In 1971 Ray Tomlinson was the first person to use an @ sign/symbol to send an electronic message to a person rather than a computer. Since then, email marketing as a business practice has evolved in leaps and bounds, but often the perception of this highly adaptable and extremely effective one-to-one channel still lies back in the mid-1990s as “out-dated” and “ineffective”.

In reality though, we’ve gone from a mass-market static communication tactic, where a sender would deploy to as many “sourced” email addresses as possible, to today’s email marketing model which possesses the capabilities to deliver highly relevant and uniquely dynamic content to each and every opted-in subscriber. The effectiveness of the channel is easily tracked via a wide range of metrics and the return on investment (ROI) is extremely measurable. And all the while, email marketing is able to easily integrate into a myriad of other marketing channels such as Search; Analytics; and Social.

So how far have we come? Take a walk with us as we review a snapshot of the then of email marketing, and the now:

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If you’d like to learn more about our Performance Email offering, please don’t hesitate to contact us at emailmarketing@clickthinking.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Until next time, stay engaged!

Stacy Nortje
Head of Performance Email

In October Google announced that they would be encrypting searches if the user was logged into Google when searching on Google.com. What this means for your website is that in Analytics data you will see in the organic keyword list (not provided) as a keyword.  While the percentage of searchers that are signed into Google might be quite low it can affect your reporting in a number of ways.

I like to report on the split between branded keywords and non-branded keywords to show how SEO efforts are increasing traffic to the website, month on month or year on year. However the data is now skewed because of secure search and the (not-provided) keyword. In Analytics you would usually exclude keywords that contain the brand name and work out what percentage of the keywords is branded and what percentage of keywords are non-branded. As the keyword (not-provided) does not contain the brand name it will be included in non-branded keywords which means non-branded traffic will therefore be inflated. So how do we get a more accurate number?

 Method

This method is based on the assumption that signed-in searchers and other searchers behave in the same way.

Example:

Total Organic Search Traffic = 20,000 visits

Total Branded Keyword Traffic (excluding (not provided)) = 8,000 visits

Total Non-Branded Keyword Traffic (including (not-provided)) = 12,000 visits

(Not-Provided) Traffic = 2,000 visits

Step 1: Finding Total Non-Branded Traffic Excluding (not-provided) keyword.

Total Branded Keyword Traffic (including (not-provided)) – (Not-Provided) Traffic = Total Non-Branded Keyword Traffic (excluding (not-provided)).

12,000 visits – 2,000 visits = 10,000 visits

Step 2: Working out the percentage split between Branded and Non-Branded Traffic

Now you need to work out the percentage split between Branded and Non-Branded Traffic.

So Total Branded Keyword Traffic (excluding (not provided)) + Total Non-Branded Keyword Traffic (excluding (not-provided)) = Total Traffic (excluding (not-provided)

8,000 visits + 10,000 visits = 18,000 visits.

Branded Keyword Percentage  = (8,000/18000) * 100 = 44%

Non-Branded Keyword Percentage =  (10,000/18,000) *100 = 56%.

We now know that typically this website gets 44% Branded traffic and 56% Non-Branded traffic.

Step 3: Working out the Branded and Non-Branded Split of the (not-provided) Keywords

We can now take the (not-provided) keywords and split this number according to the split we have just calculated so;

(not-provided) branded traffic = 2,000 * 44% = 880 visits

(not-provided) non-branded traffic = 2,000 * 56% = 1120 visit.

Step 4: Work out actual Branded and Non-Branded Traffic Totals

Now we can work out a more accurate number of visits for branded and non-branded keywords.

Total Branded Keyword Traffic = 8,000 visits + 880 visits = 8880 visits.

Total Non-Branded Traffic = 10,000 + 1200 = 11200 visits.

We can now use these numbers to compare to last month or last year more accurately. This is obviously a quite simple solution to a small problem but as you dig deeper into your analytics data much bigger problems are bound to come up. How will we tackle these problems as natural search marketers? Will be become less keyword focussed and focus more on the keyword set as a whole?  I don’t know the answers to these questions but time will tell and because Google is the dominant search force it is up to us to adapt to the changes they make, whether this is an algorithm or keyword data change.

Have you found any challenges in reporting since Google started protecting its users’ searches? Let us know.

Adrian Jennings
Search Engineer

Some of the biggest web design trends to come out of 2011 are HTML5 and CSS3, both of these technologies make websites easier to build and link with social tools.
Importantly, HTML5 is a major revision to how the web is put together: those who use it will have better support across modern desktop and mobile browsers.

HTML5

This latest version of the HTML enables the designer and developer to create more readable code and build layouts that have simplified structures and less HTML code with meaningful semantic tags. Other positive features are

·         APIs
·         Drawing graphics on-screen
·         Dragging
·         Canvas
·         Output
·         Progress
·         Local storage

But by far, one of the most anticipated HTML5 features that developers and designers are looking forward to is the audio-visual support – 3rd party plugins won’t be required to stream audio and video on websites!

CSS3

This latest module of CSS carries a much more advanced feature set, making this new version the tool of the future. With the increasing demand for clean and well-structured websites, the additional features within CSS3 are being welcomed by designers and developers. Some distinctive aspects of CSS3 are features like

·         Border radius
·         Box shadow
·         Multiple background images
·         Text shadow
·         Multi-Column Layout
·         Opacity

CSS3 also makes animations easy and lightweight. Ultimately, by combining the use of CSS3 and HTML5 it will become far easier to create websites that leave visitors feeling satisfied with their online
experience.

Looking forward

Another exciting development is that JavaScripts and plugins will no longer be necessary in order to format or handle images placed in the website. And whilst not all browsers are currently accepting all of the complex features of HTML5 and CSS3, developers are working furiously to implement these features on all browsers as quickly as possible. With that said, there are a number of available elements that include a variety of great features available now!

If you’d like to learn more about how Clickthinking can enable you to stay ahead of the design curb going into 2012, contact us on design@clickthinking.com

Until next time, keep innovating!

Frank van der Elst
Senior Designer

“Contrary to what you may read, peppering your form with nice buttons, color and typography and plenty of jQuery plugins will not make it usable. Indeed, in doing so, you would be addressing (in an unstructured way) only one third of what constitutes form usability”

This is the opening line in a very informative article about form usability – An Extensive Guide To Web Form Usability (Justin Mifsud, November 2011, www.smashingmagazine.com).

In the article the author draws together research and insights from various fields – usability testing, field testing, website tracking, eye tracking, web analytics and actual complaints made to customer support personnel by unhappy users  – and leverages this to provide some clear guidelines for developers and solution architects to consider when designing forms.

He highlights the importance of usability on forms and defines the reason for the existence of the form for both the user and the business. The table below outlines that every form exists for one of three main reasons: commerce, community or productivity. The table translates each of these reasons into the user and business objectives that lie behind them.

Uses of forms, based on Luke Wroblewski’s Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks.

It is important to consider that forms can make a website usable or unusable, because they can stand in the way of the user achieving their goal or simplify the process for both the business and the user. Hence, forms need to be usable in order to help the user achieve that goal.

Justin tackles usability by addressing three aspects common in all forms. All these areas need to be planned and integrated to achieve a usable and successful form interface.

1. Relationship – Forms establish a relationship between the user and the organization.
2. Conversation - They establish a dialogue between the user and the organization.
3. Appearance – By the way they look, they establish a relationship and a conversation.

The guidelines provided in the article are a good starting point to embark on when designing forms for any website.

Justin’s research methods are similar to the process embarked on by the Conversion Services team at Clickthinking. We also use additional tools to perform detailed form analysis that is customised to specific forms on a website. These tools will indicate exactly where users drop off on forms, which fields are slowing the process down, or if users have difficulty understanding or submitting the form.  If you already have a form on your site and you are not sure if it is completely optimised to your user’s needs, then form analysis is recommended.Contact conversion@clickthinking.com for a more information about our services.

For the full article, see http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/11/08/extensive-guide-web-form-usability/.

The trick here is engaging your audience and getting them intrigued and interested in what can be achieved in the short, as well as the long term, by using proper Search Engine Optimisation techniques and explaining how this will benefit their online efforts.

I tend to explain SEO like this:

It’s about being visible online for both Search Engines and humans. A website built for humans with all the bells and whistles that ranks on page 17 means as much as a top ranking website that does not engage nor convert its visitors. Both are pointless. Imagine you need to hand out business cards to potential customers that contain the URL to your website because they can’t find it online?

A few important factors to note here are: Do you target the correct keywords for your given target market? Does your website contain pages built around these specific researched keywords? And lastly, is there sufficient search volume for these? It won’t count for much if you rank highly for a keyword that has virtually no search volume. What are your competitors doing online? Where are they ranking for in specific searches and very importantly, where do they rank in comparison to you?

I tend to think of SEO as something that basically consists out of 3 basic pillars:

(1) the technical aspect;
(2) quality content; and
(3) reputation with a pencilled-in Social Media module connected to it as some lateral support.

The Technical Aspect
This pillar of Search Engine Optimisation refers to how your website is constructed for optimal search engine crawl ability from a coding and tagging perspective. We build websites from the ground up, meaning the website is SEO compliant from the file structure blueprint right up to a content level. We don’t believe in quick fixes although a few smart amendments to your website could assist in your online visibility.Content is the easy part in my book but equally as important a part as the other two. Content should ideally engage users and ultimately convert them into buying, downloading,booking, paying or playing. Good content gives the impression of a great authoritative website which has been constructed professionally for smart people. Search Engines love this.

Quality Content
The consistent addition of quality content not only keeps your site fresh, enticing visitors to come back and engaging people, but it also means your website is growing from the inside out and unwittingly turning your website into an authoritative hub of information.

Reputation
The third pillar of strength in the SEO cycle is Reputation. How many websites are linking to your website and where are they linking from? The more diverse the inbound link spread from quality websites to your site the better the chances for search engines to see your site as an authority on a specific topic (or many topics if that is the case). Search Engine algorithms take into consideration how your website is perceived by others – hence reputation. One can clearly see how quality content also ties in with reputation.
Google’s main goal (apart from making 33 Billion US Dollars per quarter) is to serve quality content that is relevant to a specific search query to its users;  and all three of these main SEO pillars contribute to a quality site almost evenly.
Proper SEO of your website right from the start, along with the on-going addition of monthly content, ensure longevity in the search engine results pages for your chosen  targeted keywords.
SEO will also cost you much less in the long run than running a fresh paid search campaign every month; although we recommend that these two methods be run concurrently in order to get maximum real estate coverage in the result pages.

At Clickthinking we have a specialist team of SEO’s (Search Engine Optimisers) with combined experience of around 50 years! Our SEO lifecycle and offering to clients consists of a number of important elements, namely:

- SEO Audits and Visibility Assessments
- Market Research
- Competitor Analysis
- Identifying Keyword Opportunities
- On-site Coding and Implementation
- SEO Copywriting and Implementation
- Site and Speed Performance
- Online Marketing and Link Acquisition, and
- Comprehensive Reporting that includes search engine ranking, content gap analysis, competitor analysis and baseline analysis using web analytics

If you’re interested in learning more about how Clickthinking can assist you in implementing the right SEO for your business, contact us at seo@clickthinking.com

Till next time, let’s keep the SEO real!

Etienne Beneke
Head of SEO

It’s with great excitement that I write this, my first blog article for Scent Optimisation, to introduce Performance Email as part of our Conversion offering at Clickthinking. A dedicated focus on one of the most powerful digital marketing channels, Email Marketing, brings Clickthinking’s Global Service Offering to new heights and is sure to enable our Clients to continue the on-going digital journey with all of their valued customers.

Let’s be honest, Email Marketing isn’t new. But as we’ve seen from continued growth across all Global markets (with stable focus on Email Marketing as one of the top 3 areas of online budget investment), it certainly isn’t dead. And with the increasing shift to mobile in both first-world and emerging markets, the 81% growth in mobile email viewership published by ReturnPath earlier in 2011 shows that people are now consuming email anywhere and everywhere.

But what about those who predicted the death of email as social stole the front page digital headlines? As the dust clears and those who zealously foretold the end of [Email’s] days recant their predictions, we now see that Email and Social have emerged as two fantastic engagement channels that not only get along, but when paired together are the life of the party that keeps people talking long after the night has ended. So, it makes absolute sense that with our proven expertise in Search; Design and Optimisation; and Conversion and Analytics, that Email Marketing is included in our [and ultimately our Clients’] digital armoury.

Keeping Updated

In line with the focus on our Performance Email offering we’ll be publishing a monthly newsletter to all of our valued Clients, Partners and Followers, starting end of November. Within this publication we’ll not only provide you with Email-related insights, but we’ll also feature articles from our Search; Design and Conversion Teams. In the coming weeks and months we’ll also be adding regular posts to the latest Industry Insights, Case Studies, and relevant articles to our Scent Optimisation blog – so stay tuned and in touch.  If you’d like to subscribe to our RSS Feed to be the first to receive new articles and updates, you can also subscribe here.

If you’d like to learn more about our Performance Email offering, please don’t hesitate to contact us at emailmarketing@clickthinking.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Until next time, stay engaged!

Anne, Adrian and Rob, 3 of our “performance focussed” Clickthinkers attended the Adobe Omniture Summit in London, Europe’s biggest digital marketing conference. This year’s theme was all about social media and while most marketers focus on how to efficiently leverage social media in order to communicate with their customers, the real deal is to determine its actual value. The summit had a number of excellent guest speakers, sharing insights and value about brands, social, technical integrations and performance improvements within an extremely fast moving industry. An industry where customers are no longer only buyers of products, but are truly the centre of attention, empowered with choice through technology. And as much as customers are empowered with choice, we as marketers are empowered with access to data about our customers. We are in a powerful position to use this data to become better marketers!

Summit Mindmap

Anne Scharlow, Head of Conversion:

For me, one of the most impressive speakers was Shaun Smith (@ShaunSmith_CEM). According to him, being BOLD is the magic recipe in order to succeed in an environment where customers are increasingly marketing savvy and have the choice on where to spend their money. These consumers demand authenticity and consistency from their brands. Being BOLD means engaging and entertaining customers, rather than persuading them to buy a product, being honest and sticking to strong and sustainable brand promises.

Customer centricity is about designing products around your customers, and not to assume they will like what a commercial model will present them. When Richard Branson decided to move into the space industry and created Virgin Galactic, he was prepared to constantly fulfilling customers’ needs. The original space ship was not designed to allow weightlessness within the aircraft, but the new one will be. Because this is what they want and how you keep your clients engaged, make them part of the experience and ultimately make them participating in changing the future- with you.

We at Clickthinking design online experiences and focus on perfect customer journeys though the online environment. What I took away here, is that data becomes even more powerful. We love collecting data, review them carefully to unfold valuable insight and we are not ashamed to ask our online audience directly. Surveys, landing page optimizations, testing and solid web analytics tool implementation are key to truly understanding our clients’ clients online and pushing them in the centre of our business.

Rob Stanbridge, Head of Search

I was fascinated by Ann Lewnes, senior vice president of global marketing for Adobe gave an engaging talk that can be summarised as follows:
•Social is Everything
•Messaging is critical
•Marketing is the new finance
•It’s a great time to be in marketing!

There was also number of smaller breakout sessions. Key insights for me from these sessions relating to search marketing is the awareness that paid search and organic search campaigns should be managed together. To quote Josh Palau of razorfish “You don’t have paid goals and organic goals, you have search goals”. Furthermore, 60% of users do not know difference between paid & organic search. So it is critical to have a presence in both to ensure exposure to ensure brands receive share of voice within search results.

In terms of the conversion of paid vs. organic, there is a 4.2% average conversion rate for Organic against a 3.6% average conversion rate for Paid (Marketing Sherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Study).

For paid search campaign optimisation it is critical to give bounce rates of landing pages a higher focus when managing keywords. However it is still important to analyse keywords with high bounce rates within context of the buying cycle.

Another insights from the sessions is the requirement to have all changes to websites go through an iterative testing process to ensure continued improvement of conversion KPI’s.

Adrian Jennings, Organic Search Engineer

My personal highlight of the Omniture Summit was Brian Solis (@briansolis) who spoke passionately about engaging with your customers via social media. It is not about having a social media presence but rather offering your customers what they want through Social Media. 52% of people un-follow a brand on Twitter because the content becomes repetitive or boring over time. A further 41% of Twitter users un-follow a brand when they become overwhelmed by all the marketing posts.  After the summit I ordered his book called “Engage” and am eagerly awaiting its arrival.

An interesting from one of the breakout sessions on search marketing is that organic search accounts for 10% of the search engine marketing spend but is responsible for 70% of the clicks.

My key take away from a search perspective was that we too often see paid and organic search as separate entities but these need to work together to achieve our search engine marketing goals.

View the Adobe Omniture Summit Highlights here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euJ0VOqSAeU

Last month it was officially announced that Clickthinking has been acquired by media communications and market research group, Aegis. We have become part of iProspect, the world’s leading digital search and performance network, which has a presence in the world’s top 40 digital economies.

Robert Murray, iProspect Global CEO, said: “Clickthinking not only has the regional expertise and cultural understanding, but the technology prowess to provide South African clients with world-class digital marketing strategies. The addition of Clickthinking to the iProspect portfolio, with their keen eye on customer understanding and conversions, will enable faster expansion in Southern Africa, and will offer key expertise for our globally-reaching client campaigns.”

It’s a fantastic move for our business, and we look forward to the opportunity to grow our specialist areas of search and conversion. Stay tuned for exciting developments in the coming months.

Read the full story on news-insurances.com, here.

Digital agency Clickthinking was awarded the status of Google Analytics Certified Partner (GACP) at the end of 2010. This accreditation officially qualifies Clickthinking as a Google-approved provider of Google Analytics consulting, implementation and training services.

In order to achieve GACP status, service providers must meet Google’s rigorous qualification standards. The world’s most popular search engine assesses candidates in a number of areas from product implementation to consultation and ongoing support.

Clickthinking is now one of seven GACPs certified for the Middle East and Africa regions.

This follows Clickthinking being selected to partner with ClickTale, a leader in user experience and conversion testing. The acclaimed digital agency also took first prize in the Web Analytics Association Insights Competition – a testament to the calibre of its experienced analytics professionals who are certified on multiple platforms, including Omniture, ClickTale and Google.

CEO, Peter Stewart believes that a multifaceted, conversion-driven approach is what enables the Clickthinking team to formulate unique insights, which translate into significant value for clients.

Web analytics has become key to conversion optimisation and website performance, which is increasingly important in today’s competitive online environment. As a GACP Clickthinking can provide clients with valuable insight based on analytical data, resulting in improved and sustained results online over the long term.

Clickthinking has begun the new year year with a bang, having secured two finalists in the upcoming Virgin Active Sport Industry Awards 2011. Scheduled to take place for the first time on 17 February, the event will honour brands and agencies who worked hard to promote South Africa’s sport industry last year.

Clickthinking’s Global Storming campaign, created for Western Province Rugby, is nominated in the category of Best Use of Digital Communications in Sport; while The Vodacom Player 23 Coach Call application, developed in collaboration with Draft FCB and Trinergy, is shortlisted under the Technological Innovation in Sport category.

A competitive year

Peter Stewart, CEO of Clickthinking is thrilled with the two nominations: “It was a very competitive year, considering the high quality of entries and the fact that the attention of the world was largely focussed on World Cup-related campaigns. We are very proud that our two entries stood out, despite being produced for other sporting codes.”

This is a fantastic follow-up to a successful awards-run in 2010. Clickthinking picked up two honourees at the international Webby Awards, six statuettes at the international W3 Awards, and three Pixels at the Bookmarks, South Africa’s annual digital media and marketing awards.