I spoke last week at WTM Vision Shanghai conference and one retail store owner shared his concern that mobile may compete with and hurt his off-line retail business.
People are more comfortable shopping on mobile. Take China mobile market for example, the total mobile shopping transactions in the first quarter has an increase of 207% compared to the same period in the previous year. [Read more...]
Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp are the most popular digital communication tools nowadays; but, not in China. So how does 618 million China internet users communicate? This post serves as an introduction for that.
Tencent’s success is built on their instant messenger, QQ. In China, it’s very widely used IM with about 800 million active users; between friends, among strangers, and for business purposes. [Read more...]
Almost all digital marketing proposals include a strategy part which however is often represented by one simple slide and used more than once with little amendment.
A truly working strategy for each company is unique and developed after research, serious analysis and testing. It takes weeks or even months to develop a digital marketing strategy involving complex processes. If you are not experienced developing digital marketing strategy, let me share a simplified framework to help you get started.
A digital marketing strategy is a well thought plan concentrating companies’ resources on the optimal digital channels and tactics in order to generate sales in a self-sustaining manner.
It should include both short-term and long-term plans integrating multiple digital channels, online and offline, to maximize a company’s return on investment. [Read more...]
A Facebook contest often naturally comes to marketers’ mind, which can be launched in less than an hour. But, a lack of Facebook contest strategy may lead to poor results.
You may be surprised to know many businesses don’t have clear objective when launching a Facebook contest, many of which simply aim for more fans. You should always have a well defined objective and KPI for measuring the success of your contest at the very beginning of the planning process.
It’s almost always among the first things to do in developing digital strategies for most digital channels. Without a thorough understanding and analysis of target demographic, the success of digital campaigns is left to chances. [Read more...]
B2B businesses are conventionally harder to market than those selling to consumers, which especially requires strategic planning and phases of digital marketing tactics across channels.
A recent report by RAIN Group shed some light on factors that separates B2B sales winners from their challengers; bringing something new and valuable to the table is the most important thing that top sales people do differently. [Read more...]
C-level executives are stepping up their own involvement in shaping and driving digital strategies, shown in a recent McKinsey survey. Executives surveyed list digital customer engagement as top strategic priority, who report notable progress since deploying engagement practices in 2012. [Read more...]
I chanced upon this Airbnb banner ad in Google’s display network during my business trip in China last month. I clicked on this ad which led me to this landing page:
After viewing the landing page, I realized Airbnb is likely to fail in its attempt in expanding into Chinese market; let me tell you why. [Read more...]
Facebook is to launch several premium ads products soon to provide brands more ways to advertise to its audience on Facebook, and changing the current Page design to timeline (by end March). This post briefly discusses the changes on Page and ads marketers should be aware.
Previously (and right now), the sponsored story appear on the right-hand side. But, it will appear as a sponsored story on the right-hand side and it can also appear in news feed on both desktop and mobile. All of these placements are on Facebook’s homepage. [Read more...]
As mobile is showing its increasing power and popularity to marketers, many businesses are still hesitant building a mobile websites. It’s right not to jump to building a mobile website or app without having a proper strategy for mobile to be integrated into the overall digital roadmap; but, it’s essential for businesses to understand the importance and why they need to build content for mobile.
Mobile Phone Users Penetration in Asia Pacific
eMarketer estimates over 2.1 billion people in Asia-Pacific will use a mobile phone at least monthly this year, representing over half the population of the region.
Mobile Phone Penetration Worldwide
Mobile internet penetration is expected to rise to 42.1% of mobile users in the region by 2015. And for many of these users, mobile is the first screen for internet access.
You don’t have to wait for more to see mobile users overtake fixed Internet users in one market after another. [Read more...]
Pinterest.com Traffic Trend
Launched in March 2010, the invitation only site Pinterest.com received nearly 11 million total visits during one week last December, almost 40 times the number of total visits versus just six months ago. Stats from ComScore showing that Pinterest had 11.7 million unique monthly visitors in January 2011.
Pinterest.com
Pinterest.com is growing like crazy; check out this website now if you haven’t. Pinterest is not only surprising of its own traffic growth but also being a referral giant (driving more traffic than Google+ and LinkedIn) and retail sites like ideeli.com has seen increased sales resulted from Pinterest traffic.
But, what makes Pinterest so successful? To understand that, let’s take a look at what Pinterest is from its official introduction:
Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.
Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.
People love to browse, organize and share all the beautiful things; Pinterest did nothing but inspire and empower its users to do that. Yes, that’s the secret: Pinterest inspires people. The inspiration connects people to something greater and gives them the courage and power to incarnate their unique talents.
Of course, tactically Pinterest has benefited a lot from its well integration with Twitter and Facebook; but, it’s the inspiration that fueled the word of mouth.
Companies are trying to push their products to consumers via regular advertising or social media campaigns, which may influence the prospective customers; but, it’s not sustaining and will be eventually vanish after which the companies get ready for the next “push”. Yes, this is how most companies get their products sold; but, this doesn’t create great companies or businesses.
Adidas inspires people with “Impossible is nothing”, having motivated millions of people; with Canon, “you can”. When you open a can of Coca-Cola, you actually “open happiness”. At IKEA, you are not buying furnitures as it’s a place you “design your own life”.
If you are one of few who strive to go from “good” to “great”, build and inspire your community, for which social media is a great tool for you.