<h2>7. What are your capabilities? What’s your capacity?</h2>
Now that your research is done, and the foundations are laid, you’ll probably start having a few ideas on the approach to your strategy. You need to be realistic. You may have the passion and the determination to get it started, but does your team mirror this? Are the time, resources and skill-set available?
Before you go getting budget sign-off, you need to factor in content creation. You may have a hefty monthly advertising budget to spend, but do you have the content to stand-out and get noticed in a user’s, already saturated, feed? Your targeting may be close to perfect, but if your content isn’t, then the horse may fall flat before even reaching the water.

Laying The Foundations For A Successful Social Media Strategy

The role of the marketer is becoming increasingly challenging. Customers no longer take notice of push advertising and will only engage with a company when, where and how it suits them. People aren’t just buying products or services, they are buying an experience. Unless you have a store presence, these ‘experiences’ are more often than not, online.
As a marketer you are, no doubt aware that the website is still the most important marketing channel for the majority of businesses today and the competition for the customers&#8217; ever-decreasing attention span is cut throat. So the online experience for your customer must be top notch.
<h3 class="graf graf--p">What is User Experience Design?</h3>
The goal of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.usertesting.com/blog/what-is-ux-design-15-user-experience-experts-weigh-in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://www.usertesting.com/blog/what-is-ux-design-15-user-experience-experts-weigh-in/">User experience design</a> (UX) in business is to “improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through the utility, ease of use and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product.” To put it another way, if your website doesn’t provide an easy and pleasurable experience for your customers or potential customers then they’ll be gone in two clicks. Don’t make it so easy for your competitors.
<h3 class="graf graf--p">The ROI of UX</h3>
Some interesting stats: <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Six+Steps+For+Justifying+Better+UX/-/E-RES117708" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Six+Steps+For+Justifying+Better+UX/-/E-RES117708">Forester</a> Research (paid report) shows that, on average, every dollar invested in UX brings 100 dollars in return. That’s an ROI of a whopping 9,900 percent. The <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.dmi.org/blogpost/1093220/182956/design-driven-companies-outperform-s-p-by-228-over-ten-years--the-dmi-design-value-index" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://www.dmi.org/blogpost/1093220/182956/design-driven-companies-outperform-s-p-by-228-over-ten-years--the-dmi-design-value-index">Design Management Institute</a> has found that design-centric companies (such as Apple, Coca-Cola, and IBM) outperformed the S&amp;P index (which indicates the industry’s average performance) by 228% over a 10-year period from 2003 to 2013.
OK, so your business is not going to be the next Apple but there is clear statistical evidence to prove that a well-executed website will yield a very positive return on investment.
<blockquote>
“UX design is an investment, not an overhead.”
</blockquote>
So maybe you know your website is totally outdated and hampering business. You have some ideas that could fix it, but how should you approach getting the website a UX overhaul. Who do you need to convince?
The people in your organisation who are concerned with sales and with making financial decisions are a good audience for your UX idea. Before you start the conversation and possibly suffering the indignity of having your bright idea of investing in UX being shot down in a meeting, follow these tips.
<h4 class="graf graf--p">1. Web analytics</h4>
You can back up your argument with stats from your <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_analytics" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_analytics">web analytics</a>. Especially look at what’s happening when people reach a critical point — perhaps a conversion — and see if people are dropping off. This drop off suggests the user has encountered a problem and are not carrying through. It’s the job of the user experience designer to find out what the problem is.
<h4 class="graf graf--p">2. Research</h4>
There is a wealth of untapped information in every organisation about their websites’ users, i.e. the customers. People such as front-line sales or customer service staff probably have a litany of comments from customers about the problems with your company’s website. Truth be known, everyone in the company probably has an opinion of things that are wrong with it.
Tap into this and record all these issues in your research. Essentially, anything that makes the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_journey" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_journey">user journey</a> (eg. from homepage to checkout page) a bad experience.
If you can get to talk to your customers first hand then that&#8217;s even better. This is your strongest weapon against any dissenters. Whatever people think about what you have to say, this isn’t just your opinion, this is what the customer is saying.
Anything that makes this customer journey difficult, frustrating or simply doesn’t work, is costing you money and losing revenue opportunities.
<blockquote>
&#8220;Design isn’t finished until somebody is using it.&#8221; 
— Brenda Laurel, PhD, Independent Scholar
</blockquote>
<h4 class="graf graf--p">3. Testing the users</h4>
Taking this one step further would be employing what is known as <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing">usability testing</a> to drive your point home. This involves putting real users in front of your website and ask them to complete a couple of simple tasks like e.g, ‘buy a shovel’. This will require them to make the journey from home page, locating the product page, finding the earth-moving category, picking out a shovel and completing the transaction at checkout. Ask your testers to talk you through their journey as they do it live. You want them to tell you what they’re thinking, what are they looking for, what they expect to see, what they’re trying to find but can’t. It’s a good idea to write a usability test script so that all your testers are answering the same questions making it easier for your statistical analysis.
<h4 class="graf graf--p">4. Competition</h4>
Look at what your competitors are doing. Analyse how they present themselves and their products online. Take the customer journey yourself and see how it compares to yours. Is it easier, clearer to follow? Slick design, great images and an altogether better look &amp; feel can indicate that a competitor has engaged UX design in developing their website. Remember, people are basically just like Magpies. We like bright shiny new things and will make a judgment about a company within seconds of visiting their website. Your competitor could be attracting better clients because of their cool new website that is just a pleasure to visit. It delights the user.
<h4 class="graf graf--p">5. Getting management support</h4>
According to Jared Spool, one of the foremost thinkers in UX today says, “you need to find out what your bosses are already convinced of. If they are good at what they do, they likely have something they want to improve. It’s likely to be related to improving revenue, reducing cost, growing customer numbers….or increasing shareholder value.
Good UX can help with all those things.”
Once you know what that is, frame your work within that context.
<blockquote>
“For every dollar invested in UX yields a return of $2 to $100.&#8221;
</blockquote>
<h3 class="graf graf--p">What next?</h3>
So you’ve identified the problems with your website and you’ve validated these insights with research and data. What next?
Present your findings to key stakeholders outlining your research findings and how the analytics is showing resultant loss of opportunities. Give examples of where the issues and the pain points on the customer’s journey lie. You will need to be able to demonstrate how solving <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_usability" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_usability">usability</a> problems will lead to measurable improvements in return on investment. There are numerous other benefits to improving your websites’ usability. Think of the possibility of reducing support calls, converting, retaining customers and improving the response to customer inquiries.
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Show don’t tell.</h3>
All your arguments need to be backed up with data. Data from your analytics, user feedback from testing, stats from online sources, comparable case studies. There’s a wealth of information out there you can use to back up your argument. You may find yourself in a room with people who think they know what’s best for the website or brand because they are more senior. Remember, data should overrule opinions no matter who has them.
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">Scare them, Inspire them, Start small.</h3>
In his book, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.amazon.com/User-Experience-Revolution-Smashing-eBooks-ebook/dp/B06XZZQ38R" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://www.amazon.com/User-Experience-Revolution-Smashing-eBooks-ebook/dp/B06XZZQ38R">User Experience Revolution</a>, Paul Boag outlined steps to help to get management buy-in.
<h4 class="graf graf--p">1. Scare your management</h4>
Nothing motivates people more the threat of something being taken away. The most obvious being loss of business to competition. Don’t just scare them, offer a solution otherwise they’ll feel overwhelmed.
<h4 class="graf graf--p">2. Inspire Management </h4>
Give them some idea of what the future looks like. inspire them to what is possible. It could be a series of workshops before a big flash event. A big relaunch.
<h4 class="graf graf--p">3. Give management a simple next step</h4>
The greatest of journey’s starts with a single step. The harder the journey, the greater resistance you’ll get. Ask them to take a small step towards the bigger project and they will be far more likely to say yes.
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Thumbs Up from The Board</h3>
So everybody liked your presentation and you’ve been given the green light, what are your options?
You may be given the option to fix the issues in-house or to engage a UX design agency to do it for you. Coming from an agency I’m always going to recommend the agency route but budget, resource and time constraints don’t always make that a viable option. But look, the ultimate aim is to delight customers. You won’t find too many bosses not wanting to make their customers happy. They may be willing to loosen the purse strings if you’ve adequately demonstrated that UX design is an investment, not an overhead.
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Outsource to a UX Designer/Agency</h3>
Engaging with a specialist UX agency or UX designer is one route. Keeping it in-house is another. The work you’ve already done on research will inform the UX designer/agency but it is always a good idea to have them independently conduct <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing">usability testing</a> with real users which will involve having users follow customer journey whilst recording the issues and pain points encountered.
<h3 class="graf graf--h4">The UX Process</h3>
<figure class="graf graf--figure"><img decoding="async" class="graf-image aligncenter" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*nLMKSk-ZTZa6rhAqAP13eg.png" data-image-id="1*nLMKSk-ZTZa6rhAqAP13eg.png" data-width="792" data-height="306" /></figure>
<a href="https://friday.ie/blog/importance-of-ux-research/">Armed with the research</a>, the UX agency will usually follow a process similar to the illustration above.
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Go It Alone</h3>
If you have a list of basic, easy to fix UX problems that need to be solved, you could have some in-house techie or employ a freelance guy to do it on the cheap. This is not an option I’d recommend as it may not yield the results you’d promised management. Or the young techie in the beanie who skateboards to work has just wrecked your website and compromised customer’s data security. Not a good look for you.
If you have no budget to engage a UX designer/agency, there are always some low hanging fruit in terms of quick fixes you can focus your attention on. These are the quick fixes that are straightforward enough to implement and should provide some results.
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Fix The Copy</h3>
For example, many companies design for themselves rather than their users. Often words that make sense to the company don’t make sense to their customers and these can end up causing confusion. If you happen to sell spades, call a spade a spade and not an excavation solution even if, as a marketer, you think the latter description makes you product sound more sophisticated.
<h3 class="graf graf--p">The agency route</h3>
If the entire website needs to be dragged out into the backyard and set alight with a match then find a UX agency who will take a far deeper, more strategic approach to designing your new website. As with most good UX agencies, We at <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://www.api.friday.ie/">Friday</a> follow a process and collaborate closely with our clients with the goal of providing a best-in-class web experience for their customers.
The investment in UX design can dramatically improve the image of a company and yield a major return.
If you plan to invest in your website, <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Talk to us</a>
You may even sell more spades.

How To Convince Your Boss To Invest in User Experience (UX) Design

<h3>Consent, Compliance &amp; the GDPR. What&#8217;s going on?</h3>
With the GDPR&#8217;s arrival, there was still plenty of confusion out there about marketing consent and handling customer data.
And with the recent scandals at Facebook and Independent Newspapers, businesses and marketers are freaked that they&#8217;ll have their pants pulled down for non-compliance. Or worse, a hefty fine.
I met with MB Donnelly, Head of GDPR Awareness &amp; Training with the Data Protection Commissioner (Ireland) to help get clarity, and give some of our own guidance around consent.
<h3>Confused.com?</h3>
At Friday there is one question we were being asked all the time: &#8220;What&#8217;s going on &#8211; are we compliant with GDPR?&#8221;
That was usually followed by &#8220;Can you help us get compliant?&#8221; and finally; &#8220;I hear we&#8217;ll need to get opt-in consent for all of our mailing lists.&#8221;
So there&#8217;s plenty of confusion. And with some experts directing marketers to seek consent or throw up crazy opt-in pop-ups, that confusion is natural and understandable.
<blockquote>
&#8220;If you&#8217;re not following existing regulation you are breaking the law now, so you don&#8217;t need to wait until May 25th to panic.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The GDPR is not just about consent, granted, but consent and how to handle it is the area where we see the most misinformation.
In short, what GDPR relates to is a set of rules for organisations on how they collect, use and store personal data. Organisations must now be fully transparent about how they are using and safeguarding personal data and must demonstrate accountability for their data processing activities, particularly for marketing communications.
Assuming that you are doing the above correctly at the moment, you only need to move from compliance with the 1988 and 2003 Data Protection (Ireland) acts, to GDPR compliance by updating your Privacy and Data Retention policies.
If not, you are already breaking the law now, and you don&#8217;t need to wait until May 25th to panic.
<h3>Some Clarity on GDPR</h3>
I met with MB Donnelly, the Head of GDPR Awareness &amp; Training at the Data Protection Commissioner Office in Ireland.
We&#8217;ve delivered a number of marketing and engagement campaigns for the Commissioner&#8217;s office over the past couple of years, particularly aimed at driving awareness on the GDPR in Ireland for individuals, and we knew she could help bring some clarity.
What&#8217;s the most popular question that you&#8217;re asked in relation to the GDPR and consent?
The question I am most asked is &#8220;Does the GDPR really apply to me?&#8221; The simple answer is that it does, for every business.
Personal data, and in particular &#8216;special category&#8217; &#8211; i.e. race, gender, medical records, sexual orientation &#8211; require special obligations. And if you rely on consent, you need to be very careful that you have the correct obligations.
If there is one simple piece of advice you would give businesses on GDPR, what would that be?
Knowing your data. People need to know their own data and understand where it is stored and what it is used for.
Knowledge is not power, it&#8217;s actually a risk. Review your data, know what you keep and why, and be able to show proof of how you came to hold it. There is a handy downloadable checklist on the <a href="http://gdprandyou.ie/resources/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GDPRandYou.ie</a> website.
When people hear words like &#8216;risk&#8217; and the penalties that can be imposed for non-compliance they take notice. But do you think that the GDPR initiative will ultimately have the impact it is designed for?
Absolutely I do. There are risks and penalties for non-compliance of course, but organisations should actually see the GDPR as a genuine opportunity.
We are living in a generation of digital (and now privacy) natives. Generally, today’s consumers are more informed about the risks of digital life and, where that trust has been hurt, we see a knock-on effect in terms of falling customer numbers.
So it is in every business&#8217;s interest to demonstrate that they care about their customers&#8217; information and how it&#8217;s used.
Trust the thing that you&#8217;re building. And it&#8217;s those who are pushing the trust and demonstrating that they take consent and privacy seriously that will ultimately stand out.
&nbsp;
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mCpUS-wpxAk" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
A video we produced as part of our GDPR Awareness Campaign.
<h3>Audit your Data</h3>
A big part of the drama is that many marketers don&#8217;t have the information needed to make a call on the correct (and compliant) reasons for having and processing customer data.
Getting to that point might take a bit of work, but the process is pretty straightforward &#8211; you need to perform an audit.
Doing a data audit:
<ul>
<li>What personally identifiable information do you hold, and what is it used for?</li>
<li>Do you keep that information longer than is necessary?</li>
<li>Do you hold more information than is necessary?</li>
<li>Can you demonstrate that the user asked or expects that it will be used in the way that you are using it?</li>
</ul>
At least you will know why you are making the decision, which will help you in updating your privacy notices and consent statements. Whatever basis you choose at this point will need to be applied to your current data as well as new data added to your database.
Legitimate Interest 
In the case of legitimate interest, you will need to communicate to your current customers that you have new privacy and data retention policies and give them the opportunity to object to marketing. These should be included on your website and also highlighted on your news or social media channels.
You will need to record what you sent, to whom and when. You should only use data that you have permission to market to, this is a marketing communication, not a service one, so choose the right channel to reflect the permissions you have.
<h3>Getting Consent</h3>
If you know that you cannot demonstrate that all or some of your existing customers have given consent, then you will need to get them to opt in. That will mean advising them of the reasons you&#8217;re using their personal information so that they can then be fully informed before they opt in.
You can use a layered approach, where the communication content (e.g. email), or the website landing page they&#8217;re sent to includes the full detail of the marketing comms. Then direct them to your Privacy and Data Retention pages which should set out your comprehensive policy details.
It&#8217;s important to make sure that people are given enough information to help them to make an informed decision on what they are signing up for, and what marketing comms they&#8217;re likely to receive from you.
You do need to record who opted in, and what they were informed of at the time they opted in, and include a form of verification (e.g. double opt-in) so that you have an audit trail.
<h3>SO</h3>
You need to decide which way suits you best. If consent is the right way for your organisation, it should be because your use of information presents a risk to the rights of the individual.
You don&#8217;t need to put your business or your customers through unnecessary hassle if you don&#8217;t need to. But do an audit, get informed and take the opportunity to show that you take data privacy and consent seriously.
For more concrete detail on the GDPR, have a look at <a href="http://gdprandyou.ie" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GDPRandYou.ie</a> which has a lot of helpful information and resources.
Graham is the Head of Strategy and a Co-Founder at Friday Agency. 
If you want to check out more of his posts go <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/author/graham/">here</a>.
&nbsp;

GDPR & Consent: Knowledge is no longer power, it is Risk.

Display advertising has come a very long way since it was seen as the online equivalent of a print ad. But not everybody has moved with the times.
In the past few years, I’ve seen many display advertising plans for my clients, and they’re not cheap.
Your brand will be on some very popular and respected websites. That&#8217;s great.
It looks good for your brand to be there. It looks great internally that you’ve secured these placements. Your brand, product or campaign will be out there with one million eyeballs on it.
It&#8217;s sort of like this, except you&#8217;re on a great website:<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5390" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/billboard-advertisement-1.jpg" alt="" width="494" height="363" />
Everyone knows about you. Job done.
But&#8230;
Then it doesn’t convert.
And you don’t get a report that’s in any way useful or insightful.
So what happened?
The plan was lazy. In fact, it wasn&#8217;t a plan. It was just an outline of who you&#8217;re going to spend your money with and how many times your ad will be shown.
Your agency did what was promised. They managed to “deliver 1 million impressions to all online readership at the lowest CPM possible.” And to be fair, perhaps you hadn&#8217;t asked for more than that.
There was no strategy.
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">Your money has been spent poorly</h2>
When your campaign didn&#8217;t have the desired impact, your response might have been “But who were these readers and what’s a low CPM? Wait, you never even asked me exactly who we were trying to reach!”
But it’s all hindsight. Your money has been spent, and spent poorly.
To put this in perspective, let’s remind ourselves of some facts. Click-through rates for display advertising are relatively low. Most users don’t think they are relevant. Display ads are more ignored than TV, radio and newspaper ads. Many users don’t trust display ads.
So to put it simply, you need: engaging creative, audience relevance, impact, and trust.
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">Knowing your audiences</h2>
A good display advertising plan is not enough, you need a strong display advertising strategy. It&#8217;s about knowing your audiences; where they are, what they are doing, what they’re interested in, at what stage of the cycle they are in, what life events are affecting them, and much more. Through knowing this, you can create relevancy.
By looking at your own business and customer base, you can create profiles. And research helps too.
Then, by knowing who you are targeting you can produce creative that’s engaging. You can show creative that speaks to them.
You will now also know where their playground is. If it’s Facebook, Twitter… then video may be a good choice because short, succinct, relevant and engaging video can be very powerful if targeted to the right people. And on Facebook and Twitter, it’s not hard to find the right people.
Segmenting your audiences is not a far cry from psychographic segmentation, as used for election campaigns.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5399" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/pyschographic-segmentation.png" alt="" width="698" height="400" />
When you do find the right people, you will need to know your Goals. What, exactly, do you want users to do when they get to your website? It may sound simple, but tracking even the smallest of engagements can be beneficial.
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">Be better equipped to ask the right questions</h2>
Know your website. Is it fit for purpose? Where will they first land, and is the journey to conversion up to scratch? This is hopefully a conversation that you’ve had well before you’ve even considered paying for display advertising.
If you want broad impact, like placements on a major newspaper website for example, then that serves its purpose. But you need to be better equipped to ask the right questions before agreeing your budget, and even your campaign dates:
<ul>
<li class="p1">Who is most likely to be on that website on those dates?</li>
<li class="p1">Within the ABC1 18+ audience, have they done further research into how engaged they are by site section, how more likely they are to be engaged by advertising by site section, therefore affording you more value?</li>
<li class="p1">Is there anything happening offline that may drive more visitors to that website on those dates, so that you might expect extra visibility and value for your investment?</li>
</ul>
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">&#8220;Won&#8217;t that just annoy people?&#8221;</h2>
I’d hate to not give retargeting a mention here. It’s a very powerful support to any campaign.
If you’re spending this money and sending users to your website, then you should be increasing the size of your retargeting audiences and lists with relevant people.
Retargeting is often referred to in negative ways. For example “Oh, it’s those ads that follow me around…” or “Won’t that just annoy people..?”
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5392" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/retargeting-ads.png" alt="" width="550" height="395" />
But if done right and creatively, this is still a highly effective technique that can provide ancillary revenue, particularly if your creative is consistent with your campaign.
It’s not just a matter of placing a tag on your website and following people around with ads. I’ll admit that if done that way, it could be just plain annoying. There’s a strategy needed here.
Firstly, segment your audiences by how they have interacted with your website, either throughout the year or while in campaign.
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1">If someone has only viewed the home page, then serve them ads displaying a rotation of the different products or services that you offer.</li>
<li class="li1">If someone has viewed a specific service or product, then remarket them with ads specific to that.</li>
<li class="li1">If they’ve added a particular product to their cart then show them this product &#8211; and if you can fulfill it, you could even offer a discount on that product if they return to purchase.</li>
</ul>
All of this depends on one core thing &#8211; you need to know when a user has converted. Without this, you’re serving them ads for a service they’ve already engaged with you for.
And very importantly, you may be serving them an ad offering a discount on a product that they’ve already bought!
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">Remarketing and cross-selling go hand-in-hand</h2>
But the journey doesn’t end when someone has purchased.
So, you’re Carphone Warehouse. Consider someone who has purchased the latest mobile phone from you &#8211; perhaps they may also consider complementary add-ons such as wireless charging pads, a cube speaker, headphones… or even broadband. Remarketing and cross-selling go hand-in-hand.
Even at that, your journey is still not over. If you can tie this into a user’s account data and their upgrade eligibility, then you may be able to eventually sell them a new mobile phone.
Another common myth is that you can only retarget users who have clicked on your Google AdWords ads. Not true &#8211; you can remarket anyone who has visited your website.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-5384 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/retargeting-1024x697.png" alt="" width="1024" height="697" />
Lastly, remember your custom audiences. Create a matrix of those users who have visited one page or site section but NOT another.
For example in the B2B space, you may have website visitors who have read all about what you do, they may have even looked at your pricing. These are keen potential customers. So the next time you have a Webinar, use retargeting to let them know about it!
See? We told you it’s come a long way. So, the next time you see a display advertising plan, read this again. You may notice a few gaps.
<a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Get in touch</a> if you’d like to see how we can help create an engaging campaign for you.

We Need to Talk About Strategic Display Advertising

I spoke before about the right <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/mixing-a-great-content-marketing-strategy/">content marketing strategy</a> being key to winning online, and in particular for inbound ‘intent-led’ search.
In this post, I want to talk about the &#8216;digital customer experience&#8217; and how one of our clients is creating smart content in their space to get in front of and engage with their customers digitally.
<h3>INSURANCE</h3>
Insurance is one of those necessary evils in life for most consumers. Car insurance, health insurance — when we think of them, words like ‘expensive’, and ‘poor value’ might come to mind.
We’ve been working with a smart independent online life insurance broker Nick McGowan of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.lion.ie" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="http://www.lion.ie">Lion.ie</a>.
With life insurance, being covered is important but isn’t mandatory (outside of mortgage protection). But it is very confusing for consumers, there’s a lot to get your head around which makes it difficult to sell, particularly online.
The challenge for Nick in communicating with his consumers is big — and being online, he is competing against the might and budgets of the insurance giants.
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“the win that feeds the clients they service comes through the quality of content they produce and their commitment to producing it.”</blockquote>
<h2 class="graf graf--p">Designing a digital customer experience.</h2>
Lion’s primary goal is simple: grow online enquiries for their services.
But how do you go up against the giants in your industry with limited resources?
The answer lies in what it is that you can do to differentiate your business in your space. Your offering, knowledge, how you work, your content.
In Nick’s case, Lion is an independent broker meaning they are not tied to any one insurance provider. This gave them an advantage in that they could talk openly about the market.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4045" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/lion-life-advice.png" alt="lion-life-advice" width="1024" height="512" />
So the strategy was also simple:
use content to answer the questions and problems that people have with life insurance and serious illness. And in a way that is informative, easy to understand and often funny and engaging.
Here are 3 simple things that work so effectively:
Informative: the content explains and demystifies life insurance. It answers broad and specific problems that people may have. An automated email series gives you a free ‘mini-course’ on the subject.
Easy to understand: content is written in honest, plain English — no mystery. This helps create trust with the reader. There are also handy audio versions of many posts.
Humour: content is light-hearted, and witty which helps make it even more engaging. This post on <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://lion.ie/life-insurance/how-do-life-insurance-brokers-get-paid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://lion.ie/life-insurance/how-do-life-insurance-brokers-get-paid/">how brokers get paid</a> — is a nice example. It uses humour (and mild profanity) to help inform and demystify this subject in a way that again, helps connect with the user and create trust.
The result of this strategy sees Lion.ie ranking in the top 5 or 6 search results for ‘life insurance’ queries in one of the most competitive sectors — a real-life David and Goliath story.
<h2 class="graf graf--p">Essential components of Digital Customer Experience</h2>
This is how we describe what user experience means in simple terms— it’s what it feels like to use a service, a product, or a system.
There are 3 parts to a comprehensive user experience:
Aesthetic experience 
This is what it looks like to engage with your organisation. Your brand, your product design — the quality of your website’s design and layout for example.
Functional experience 
How well does your service work? Again, on a digital channel— does your website load fast, can I make contact, make an application online, make a purchase, etc.
Experience Design 
Experience design is a critical part that most organisations miss.
It isn’t enough anymore to just look good (aesthetic) and work well (functional). Experience design is emotive — it is where we consider what it feels like to engage in a product or service.
In a digital scenario, this can be a challenge, as you can’t touch or smell the experience. How is your product or service described on digital channels? What do others say about what you do?
The clearest evidence of what it feels like to work with Lion is in the testimony of their customers through online reviews and feedback — this is key to the digital customer experience.
This feedback creates trust and makes it easier for customers to make a decision to choose Lion when they’re looking for their services.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4046" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/content.png" alt="content marketing" width="2168" height="1122" />
Lion.ie have been picking up awards all over for the quality of the service they provide, but the first win that allows them to service those clients comes through the quality of content they produce and their commitment to producing it.
As this writer will confess, committing time and effort to produce quality, relevant content is not easy — but it is an essential ingredient in building a digital customer experience and with the right strategy, the results will come.
If you are serious about creating a strategy for your customer experience, talk to us, we’d love to help.
To learn more about Lion’s content, have a look at their Blog: <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://lion.ie/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://lion.ie/blog/">www.lion.ie/blog</a>.
Thank you for reading.

Creating a smart Digital Customer Experience through Content

You’ve probably heard a lot about Voice Search by now. Percentages, stats and predictions about the rise of voice-enabled devices. Let’s ignore that for a moment and discuss the practicalities&#8230;
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3830" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/mugatu-voice-search.jpg" alt="" width="574" height="459" />
Firstly, let’s all calm down.
No, Voice Search is not going to change the world as we know it. But yes, it does have an impact.
Voice Search on mobile phones has been around for many years. It&#8217;s voice assistants such as Google Home and Amazon Echo that are now causing more and more people to pay attention.
It’s likely that voice search on assistants will not be saturated by shorter commercial searches like &#8220;Cheapest iPhones&#8221; for some time.
Mobile and desktop will still be used to actually see a product, engage with product photos and video, compare price and satisfy the need to read more.
And also, Voice Search is just not built for that type of query because it must be seen as impartial.
Voice Search on assistants lends itself well to research-driven queries. For that reason, it&#8217;s more likely to receive and satisfy a query like &#8220;Which version of the iPhone can&#8230; do X?&#8221;
<h3>&#8220;What is important&#8221;</h3>
The instant gratification of getting the right answer to a question on these devices will rarely, for now anyway, lead to a direct sale.
What is important though, is positioning yourself as the one who&#8217;s best able to answer these questions, primarily through <a href="https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/09/04/how-to-optimize-featured-snippets-for-voice-search/">Rich Snippets</a>.
Voice Search on assistants, otherwise known as “eyes-free”, is at present most effective for those interacting with apps, making calls, home automation, playing music, solving a problem, just seeking an answer to a general question, and much more.
Hell, some people may even just be using it to settle a bet or just have a bit of <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/funny-things-to-ask-google-assistant/">fun</a>!
So some of the more popular voice searches are for things such as finding a location, instructional content like “How do I remove my HUAWEI Mate 10 Pro battery?”, basic information like “How do I find the number for…?” and endless random queries like “How old is Liam Neeson?” … and much more.
Just for the record, sometimes Google Home is wrong &#8211; Liam Neeson is immortal.
If it helps, we also recently analysed over 83,000 voice searches on Google to give a steer on this. People seem hesitant to ask Google about the &#8216;Who&#8217;, &#8216;Why&#8217; and &#8216;When&#8217;&#8230;
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-3826" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/voice-searches-1.jpg" alt="Google Voice Search" width="538" height="448" />
<h3>&#8220;There is a &#8216;Needs Met&#8217; Rating&#8221;</h3>
One thing that most articles seem to ignore is that Google themselves have recently published guidelines on this (keep reading for the link), and they’re surprisingly straight-forward. There is a “Needs Met Rating”.
This is similar to how they already factor in dwell-time; in other words, how long a user stays on your website to consume your content as opposed to hitting the back button and returning to the search results.
So, basically: is the user happy with the answer that Google has given them? Has it met their needs?
It’s simple: Google doesn’t want to give shitty voice answers. Unlike traditional search whereby the answer ultimately comes from your website, this is being delivered as if from Google themselves &#8211; they really don’t want to mess this one up.
<h3>&#8220;Consider this when you write content&#8221;</h3>
So what answers do they like to use?
Very importantly, they take into account the length of a worded audio response. If it’s long enough to satisfy a query, then it’s likely you’ll score high. Consider this when you write content with voice search in mind &#8211; or any content, for that matter.
This does not mean that longer is better. Don’t elaborate too much in your response to a short, succinct question and don’t be too concise for a query that needs a more detailed answer.
Grammar is also taken into account. As with any content, this will be seen by Google’s algorithm as lazy and of low quality, and therefore less likely to be chosen as the best response.
<h3>&#8220;Some Initial Steps&#8221;</h3>
If you’re wondering how to dip your toes in the water here, let&#8217;s suggest some initial steps.
<ul>
<li class="p1">First, take a look first at your website’s blog, FAQ and support content. Is the correct markup in place so that it can also be used in response to a voice search?</li>
<li class="p1">Do your product pages contain content that references the solutions you provide to a user’s problem? This is not a new concept. It should address any queries or concerns that users have about what you offer, even about your sector. It could also call out the nice benefits of what you provide &#8211; how will it make their lives easier or better?</li>
<li class="p1">Have you spoken to the frontline of your customer support? Or, those who best understand the queries that people have about your product, service or even broad queries relevant to your sector? This can help you to formulate content that answers these questions.</li>
<li>Keep your content as non-biased and non-commercial as you can. Google Home is unlikely to use your answer if it says &#8220;We are the best because&#8230;&#8221;</li>
<li class="p1">Lastly, and it’s tougher than it sounds, just put yourself in the mindset of someone who has a voice assistant. What would YOU realistically use it for? What kind of answers would YOU be satisfied with?</li>
</ul>
&#8220;Eyes-free” devices will also take into consideration a user’s location, time of day, their own preferences, search history and more. It has much of this in common with mobile and some desktop searches. Location is important because &#8220;near me&#8221; searches are on the rise due to users assuming that their location is a given.
<h3>&#8220;You need to be cautious&#8221;</h3>
Approaches to optimising for voice search will differ depending on your product, sector, offering, and geographic location. But first and foremost, take a read of what Google themselves have to say <a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/guidelines-eyesfree/evaluation_of_search_speech_guidelines_v1.0.pdf">here</a> and really let the examples sink in.
And remember: like search in general, you don’t want to over-do it. Google has stated that you need to be cautious about rushing out to create tonnes of single-page Q&amp;As to try and dominate voice search. Don’t do it, it’ll be too obvious.
So, there you have it.
If you want to know what impact Voice Search may have on your business then <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">get in touch</a> and we&#8217;d be glad to chat.

Voice Search Simplified

Search Engine Optimisation has gotten a bad name. It’s often called a Black Art, something I’m growing weary of because it’s too big and important to dismiss it as such. SEO professionals or agencies are often answerable to this, and in some cases rightfully so&#8230;
There are some very bad SEO practitioners out there, opportunists who saw it as an easy sell for something non-quantifiable.
How can even the most reputable SEOs convince someone that we’re not like the rest, especially when someone has already been ‘burned’ by one, sometimes more than once? SEO is not regulated or audited, so it’s difficult to find the best. Many will opt for the cheapest because, well, “they’re all the same”. Well, they’re not. Some are actually very, very good.
<blockquote>&#8220;Perhaps You Didn’t Ask The Right Questions&#8221;</blockquote>
A friend recently told me that she was about to engage with the services of a wedding planner and really wanted to work with her, but she was unsure as to how reputable or effective she is. Sure, there was positive word-of-mouth, even some good reviews on her website. But in an industry where excellent results are subjective, it can be easy to convince clients that you will do, and have done, the best job possible.
It’s relatively easy to use emotional or other triggers to convince them that what they got in return for their hard earned, (supposedly) well-invested money was to the best standard available. You take their word for it, after all, what do you have to compare it to?
Most people only get one shot at a wedding, and in the wrong hands, this can lead to a life-long regret. “Of course hiccups happen”, they may say, and then you’ll convince yourself that this is true and move on. Perhaps the problem was that you didn’t ask the right questions to begin with.
<blockquote>&#8220;So-Called SEO Experts Who Don’t Give a Shit&#8221;</blockquote>
Now let’s bring it back to SEO. If you’re thinking of engaging with an SEO professional or agency then there are some pertinent things to ask before doing so.
SEO has a bad name in some circles and if we’re honest with ourselves then it’s down to the bad practice of many so-called SEO experts who don’t give a shit about your business or its performance.
They want your money, plain and simple. They’ve seen the business opportunity that innately comes from offering a service for which results can be subjective and someone else might even be responsible: “But Google changes all the time!”.
Over the past few years, I’ve acquired new clients or pitched SEO services to potential clients who were very unaware of what SEO truly is or what an effective SEO strategy should be. They know they need it, but they don’t truly know what it is.
My job has been to cut through the bullshit, talk specifically about their business goals and what this channel (or channels) can do to increase their bottom line and visibility. I want to know that they&#8217;re comfortable they are seeing a return on their investment, even if it’s not always 100% measurable. Agencies and marketing professionals, in general, have their own reputation to think of, but it’s those who are also truly dedicated to yours that really stand out.
Also over the past few years, I’ve taken on SEO for clients who had engaged in previous services and some of my findings were worrying, to put it politely. Having been given a ballpark figure as to how much was being paid on a monthly basis so that &#8220;SEO is taken care of&#8221;, clearly no attention had been paid to some of what we know to be core ranking factors.
In one client’s case, there were sponsorships, charity initiatives, public speaking events, memberships, partnerships. conferences, and much more in the previous six months that could have very clearly lent themselves to relevant and effective links. None of this was ever even mentioned. The previous reports showed rankings for keywords that were misspelled, irrelevant, unachievable… and those that were relevant had no strategy in place in order to achieve higher ranking for them.
<blockquote>&#8220;In the Wrong Hands SEO is Not Just Done Badly &#8211; It Can Be Dangerous&#8221;</blockquote>
And then there’s the very bad…. clients who have worked with an agency who have built links of no value across multiple countries and platforms, and even links that are potentially damaging to their Google visibility. Let’s make one thing clear: if you are an online-only business then in the wrong hands SEO is not just done badly &#8211; it can be dangerous.
If you are not a well-established domain with some good historical links to counter-act spammy activity, then you can be removed from search results. It might only be temporary, but it means that for a period of time your largest online channel is gone, and that’s Google organic search.
<blockquote>&#8220;If you think it&#8217;s expensive to hire the best, then wait until you&#8217;ve hired a bad one.&#8221;</blockquote>
In some instances, I have contacted previous agencies and specifically asked for my client’s historical link building reports so that I can reverse the damage that was done. This can be rectified, but of course it’s best avoided.
Unlike Google AdWords Partner status, there is seemingly no way to make a complaint about an SEO professional or agency who have taken your money to knowingly employ tactics that have no impact or can seriously damage your businesses’ online visibility and reputation. When I say there’s ‘seemingly’ no way, I refer to the assumption that nobody cares, you’ve just got to move on and fix it.
However, if you look at Google’s own Webmasters content, they are subtly pointing you in the right direction <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35291?hl=en">here</a>. The suggestion is that you report this wrongdoing to the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network. There’s even a specific journey for those who have been sold ad space or directory listings.
<blockquote>&#8220;They Are Knowingly Putting Your Business at Risk&#8221;</blockquote>
I’ve already done this on numerous occasions, in particular, last year with regard to a Dublin-based digital agency (who shall be un-named) who have three different names, three different websites, all at the same address &#8211; who purposely, and perhaps still do, build harmful links.
Unless they have no internet access, they’ll be aware that these tactics are not just dangerous, but have been redundant for at least 10 years. Bottom line: they are knowingly putting your business at risk &#8211; and you’re paying them to do so.
My advice to those who are in doubt is to first speak to someone impartial so, in other words, someone who comes with strong recommendations. If they feel that you have been treated unethically then you should report it. With this, <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/search-engine-optimisation/">we can help</a>.
So, it’s about asking the right questions. Not just if you are looking for SEO services, but you should also ask those of your current agency or provider. For example…
<ul>
<li>Can you show me some examples of strong relevant links that you have influenced for other clients?</li>
<li>How will your SEO strategy fit in with our business goals?</li>
<li>What do you report on? Note: If reporting amounts to just monthly rankings and traffic then forget it because finding valuable data can be even easier than hiding it.</li>
<li>How much have you learned about our business?</li>
<li>How will you audit our content and how do you propose coming up with a detailed approach to our content for the next 12 months?</li>
<li>How much will this cost?</li>
</ul>
There are so many more questions, and it’s important to note that it’s highly likely that choosing SEO services based on lowest cost alone will lead to the wrong decision. If you think it&#8217;s expensive to hire the best, then wait until you&#8217;ve hired a bad one.
SEO takes time, effort, creative thought, marketing know-how &#8211; it’s not just about keywords, meta tags, fixing broken links and making new shiny ones.
So if you ever need a wedding planner then feel free to use the cheapest provider. Just be sure that they understand your requirements and wishes, be sure that they won’t send invites to people in other countries who have never heard of you and have no interest in attending, do not let them build you a Wix &#8216;bride and groom&#8217; website and promise you #1 on Google for “best wedding”… or better still, annoy the hell out of your venue owners so that the whole party is called off.
If you want it done right then you may not get the cheapest option, but it may turn out to be the best decision.
Treat it like you&#8217;ll only ever get one shot at it.

SEO: If You Think The Best Are Expensive, Wait ‘Til You Hire a Bad One

We are delighted to have picked up an award at the 2017 IIA Net Visionary Awards for Best use of Video in Digital Marketing.
The award went to the &#8216;Know your Rights&#8217; video and campaign we created for the Data Protection Commissioner.
<h3>The Campaign</h3>
The campaign was launched to create awareness amongst individuals and businesses in Ireland around rights in relation to electronic marketing messages and the opt-in / opt-out system.
The campaign was a huge success, with our video reaching 350k watches in the first 4 weeks of it&#8217;s release.
A big thanks in particular go to Robin and Mary who put a lot of work into the production of the video. Watch below.
<iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CMsfK-G6AFM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Friday is has been working closely with the Data Protection office on a number of new digital marketing campaigns, including the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (<a href="http://gdprandyou.ie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GDPR</a>) which will come into force across Europe in May 2018.
The GDPR is the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years and brings significant changes for B2C marketing.

Friday lands award for Best use of Video in Digital Marketing

So you’ve got an online shop, it’s tipping along nicely. Great stuff. Let’s make it better… and by better, I mean let’s get it making more money.
The tips below apply to all eCommerce sites, if you’ve already got them all up and running well then congratulations, the pints are on you!
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">1. Think about your categories</h3>
Perhaps the simplest but most often overlooked &#8216;must-do&#8217; is how you categorise your products on site for users. The more products you are selling, the more important this becomes. As a shop manager you will be intimately familiar with the product range, but the way you categorise products may not be as evident to your new potential customers.
User testing is the best way to pin point any issues. You can also analyse your analytics reports to see how users navigate the site, and address areas that could be improved. Is there a drop off when users hit certain categories? Perhaps they didn’t find what they expected to see there.
Analyse user journeys to see if users are taking the most logical route through the site, if not, then perhaps your website’s UX needs to be looked at. Don’t be afraid to place products in more than one category if it makes sense.
Keep your categories relatively broad, and then use filtering options to allow users to pin point the products they are looking for.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2844 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/babyElegance_cats.png" alt="The Furniture category on babyelegance.ie" width="620" height="1183" />
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">2. Online Chat</h3>
If you have the capability to manage an online chat facility then this can be a great way to gain users trust, answer any questions they have about your products, and increase your conversion rate.
Online chat can also act as a long term form of user testing. Keeping records and analysing chat queries can highlight questions that keep arising (pain points), and point you towards areas of your site that might need attention and clarification. The main point to note here is that <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://blog.kissmetrics.com/live-chat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://blog.kissmetrics.com/live-chat/">studies show</a> that having a live chat facility on your website will directly influence sales, if managed properly.
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">3. Instant search / predictive search</h3>
Make sure users who come to your site knowing exactly what they want can find it easily and as quickly as possible. Instant and predictive search will guide the user straight to the product their looking for.
<a href="http://www.ikea.com/ie/en/"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2846 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ikea_search.png" alt="Predictive search on ikea.ie" width="326" height="491" /></a>
<h3 class="graf graf--h3"></h3>
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">4. Display Related / Bestsellers / Featured Products</h3>
Your eCommerce homepage should show at least Featured products if not all of the above. You need to hook users from the get go, so showing a selection of the most in demand products, or seasonal items will encourage clickthroughs.
<a href="http://www.oasis-stores.com/ie/homepage"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2847 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/oasis1-1024x280.png" alt="Featured Products on the Oasis homepage" width="1024" height="280" /></a>
The product that a user navigates to should never be a “dead end”. Always show related items / suggested items. This can create up-sells on what may have been a single sale otherwise. I can tell you that it’s worked on me more than once. (OK, a LOT more than once).
<a href="http://www.oasis-stores.com/ie/homepage"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2848 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/oasis2.png" alt="Cross sells and upsells" width="1093" height="433" /></a>
The bottom line? Product recommendations are responsible for 10–30% or eCommerce site revenue. Not one to be ignored.
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">5. Customer Accounts and Wishlists for easy re-purchasing</h3>
While every eCommerce site should allow guest checkouts (22% of users will abandon a cart if they’re forced to sign up — <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://vwo.com/blog/vwo-ecommerce-cart-abandonment-report-2016/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://vwo.com/blog/vwo-ecommerce-cart-abandonment-report-2016/">source</a>), you should also allow users to save their details for easy repurchasing. This benefits the customer in that they might be mores inclined to repeat purchase if they don’t have to complete all of their details again, and allows you to contact them via email (assuming they agreed to follow up contact).
It also allows them the ability to save a wishlist of products that they are interested in but not ready to purchase right now. If they register and save their Wishlist, you can send them an email when an item on their wishlist is on sale for example, incentivising them back to your store. Wishlists can also be created by guest users, and can be stored using cookies for up to 30 days, so that their Wishlist items are visible when they return to the site within that time. Make sure your design allows for the Wishlist items to be displayed prominently to the user, and fallback gracefully if no Wishlist items have been saved.
You now have some audience information that you can use going forward to target the customer with direct advertising, or tailored mails. Be clever with the information collected from your user (without being obtrusive or asking for too much of their time) and you can develop a wealth of knowledge on your consumer base that can be used in future marketing strategies.
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">6. Create scarcity to create demand.</h3>
Showing stock quantities, or low stock indicators can drive sales.
I know from experience. I recently was trying to book a room in Clonakilty for a friends wedding and panic booked a B&amp;B a few km outside the town due to the indication that no rooms were available in the main hotels in the town at the time. Lo and behold I input the same search terms today and see that rooms are available.
While I’m currently kicking myself that I didn’t contact the hotels directly, or do more research, it shows that time-poor consumers can be persuaded to purchase based on the indication that they won’t have the chance again.
<h3 class="graf graf--h3"></h3>
<a href="http://www.booking.com/"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2852 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/booking.png" alt="Scarcity creates demand" width="800" height="645" /></a>
<h3 class="graf graf--h3"></h3>
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">7. Shipping</h3>
One of the biggest reasons for abandoned carts? Shipping Costs. Specifically, customers are shocked by the price increase when they get to the checkout and see shipping costs added to the basket subtotal. With regard the customers abandoning their carts before checkout have been <a href="http://rejoiner.com/abandoned-cart-email-guide#chapter1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported to be as high as 56%</a>. So offering free shipping will increase conversions straight off the bat, but statistics show that it can also <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/49379910" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/49379910">dramatically increase sales</a>.
The solution? Offer free shipping options when possible. According to a Wharton study conducted in 2014, shoppers tend to spend nearly 30% more if free shipping is included. The feasibility of offering free shipping will vary on a case by case basis, but the potential sales increase should be noted.
You should consider some or all of the below if you aren’t ready to offer outright free shipping just yet:
<ul class="postList">
<li class="graf graf--li">Free shipping over a certain amount</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Offer free shipping on products with higher margins</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Offer free shipping across the board, with an optional “Express Shipping” option at a higher margin. Customers who cannot wait can make up the difference in shopping costs.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Make shipping free for account holders. This encourages sign ups, which allows you to target your customers effectively and increase long-terms customer loyalty and repeat business.</li>
</ul>
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">8. Emails — talk to your audience</h3>
Assuming you have permission to contact your customers, (by integrating an explicit permission field in the checkout form, or an implied consent through T’s and C’s), you can use your knowledge of the market to target them directly. The success of your email marketing will depend on how well you know your audience, their likes and dislikes and shopping habits. You’ll also need to get the tone of voice right.
Make sure to get your brand personality across in a personal way. Don’t just mail out a list of products that you want to sell, you need to speak to your customer and highlight items that they might want to buy based on previous buying habits, age range, gender etc. Segment your email database as best you can so that your messaging can be as relevant and engaging as possible.
This is something that iClothing do very well. For example the email I received last week below, (on International Women’s Day).
This is a good example of keeping your customer interactions personal and relevant. The Primary message calls out International Women’s day, the supporting message offers you 20% off all orders for that day only.
&nbsp;
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2851 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iClothing.png" alt="iClothing direct Mail" width="672" height="1148" />
You should also use emails to specifically target customers who Abandoned their carts, sending a friendly reminder that the items are still in stock, or offering a discount on one or all of the products to convert the sale. As mentioned earlier, Wishlist reminder mails can also increase conversions.
You can refine and improve your email marketing strategy by conducting A/B testing, adjusting your send times to see if you get better open rates in the morning vs the afternoon, etc.
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">9. Leverage customer reviews</h3>
Enabling product reviews can generate content for you to use in marketing campaigns or on site. Reviews from previous customers will create a sense of trust and a personal touch that users will appreciate. We’ve displayed customer reviews prominently on the homepage of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.thebabybox.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="http://www.thebabybox.com/">The Baby Box</a>.
<a href="http://thebabybox.com/"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2850 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/babybox_review.png" alt="Babybox Reviews" width="582" height="431" /></a>
<h3 class="graf graf--h3"></h3>
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">10. Get social!</h3>
The majority of social media eCommerce conversions come from Facebook. If you want to drive sales through social media, this is where you should be concentrating. Coming up behind Facebook are the other visual channels, Instagram, Pinterest, and Polyvore.
Your Social Media strategy should be well considered. Share quality images of your product, and make sure your brand is recognisable. Again, you’ll need to think about your target audience here and what they’ll want to see, not just memes that you find funny…
Your brand should have a real personality, make one up if you need to! Give him / her a name, personality traits, even a picture, whatever helps you understand the personality that you should consistency be portraying across social media.
This means that even if you have a team of people managing your social media channels, they all do so with a clear and consistent tone of voice.
Make sure you have the time and people power to manage your social media presence properly. Too often it becomes an afterthought to “real work”. Interacting with your customers online can drive sales, increase customer loyalty, and add a “human” face to your brand. Keep it friendly and helpful and you can’t go too far wrong.
Don’t put a chat bot in charge. ASOS <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/25/does-asos-have-bots-running-its-facebook-page/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/25/does-asos-have-bots-running-its-facebook-page/">were embarrassed back in May last year</a> when they were accused of having automated bots running their Facebook page…
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2849 " src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/asos_fb.png" alt="Asos Bot Social scandal" width="508" height="199" />

10 things you should be doing to increase sales on your eCommerce site

It&#8217;s well proven that remarketing can help achieve better ROI. In this post I talk about how you can improve your ROI using Facebook Lookalike Audiences.
Your customers or subscribers are the best audiences you can target because they’ve already shown some interest in your products, your brand, your website, your sales process, delivery and everything else. 
It is easier, safer and cheaper to target them over finding new customers.
<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.wheelhouseadvisors.net/5-reasons-why-customer-retention-is-better-than-customer-acquisition/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The probability of converting an existing customer is 60-70%</a> compared to 5-20% for a new prospect.
</blockquote>
That said Facebook offers something even better by giving you both &#8211; it essentially takes your existing clients and audiences and finds new ones with similar traits and demographics. 
<h2 class="p1" style="text-align: center;"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-2781 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Facebook-lookalike-audiences.png" alt="Facebook Lookalike Audience &amp; email lists" width="767" height="267" /></h2>
<h3 class="p1" style="text-align: left;">How it works</h3>
If you have an email database, and we are sure you all have at least one or two, what you can do is upload that list into the Facebook and create a custom audience from that list. 
But here&#8217;s where things become interesting: you can take that custom audience and turn it into the lookalike audience. 
What that means is that Facebook will connect your emails with real Facebook profiles and take their interests, demographics, age and other parameters to find new people similar to them. 
And as we all know, Facebook has a lot of data about each one of us and it&#8217;s not hard for Facebook to find people with similar interests. 
You can determine how far are you willing to go when it comes to the similarity. Facebook allows you to choose a sliding scale of similarity from 1% to 10% when building Lookalike audiences. 
However, have in mind that the broader you set your bar the broader results you will get. 
It all depends on your type of business, but we would recommend somewhere between 1-5% to get an accurate result. Everything above 5% will be too broad. Again it depends on your business type and your advertising objective.
Now when your Facebook Lookalike Audience has been created you can start serving your ads to the people who are more likely to engage with them and convert.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-2791 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/my-advertising-budget.png" alt="my-advertising-budget" width="1228" height="560" />
The possibilities are endless. You can set up several different audiences depending on your customers buying cycle/product, interests/countries etc… if you are selling different products you can have different lists for different types of products and so on.
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Conclusion</h3>
As marketers, we are interested in reaching the right kind of customers, people who are more likely to engage with our ads or convert. What Facebook offers is exactly that. 
From reaching the right kind of users to re-engaging existing customers Facebook&#8217;s advertising services help us stay in front of current and prospective customers while they browse their favourite social network. 
If you need help with Facebook marketing or Social Strategy, <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">get in touch</a>.

Improving ROI with Facebook Lookalike Audiences

We&#8217;ve done some thinking at Friday, and have come up with our thoughts and predictions for Digital Marketing trends in 2017.
Some trends have stayed popular, however, there are a couple of new ones, and as a digital marketer I am excited to see where we are going and where we could be in 5 years time.
<h3>AMP</h3>
I wrote about the introduction of <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/what-is-amp-and-how-to-get-started/">AMP pages</a> last year. Accelerated mobile pages are mobile pages (websites) that load instantly on your phone. You can sometimes see them as a carousel in Google’s results.
What’s happening is that the content behind the headlines is loading in the background before you read it, and when you open an article it loads up to 85% faster than normal old school websites.
We predict that AMP pages will see a big spike in uptake in 2017 &#8211; stay tuned for more info.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2544" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Google-AMP-v2-1.jpg" alt="AMP Pages" width="767" height="246" />
<h3>Social Recruitment</h3>
We have found a growing trend in organisations using social channels as a key tool in their recruitment process. It is a powerful way to connect with potential employees and recruit them.
Unsurprisingly, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn</a> is number one for obvious reasons but, <a href="http://www.facebook.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> is fast becoming a popular platform to drive recruitment.
Audiences can be reached more accurately and closely than any other platform. You can target by demographics, location, age, interests, education, etc.
Here are some stats:
· 86% of people in the first 10 years of their career are likely to use social media in the job search 
· 14.4 million job seekers have used social networks to find a job. 
· 59% of recruiters rated candidates sourced from social networks as “highest quality” 
· 94% of recruiters are active on LinkedIn, but only 36% of candidates are. Job seekers, by a wide margin, prefer Facebook; with 83% reporting they are active there, compared to just 65% of recruiters. 
· 79% of job seekers are likely to use social media in their job search.
Find more stats <a href="http://www.wepow.com/top-10-recruiting-stats-you-should-know-in-2016/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2643" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/1-uCIFmcfeRMHimNM58BjG2Q.jpeg" alt="2017 Digital Marketing Trends" width="800" height="580" />
<h3></h3>
<h3>Mobile wallets</h3>
No more wallets, no more bank cards &#8211; pay with your phone.
Install <a href="https://www.android.com/intl/en_ie/pay/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Android Pay</a> or <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-pay/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apple Pay</a> or any <a href="http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/digital-wallets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">other mobile wallet option</a>, and you’re sorted. However, if you lose your phone, well… that could be a problem!
Other parts of Europe are still waiting for this step to be completed, however in Ireland we are ready. Mobile payments here we come.
<blockquote>· The number of mobile shoppers in UK will reach an estimate of 40.1 million-nearly 89% of the digital shoppers. 
 · Retail mobile sale (m-commerce) will leap to £25.74 billion ($39.34 billion)</blockquote>
Make sure your business is set up to accept mobile payments for your goods and services by having NFC enabled terminals/card readers.
<h3>Quality Content</h3>
<a href="https://friday.ie/blog/content-marketing-and-page-quality/">Content, content, content</a>! It’s long past time when people were writing content for search engines.
You should always think of your users. Have a <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/mixing-a-great-content-marketing-strategy/">Content Strategy</a> &#8211; be relevant, be informative, be educational. Try answering “who”, “what”, “when” and “how” questions, and search engines will reward you.
However, if you’re still doing the same thing you were 5 years ago; writing content for search engines, keyword stuffing and link building campaigns without any strategy… be prepared for a dramatic drop in ranking or manual actions.
There will always be new algorithm updates as Google will continue to perfect their search engine, and with that we have to continue perfecting our <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/seo-so-you-want-to-be-number-1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SEO skills</a>.
Always have people in mind when it comes to content or <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/search-engine-optimisation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SEO</a> and the rest will follow.
One more search and content change that will be hugely popular in 2017 is voice search. This was initially started as a help for the blind, but as always with Google it developed into something greater, they managed to perfect something that was never meant to be so popular. Thank you Google :)
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2644" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/1-_gdNaejNLJJtIOBAHk5xwA.jpeg" alt="SEO" width="800" height="572" />
<h3>JSON Schema</h3>
You won&#8217;t need to remember this but JSON stands for “JavaScript Object Notation.”
In simple terms, JSON helps showcase parts of your website you&#8217;d like to highlight in search results &#8211; phone numbers, social networks, recipes, reviews, product listings, executives, founders and more.
As I mentioned in our <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/what-is-amp-and-how-to-get-started/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AMP Pages post</a>, Google is doing everything it can to keep you on their network &#8211; the aim is to provide you with all of the useful info you’re searching for, without having to leave the Google platform.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-2645" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/JSON-Schema.png" alt="JSON 2017 Digital Marketing Trends" width="686" height="1085" />
<h3>Conversion Rate Optimisation</h3>
Conversion rate optimisation is nothing new &#8211; it&#8217;s the method of using analytics and user feedback to improve the performance of your website through testing and iteration.
The end goal is always a conversion, the action you care about the most such as leads, downloading e-book or a good old sale.
If SEO is all about getting traffic to your website, CRO is what converts that traffic into the leads/customers.
CRO as an essential part of the eCommerce process will be more popular in 2017.
There are some powerful CRO tools out there for you to use such as <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Optimizely</a>, <a href="http://unbounce.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unbounce</a>, or even the free <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1745152?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Analytics Content Experiment</a>.
<h5>You can find more <a href="https://klientboost.com/cro/cro-tools/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CRO tools here</a>.</h5>
<h3>UX led design</h3>
UX design is the process of designing products (websites, apps or softwares) that are useful, easy to use, and delightful to interact with.
It’s all about how a user feels when interfacing with a system.
Lately we are seeing more and more companies <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/design-led-companies-winning/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">embracing UX</a> in their journey, and it will only continue to grow. B2B and B2C companies finally realised that having just a website is not enough anymore. It needs to be user friendly.
As a UX agency we couldn’t be happier about that. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drop us a line</a> and we’ll do the rest! If you need some inspiration check out our blog on <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/5-e-commerce-design-trends-2016/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UX trends.</a>
<h3>Live Video Streaming</h3>
Both YouTube and Facebook introduced 360-degrees videos, and we have live videos on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
Video has shown to be the best way to reach your customers, as it is creative and entertaining. It builds trust, you can explain everything in few seconds, and not to mention that Google LOVES videos.
I have something to get you even more excited: <a href="https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics-2016.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">76% of business say that video provides good ROI.</a>
Are you using video in your marketing efforts?
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Video Kiosk: Video Marketing in 2017 - Video Marketing for Businesses 101" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ZU3vxGkKw4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
<h3>Wearable technology &amp; The IoT</h3>
Wearable technologies are slowly taking their turn. It’s all about accessories as a girl might say. ;)
We witnessed the development of smart <a href="http://www.apple.com/ie/watch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apple Watches</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glass" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Glass</a>, <a href="http://www.loreal.com/media/press-releases/2017/jan/kerastase-and-withings-unveil-worlds-first-smart-hairbrush-at-ces-2017" target="_blank" rel="noopener">L’Oréal smart hairbrushes</a> and there is much more to come.
I would like to see a wearable technology that can teleport me to work on Monday morning. Soon hopefully.
Check out the video below.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Innovative Start-ups focused on IoT and Wearable Technologies" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ssGzEmcLA7g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
<h3>Snapchat for marketing</h3>
Snapchat is my favourite! I don’t want to be bias, but this is the platform I couldn’t live without.
There are so many opportunities for marketers yet to be found on <a href="https://www.snapchat.com/en-GB" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Snapchat.</a> Geo-targeting, filters and instant communication with their audience are just some of them.
In the future Snapchat could create different branded filters, like the existing filters for cities that show where are you, soon we could see someone posting his/her picture with the Coca-Cola logo to show they were in the Coca-Cola factory.
There are endless possibilities with Snapchat, you just need to be creative and find them.
&nbsp;
So in summary, there are some old trends that are growing in importance and popularity and some interesting new technologies that we expect to see more update in.
If you need help with your digital marketing, let us know, we’re always ready for a new challenge at Friday.

2017 Digital Marketing Trends

Getting your organisation&#8217;s tone of voice and personality across online is vital to achieving that personal and friendly experience.
A customer&#8217;s first impression of a business most often comes through their website or social media channels.
Creating your organisation&#8217;s tone of voice starts with your target audiences. Once you understand your customer or market you will maximise your sales proposition.
Who are you selling to or trying to appeal to? Why should they come to you for your service or buy your product? What do you do better than the other guys, your competition?
I&#8217;ve taken a look at a selection of brands and businesses that have mastered their tone of voice online and connect with their audiences on a personal level and in a consistent way.
<h3>AYR</h3>
<a href="https://www.ayr.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Ayr</a> are a women’s fashion brand who have established a fun and conversational personality online with their cool, informal language.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2609" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/1-KfL3Ne0VK3NrHZAtIc2aKA.jpeg" alt="Brand personality online" width="1400" height="791" />
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AYR’s cool, laid back tone of voice carries through onto their social media. They communicate with their followers using a casual writing style, which adds personality and value to what they&#8217;re selling.
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<h2 class="graf graf--p graf-after--h2" style="text-align: center;">DOG STUDIO</h2>
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.dogstudio.be/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dogstudio.be%2F">Dog Studio</a> aren’t shy when it comes to conveying their mission statement and messages online! The Belgium based digital agency has adopted an off-the-cuff tone of voice that feels like you are talking to a friend. They don’t take themselves too seriously with the odd expletive thrown in for shock value.
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Their ‘ballsy’ lighthearted personality goes further in their ‘Join the team’ section where they communicate with the user in a very down to earth manner:
<blockquote>
We already crave you crazy motherf*****&#8230;
</blockquote>
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Their contact page features a series of ‘drop us a line’ messages that appear as if someone is typing them to you as you watch. Staying true to their personality they feature some hilarious and tongue in cheek lines.
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Interestingly, they don’t carry this tone of voice into their social media posts where they have the most interactions with followers.
<h2 class="graf graf--p graf-after--h2" style="text-align: center;">PADDY POWER</h2>
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.paddypower.com/bet" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.paddypower.com%2Fbet">Paddy Power</a>, the Irish bookmaker’s have set themselves apart from the rest of the crowd with their distinctly laddish, cheeky and witty personality and tone of voice. This success is down to the company knowing exactly who its target audience is, young men.
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They keep their punters entertained with topical, ballsy, and controversial content to keep them engaged and coming back for more. Paddy Power’s global marketing director, Christian Woolfenden was quoted saying
<blockquote>
“…if we don’t get complaints we’re quite disappointed.”
</blockquote>
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True to form, their social media is just as controversial and provoking. This tweet below in response to journalist and TV personality Piers Morgan.
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So, who are you?
Whatever type of brand or business you have, the important thing is that it has its own personality that is recognisable and memorable so that people respond to it. Once you’ve established your brand’s tone of voice, keep it consistent from your website through to your social media and even your emails, they should all follow the same tone.
Does your website need a makeover or an injection of brand personality? <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Give us a shout</a>, we’d love to help.
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Brand Personality Online

<blockquote>You may have heard of user centric design but what about conversion centric design&#8230;</blockquote>
<h3>What is a conversion?</h3>
We’ll start with the basics; conversions are &#8220;any desired actions that a user performs after receiving some form marketing messaging&#8221;. These conversions can come in many forms but we typically associate them with actions such as purchases, bookings, quotes, signups etc. 
These can fluctuate broadly across industries but ultimately it’s an action that contributes to your bottom line to some degree. So naturally, you want your website to be designed in a way to maximise these actions.
<h3>Influencing Behaviour</h3>
From an academic point of view, marketing boils down to 3 key elements of attitudinal psychology:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Cognitive</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Affective</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Conative</li>
</ol>
In layman’s terms, marketers are trying to influence their target audience at different stages of the purchase cycle. Cognitive refers to whether or not an individual can recognise a product or brand. So the typical associated marketing goals here are to drive brand recognition and awareness. 
Affective refers to a consumer’s emotions or feelings about a particular product or brand. These can be influenced by cultural and moral factors as well as a person&#8217;s beliefs and values. Brands can try to evoke certain emotions in their content strategy or advertising to shape these perceptions.
Conative refers to the likelihood that an individual will undertake a specific action or behave in a certain way towards a brand. This typically refers to purchase intent.
Although all three are interconnected, generally when we speak of designing for conversions we want to directly influence people to perform actions. So the third stage is the important one here, we want to influence people’s conation.
As a digital agency, we work on many different web-based projects with a wide variety of clients with different needs. From the outset, we try to understand what the most important business goals for any given client are.
Getting the goals right at the start is critically important and sometimes this is not a simple as it sounds. The key goals will narrow down exactly what could and should be included in design to deliver the <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/user-experience/ux-design-dublin/">best possible user experience</a>.
Speaking of UX, it certainly is a hot topic of late. Lots of agencies are adopting user centric design to streamline services making completing tasks or finding information for their customers quick and easy. All this sounds great and forward thinking but it can actually work to the disadvantage of the business in some cases which I will delve into.
The difficulty arises when trying to strike a balance between aesthetic design and good UX with sales and marketing objectives (conversions). However, there is no reason why this equation can’t be solved with the right approach and processes.
For example, some designers like to use burger menus on desktop to hide the navigation giving more space for images and design elements. 
This could potentially cause significant UX problems with your site. This is not to say burger menus should be avoided at all costs, but rather you should test if your users will be comfortable with it.
Here’s an example of how NBC news introduced a burger menu in 2014 and had to add instructions because no-one could find it. 
They ended up removing it entirely and returning to standard navigation. Lesson learned — think before you munch that cheeseburger.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1974 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2014-03-03-at-8.03.18-PM-1024x565.png" alt="NBC burger menu" width="1024" height="565" />
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1975 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/screen-shot-2014-02-12-at-10-18-05-am.png" alt="NBC Bad UX" width="942" height="600" />
 
Or at the other end of the scale Marketing &amp; Sales Managers may want a full-screen popup to encourage users to sign up for a free trial. Be careful with this, you will drive users away if you are too intrusive.
Here’s an example of how conversion design can go over the top. This popup appeared on the homepage of a marketing agency’s website after about 10 seconds. 
Obviously, inquiries are a key marketing objective for this company but surely a prospective client would want time to read the content on the page? Plus if they want to contact you they will probably look for the contact us page.
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Some designers (or client stakeholders) feel strongly that their ideas and concepts are best. While they often are creative and impressive they may not necessarily help the business achieve the objectives.
Sometimes new technology such as 3D graphics or complex transitions &amp; animations can look impressive but don’t really help the user or the business at the end of the day. You should always strive to find the “Sweet Spot” of the three players.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1979" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/1-HqIjrUJqraB-nbwN7pUldg.png" alt="how to align business goals with design" width="800" height="480" />
<h3>Principles of Design — How they apply to conversions</h3>
I recently attended an inbound marketing conference where one of the speakers was Oli Gardner the Co-Founder of <a href="http://unbounce.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unbounce.com</a>. He has written extensively about conversion optimisation for landing pages and about design principles in particular. He talks about conversion-centric design as opposed to user-centric design.
Where user-centric design which aims to help users find info ASAP conversion-centric design does the opposite in some ways. It strips away unnecessary distractions to increase the likelihood that a user will complete the desired action.
Obviously, there are many principles of design but I want to talk about 4 principles that can be utilised to increase conversions.
<h3>1. Direction</h3>
If you want someone to go somewhere, point them in the right direction. Directional cues help to guide users to concentrate on certain areas of a page (your CTA). For example, using arrows can be effective in some circumstances like on landing pages that direct users to forms.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1984 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/design-to-increase-conversions-directional-cues.png" alt="conversion centric design - directional cues" width="560" height="370" />
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="978" height="445" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7813" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-14.59.16-1.png" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-14.59.16-1.png 978w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-14.59.16-1-250x114.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-14.59.16-1-768x349.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-14.59.16-1-700x319.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-14.59.16-1-120x55.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-14.59.16-1-80x36.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 978px) 100vw, 978px" />
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Or you could take a more subtle approach and use eye direction, finger pointing, lines and curves to direct users attention to the desired area.
Here’s an example of how eye direction leads you to the free trial or video
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1985 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/kinhr.jpg" alt="directional cue with eye direction" width="1856" height="1280" />
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<h3>2. Whitespace</h3>
Ever look at a web page and there’s too much going on? It’s probably due to a lack of whitespace (too much content). Increasing the amount of blank space (it doesn’t have to be white) around your CTA will help it stand out. Just look at how simple Google is. 
Below you can see how the Download button stands out due to the space around it and contrasting colours.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1980 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/call-to-action-best-practices.png" alt="CTA best practice - using whitespace" width="1180" height="500" />
 
Trivago also copy Google approach quite well 
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1989 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-15.02.15.png" alt="trivago whitespace" width="1308" height="513" /> 

<h3>3. Encapsulation</h3>
Encapsulation refers to using a container to highlight a point of interest. The idea is to create a sense of tunnel vision to focus the user&#8217;s attention on your CTA. In practice this could be something like putting a contrasting border around a form.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1990 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-15.04.29.png" alt="encapsulation for conversion design" width="1181" height="601" />
<h3>4. Colour &amp; Contrast</h3>
Colour and contrast are very important to make key links or buttons stand out and be found easily. You need to be as clear as possible and do the thinking for your audience. The dominant colour of your web page will influence what works best.
Similarly appropriate font colour, weight and size can impact your conversion rate. I’m not going to list all of the colour pairings but here are a few examples:
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1982 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/color-contrast.png" alt="color contrast" width="600" height="360" />
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1981" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/cc-promo-3.png" alt="cc-promo-3" width="400" height="370" />
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Another point to mention is colour actually affects us emotionally. So bear this in mind when making a decision.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1983 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/color-guide-630x551.png" alt="colour emotion guide" width="630" height="551" />
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<h3>Tools to Help You Design For Conversions and Improve UX</h3>
Now we can’t expect all marketers to know everything about design and vice versa. However, there are handy tools which marketers can use to help illustrate their concerns to designers and management.
<h3>A/B Testing</h3>
A/B testing is great way to quickly discover whether your site’s design is optimised for conversions. By asking users simple questions about your current design vs designs that incorporate the principles I’ve mentioned, you can arm yourself with data.
You can then take this data to your boss, CFO, manager etc. and tell them “X amount of people found this change beneficial” this could lead to X percent more sales. Now you’re speaking their language, and you’ll get that extra budget you need.
<h3>Question Test</h3>
<a href="http://www.usabilityhub.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Usability Hub</a> have some great tools to perform some basic UX testing (And it’s free if you participate in other users tests!) The question test allows you to show users one of your web pages and ask for example “what would you expect to do on this site?” See below:
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1987 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-11.14.33.png" alt="usability hub" width="646" height="740" />
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You can use this test to discover any weakness in your websites design or to test out a new landing page you have created. Any major flaws will be quickly identified.
<h3>Click Test</h3>
Say for example you think that changing the colour of a signup button or moving it to a different place that you feel is more prominent will increase conversions. You can set up a click test and compare how easily users found the button.
To set it up just take a screenshot of the current page upload it, then upload a slightly edited version with the changes (if you don’t have any photo editing software you can use <a href="https://pixlr.com/editor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://pixlr.com/editor</a>)
<h3>Edit Any Web Page Like a Word Doc.</h3>
One of my favourite tools which can help you to edit web pages with absolutely no coding experience, is this nifty piece of javascript. Simply paste the below code into the address bar any web page you are on (retype javscript: after you paste it. Chrome is weird.)
<blockquote>javascript: document.body.contentEditable = ‘true’; document.designMode = ‘on’; void 0</blockquote>
And voila! You can now mess around with any web page as if it was a word doc. Change the text, increase spacing, delete sections, move buttons. You can then use your edited page to perform some of the tests I mentioned without having to get designers or developers on board.
Here’s an example of what you can do:
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1986 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-10.42.02.png" alt="netflix lols" width="760" height="878" />
So to round up there are some key questions you need to ask yourself to understand whether you are getting as many conversions as possible:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Is my conversion rate high enough?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Does my website meet key design principles?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Is my website design and content focused on the primary action I want the user to take? </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Have I tested my website with my target audience?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Are the next action points clear for the user?</li>
</ol>
If you answered no to any of these question you may want to consider a website redesign or UX audit at the very least. User experience is one of our specialities so don&#8217;t hesitate to <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">get in touch.</a>
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[ratings]

UX and Conversion Centric Design – Striking a Balance

7 Digital Marketing Trends for 2016

We&#8217;ve had fierce fun conceptualising, designing &amp; building a microsite of the freakiest faux pas we come across daily in the digital marketing arena. We compiled them into The 7 Deadly Sins of Digital Marketing and we brought characters from a selection of classic 50&#8217;s &amp; 60&#8217;s horror movies back to life using a little anaglyph 3D, parallax and subtle animated action. Then we posted 100 pairs of 3D specs around the country to unsuspecting folk. We&#8217;ve had a wicked response to the piece on social channels so far.
If you haven&#8217;t seen it yet, view our <a title="The 7 Deadly Sins of Digital Marketing" href="https://friday.ie/3d/2d/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">7 Deadly Sins of Digital Marketing</a> and if you fancy your very own pair of retro 3D glasses, tell us and we will send you some. SHARE &amp; SCARE people, and have a very Happy Halloween.
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://friday.ie/3d/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here to view our 3D microsite</a></h3>

7 Deadly Sins of Digital Marketing in 3D

Now that Chrome’s long talked about auto-pausing of Flash ads has begun, (since September 1st), we really are noticing clients taking HTML5 more seriously than ever. Due to our expertise in HTML5 banner ads, we’ve been very busy over the last couple of months on some high end HTML5 campaigns. From a full HTML5 takeover experience, to a single suite of 160 rich media banners I’ve personally begun to talk about banners in my sleep!
Display advertising is always fast-paced with tight deadlines, but with the volume of banners we’re delivering to our clients at the moment, I needed to start thinking about how I could improve the process, and critically for our clients, speed up the process.
One thing that has always been a bit if an unknown is the DoubleClick QA process. DoubleClick provide a Quality Analysis (QA) service for rich media banners which we’ve happily been using for years. All rich media banners run through Google’s DoubleClick platform need to go through a stringent QA process by a QA certified authority. The drawback of this is that you must allow 24-48 hours for the QA process to be completed, and if for any reason the banners fail QA or a change is made after they have gone through, the QA process will need to be restarted.
Needless to say this can sometimes cause a delay of days, which just doesn’t fly in cases where we’ve been given very short turn around times. With Flash banners, the QA process was more straightforward, in that Flash is a self contained entity and isn’t affected by different browsers and browser versions as HTML5 is. So QA for a HTML5 banner will take much longer than for an equivalent Flash creative.
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And so we come to <a href="http://www.richmediagallery.com/tools/certified-users#certifiedUser:5227">my latest DoubleClick certification badge</a>, the QA Certification Badge. This simply means that we are now in a position to QA our own banners. We of course follow the same strict QA processes that DoubleClick do, but we can manage the process ourselves if requested, and can save hours if not days in getting a creative from design to the media agency. A bonus for everybody.
The advantages really came into play recently when a client requested a small text change to a suite of banners, and we were able to make the change and push through QA within a couple of hours as opposed to a couple of days if we were relying on third party QA.
We pride ourselves on the quality and speed of our display advertising delivery, and with this new certification, we’re taking that offering to a whole new level. Please feel free to <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">get in touch</a> if you’d like to see how we can deliver your display advertising more effectively than ever.
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Doubleclick QA certification

Number 1 on the first page of a Google Search &#8211; it’s what we’re all looking for in life really, isn’t it? 
Even when putting my own name into the goliath Search Engine Google I remembered my glee when I noticed I had pipped the other Gillian Hunt, the American photographer to the top spot. 
Yes indeed, this Gillian Hunt was once upon a time a Number 1 Google Search Result. One of my biggest claims to fame &#8211; maybe… achievements &#8211; well perhaps not. To be honest I had little or no idea why my LinkedIn Profile was ranking above any other search result in Google, but it still made me smile!
For an individual the need to be the number one search result may just be an ego thing **cough cough** but for a business it can mean the difference between success and failure, life and death, kick ass Christmas parties or tea for one… you get the picture. 
Being found on the internet by potential customers is key for a thriving business in today&#8217;s world. And that’s where SEO comes to the party.
<h2 class="graf--p">The basics of SEO &#8211; Optimisation</h2>
Search Engine Optimisation, so really what is it? SEO in its simplest form is a marketing discipline which primary focus is to increase the visibility of a search engine result of your business. 
Now to do it well you need to look at both the technical and creative aspects of your website. But with a strategy in place genuine SEO can improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines. 
Sounds easy doesn’t it?
And some of it is; Search Engines want users to find what they are looking for but they need to know your business is the most, or one of the most relevant results given the search terms/words entered into that little white box. 
SEO has a specific set of tactics in it’s toolkit endorsed by the Search Engines that allow their technology to easily crawl your website picking up and indexing all the relevant information, (<a href="http://www.smartbugmedia.com/blog/10-on-page-seo-tips-to-use-in-2015">Read more</a> on some of these techniques). 
That’s one component of SEO “optimising” the relevancy of the site. But hey kids SEO is not all about ensuring you are presented accurately on the web, so search engines can match your relevancy to a search. Oh no… now not only do you need to be relevant, but you need to be popular too! What the?!
<h2 class="graf--p">Domain Authority</h2>
Yes Search Engines decided if your content is shared or linked to from other sites than this is worth a higher ranking particularly if those sites themselves have a high “Authority”. What the hell is Authority I hear you ask? 
Well just like the real world online authority suggests power and control, a site with a high domain authority is listened to by users, people read, engage with, share and link to these type of sites and Google award that site for well… being popular. 
When a popular site with high domain authority links to your site **Bing** your ranking is improved. It’s just like hanging round with the cool kids or even the cool kids mentioning you while they chat to their cool kid friends. 
Feel like you’re in school again? Well it’s not far off it, relevance and popularity is what it’s all about and any SEO strategy worth its salt is going to influence just this, how relevant you are by optimising the site and popular by getting your site links out there into the interwebs.
<h2 class="graf--p">Mobile Optimisation</h2>
So I have been keeping up to date with SEO standards and tweaking my site, linking back to it and getting my content out there in the web, basically trying my very best and then someone mentions mobile. WHAT? With significant Web traffic coming from mobile devices, companies cannot afford to ignore the mobile Web and yet many still do. 
For Google, mobile comprised almost half of all traffic from June to November, with 52 percent coming from desktops and 48 percent from mobile. <a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2388915/why-mobile-web-still-matters-in-2015" target="_blank" rel="noopener">(Read more on mobile and browsers stats.)</a>
That’s a lot of mobile users getting online and you know it because you’re one of them. And suddenly the game has changed for all those sites who have not thought about mobile. As of Tuesday, April 21, 2015, Google has made a massive change to the way it ranks websites. How massive? Seemingly some people were calling it the “Mobilegeddon”, which could be a slight over reaction. 
But maybe not, if your website is not mobile friendly Google have said themselves:
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&#8220;it will have a significant impact in our search results&#8221;.
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So SEO is not just about relevancy and popularity or certainly not just on desktop, all of that now needs to be applied to the mobile web. 
So is your site mobile ready? <a href="https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Test it here</a> and see how you rate. 
We had to try it ourselves and ohh look… The Friday Agency is AWESOME, but of course we are, that’s our business (and just us… we’re just awesome).
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Friday-Mobile-Ready.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1384" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Friday-Mobile-Ready.png" alt="Friday-Mobile-Ready" width="767" height="477" /></a>
<h2 class="graf--p">Responsive Design</h2>
So what can you do after some good SEO strategies and your site is rating reasonably well on a desktop search but lost down a dark lane of a mobile search? Google’s number 1 suggestion for mobile optimisation is Responsive Design. 
We have spoken at length about Responsive Design in our Journal <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/responsive-web-development/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mobile Apps or Responsive Websites</a> <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/mobile-apps-responsive-websites-choose/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Responsive Web Development</a> (see what I did there… linking back to our site, good SEO).
Basically it’s building one site that fits all, one URL, one website that adapts for phone, tablet and desktop. Other options are dynamic serving, where Google sniffs out what device is searching and serves up different HTML, but even Google says this can be error prone. 
Of course there is also the Mobile site which was one of the earliest mobile optimisation strategies. But seriously all this sounds like too much work 2 sites, 2 builds, 2 SEO maintenance works to be constantly updating. I’m tired just thinking about it. 
Responsive design &#8211; One site, built for all, users like it, Google really likes it and of course SEO marketers like it. It&#8217;s a simple concept, but so many businesses are still playing catch up. 
Now you may think I have been unfairly Google centric on this post, but really, with all devices included, StatCounter Report’s for the last quarter Google has over 93% of the Search Usage in Ireland and just over 90% Globally… so I thought I might just do that, focus on the big guns, it’s all about relevancy and popularity after all.
 <a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/StatCounter-search_engine-ww-monthly-201505-201507-bar.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-1374" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/StatCounter-search_engine-ww-monthly-201505-201507-bar.png" alt="StatCounter-search_engine-ww-monthly-201505-201507-bar" width="616" height="375" /></a>
If you need help with SEO or optimising your site for mobile through Responsive design and development, give us a shout &#8211; it’s what we do.

SEO –  So you want to be number 1?

As a digital marketing agency, naturally, we work a lot with content and with photography.
But whether you are client or agency side, getting <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/photography-web-design/">good photography is essential</a> and it can take a bit of work from researching, finding, buying, licensing and so on.
There’s nothing new in the notion of free photography but you’d be forgiven for thinking that something free and stock might not hold the best quality.
Not so; check out these 5 cool resources for getting your hands on quality stock photography in a few clicks without spending a cent.
&#8220;Only 5?!&#8221; you say. Well, there are plenty more free image resources out there, but for me, these are the best 5.
<h3><a href="https://pixabay.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pixabay</a></h3>
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/paris-pixabay-843229_1280.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1319" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/paris-pixabay-843229_1280-1024x682.jpg" alt="paris free photography" width="1024" height="682" /></a>
This is a nice atmospheric shot of the Paris skyline. It’s completely free for commercial use and you don’t need to provide attribution if you use it.
<a href="https://pixabay.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pixabay</a> is one of my favourite resources for stock and it has a massive database of images (over 400,000 at time of writing).
<h3><a href="https://picjumbo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PicJumbo</a></h3>
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_copy.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1316" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_copy.jpg" alt="sm_copy" width="767" height="370" /></a>
<a href="https://picjumbo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PicJumbo</a> is another great resource with some top quality images with good variety.
They also have a paid service for $6 per month which is good value and offers exclusive content and complete photo collections.
<h3><a href="https://unsplash.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unsplash</a></h3>
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_mountain.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1312" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_mountain.jpg" alt="sm_mountain" width="767" height="439" /></a>
Not a massive resource and more creatively-led content than corporate, but <a href="https://unsplash.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unsplash</a> has some fantastic images; cityscapes, lifestyle, nature &#8211; always worth checking in on.
This landscape shot with the dock is great. I would print this and hang it, it’s that good. And, of course, it’s free.
<h3><a href="https://stocksnap.io" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stocksnap.io</a></h3>
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_bokeh.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1315" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_bokeh.jpg" alt="sm_bokeh" width="767" height="511" /></a>
A good selection of high resolution photography, and they add hundreds more every week. <a href="https://stocksnap.io" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stocksnap.io</a> has more of a commercial angle, and there&#8217;s no need to give attribution.
<h3><a href="http://deathtothestockphoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Death to the Stock Photo</a></h3>
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_DeathtoStock_Medium7.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1317" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_DeathtoStock_Medium7.jpg" alt="sm_DeathtoStock_Medium7" width="767" height="246" /></a>
The <a href="http://deathtothestockphoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Death</a> guys format is to email you a batch of new high quality lifestyle images on the first of every month.
Some really great photos here, just hand over your email address and you’re in.
<h3><a href="http://nos.twnsnd.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Old Stock</a></h3>
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_launch.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1318" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_launch.jpg" alt="sm_launch" width="767" height="517" /></a>
A cheeky 6th resource is one called <a href="http://nos.twnsnd.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Old Stock</a> which has some cool old photos of retro stuff. Also worth a look.
So there it is, a tidy collection of resources for some very good stock content &#8211; free to use.
Granted, you won’t find near the range and volume of images here as can be found at the likes of iStock, but definitely a handy go-to when you’re putting together a digital project, a series of blog posts or even a random photo print for the wall.
Hope this post was helpful. Happy hunting.

5 Inspiring Resources for Free Photography

Today I am happy to announce that I&#8217;ve added the HTML5 badge to my list of certifications from DoubleClick. DoubleClick Studio Certification is awarded to creative agencies that prove their expertise in building ad formats for the DoubleClick platform, and today I&#8217;ve officially added HTML5 to the list of my certification badges.
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">So what does this mean for you?</h3>
We&#8217;ve noticed that the demand for HTML5 banners is growing rapidly as we move towards more mobile orientated online activity, to the point where over the last year the percentage of HTML5 banners we&#8217;ve been producing has grown from 10% to over 50%. We&#8217;re fully committed to growing our expertise in HTML5 to match our expertise in Flash display advertising.
We have been building HTML5 banners for the DoubleClick ad serving platform for a while now. Adding the HTML5 badge to our Studio certification simply means that you can be assured that we have the expertise to build high quality rich media ads in Studio that function as intended when displayed by the DoubleClick ad server.
We are also experts in the Celtra platform, which we love, but we know that for some media agencies and publishing sites that Doubleclick is the preferred platform.
&nbsp;
<h3 style="text-align: center;">What can we do</h3>
We can create HTML5 banners that you can be assured will display across desktop and mobile seamlessly. We can create in-page, Interstitial, or expanding creatives for in-app advertising, providing a customised full-screen ad experience to your target audience. From video production and editing, to custom javascript coding for games, we have all the skills needed to create feature rich, interactive banner ads. We can use dynamic data such as screen orientation, location, time of day, and even weather data to customise your ad on a case by case basis.
&nbsp;
<h3 style="text-align: center;">How do we do it</h3>
For DoubleClick HTML5 banners, we use Googles own authoring software <a href="https://www.google.com/webdesigner/">Google Web Designer</a>. Fully integrated with DoubleClick Studio GWD lets you publish your ad directly to your Studio Account, and is the software recommended by DoubleClick for production.
&nbsp;
<h3 style="text-align: center;">What&#8217;s next?</h3>
Glad you asked. Next on our list is the QA certification badge. That will be a big one for us, as it will mean that we will be able to QA our own creatives for clients, without relying on DoubleClick&#8217;s QA process, (which can take more than 24 hours). Once we&#8217;ve updated our DoubleClick qualifications with this new badge we&#8217;ll be offering our clients the option of having us perform QA on all rich creatives, meaning a quicker turn-around and full control on the process from design to media agency. Watch this space!
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If you have a display advertising campaign coming up <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">get in touch</a>, we&#8217;ll love to talk about how we can help you make the most of it.
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Doubleclick HTML5 certification

Following up on my recent post about creating a great <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/mixing-a-great-content-marketing-strategy/">content marketing strategy</a>, I want to talk about how you can go about writing great content to fill it.
Let&#8217;s start with picking a topic.
<h3>Picking a topic</h3>
Choosing a good topic to write about is important if you want to grab your reader’s attention. It’s always best to have a content strategy in place &#8211; your strategy should already have a list of juicy ideas to post about.
Try to have a mix of what we call &#8216;stock and flow&#8217;. Stock content is ‘evergreen’ content, that your targets will be looking for over a long period of time. Flow is the type of content that is more day to day and reminds people that you exist.
Also, it might seem obvious, but try to write about content that comes easily to you such as the following:
<ul>
<li>What you work at.</li>
<li>What you know about.</li>
<li>What you’re interested in.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Writing a Title</h3>
A good title is essential &#8211; it’s the first thing people will see and it sells your content.
Unless you don’t need people to find you through search, your title should strike a balance between using clever wording to grab people’s attention and including at least one good keyword or keyword string.
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/friday-writing.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1204" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/friday-writing-1024x768.jpg" alt="writing content" width="1024" height="768" /></a>
<h3>Introduction</h3>
Once you’ve got past the title you need an engaging introduction to draw your reader into your topic. Use humour, tell a story. If you can make an introduction funny or personal, it’s much easier for people to engage in it.
<h3>Make a point</h3>
Identify the goal you want to achieve before you start to write your blog post. This would usually be at the same stage as picking topics to talk about. Whatever your topic, you will want to have an angle or an opinion on it &#8211; this makes it more interesting, engaging (or controversial) for the reader, otherwise it could get boring.
<h3>Depth &amp; Quality</h3>
From the intro, you move into writing a story &#8211; creating a clear and interesting narrative.
Even if you’re writing a simple news piece, you will want to keep your audience’s attention and for them to know that they’re following a story.
Here are some ways of doing that:
Tell a storytelling a story helps engage the minds of readers, to persuade and to help reinforce your points and ideas. I like how Seth Godin puts it: &#8220;Great stories succeed because they are able to capture the imagination of large or important audiences.”
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/rsz_chalkboard-620316_1280.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1217" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/rsz_chalkboard-620316_1280-1024x514.jpg" alt="what's your story?" width="1024" height="514" /></a>
More from Seth on <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/04/ode_how_to_tell.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">How to tell a great story</a>.
<ul>
<li>Add Quotes 
See Seth&#8217;s quote above! A good quote reference will back up your points.</li>
<li>Use Examples 
If you can reference an example, readers will not only come away with an idea of how to do something – they’ll have seen it in action.</li>
<li>Add your opinion 
Facts mixed with your opinion make posts more interesting.</li>
<li>Add Photos 
It’s incredible what a simple image or photograph can do to help make a point, particularly <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/photography-web-design/">with photography online</a>. I’m not just talking about eye-catching title images – but those that actually add value and depth to your posts. If you don&#8217;t have your own photography bank, you can try stock or royalty free or there are some very good stock sites that offer content that is free for commercial use. See <a href="https://unsplash.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unsplash.com</a>, <a href="https://stocksnap.io" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stocksnap.io</a> and <a href="http://www.raumrot.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">raumrot.com</a> for example.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Publishing &amp; Promotion</h3>
It’s always good to test what works for you and your audience. At Friday, we usually only publish blog posts on weekdays and generally towards the end of the week. Our target audience is working office hours and will mostly consume our content during those periods.
The end of the week can work better to publish, as many people are often busier at the start of the week.
Once you have published content on your website, search engines will pick it up pretty quickly but you’ll want to push it out on through your relevant channels also. For example:
<ul>
<li>Email Newsletters</li>
<li>Social Channels e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn</li>
</ul>
Check out this nice <a href="https://friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/social-media-best-times.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">infographic</a> from SurePayRoll on best times for each.
<div>Courtesy of: <a href="http://www.surepayroll.com/">SurePayroll</a></div>
That’s it, happy writing. If you liked this post, feel free to share it.

Writing great content online

It’s about knowing your audience and building trust.
For anyone who’s not quite sure about what Content Marketing really is, I like how the Content Marketing Institute <a title="Content Marketing" href="http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">put it</a>:
<blockquote>“Content marketing is a marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience &#8211; and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”</blockquote>
But it’s not as simple as just creating content for our customers and waiting for the results. Before you start a Content Marketing Strategy you have to ask (and be able to answer) 3 basic questions:
<ul>
<li>Target Audience: who will benefit most from my content?</li>
<li>What types of content will be delivered?</li>
<li>Goals: what will the outcome be for both my audience, and separately for me / my organisation?</li>
</ul>
With Content, people often focus on the most obvious part (creating it) and don’t quite realise that there’s a bit more to getting the mix right.
Like baking a cake, a good Content Marketing Strategy is made up of different ingredients. Each one is important in it’s own right but they are all interdependent and all necessary to make your content marketing work right for you.
The four main ingredients are:
<ol>
<li>Content Ideas</li>
<li>People</li>
<li>Distribution</li>
<li>Analytics</li>
</ol>
So as Walter White would put it, let&#8217;s cook&#8230;
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Content Ideas: Planning &amp; Research</h3>
If you already have a website, there are a few things to consider. Remember that the goal is not just to create awareness, but to also create trust.
<ul>
<li>What are we selling, product or service? Write it down.</li>
<li>If we’re selling a range of products or services, pick the ones you want to market and make a list.</li>
<li>What type of content will appeal to my target audience &#8211; tips, tutorials, video, etc.</li>
</ul>
Research: Based on your list of key products or services use tools to find information on popular content topics related to your business. Such tools include: <a href="http://www.reddit.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reddit</a>, <a href="http://trendsmap.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter trends</a>, <a href="https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Keyword Planner</a>, <a href="http://www.spyfu.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SpyFu</a> and <a href="http://moz.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MOZ</a>.
From this research you can find what your potential audience is discussing, sharing and engaging in relevant to your goals. Decide how long you want to plan your content schedule &#8211; 12 months is an obvious duration.
Seasons, holidays or any kind of recurring events are an opportunity to plan a content calendar well in advance. For each service or product type or benefit write down titles for different post ideas. Don&#8217;t be afraid to share your knowledge &#8211; sharing brings honesty and builds trust.
Note: Headlines account for up to 85% of engagement rates in written content.
For each content idea, ask the following questions:
<ul>
<li>Is this content relevant to what we do as a business or organisation?</li>
<li>Will it be useful to our target audience?</li>
<li>Will it help us to achieve our goals?</li>
</ul>
Stock &amp; Flow
Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s a stream of regular updates that let people know that you exist. Your news, your industry news, regular information that is of value to your audience.
Stock is the stronger content. It’s the type that is as interesting in 6 months as it is right now. It’s what people find through search building trust and your audience. Try to think of content that has a lasting or ‘evergreen’ value &#8211; that could bring your website good search traffic over a sustained period.
<h3 style="text-align: center;">People</h3>
A good content strategy needs people to power it. In our Dublin office, all Friday staff are encouraged to write about their roles and the services around the work they do.
It doesn’t have to be Pulitzer worthy, but everyone submits subject ideas and writes a good post at least once a month. These posts are then edited and optimised for SEO before publishing on our Journal.
Writing content comes easy to some while others (including myself) agonise over it at times. We often hear a good plan or see one written down and think ‘yep, this looks and sounds great… can’t wait to get started!’ Our plan often starts well, and then peters out&#8230;
Because writing and publishing content doesn’t have a direct or immediate pay off, the plan too easily falls apart. To avoid this, we need a good content plan, we need to write it down, and we must have people to take ownership of the plan to ensure that it is delivered. This is essential.
Build a combination of stock and flow content in your plan, and assign it to different people in a your content calendar with clear and realistic deadlines.
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Distribution</h3>
The first rule of content distribution is having enough quality content in the first place. In most situations you will be releasing content as news items or blog posts, video or infographics and very often from your website.
If you publish content on your website that’s a start, you then want to shout about it to drive traffic through. Here are two key channels:
Email
A lot like social media, people often make their newsletters generic &#8211; a range of different content types that generally promotes their offering.
Give your newsletter more purpose by defining what stage of the customer buying cycle they should be used for. Up to 60% of email is read on smartphones now and when opened it is skimmed over quickly. Avoid ramming in all of your content into one email and instead elect your best pieces highlighted with engaging titles.
Social Media
Most marketers use their social channels to market their content just by posting it and dusting their hands. But it can more than this.
There has been significant growth of some big feeds which focus on doing one thing really well. History in Pics is a good example of this. For example, depending on your market, you might be able to create a few different accounts which focus on doing one thing well, and slowly release your content at the same time.
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Analytics</h3>
Website Analytics
What content is building the most traffic and engagement? It’s important to see link and social share data for each content piece and to analyse how it performs over time.
Google Analytics is the best free analytics tool available for website / app analytics. Moz Pro is a great tool for reporting on your everything from your keyword search rank positions, your domain authority to your social media interactions.
Organic Traffic
Which keywords and what content items are driving traffic to your website?
I would usually look back at least 12 months to get a basis for comparison on top level searches to get an idea of which keywords are performing best relevant to your content.
Keyword Research
While I don&#8217;t completely trust all of the numbers keyword data results from Google’s Keyword Planner, it is a nice tool for generating new keyword and key phrase ideas. The data does give an indication of where opportunities are, especially for traffic that doesn&#8217;t carry high competition.
Google Webmaster Tools will also give some solid data on new keyword ranking or rank position opportunities.
SEO Analysis
Having mapped out your content, you should analyse how strong your competitors are at ranking their content A good way to do this for SEO is to use Moz tools to find out domain authority and inbound links. Competitor analysis is a paid feature for Moz Pro.
For social media, check of how many fans or followers your competitors have and how often they are posting and engaging.
<hr />
Summing up
As part of a solid <a title="The Digital Strategy Battlefield" href="https://friday.ie/blog/the-digital-strategy-battlefield/">Digital Strategy</a>, good content is marketing&#8217;s best opportunity to be truly creative. It does this by being valuable and relevant to your target audiences, it creates trust in your brand, and it builds the permission you need to do business.

Mixing a great Content Marketing Strategy

You have one chance to make a first impression and when it comes to your website, that first impression will be heavily tainted if your customers experience a slow homepage load.
These days with the widespread availability of broadband and fast internet connections, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://blog.kissmetrics.com/loading-time/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://blog.kissmetrics.com/loading-time/">almost 50% of web users would expect a website to load in two seconds or less</a>. According to the same statistics, 78% of e-commerce users would not return to the website if it takes too long to load.
Not only will a slow website deter potential customers, but it will also affect your rankings in Google search results. Most people would think that their content and domain names would be the only influence in Google rankings, but in 2010, Google made an announcement in which the page speed would have a big impact on the rankings in which not only will fast sites be ranked higher, but also slow loading mobile pages will be penalised. A fast site will thus ensure returning customers, higher traffic and higher ranking.
<h3 class="graf--h3">How to measure your site’s speed?</h3>
There are various tools and websites to measure and benchmark your site’s speed and using various tools helps in giving you a more rounded conclusion of your site speed. The three most popular tools are <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/">PageSpeed Insights</a> , <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://gtmetrix.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="http://gtmetrix.com/">GTmetrix</a> and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://tools.pingdom.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="http://tools.pingdom.com/">Pingdom</a>.
<figure class="graf--figure">
<div class="aspectRatioPlaceholder is-locked">
<div class="aspect-ratio-fill"></div>
<img decoding="async" class="graf-image" src="https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/800/1*qair02pjl4Gq1LUgUlBGlw.png" alt="" data-image-id="1*qair02pjl4Gq1LUgUlBGlw.png" data-width="445" data-height="345" />
</div>
</figure>
So what is the secret to having a fast site? What can be done?
<h4 class="graf--h4">Optimising images</h4>
When it comes to things slowing your website, images are the main culprit. Saving your images in the correct format can save you a large number of kilobytes which might not sound like much, but you would be surprised at how many seconds that can shave off your loading time. Every millisecond counts when it comes to optimising your website’s speed and performance.
<h4 class="graf--h4">Minifying and combining HTML, CSS and Javascript</h4>
The various functions on your website tend to call upon various resources and script files. Each time your website loads a new resource, it uses up more resources and takes an extra millisecond to load. By minifying and combining all the files, you decrease the number of requests and would shave seconds off your load time. By now, you should already notice your website being faster.
<h4 class="graf--h4">Enable Caching</h4>
Caching is the process in which the browser stores portions of your website so that when you revisit the site, it would not need to reload everything again.
<h4 class="graf--h4">Enabling compression</h4>
Serving your site as it is, raw files and texts use a lot of resources. By compressing your site, you can optimise the speed of it by up to 70 percent. Compressing your site is not as straightforward as some of the other tips in this post, so contact us and we can help you with it.
<h4 class="graf--h4">Optimising your database</h4>
If you are using a WordPress powered site, your WordPress Database can contain a lot of useless data which can cause it to bloat and slow down the website. The useless data ranges from spam, unapproved comments and disabled plugin data. Cleaning out those entries speeds up your website and makes sure that all the data in the database is required. Messing around with the database can be very risky and affect your site permanently.
<h4 class="graf--h4">Turning off pingbacks and trackbacks</h4>
WordPress powered sites use Pingbacks and trackbacks methods to alert other blogs that your posts link to. They can be a drain the page speed and are usually better turned off if you don’t really need them.
<h4 class="graf--h4">Using a fast web host</h4>
You may have everything done correctly; optimised images, cached webpages and you have minified and combined all your files, but your page is still running slower than you expect. At that stage, it may not be anything you are doing, but rather, it might be the work of the web host. If your web hosting is an issue, talk to your website developer about switching to a reputable web hosting company.
<h3 class="graf--h3">Summary</h3>
Each website is different, and there may be various and different reasons why your website may be slow. If you need help with optimisation, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/contact/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contact us</a> and we will be happy to perform an audit and help speed up your website.

Tips on how to Speed up your Website

Welcome to our round-up of top digital marketing trends for 2015. As ever there are many digital channels to consider but we&#8217;re going to take a quick look at the top trends we think will matter most over the next 12 months.
We’re not just looking at trends, we look at things marketers are doing more of and that you can take advantage of and use right now. Let’s start with Mobile.
<h3>Mobile </h3>
Looking at this year’s growth in smartphone penetration and mobile traffic, having a Mobile Marketing strategy is in fact now compulsory. If your digital marketing is not optimised for mobile you are losing. In the Republic of Ireland, Comreg reports that for the 2nd quarter of 2014 smartphone use rose to 59%, a 14.7% increase in the previous period. Source: <a title="ComReg Market Report" href="http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComRegPR11092014.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ComReg Market Report September 2014 (PDF)</a>.
Google has put a new focus on website mobile-friendly functionality. Mobile usability is now “relevant for optimal search results.” This emphasis is underpinned by the release of a new tool in Google Webmaster Tools called &#8216;Mobile Usability’.
Mobile Payments 
 
Global Mobile payments will rise to $142bn by 2019, but which provider will be the dominant force in payment services?
Retale&#8217;s new mobile report offers some insight:
<ul>
<li>36% have used mobile payments before, over double the 2012 figure.</li>
<li>Almost 3 out of 5 (56%) are interested in using mobile payments when shopping for holidays.</li>
<li>24% say mobile payments are inconvenient relative to cash, credit and debit cards.</li>
<li>Nearly 30% cited privacy concerns as a potential obstacle to them using mobile payments.</li>
<li>53% of ‘young people born between 1980 and 2000’ (there was another term here but I redacted it) have used mobile pay in-store (17% higher than average)</li>
<li>When asked to choose a mobile payment solution they would prefer to use in-store, 51% said PayPal with Apple Pay in third place with 10%.</li>
</ul>
Despite the surge in traffic, mobile website transactions account for single-digit percentages. So while customers do research goods and services with their smartphones they are less likely to use their device to pay for them.
<h3>Content</h3>
Good, relevant content is still a must-have for any <a title="The Digital Strategy Battlefield" href="https://friday.ie/blog/the-digital-strategy-battlefield/">digital marketing strategy</a>. For content to work online, it typically needs to be one or more of 3 things for users to engage and share it: interesting, informative or funny.
As smartphone use continues to grow customers are consuming much more content and at a faster speed.
<h4>What does this mean for marketers?</h4>
The way that users engage content on smaller screens has shifted to a more visual, graphics led way. The rise in popularity of social apps such as Instagram, Pinterest and Flipboard and the ubiquity of YouTube.
For businesses and brands, this means a shift in focus for using photography and in particular video. With the availability of 4G services on smartphones, users are consuming video content while on the go.
In 2015, we will see more marketers planning and releasing highly visual content for mobile. More than this, because of the sheer pace of news these days, it&#8217;s important that marketers own not just the management and release of their content but also as much of the production process as possible. For example, that means taking simple photographs, making video tutorials or filming workshops.
Most people can absorb information faster and easier through video as opposed to by reading. A well-executed video of 60 &#8211; 90 seconds can do a lot more to communicate the value of a product or service than just words on a page. The technology is here now in terms of devices and mobile broadband, the opportunity is to bring that content in that can get to work quickly.
<h3>Customer Experience</h3>
Customer experience has never been more critical to online success. With the marketing shift from the old customer ‘awareness’ to awareness and also ‘advocacy&#8217;, customer experience is key to building loyalty, retention and sales.
It is hugely important to have great content and technology of course, but how we develop, measure and optimise the customer journey on top of this is key to success.
eConsultancy have recently published a new report on the <a title="Voice of the Customer" href="https://econsultancy.com/three-takeaways-from-the-voice-of-the-customer-roundtable/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Voice of the Customer</a>. There are 3 key main steps the report talks about as best practice approach to customer experience.
Listen 
Online surveys are helpful to get honest ratings and feedback on your products or services.
Measure 
Use tools to help track and record information about your customers. Google Analytics, Mouseflow, Trends. Data that you get on bounce rates, devices and drop-offs can help you to optimise the CX on your website.
Act 
Data and feedback are of little use if they are not used and acted on. It is important to plan and review and assess customer experience on an ongoing basis and take action to both address issues and enhance and improve.
Key reference points for understanding customer experience include:
<ul>
<li>Understanding how mobile users research / buy products</li>
<li>Understanding when and where customers use different devices</li>
<li>Using offline data to optimise the online experience</li>
<li>Using online data to optimise the offline experience</li>
<li>Ensuring consistency of message across channels</li>
<li>Having a clear understanding of customer journeys across channels</li>
<li>Training teams in new techniques, channels and disciplines</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<h3>Wearables</h3>
Wearables have been a hot topic this year and 2015 will see some big new technology launches. Opportunities are still just available to those at the software/application development stage but it is important to be aware of changes. The big players are in the mix with Google Glass, Apple Watch and Oculus Rift which Facebook recently acquired.
<h4>Oculus Rift.</h4>
In good shape after Facebook’s take over, <a title="Oculus Rift" href="http://www.oculus.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oculus Rift</a> hopes to launch “in months” according to CEO Brendan Iribe. Hardware is currently available for developers and there is big potential here for virtual meetings and healthcare as well as video gaming.
Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe talks with Peter Rubin at the Web Summit, November 2014.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Web Summit Day One - Brendan Iribe in conversation with Peter Rubin" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9tz6gai51Mo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h4> 
Apple Watch</h4>
The jury is out on whether Apple’s <a title="Apple Watch" href="https://www.apple.com/watch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new device</a> will fly. Its release date is set for early 2015 and prices are from around €300 and there is <a title="Forbes iPhone speculation" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/12/03/apple-iphone-6s-release-date-speculation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">some uncertainty</a> of the benefits of owning the watch and iPhone being big enough to justify having one. The potential with fitness apps is interesting and car location devices and electric power level readers such as BMW’s planned car app. Watch this space.
<h4>Google Glass</h4>
Google Glass is a piece of augmented reality technical genius right out of Minority Report. The possibilities are endless. Its biggest challenge is how to get it to work well for people who wear normal glasses. The device essentially works by projecting a semi-transparent prism directly on to the wearer&#8217;s retina.
Check out this brilliant how it works infographic from <a title="Martin Missfeldt" href="http://www.brillen-sehhilfen.de/en/googleglass/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Martin Missfeldt</a>.
Update 15/01/2015: Google is discontinuing the first version of Google Glass with a new version due later in 2015. <a title="Google Glass discontinued" href="http://mashable.com/2015/01/15/google-ends-tony-faldell-nest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More at Mashable</a>.
<h4>In Summary</h4>
The big trend for us in 2015 is mobile content. The evidence is there:
<ul>
<li>Double-digit increases in device usage and specifically website traffic.</li>
<li>Content should be optimised for mobile first, and have a steady balance between visuals (photography, video, graphics) and copy.</li>
<li>Marketers should have as much control as possible of content strategy, management and release and engage experienced creative partners where needed.</li>
</ul>
For more facts and figures on Mobile Trends specifically, check out this interesting post on <a title="the Future of Mobile" href="https://mobile1st.com/ready-for-mobile-cro-marketings-new-optimization-science/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Future of Mobile CRO</a> by Dan Engel.

Digital Marketing Trends in 2015

We all want to get the best impact and value from our marketing. With the fast pace of change that we see across digital marketing, it can be a challenge for businesses and marketers to keep up.
A good web presence should be an investment, one that adds value to your business.
There are areas where many businesses fall behind but there are opportunities to not only catch up but to get ahead. And so follows the key areas across technology, design and content that can help businesses to future-proof their digital marketing.
<h3>Be Responsive</h3>
Technology is ever evolving and this includes how people view websites and content on the web. As we enter 2015, responsive web design is perhaps the biggest factor in future-proofing a website. As new devices emerge, a responsively designed website will be ready for anything. If you don’t have one, now is the time to optimise your user’s browsing experience by creating a flexible and dynamic website, which allows you to stay ahead of the trend.
Mobile web traffic usage is currently averaging at 50% and global mobile data traffic grew 81% in 2013 &#8211; read the CISCO report <a href="http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/white_paper_c11-520862.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
<h3>Retina Ready</h3>
With the evolution of device displays, the amount of users using Retina-enabled devices continues to grow at a rapid rate. Website analytics can help you assess how many users are coming to your site using these devices. Your website may have been built recently but check if it’s graphics, buttons, gradients, patterns etc. appear less sharp and more blurry on a Retina screen. If they do, high-resolution versions or SVGs* can easily replace these, ensuring your site looks at it’s very best as more users adopt high-resolution mobile technology. The latest iMac has a 5K Retina display, that is more pixels than a digital cinema screen. The future of PC screens too will be a HiDPI-enabled one (the non-Apple word for Retina).
*Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg) have been around for a long time but are often overlooked. They are resolution independent and their scaling capabilities mean that they are truly future-proof.
<h3>A Flexible CMS</h3>
WordPress is the most popular CMS and blogging system in use on the web. It powers over 60 million websites worldwide as well as being one of the most expandable content platforms available. There are thousands of plugins available that can add custom functionality to your website so it is FRIDAY&#8217;s choice of CMS. Read more about the power of WordPress in <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/web-design-weapon-choice-wordpress/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ziggy&#8217;s post here</a>.
<h3>Fresh Content</h3>
Unless you&#8217;ve had your head in the sand for the last number of years, you will be aware of the importance of publishing quality content about your business or brand. Remember to write for your audience, not for search engines but optimise your content with keywords as you go. Google creates algorithms that mimic human behaviour and it notices the relevance and quality of your content first.
A blog can be a great source of content and it serves as a free platform for you to share info, thoughts and insights. With good content, you can get more people to link to your site and talk about your brand. We recommend you create a content marketing strategy to help you plan and schedule regular post uploads.
<h3>Social</h3>
You should be using every channel at your disposal to direct your audience where you want them to go (your choice should remain relevant to the business and it&#8217;s potential clients.. ie: while a children&#8217;s clothes store won&#8217;t find many customers on LinkedIn, a business consultancy will). Of course, it makes sense to use incentives to encourage participation, while making sure that a) it’s easy and b) the user has something to gain. But the era of free social marketing is over: social networks have to make money and they can’t do this by continuing to offer their audience engagement platforms to brands for free. Although social media isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, it&#8217;s a good idea to start to adjust your strategy. Use these channels to direct your audience back to your own website or newly launched app or microsite, and in doing so, you will create a long-term home for your community. It&#8217;s more than any social network can offer.
Read how Taco Bell recently used <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/taco-bell-explains-its-social-media-blackout-and-how-it-lit-mobile-orders-within-hours-161094" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this original idea</a> to launch their new online app. This is the future of social marketing.
<h3>Design For Emotion</h3>
Think of emotion as a bridge or a messenger. Draw inspiration from the little sparks or connections in the relationship between you and your clients. Then create new connections that can help you sell, promote or educate. Because of the exponential rise in smartphone usage, people engage in content in a more visual way. Through the use of photography and video, people can relate to people more. People ignore design that ignores people. So use human faces to catch attention, guideline of sight, engage, visualise emotions, create appeal, trust and authority, and if possible to make people smile.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-868" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/people1.jpg" alt="people" width="767" height="246" />
Recently we met with a client who took 1.5 years to redevelop their name and identity. They used focus groups to identify strengths and issues with their brand as it currently stands and learned that they have a huge opportunity to appeal to the driving emotions of their target audience. We are looking forward to extending this into the design and build of the website which will launch their new brand.

Future-Proof your Digital Marketing

A lot of businesses look at strategy and planning in an ad-hoc way. They make reactionary calls as they go when the latest businesses needs and new technologies surface.
Have you ever worked on a project and the scope of requirements are adjusted half way in? For example, someone decides that the business needs a new Smartphone app with geo location and dynamic content&#8230;. just because.
If you’ve shared this experience you’ll be aware how reactionary businesses can be, but there’s an opportunity for some long-term thinking. A plan.
<h2 class="p1">The Digital Strategy</h2>
If you plan to be successful online, it’s vital that you focus on what you want to communicate, who you want to communicate to and how you’re going to communicate it. 
The digital marketing strategy is the plan that ensures your digital marketing efforts are tailored to your target audience, in a way that maximises return on investment. It can take a lot of work and effort to put your plan in place. But like many things in life worth doing, they can be a battle.
<blockquote>
“As you’ve probably discovered, great work makes us uncomfortable…” <a title="Doing the best I can - Seth Godin" href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/08/doing-the-best-i-can-.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seth Godin</a>.
</blockquote>
There are different approaches to engaging a digital strategy. I like to think of it as planning an assault on a digital battlefield. At the core, your strategy should include four steps:
<ol>
<li>Research: survey your battlefield</li>
<li>Goals: Set the Targets and Objectives</li>
<li>Plan your assault: Tools &amp; Tactics</li>
<li>Review &amp; Optimise</li>
</ol>
Within each of these stages, a number of techniques and digital channels can be used, from search marketing to web design &amp; user experience to social marketing.
<h3 class="p1">1. Research</h3>
You can never have too much research. Know your target audience inside-out, find out how, when, why and what they are looking for online. Try these:
<ul>
<li>Surveys / Interviews</li>
<li>Client Workshop</li>
<li>Keyword research</li>
<li>Competitor Analysis</li>
</ul>
Staying on the competition; Competitor Analysis often includes steps found in traditional marketing such as products, prices, etc. There are a couple of important factors to consider:
<ul>
<li>User experience: Gauge the usability or customer service of your business and contrasted it with your competitors and potential substitutes. What are their websites like, how is the buying or engagement experience?</li>
<li>Features/functionality analysis: An evaluation of the features and functionality provided by your business or service compare with the competition.</li>
<li>Reach: how do your competitors rank in search results, for social media loyalty and engagement?</li>
</ul>
<h3 class="p2">2. Goals: Set your Targets</h3>
Where are your marketing problems? Where are the opportunities and how can digital marketing help?
It’s difficult to measure your success if you haven’t set specific goals and targets. It’s not enough to simply “build website sales”. How much do you want to grow and over what time frame?
All goals should be realistic and achievable. Everything you do must be relevant to your customer behaviour. Decide what you want to achieve: Keep current customers? Get new customers, up your average purchase value, or increase leads?
KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) will help to structure your goals and create measurable goals. For example:
<ul>
<li>Increase click through rates.</li>
<li>Increase conversion rates.</li>
<li>Reduce bounce rate.</li>
<li>Reduce cart abandonment.</li>
</ul>
<h3 class="p2">3. Plan your assault: Tools &amp; Tactics</h3>
At the planning stage you should be aware of:
<ul>
<li>What you are doing well and where you can improve across digital channels.</li>
<li>Your Target Audience</li>
<li>Your Competition</li>
</ul>
If you know who your competitors are, you have some idea of how to differentiate yourself in your industry. But it&#8217;s your target customers that should be the strongest influence on your brand or business. Having <a title="The Birth of Friday a well developed brand" href="https://friday.ie/blog/brand-identity-and-the-birth-of-friday/">a well developed brand</a> is important because: 
<ul>
<li>Your business must engage your target audience to drive sales.</li>
<li>Your target customers demographics and buying habits will determine who you are, and therefore what your brand is.</li>
<li>Your brand affects how well you sell or talk to your target audiences.</li>
</ul>
Tools &amp; Tactics
Based on our research and planning, which digital channels are best suited to engage our target audiences? We can break them down into 3 areas: Reach, Convert and Engage.
<ul>
<li>Reach: These are typically off-site channels that build awareness and drive traffic on to your website or web properties: Search Optimisation, PPC, Affiliate Marketing and Social Media.</li>
<li>Conversion: What takes place on your website or app. What features should your website have? What content will appeal to your target audiences? Key tasks include: website optimisation, good user experience, device friendly content, sale conversion, lead generation, testing.</li>
<li>Engagement: Building customers and followers to drive repeat visits and sales. Key tasks: Content marketing e.g. Blog, promotional email marketing, customer support, social media engagement.</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/the-funnel-digital-marketing.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-592" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/the-funnel-digital-marketing.jpg" alt="the-funnel-digital-marketing" width="580" height="825" /></a>
<h3 class="p1">4. Review and Optimise</h3>
The final and essential piece of the Digital Strategy jigsaw is to monitor performance and KPI’s.
Google Analytics, Ranking reports, Sales and Conversion tracking. The following graphic uses data from a recent eConsultancy survey which asks what are the top digital channel priorities for companies in 2014.
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/key-digital-strategy-channels.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-591 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/key-digital-strategy-channels-1024x601.png" alt="key-digital-strategy-channels" width="1024" height="601" /></a>
&#8220;Digital thinking should be embedded in marketing strategies as a matter of course. Digital may not be relevant to every marketing effort, but organisations need to properly consider digital and change their culture and processes to become more digitally oriented.&#8221; from eConsultancy&#8217;s <a title="The Modern Marketing Manifesto" href="https://econsultancy.com/blog/62668-our-modern-marketing-manifesto-will-you-sign" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Modern Marketing Manifesto</a>.
At Friday, as an agency we have to be commercially focussed and know where &amp; why money is being made online. We have to understand how to measure and optimise key commercial metrics to be able to help solve marketing problems for our clients. If you need help planning or executing your digital marketing strategy, <a title="Contact us" href="https://friday.ie/contact/" rel="noopener">give us a shout</a>, we can help.

The Digital Strategy Battlefield

Congratulations to me! I’ve recently joined the ranks of the <a href="http://www.richmediagallery.com/certified">DoubleClick Studio certified</a>. Friday is now one of 6 Irish companies listed on DoubleClick’s list of certified partners, and I am one of 8 qualified developers to make the list. 
To date I’ve completed the Core Flash Studio Certification, Youtube Masthead Certification, (one of our most requested formats), and the Dynamic creative certification, (update your banners on the fly without re-trafficking them).
<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/badges1.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-494" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/badges1.jpg" alt="badges" width="690" height="195" /></a>
I’ve been creating banners in DoubleClick for over 4 years, and DoubleClick is in my opinion, the best platform for building Rich Flash Banner ads. We’ve worked with Ireland&#8217;s top advertising agencies to create rich interactive banner experiences for their clients. From in-banner games, to dynamic video content, to the newest advertising formats, we’ve done it all. 
To get an idea of the capabilities and advantages of building Rich media ads on the DoubleClick platform, check out <a title="Rich Media Gallery" href="http://www.richmediagallery.com/gallery/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the gallery</a>, where an ad that we built is featured. Unfortunately, because we worked in with an advertising agency on that particular project, I can’t tell you which one it is. ;)
Flash banners are still our most request digital ad format, but HTML5 is starting to catch up. As mobile advertising market increases we’re on board with it.
While Doubleclick supports HTML5 formats, I have to admit that <a href="http://www.celtra.com">Celtra</a> is my preferred platform for building HTML5 rich ads. They’ve really carved a niche for themselves in providing a quality platform for building rich ad experiences, providing ready built components and providing excellent support, so that we can focus on the design and functionality of the creative without having to code from scratch. A real life-saver when it comes to the digital advertising sector, where deadlines are tight, and updates need to be made quickly and on the fly.
As soon as they start giving out badges, I’ll be first in line to add them to my list.
<iframe loading="lazy" class="vine-embed" src="https://vine.co/v/MjBDprqwIrK/embed/simple" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe><script src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>

DoubleClick Studio Certification

Here at Friday, we have a good number of Facebook contests under our belts, ranging from simple social contest competition forms to full-featured HTML5 and Flash games. Needless to say, we’ve picked up a few tips along the way. 
Thinking of running a contest from your Facebook page? First of all, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Think about what your ultimate goal is, and make sure you’re using the most appropriate method to reach your fans.
&nbsp;
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Running a contest from your Timeline</h3>
The simplest way by far is to run a contest directly from your Page timeline. Up until August 27th 2013, It was against Facebook’s rules to run a competition from your timeline. We’re all familiar with the old familiar “Like/Share/Comment this post to enter”. Well this was against Facebook Platform Policies until last August. Until then, the only legal way to run a contest was to house the contest within an app, or run the risk of your Page being shut down by Facebook.
Now though, Page Managers can easily, quickly, and cheaply run a contest directly from the Facebook timeline. It’s not a complete free-for-all though, so before you start, check the list of Do’s and Dont’s below.
 
<h4>What You Can Do:</h4>
<ul>
<li>Ask people to enter by liking or commenting on a post that you create.</li>
<li>Ask people to post to your page to be in with a chance to enter.</li>
<li>Ask people to message your page to enter.</li>
<li>Use Likes as Votes. i.e. ask people to vote for a winner by liking a post or photo that you post to your page.</li>
<li>Announce the winner of the contest on your page (This was forbidden previously)</li>
<li>Require that to win the prize, entrants come back to your page to see who has won the contest</li>
<li>Use a Like button plugin on a website as a voting mechanism</li>
</ul>
<h4>What You Can’t Do:</h4>
<ul>
<li>Require that people share a post or photo to be entered</li>
<li>Require someone to post something on their own personal timeline or a friend’s timeline to enter</li>
<li>Require people to tag themselves in a photo to either vote or enter</li>
<li>Have anyone who likes your page be entered to win (contest does not take place on the timeline)</li>
</ul>
 
So, great news for running competitions on your timeline. This type of contest will offer fast engagement with fans, and good reach, as simply entering a Timeline contest will share the post with a users friends. It’s also free to run, and will work on Desktop and mobile devices out of the box. Just remember to include in your contest post that the contest is in no way affiliated with Facebook.
What if you don’t care about Likes and Reach? What if your priority is getting people into your business premises as quickly and easily as possible? Read on&#8230;
&nbsp;
<h3>Facebook Offers</h3>
Another simple approach to increasing engagement with fans is to create a Facebook Offer. If you just want to get customers into your shop / restaurant / premises, this is the way to go. If at lest 50 people have liked your page, you can create an offer for free. The cost implications arise only when you want to promote your offer through Facebook advertising.
If you are in a position to offer a discount or special offer to Facebook fans, then Facebook Offers is a quick, cheap, out of the box solution to increase footfall. Get more info on how to set up an offer <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/410451192330456">here</a>.
Remember to make your offer enticing to the user. 50c off a €40 bill won’t get bums on seats. But a free cocktail with every main course? Sign me up.
But wait, there’s more! What if you want to collect user data, such as email addresses? What if increasing Likes on your page is a priority? What if you have a print / Digital Display campaign running and you want your contest to work in harmony with it? If any of those options tickle your fancy, then it sounds like you need a Facebook App.
&nbsp;
<h3>Facebook Apps</h3>
We’re no stranger to a custom built Facebook app here at Friday. We’ve covered most of the bases from simple forms, to HTML5 and Flash Games, to Photo Upload Apps.
The benefits of a custom built app over a Timeline contest are many. A custom built Facebook app is essentially a website within your Facebook page, so the possibilities are endless.
However, when coming up with a Facebook App idea, the golden rule is to build it around the user experience, rather than the brand&#8217;s objectives. Consider the type of user that visits your page, and what kind of content they are likely to be interested in, and what type of content is appropriate for your brand.
The benefits of a custom built app include:
<h4>1. Getting more &#8216;Likes&#8217; for your brands Facebook Page.</h4>
‘Fan Gating’ or ‘Like Gating’, is a process where a Page can create a barrier to content that a user can see only when they ‘Like’ the Brand’s page.
You can set up a Page Tab App, whereby teaser content is displayed to users who don’t already “Like” your Page. Once they like your page, you can reveal content that the user will want to see.
Make sure that the incentive is worth the interaction by the user. A person is unlikely to like your Brand Page unless they are interested in what’s being offered beyond the ‘Like’. Consider a discount code, or an opportunity to enter a competition to win a prize.
The downside of this approach is that it won’t work for mobile users, as Page Tab Apps aren’t available on the Facebook mobile apps. For Desktop users, however, this can be a great way to increase your Like count with relatively minimal effort.
&nbsp;
<h4>2. Increasing brand Awareness. </h4>
Share, share, share. Facebook Share buttons are a great way to allow users to quickly share content with their friends. Clients love putting share buttons on everything. Just having it there isn’t going to get the followers flooding in though. Consider what people like to share, and consider what would entice a user to share your content.
It seems like a no-brainer, but we’ve actually been asked if you can force people to share content within an app. No, you can’t. You can make it enticing for them to do so, however, by considering your content. Will sharing your content reflect positively on the user? Make sure the content is centered more around the user than your brand.
&nbsp;
<h4>3. Collecting customer data for marketing research purposes. </h4>
Housing a contest within a Facebook app means you can collect data on your user that you can’t from say a Timeline Contest. Using an app, you can collect a lot of data on a user, as long as they grant you permission to do so. Some of the data you can collect after being granted user permission includes email addresses, location, birthday, photos, check-ins, and more.
Utilizing the Facebook SDK to create Facebook Apps means that you can engage more deeply and personally with your users, and can be a great way to build your fanbase and connect with new fans.
Don’t believe me? Check out my favourite example of what can be achieved with Facebook connect, the Intel ‘<a href="https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/the-making-of-museum-of-me/">Museum of Me</a>’.
&nbsp;
Thinking of creating a Facebook app for your brand? <a title="Contact" href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Contact us today</a>.
&nbsp;