individual learning portfolio
TRANSCRIPT
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First Name: Saffron
Second Name: Brady
Individual Learning Portfolio
Graduate Certificate in Management, Dublin City University Business School
1th September 2014
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Disclaimer Page:
I hereby certify that this material, which I submit for assessment on the programme of
study leading to an award of Graduate Certificate in Management is entirely my own work
and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has
been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work.
Saffron Brady – Student ID 14101505 ______________________ 1st September 2014
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Table of Contents
Introduction 4
Section one: Blogging 5
Section two: Inbound Marketing 18
Section three: LinkedIn Marketing 25
Section four: Twitter Marketing 32
Section five: Website Usability 44
Section six: Email Marketing 51
Section seven: Search Engine Optimization 65
Conclusion: 75
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Introduction Marketing is constantly evolving and has been transformed into a digital capacity with the
emergence of customer centric web 2.0 and “Over the past 60 years, marketing has moved
from being product-centric (Marketing 1.0) to being consumer-centric (Marketing 2.0)”,
(Philip, Kotler).
Like everything in life experience comes with practice and the more hands on approach you
take the greater the learning outcome. As part of the graduate certificate in management
course at DCU I have completed an individual learning portfolio. The areas covered in this
document include Twitter, LinkedIn, inbound marketing, search engine optimization,
blogging, web usability and email marketing.
Although a theme was not consciously chosen for the campaign, naturally when one
campaign was set up it led to the other having the same theme. iBeacon technology by
Apply is a theme you may see appearing throughout the campaigns I have completed. Other
themes you may see include Paddy Power and Snapchat. Along with the campaigns an
extensive review of academic and trade literature was carried out.
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Section one: Blogging
The introduction of web 2.0 has given rise to user generated content, inbound marketing and
blogging. Google have changed the rules. Search rankings are now biased towards the context of
content (Clarke, 2014). Delivering content to the search engines that is in tune with consumers
searches if key. Blogging is an inbound marketing mechanism and a form of content creation used
to attract the right type of people to your homepage. The overall ethos of inbound marketing and
blogging is creating and driving organic traffic to your company’s online channels, primarily your
website.
Description:
I started the company blog that I work for, which was the very first inbound marketing activity.
The topics I included in the blog relate directly to mobile marketing; with categories including
iBeacon technology, Snapchat, Twitter and Mobile engagement. I also created a blog on Paddy
Power from my own personal blog. The target personas for the company blog are digital
marketers, mobile app developers and small business owners. The blogs have been created using
WordPress and the objective is to achieve two to three blog posts a week.
In total I created twenty blog posts over a six month period from February to August. Careful
consideration has been given to the personas the blog is targeting, the language used, the styles,
timing, categorising and tagging. The majority of these posts was on the company blog. I also have
my own personal blog which I started back in 2011, of which one blog post was created during
this time, which is linked to the email campaign I also did.
The styles I have used for the blog include link blogging, list blogging, piggyback blogging, insight
blogging and video blogging. Which are listed below.
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Blog type Blog Title
Piggyback blogging
5 tips to optimise your new Twitter Layout
Mobile trends happening right now in the world cup
Steve met Paddy in Dicey’s lastnight
Link Blogging 5 Brand using Snapchat to engage their target audiences
Picture Blogging 10 Awesome mobile Infographics
Video Blogging Should have gone to Specsavers (personal blog)
List Blogging 10 Apps stats that will blow your mind
Headliner Blogging
Consumer Wearables, Beats by Dre and Google Glasses
Capturing the Customer in the Moment: from Customer Hijacking to
iBeacon Hunting
Event Blogging Key Takeaways from DMX Dublin
Other How to use Snapchat for mobile marketing
Five ways to drive engagement in your app
The benefits of having a mobile app for your business
iBeacon and mobile engagement in the home
Personal Motivation and Relevance:
I decided to take blogging as part of my portfolio without a doubt. Personally I am a detail
orientated person and writing comes naturally to me. I have included two blogs in my
portfolio. One blog is my own personal blog and the other is the company blog of which I have
started from scratch. The majority of the blog posts I have written are from the company blog.
The overall theme for the company blog was specifically on mobile marketing, push
notifications and ibeacon. The blog is very important for inbound marketing.
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Academic and Course Relevance
Although I had already been blogging and felt that I had mastered Wordpress before
undertaking this course, the course allowed me to identify shortcomings. I was unaware that
there were a lot of different blogging styles you can take advantage of, from an SEO
perspective, in previous blogs I had failed to optimise them, which is where tagging and
categorisation was introduced.
Academic and professional literature
Marketing has changed significantly in the past few years, the consumer simply ignores
advertising, the search engines have changed their rules and favour organic traction to a
website. According to Ramsey (2006) there is a growing resistance among customers towards
marketing messages, “Customers respond more favourably to marketing messages when they
have control over what they see, when they see it, whether it can be personalised to fit their
needs and when they can be active participants in the marketing process”. The main point
here is that people are more receptive to marketing messages when the messages are
personally relevant to them.
With search engines at the customer’s fingertips brands have the power to let the customer
find them. This can be done by adding tags and keywords to a blog so the search engines can
help the person ploughing through the search engines find you.
The paper by (Singh et al., 2008) evaluates the potential of blogs. Blogs have been described
as one of the leading roots of the next generation of the internet tools in web 2.0. And the
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influence of blogging as a tool will occupy a significant amount of marketing budget in the
coming years.
As stated by (Baker and Green, 2005, p56) in Singh et al., 2008 on blogging for a business,
“You cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they’re...the most explosive outbreak
in the information world since the Internet itself. And they’re going to shake up just about
every business. Blogs are not a business elective. They’re a prerequisite.”
The benefits of blogging is that content is infinite and blogging is interactive, dynamic, cost
effective and has a longer term lifespan in comparison to social media posts. Research by
Brown (2014) in terms of consumer influence reveal that blogs outrank social networks for
consumer influence.
An insightful infographic provides socialmediatoday (2013) with some ground breaking
statistics for a company to blog:
23 % of internet time is spent on blogs and social networks.
77 % of internet users read blogs
Companies that blog have 97 % more inbound links
B2B marketers using blogs generate 67 % more leads
And 60 % of consumers feel a company’s positivity after reading the site
There has been a gigantic growth in the number of blogs in existence from 2006 to 2011. 181
million blogs were tracked in 2011, up from 36 million in 2006 (Nielson, 2012). The advantage
of a company having a blog is that it can humanize a faceless business, and give customers an
insight into the company, as well as targeting and brand loyalty.
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Evidence of progress
The main objectives of the blog was to help with the overall discoverability of the company
online and to attract the company personas to the website and generate inbound leads.
Although the blog has made progress it does not have call-to-actions where the viewer can
subscribe to an emailing list to receive notifications of future blogs. In terms of gaining
traction to the blog one effective tactic used was creating Piggyback blogging style type blogs
based on hot topics at the time such as Snapchat and Twitter.
Value
Undertaking this course has proven complementary to the blogs. Although from a blogging
background I have grasped and put into practise best practices in blogging. I know the title
length cannot be over 55 characters, how important the meta-description is and how simply
naming your images can help with your blogs overall SEO. I have one shortcoming from the
course and that is in the area of copywriting of images, it is a contentious issue and one where
the company blog got fined doing so. For the future curriculum on blogging it is very important
that this area is covered.
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References
Brown, D. (2014). The State of Digital Influence 2013 — Influence Marketing: The Book.
[online] Influencemarketingbook.com. Available at: http://influencemarketingbook.com/the-
state-of-digital-influence-2013/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2014].
Clark, N. (2014). Google search changes will push SEO firms and social media marketers closer.
[online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jul/28/google-
seo-social-media-search-marketing-panda-penguin-hummingbird [Accessed 27 Aug. 2014].
(Nielson 2012) Buzz in the Blogosphere: Millions More Bloggers and Blog Readers
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2012/buzz-in-the-blogosphere-millions-
more-bloggers-and-blog-readers.html (Accessed 25th of August 2014).
Ramsey, G. (2006). Digital marketing strategies in the age of customer control from http://www.
emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003886&src=article_
head_sitesearch (Accessed 25th of August 2014).
Socialmediatoday.com, (2014). The Blogconomy Blogging Statistics [INFOGRAPHIC]. [online]
Available at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/blogconomy-blogging-statistics-
infographic
[Accessed 25 August. 2014].
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Appendices
The Blogconomy Blogging Statistics [INFOGRAPHIC]
Source: socialmediatoday, 2013
Source: Nielson, 2012
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Blog: personal blog
Data
Source: wordpress 2014
The blog post “Steve met Paddy in Dicey’s lastnight” was shared on two different occasions.
Once on Twitter when the the news #PPtexts was trending AND then in an email campaign
two weeks later. 25 unique visits were made to the blog post the day it was released with the
majority of referrer traffic directly from Twitter, as can be seen from the Tweet below. And
another 36 views were received from the email campaign.
Source: wordpress 2014
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Audience profiling:
Blog 2: http://www.blog.xtremepush.com
Data
Overall stats
The blog to date has received 1,572 views in the space of six months from the end of February to
the end of August. That includes 1,108 visitors over the six months.
Commentary
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Although the majority of the comments on the blogs originate from spammers, there were
some genuinely positive comments on the blogs. Some of the comments can be seen below,
the majority of the comments are on the most popular posts which is discussed below:
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Most Popular posts:
The most popular post below “How to use Snapchat for Mobile Marketing” received over 362
views since it’s publish date in March gone.
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LinkedIn discussion on a group Mobile Marketing & Advertising with over 100,000 members
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Section two: Inbound Marketing
“In the current environment, outbound marketing effectiveness was diminishing as
consumers are feeling bombarded by the daily deluge of commercial messages, began tuning
out” (Steenburgh et al., 2011, P2). In contrast search engines, blogs and social media started
to gain traction and generate revenue.
Hubspot which is an inbound marketing web enabler for businesses emerged in 2006 by
founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. The need for inbound marketing came about
when traditional marketing and sales were losing their effectiveness in the new web 2.0.
Hubspot’s identity is embodied in the philosophy of Web 2.0 and helps businesses attract
prospects, qualify their potential, and convert them into paying customers. Hubspots solution
was to substitute the diminishing returns of outbound marketing effectiveness.
I completed the Inbound Marketing Certification and achieved a grade of 83 %. The course
included eight different sections related directly to the Hubspot inbound methodology. The
certification can be seen in the appendices along with the Hubspot methodology.
Personal relevance and motivation
I chose to undertake the inbound marketing certification as I am currently working in a B2B
start-up company and they are only starting to dip their toes into the inbound marketing
methodology way of life. The majority of the company’s prospects and clients have been
generated using an outbound marketing approach. The blog and social media presence has
helped increase the organic hits to the website but with limited success. The company is
currently only embracing the first stage “attraction” of the inbound methodology, there are
several consecutive stages the company need to embrace if it wants its inbound marketing
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approach to be effective. These stages include convert, close and delight. From undertaking
the inbound certificate and the course I have a better understanding on the inbound tactics
available to a company to employ. A whitepaper is planned for the conversion stage (currently
there are no call-to-actions on the site). Furthermore an email campaign will also be used to
help nurture existing customers and inform and educate prospects.
Academic and course relevance
Inbound marketing is a requirement in doing business in today’s customer focused world.
Only 5 % of organisations have not integrated inbound marketing. Inbound marketing takes
time and in order for it to be effective “inbound needs to be more than just a series of
marketing campaigns aimed at “pulling” people toward your company website. True inbound
marketing success occurs when your company adopts an inbound marketing philosophy and
weaves the strategy of delivering quality content and delighting customers throughout every
facet of the business”, (Cdn2.hubspot.net, 2014).
Although an inbound marketing approach is key today in gaining leads, without much
resources in place it can be challenging to exploit all inbound marketing tactics available.
Outbound marketing is essential. Customers are the reason your business exists in the first
place so outbound marketing is still essential. Although the industry is saying that inbound
marketing is the most effective strategy for staying relevant and delivering the best leads,
using an inbound approach alone is not sustainable as volume is in the numbers and this is
where an outbound approach is crucial (Fulk 2011).
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I have identified one shortcoming from undertaking inbound marketing certification course.
Although the course covered Smarketing which stands for sales and marketing, which has not
yet been added to the Oxford dictionary unlike Yolo and Selfie. The course didn’t discuss how
you can combine both inbound and outbound marketing approaches for lead generation. For
example you can use social media to send targeted outbound communications to discover
high quality leads. By listening to your prospects on social media channels you can deliver
intelligent content to these communities with the aim of converting people into leads. And
leads nurtured with targeted content produce an increase in sales opportunities of more than
20% (Hanford, 2014).
Academic and professional Literature
As stated by Andrew Susman (1994) in (New media new technology, 1995) on advertising to
the consumer online, a “the two-way communication ability of new media will make it
possible to learn what individual customers have and want in their own lives and to customise
benefits for more persuasive personal selling”. This is exactly what inbound marketing is
about, companies can use web 2.0 and use social media sites to listen to what the customer
wants. Andrew Susman (1994) also stated that virtual brands will be customised to individuals
and the brands will be created through information relationships rather than by broadcasting
value announcements. And “Unlike traditional market research, which is mediated, customer
conversations online happen spontaneously and so have greater authenticity and credibility”.
Thus online sources have an edge over traditional methods which typically reveal intentions
rather than actual sentiment or behaviour, (Linkedin.com, 2014).
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There is are notable differences between traditional outbound marketing approaches and
todays inbound marketing approaches. Outbound marketing is all about interrupting the
consumer in contrast inbound is all about earning and not buying a person’s attention.
Inbound marketing is “Any marketing tactic that relies on earning people’s interest instead
of buying it”. Communication is interactive and two-way, customers come to you, marketers
provide value and seek to entertain and/or educate. Conversely outbound marketing is “Any
marketing that pushes products or services on consumers”, communication is one-way,
customers are sought out, marketers provide little to no value and rarely seek to entertain
or educate. An infographic on inbound versus outbound marketing can be seen in the
appendices (Mashable, 2011).
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References
B2B Content Marketing (2012) Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends. Marketing Profs [online]
Available at: file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/B2B_Content_Marketing_2012.pdf
[Accessed 29th Aug. 2014].
Cdn2.hubspot.net, (2014). State of inbound marketing,[Accessed 29 Aug. 2014].
Fulk, M 2011, 'For b-to-b leads, don't forget outbound marketing', B To B, 96, 6, p. 10,
Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, accessed 29 August 2014.
Hanford, J. (2014). Why Lead Nurturing Makes Sense For B2B Companies. [online]
SteamFeed. Available at: http://www.steamfeed.com/lead-nurturing-b2b/ [Accessed 29
Aug. 2014].
Linkedin.com, (2014). 5 reasons businesses should listen to their customers online. [online]
Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140326023436-5852233-5-
reasons-businesses-should-listen-to-their-customers-online [Accessed 29 Aug. 2014].
Mashable, (2011). Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]. [online]
Available at: http://mashable.com/2011/10/30/inbound-outbound-marketing/ [Accessed 29
Aug. 2014].
Steenburgh, T., Avery, J. and Dahod ,N. (2011) ‘Hubspot: inbound marketing and web 2.0’,
Harvard business school, pp. 1-22.
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Appendices
The inbound methodology (Hubspot)
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Source: Mashable 2011
Source: B2B Content Marketing (2012)
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Section three: LinkedIn Marketing
Launched in 2002, Linkedin is an online professional network that allows users to connect
with trusted contacts to exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities within a
broader network of professionals (Witzig et al., 2012). LinkedIn connects the world's
professionals to make them more productive and successful. With more than 300 million
members worldwide, including executives from every Fortune 500 company, (Linkedin.com,
2014).
“The strategic uses of LinkedIn as follows: building relationships, understanding prospects,
handpicking specific prospects, attracting prospects to a particular brand, and listening to
clients”(Comer,2010). LinkedIn is particularly useful for small businesses and there is a
higher adoption rate by them. They are a less expensive channel for reaching targeted
customer segments. Small businesses appear to have greater adoption and usage rates of
LinkedIn, (comer, 2010).
LinkedIn has two different types of audiences; individuals and businesses. For individuals
LinkedIn is a platform for find and meet their potential clients, service providers, people in
similar industries and job opportunities. For business Linkedin is useful for making job offers,
finding highly qualified candidates and meeting other experts through existing contacts
(Damnjanovic et al., 2012)
Description
“B-to-c marketers might have a lock on Facebook, but B-to-B marketers have their own social
networking linchpin” (Birkner, 2012).
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I currently work as a B2B marketer for a technology company so I have chosen LinkedIn as
part of my portfolio. I set up a group page called iBeacon Ireland. The page was set up in July
2014. The description of the page was to keep up to date with the best of iBeacon news and
the best of iBeacon blogs! And to engage with people who are interested in mobile
technology either professionally or personally and to act as a discussion group for iBeacon
technology. A secondary aim for the group is to help to generate leads for the company I
work for. The page idea was entirely my own. iBeacon Ireland was also used as part of the
Twitter marketing and email marketing campaigns.
Personal motivation and relevance
When I started working in my job, it was then that I became aware of LinkedIn groups and
how you can use them to share your ideas and/or content and build your professional
network. Several popular mobile marketing groups were noted; such as Mobile Marketing
and Advertising which has over 130,000 members and thus has a high potential reach for
content sharing. Other mobile marketing related groups that I regularly target with content
include Digital Dublin, Marketing Communication and iBeacon. Marketing Communication
appears to be a lucrative group for networking and sharing your content as It has over
200,000 members.
Evidence of progress
In terms of gaining followers I invited my connections on LinkedIn to join the group. The
page to date has 16 members, due to time constraints the page has had limited success. I
have shared content about once a week. However I fully intend to expand the iBeacon
Ireland LinkedIn page once there is time to do so.
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Despite LinkedIn’s reach capabilities, many B-to-B companies aren’t taking full advantage of
its marketing potential according, as stated by Kipp Bodnar, inbound marketing strategist at
HubSpot “They don’t get deep enough into the platform to build a really strong magnet
that’s going to pull [prospects] from interactions within LinkedIn” (Birkner, 2012). I can very
much relate to this where the LinkedIn work LinkedIn page, although content is shared daily,
the follower growth has remained stagnant. In order to combat this challenge I have
identified several tips on implementing a successful LinkedIn page for a B2B marketing
strategy (Birkner, 2012).
Although an attractive and optimised page is crucial, consideration must be given to
content, when sharing content it is important to map the content to the questions that your
clients or prospects may be asking throughout the entire buying cycle. LinkedIn is also a way
of showcasing your products and services, videos or webinars are good tools for doing this.
The company I work in currently does not have any videos or webinars, however plans are in
process to implement these which should help grow the followers. You can also leverage
employee connections, this is limited as not all the employees in the company utilise this
platform. And most importantly you can start a group relating to your industry, which I did. A
variety of content such as webinars are recommended to grow the group, unfortunately if Ii
had the opportunity again I would have created a webinar campaign to help grow the
followers on iBeacon Ireland.
Value
Although I already manage a LinkedIn page of the company I work in, I have been aware that
there are a few shortcoming and a new LinkedIn strategy is needed for the page to gain
traction. With the creation of a LinkedIn group iBeacon Ireland I managed to grow my
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network with people who are involved specifically with iBeacon, they joined iBeacon Ireland
and then reached out to me. I am more aware of the need to implement different types of
inbound marketing content such as webinars and whitepapers. And through reviewing the
literature on the subject of LinkedIn I am a lot more informed in what is required in order to
build a successful LinkedIn marketing strategy.
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References
BIRKNER, C 2012, 'LinkedIn Lessons for B-to-B', Marketing News, 46, 14, p. 6, Business
Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 30 August 2014.
Damnjanovic .V., Matovic .V., Kostic .C.S., and Okanovic .M. (2012), The Role of the Linkedln
Social Media in Building the Personal Image, Journal for theory and practise management,
pp. 15-23.
Linkedin.com, (2014). Mobile Marketing & Advertising | LinkedIn. [online] Available at:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Mobile-Marketing-Advertising-
62503?gid=62503&mostPopular=&trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId%3A1409442883312%2Ctas%3Am
obile%20marketing%2Cidx%3A2-2-5 [Accessed 30 Aug. 2014].
Linkedin.com, (2014). LinkedIn. [online] Available at:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/1337?trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId%3A1409446479172%2Ct
as%3Alinkedin%20%2Cidx%3A4-1-12 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2014].
Witzig .L., Spencer .J., and Galvin .M., (2012) ORGANIZATIONS' USE OF LINKEDIN: AN
ANALYSIS OF NONPROFITS, LARGE CORPORATIONS AND SMALL BUSINESSES, Marketing
Management Journal, pp. 113-121.
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Appendices
LinkedIn Group iBeacon Ireland
Demographics of iBeacon Ireland Members
Demographics of iBeacon Ireland
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Growth of iBeacon Ireland
Mobile Marketing and Advertising group
Sharing a company blog post
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Section four: Twitter Marketing
Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networks on the internet. Given the widespread
generation and consumption of content on Twitter, companies are eager to exploit this
medium. However studies have shown that a large majority of Twitter users act as passive
information consumers and do not forward on content to their network and a wider
audience. As a result of this ideas, opinions and products compete with all other content for
the scarce attention of the user community. Twitter has garnered lots of attention from
corporation for the immense potential it provides for viral marketing. However For a brand
it can be difficult to get a share of their voice across Twitter, particularly if it is virtually
unknown.
There are very tactics that can be employed to try and gain traction on Twitter of which
have been identified by Zarella (2014). For my campaign on @ibeaconireland which is
discussed further on and in my work Twitter account @xtremepush I have been
implementing tactics suggested by the author. Below is a summary of best practices for
using Twitter. Links are essential as highly followed accounts tweet more links, sentiment is
paramount and the more positive the better, 22 tweets a day is the optimum
recommendation for gaining followers, links are crucial for getting retweets with accounts
that post 60 to 80 percent of links, after that retweet performance can dwindle, timing and
days of the week are important with Friday being the most popular day for retweets,
however, the optimum time to tweet is open to interpretation as users have access 24/7
and mostly from mobile with 78% of Twitter's monthly active users tweeting from a mobile
device, (Techcrunch, 2014).
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Self-referential language does not fare well for getting retweets. A retweet is a post
originally made by one user that is forwarded by another user, it is a way of spreading your
message to followers outside of your network. Fresh, novel and scare information are the
most valuable and effective types of information you can share. Aldo language used is
critically important in determining whether a tweet will get a retweet. Some popular words
for retweets include “please retweet” when you wish to ask for a retweet and as already
mentioned the novelty factor of a tweet “new blog post” has a high retweeting success rate.
Also Utility content such as “How to” perform well. Chunked list based content “Top” and
“10” also performs well overall on social media. And lastly the headline is the headline is the
most important component of your Twitter success. If your headline doesn’t entice and
motivate the retweet, the body of your content will be overlooked.
One of the most effective ways to gain more followers is to identify the key influencers in
your industry. Key influencers on social media are defined as those who are responsible for
the overall information dissemination in the network (Romero et al., 2011). For my work
Twitter page I took this advice on board and identified influencers in mobile marketing who I
wanted to engage with so they might acknowledge the company’s Twitter activity online. I
started by retweeting the influencer by the name of Peggy Anne Salz who is one of the top
30 mobile advertising influencers (Crawford, 2014). She then followed my company and
started mentioning us and eventually reached out to us for a guest blog. I have identified
other influencers in the mobile industry and actively looking for opportunities to engage
with them.
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Creating Lists on Twitter is a tactic you can use for lead generation, to gather content and
reshare it and to listen to your competitors followers (Quick Sprout, 2014) Several lists were
created, the first one was called “Mobile marketing” with the intention of increasing
followers and adding people who followed competitor sites. Unfortunately this did not
result in any increase in followers whatsoever. The key thing here is to go one step further
and to regularly engage with the list members so that if and when they follow you it’s
because you have made an effort to engage with them and not Passively communicate to
them. Which can be seen in the appendices.
Favortising is another tactic for gaining traction, however, the Twitter timeline layout
changed in April 2014 and favourites are now visible. My company’s business page has a
disproportional amount of favourites to followers which is a really bad social proof.
Although I did not initiating this favouritising strategy, since Twitter changed its’ timeline
(XtremePush, 2014) ironically mentioned in a blog post created thereafter, I have started to
implement Zarella’s (2014) best practices on Twitter.
Description
What did you do or not plan to do: I did not simply follow accounts on Twitter so that they
would follow me back. Initially I started the Twitter marketing using my own personal
account. I attended several digital related events during the course, and used various tactics
to attract followers and increase my social online presence.
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Personal motivation and relevance
The reason I chose Twitter is that I use it professionally in my work and personally. I have
had a twitter account from 2009, and would describe myself as an early adopter to
technology.
Academic and course relevance
Learning about Twitter has equipped me with best practices for building a brands audience
online. Through my new knowledge of Twitter I can defend this platform as a useful tool
communicating and building a brand online. Practically although I was already a Twitter
user, I am a lot more tactful and strategic in my approach when it comes to using Twitter for
the company I work in.
Academic and professional literature
Greer and Ferguson (2012, p.199) define twitter as “a Web-based social network system
first made available for public use in August 2006 referred to as a status update service
Twitter enables marketers to reach consumers directly, enabling brands to help build and
maintain consumer relationships by engaging in conversations. According to Kwon and Sung
(2011), research conducted on 44 global brands based on Twitter use indicated that
marketers tend to exhibit their brands’ presence and personalities into their brands by using
human representatives, personal pronouns and verbs in the imperative form.
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References Crawford, T. (2014). Top 30 Mobile Advertising Influencers - Impact Radius. [online] Impact
Radius. Available at: http://www.impactradius.com/blog/top-30-mobile-advertising-
influencers [Accessed 30 Aug. 2014].
Greer, C. F., and Ferguson, D. A. (2011) ‘Using twitter for promotion and branding: a content
analysis of local television twitter sites’, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media,
55(2), pp. 198-214.
Kwon .S. E. and Sung .Y. (2011) ‘Follow me! global marketers’ twitter use’, Journal of
Interactive Advertising, 12(1), pp. 4-16.
Quick Sprout, (2014). How to Steal Your Competitor’s Twitter Followers. [online] Available
at: http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/02/17/how-to-steal-your-competitors-twitter-
followers/ [Accessed 30 Aug. 2014].
Romero, M. D., Galuba, W., Asur, A., and Huberman .A. B. (2011) Influence and passivity in
social media’ Springer berlin heidelber, 6913, pp. 18-33.
Techcrunch (2014). 78% of Twitter's monthly active users are tweeting from a mobile device.
[online] Phone Arena. Available at: http://www.phonearena.com/news/78-of-Twitters-
monthly-active-users-are-tweeting-from-a-mobile-device_id55666 [Accessed 30 Aug. 2014].
XtremePush, (2014). 5 Tips to Optimise your new Twitter layout. [online] Available at:
http://blog.xtremepush.com/2014/04/28/5-tips-to-optimise-your-new-twitter-layout/
[Accessed 30 Aug. 2014].
Zarella, .D. (2013). The Science of Marketing: When to Tweet, What to Post, How to Blog,
and other Proven Strategies. John Wiley and Sons.
37
Appendices
Popular Trends #irishbizparty
Reaching out to @Irishbizparty and getting a retweet, this resulted in approximately 10 new
followers.
38
Influencers
Engagement on Twitter with an influencer
Twitter: @iBeacon_Ireland
A follower growth chart from July 20 to July 25 Twitter Analytics Dashboard Tool: (Twitter
analytics).
39
My personal account @atsaffron
Event blogging
40
Growing my influence online
Chosen as a “Top Marketing Expert on Social Media” by atsMobile
41
I come in at number 18
Tweeting to a guest lecturer
42
Twitter @xtremepush: (Work Twitter account)
I have been testing out a number of tactics to increase the number of followers:
Lists
One tactic recommended to increase your followers is through creating lists according to
Neil Patel “How to Steal Your Competitor’s Twitter Followers”, 2014. Several lists were
created, the first one was called “Mobile marketing” with the intention of increasing
followers and adding people who followed competitor sites. Unfortunately this did not
result in any increase in followers whatsoever. The key thing here is to go one step further
and to regularly engage with the list members so that if and when they follow you it’s
43
because you have made an effort to engage with them and not passively communicate to
them. Which can be seen in the appendices.
Favourtising
The favouritising of tweets is similar to liking a Facebook status, and is a tactic was used to
attract followers who may be interested in our businesses, who are genuinely interested in
our industry and may be potential leads. For example the hash tag #mobilemarketing was
used favortised on numerous occasions which resulted in a ten percent followback.
As you can observe a favouritising strategy alone is not an effective tactic to gain more
followers. The ratio of followers to favourites does not fare well. On average for every 100
favourites per day 8-10 people followed back. However Twitter changed their timeline and
favourites suddenly became public, this has resulted in a bad social proof that is irreversible.
The company twitter strategy has had to become more creative.
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Section five: Website Usability
On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. “Usability” deals with an
individual’s ability to accomplish specific tasks or achieve broader goals while “using”
whatever it is we are investigating, improving, or designing – including services that don’t
even involve a specific “thing” (like a doorknob or web page). - Eric Reiss, Usable Usability.
We have all been there: If a website is difficult to use, you leave. If the homepage fails to
clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, you leave. If you get
lost on a website, you leave. If a website’s information is hard to read or doesn’t answer
your key questions, you leave! (Nielson, 2012).
Description
As part of my career portfolio, I decided to undertake a web-site usability test on behalf of
Multitrip.com Travel Insurance. Usability testing’s main advantage is hearing the voice of
the customer – quotations, frustrations, sighs, needs, and suggestions for improvements.
This will allow a business to understand whether their product meets a user’s expectations
through usability testing. Website usability is crucial in the design development of a website
before it is entirely finished, so that necessary changes or enhancements can be made, and
to save time during development and post development (Uxmatters.com, 2009).In order to
do the test I had to download a Morae Recorder to my laptop and close all other windows.
The test took ten minutes to complete. The purpose of this test was to inform Multitrip
Travel on how user friendly I found their website. The test looked at addressing the overall
feel of the homepage and the ease of use and navigation of the Multitrip Travel website.
45
Personal motivation and relevance
Although the channels of marketing platforms are plentiful, a website is the central point for
a business. From carrying out previous digital marketing assignments, the website was
always the starting point. This course on website usability has given me the ability to
critique any website objectively. I also wanted to grasp the technology tools you can use to
test usability. In work the website was recently changed and improved, based on our course
lecture on website usability I was able to make website.
Academic and Course Relevance
Usability is an important component of website design. What I learnt from undertaking this
course is; the importance of having a good website, that complexity is not key and a simple
user friendly interface is preferable. I also learned that the same principals of common
sense in life can be applied to a good website design.
Academic and Professional Literature
Various academic and professional literature was before carrying out the website usability
test. Different website usability testing techniques were looked at including, Shneiderman’s
eight golden rules of interface design, Usability testing 101. Shneiderman’s (2014) eight
golden rules of interface design were looked at, these eight principals should be considered
when looking at improving the overall usability of a website. From looking at these eight
principals the most important one’s that I can identify with are; consistency where one
prompt on a website leading to the next should contain identical terminology, design dialog
to yield closure, where like in a real life context sequences of actions should be organized
into groups with a beginning, middle and ending so the path is clear for the next action.
Error handling and prevention, very often small detail errors can cost you time and
46
convenience so in the event of an error it is important that I am not redirected back to the
very beginning, so I can take on where I left off. Language is important as you need to speak
the language of your audience. The most important of the eight principals to me personally
is shortcuts where when revisiting a frequent website where it remembers information
about you. Amazon is a good example of an ecommerce website that lightens the load on
my short term memory.
Similarly as identified by Nielson (2012) in Usability testing 101 which defined usability by
five quality components, memorability of an interface is one component, which is the
likelihood of a user being able to establish proficiency after a period of not using it. Other
components include learnability which is the easy or difficult it is to accomplish basic tasks
the first time they encounter the design, efficiency; how quickly can tasked be performed,
errors such as for instance if you put in the wrong password, is it easy to recover the
password and lastly satisfaction, which relates back to the overall heuristic design of the
interface.
Value
In the future I believe mobile website usability testing will be crucial. Mobile devices have
overtaken laptops/desktops in importance. Statistics on mobile can reveal that 57 percent
of consumers will not recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. Similarly,
40 percent of consumers will go to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience even if
they experience even the slightest problem accessing the site they are currently viewing
(Compuware, 2012). As stated by Tsiaousis (2014) studying mobile websites usability “has
become an intriguing endeavour considering the ergonomic constraints posed by the mobile
devices”. In my opinion overall design and usability is crucial if not more so than a website
47
accessed from a desktop. From looking at the website usability testing techniques I have
identified several websites which I personally think need to be revamped, of which can be
seen in the appendices.
48
References
Compuware, 2012, Mobile Apps: What Consumers Really Need and Want,[online], available
at: http://offers2.compuware.com/rs/compuware/images/Mobile_App_Survey_Report.pdf
Accessed, August 31 August 2014].
Nielson, 2012, ‘Usability 101: Introduction to usability’, Nielson Norman Group. [online]
Available at http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/
[Accessed 31 Aug. 2014]. Shneiderman (2014), Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design. [online] Available at:
http://faculty.washington.edu/jtenenbg/courses/360/f04/sessions/schneidermanGoldenRul
es.html [Accessed 31 Aug. 2014].
Tsiaousis, A, & Giaglis, G 2014, 'Mobile websites: usability evaluation and design', International Journal Of Mobile Communications, 12, 1, pp. 29-55, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 31 August 2014.
Uxmatters.com, (2009). Usability Testing Versus Expert Reviews :: UXmatters. [online]
Available at: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2009/10/usability-testing-versus-expert-reviews.php
[Accessed 31 August 2014].
49
Appendices
DoneDeal
The website is hard to navigate and the look and feel of the design interface is outdated.
The memorability of the website is poor in comparison to Amazon which can recall your
purchase behaviour and make suggestions for future purchase ideas.
Although the Amazon website looks quite busy, it has usability quality components such as
memorability.
50
Website usability test Multitrip.com
51
Section six: Email marketing
“Despite its lack of novelty, email is still massively effective.” — Cezary Pietrzak, Marketing
Director at Appboy on the promise of mobile email for 2014. Email is not only a big driver of
mobile app engagement, but is also a key tool for building customer loyalty”. “65% of all
email gets opened first on a mobile device — and that’s great news for marketers”,
(VentureBeat, 2014).
Description
There is a misconception out there that email marketing is dead, however, the world is still
fond of email. Currently in 2014 there are over 4000 million email accounts worldwide, and
growing. Mobile email users are the highest contributors to the growth of email accounts
worldwide, with a growth rate of 28 % this year (Radicati Group, 2014).
From a business stance businesses plan to increase spend on email marketing by 52%, with
SEO and social media there after (StrongView, 2014). Email is all about engagement,
segmentation amd targeting. Triggered emails and segmentation are the most effective
camapaigns.
Personal Motivation and Relevance
My personal motivation for doing email marketing was both personally and professionally
driven. Personally I normally do not check my emails from various organisation I have signed
up to, however, quite often I feel prompted to open an email by their subject line. Email
marketers are facing challenges and have had to come more creative, the economics of
attention of the internet has resulted in a quick transition from information scarcity to
information abundance. And I have certainly noticed how creative emails have become and
in particular their subject line. According to Schwartz (1999) in Chiu at al. 2007, “The idea
52
behind viral marketing is that a catchy message will be released into the online context,
grow organically, become contagious, and procreate like a weed”. These catchy emails can
be seen in the appendices.
Professional email marketing is particularly important for my job. At the moment an
outbound approach of emailing lists of prospects is the current approach. Success has been
limited, the majority of the time the recipients who have been emailed do not reply, and a
follow up call is standard. The website needs more prompts on the website to encourage
visitors to sign up to join the mailing list, however, currently there is no tangible value
communicated such as what you will receive once you subscribe. The current emailing
system is not automated, so each recipient emailed has to be personally addressed. An
automated marketing tool such as Mailchimp is required as there is no system in place to
measure the emails sent out, such as open rates or click through rates. Outbound emailing
without automation and good email design is challenging. A sophisticated approach is
needed like the emails I often receive of our competitors.
Evidence of progress
Two entirely separate email campaign were carried out; campaign one Paddy Power had the
subject line “Paddy met Steve in Dicey’s lastnight” and campaign two iBeacon Ireland with
the subject line “iBeacon Apples Newest Technology”. A/B testing was carried out on both.
Careful consideration has been given to the formulation of the email campaigns. In
campaign one a single variable the test subject line was tested to eliminate the possibility of
confounding variables and in campaign two three variables were tested including message
body, links and social sharing. A summary of the variables used can be seen in the table
below and the winning email.
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A/B Testing Variable
Campaign one Subject line:
One: Paddy met Steve in Diceys Lastnight
Two: Check out my Blog on Paddy Power
Winner: Paddy met Steve in Diceys Lastnight
Campaign two (A/b split)
Message body:
A: less content
B: more content
Links:
A: links
B: no Links
Social sharing:
A: social follow
B: social sharing
Winner: B
A/B testing variables
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Campaign one Paddy Power
The objective of email campaign one Paddy Power was to achieve a high open rate through
the novel subject line “Paddy met Steve in Dicey’s lastnight”.
A secondary objective was to drive traffic to my blog post that further elaborated what was
said in the main body of the email and to subsequently encourage sharing of the blog on
Twitter using the hash tags provided in the email, a copy of which can be seen in the
appendices.
A hypothesis was formulated which was the use of a novel subject line to achieve a high
open rate. The A/B testing tested the two subjects randomly on 20 % of a sample size of 87
recipients, each with 10 % each. The winning subject line received a 100% open rate
55
compared to 44 % of the other test subject. The winning subject line “Paddy met Steve in
Dicey’s lastnight” was then sent to the remaining 80%.
The campaign received an open rate of 56.8 % and a click rate of 14.8 %. The open rate is a
lot higher than the industry average at 14.2 %. The top linked clicks was to the blog with 15
clicks in total in this instance. The impact of the social media sharing button Twitter was
negligible.
Campaign two: iBeacon Ireland
The objective of campaign two iBeacon Ireland was to educate and inform the email
recipients on iBeacon technology. A secondary objective was to gain new followers on
iBeacon Irelands Twitter page. A sample size of 160 people was used of which 80 were
randomly split by half. A/b testing was carried out including message body, links and social
sharing as already mentioned. Both emails can be seen in the appendices. The results of this
campaign reveal that the email campaign B received a higher open rate and click through
rates. Email B had more content and less links, as well as a prominent Twitter icon for
56
following iBeacon Ireland. Email A may have been perceived as having more spam as it had
several links whereas email B may have been perceived to me more informative. Also there
was only one link to click on apart from the social following. Both emails had the same test
subject so the open rate factor is beyond the control of this campaign. A summary of the
results can be seen below.
B A Difference
Open rate 43.24 % 33.77 % 10 %
Click rate 2.7 % 1.3 % 1.4 %
Industry average 14.9 % 14.9 % -
Summary of results of A/B split for iBeacon Ireland
Value
The email campaigns I have undertaken have proven to be a valuable learning experience.
There are several lessons learned and mistakes not to be made again. I learned that the
provision of a novel or entertaining subject line can help achieve open rates. I learned that
although social sharing buttons seem convenient and in an ideal world everyone would
follow you and share, however, I believe there has to be some kind of incentive for them to
do so. If I were to do the email campaigns again I would use a larger sample size and I would
leave a longer gap between the test email and the winning email. There was an hour
difference in the delivery of the A/b split emails and the winning email, as the sample was
very small, in order to draw validate the hypothesis a larger sample is recommended.
Academic and course relevance
By carrying out two email marketing campaigns through email marketing tool Mailchimp, I
am now equipped with the skills to design and implement an email campaign. Although
emailing seems simplistic it is to a certain extent, however an email campaign must be goal
57
driven and should deliver results. In line with the course objectives I now have the capability
of putting the theory I have learnt on email marketing into practise as demonstrated in my
campaigns. I can now defend email marketing as a platform for businesses to communicate
their brand messages to their audience. The biggest learning outcome for me personally is
that marketing automation is essential.
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Appendices
Email campaign one: Paddy Power
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Email campaign Two: iBeacon Ireland A
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Email campaign two: iBeacon Ireland B
61
A/B testing
62
Campaign one:
Paddy Power
Campaign two
Email A and Email B
63
Subject lines
Paddy Power knows a good subject line
New Look embraces creative subject lines
64
References
Chui .H. C, Hsieh .C. Yi., Kao .H. Y. and Lee .M. (2007), The determinants of email
receivers’ disseminating behaviors on the Internet’, Journal of Advertising Research, 47 (4),
pp. 2-16.
Hubspot ,2014, The science of email, full report: Available at:
file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Science_of_Email_2014_Full_Report%20(1).pdf [Accessed
1 29 Aug, 2014).
VentureBeat, 2014, 65% of all email gets opened first on a mobile device -- and that's great news for marketers. [online] Available at: http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/22/65-of-all-email-gets-opened-first-on-a-mobile-device-and-thats-great-news-for-marketers/ [Accessed 1 Sep. 2014].
65
Section seven: Search Engine Optimization
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,”
“organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines. (Search Engine Land,
2014)
Search engine optimisation is crucial for any type of business today. Search engine
optimisation is used correctly over an extended period of time can help boost a company’s
overall visibility and that starts with their website. Organic search is the buzzword used today
and businesses can embrace their organic reach by investing in a strategic SEO strategy.
The most important components in the formulation of a successful SEO strategy as revealed
by Searchmetrics (2013) are as follows: Keyword links and keyword domains have lost
relevance, where keywords in a URL has significantly decreased as a ranking factor
compared to 2012. With brands being an exception to the rule, where search engines
acknowledge their brand name in a URL as a backlink.
Social signals continue to correlate very well with search rankings where well positioned
URLs have a high number of likes, shares, tweets and plus ones. If you look at a brand search
as Starbucks on Moz (an SEO tool that I have been using regularly throughout this course),
by looking at Starbuck’s link metrics, they have over over 3.74 million +1’s, over 50,000
Facebook Shares and over 77,000 tweets (Moz.com, 2014). Which can be seen in the
appendices. And lastly good content is essential. This is where the importance of having a
good blog comes into play. Ultimately backlinks continue to be one of the most important
SEO metrics.
66
Description
I decided to undertake Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as it is a marketing activity that I
find particularly interesting. Unlike Adwords which is very much one dimensional and based
on keyword research, SEO incorporates over 200 ranking factors on a website. The SEO
fundamentals add dynamic to SEO. Although SEO sounds very much like a technical skill
such as web design there is actually a lot of thought involved that requires creative and
flexible thinking. The SEO fundamentals is based on four main components; Social, Link
building such as influential targeting and lastly quality content that has unique text content
for instance can help a company build and manage its SEO presence.
Identifying the influencers is particularly important for start-up companies who have
website visibility problems. In work I have formulated a strategy to target influencers on
Twitter related to mobile marketing. I am currently working on a guest blog post which
when published will have a potential tweet reach of over 100,000 people, based on previous
guest blogs. The other components of SEO fundamentals include Keyword research and
targeting which can be applied to a company’s blog which I have been doing. And social with
social sharing being effective in showing up in search.
Value
From carrying out an SEO report on a website for both college and work I feel very capable
of offering practical advice on SEO and the necessary steps involved to enhance a websites
SEO. The website in work was re launched and before and after I was able to pinpoint what
SEO improvements were made. Keywords were essentially important to different landing
pages, the website did not score well on keywords which was discovered using the Moz
tool, and subsequently this has been fixed. Another weakness identified on the website was
67
the lack of backlinks to the website, backlinks continue to be one of the most important SEO
metrics. From using link building tools Moz and CognitiveSEO, I have identified the
competitors backlinks, categorized them and identified people to reach out to for backlinks.
Description
“Research has shown that increasingly people are doing online searches … essentially doing
their “homework” before moving forward with seeking services and products” and that for
small businesses online seo press sections are important and are a cost effective way for
generating more business. And that Businesses that have used the SEO effectively are
successful in showing up in search engine results this was statement back in 2009 by
(Murphy, 2009). SEO has come a long way in the past few years, with the introduction of
Web 2.0 consumer, there has been an explosion of consumer generated content.
A global online consumer survey was carried out by (nielson) in 2009 on over 25,000
internet users from 50 countries. The survey revealed that “Recommendations from
personal acquaintances or opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms
of advertising” and 70 percent said that they had trusted consumer opinions posted online.
In 2010 SEO was picked as a top conversion tactic for marketers according to Scott (2010).
The article focused on the results of a report on the 4 SEO fundamentals to boost natural
search traffic, with 48% of senior management selecting search engine optimisation as the
most effective way to attract customers. The report also predicted that SEO will to soar by
15% each of the next three years, from the period of 2011 to 2013, to reach 5.1 billion U.S.
dollars by 2014. However back in 2009 we were in a global recession where marketing
budgets were tight and SEO marketing was taking precedence, however now in 2014 the
has improved and businesses are thorn between PPC or SEO advertising.
68
An article released in 2013 by Forbes with the title “Will 2014 be an SEO or PPC year for
marketers?” described how in the battle of marketing dollars, many businesses re torn
between search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. In 2013
changes to Google’s algorithms meant marketers must shift their focus from keyword-heavy
copy to relevant content linked with google authorship. This gives back the search engine
rights to honest businesses who use link building and keywords as part of their overall
search engine optimisation. I can see how this can help small businesses who do not have
big marketing budgets to invest in pay-per-click advertising. However according to Appenin
Marketing (2013) a report carried out on the state of state of paid search reveal the PPC
industry is thriving, and is poised for more growth in 2014; with 72 percent of businesses
surveyed saying they are planning to spend more on PPC in 2014.
69
References
Fishkin, R. (2014). SEO: The Free Beginner's Guide from Moz. [online] Moz. Available at:
http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links [Accessed 26 July.
2014].
Gori, M., Witten I. 2005. The bubble of web visibility. Communications of ACM, 48(3), pp.
115-117.
Google CTR Study (2013) “How user intent impacts google’s click through rates” http://www.catalystsearchmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/GoogleCTRStudy-Catalyst.pdf (Accessed: July 21st 2014).
Hanapinmarketing (2013), ‘The state of paid search’ available online
http://marketing.hanapinmarketing.com/acton/attachment/3199/f-0099/1/-/-/-/-
/2013%20State%20of%20Paid%20Search%20Report.pdf [Accessed 1 Sep. 2014).
Killoran .J. B, (2014) ‘How to use search engine optimization techniques to increase website
visibility’, IEEE Transactions On Professional Communication, 56(1), pp. 59-63.
Moz.com, (2014). Open Site Explorer. [online] Available at:
http://moz.com/researchtools/ose/links?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.starbucks.com
[Accessed 19 Aug. 2014].
Murphy, C 2009, 'Online SEO Press Sections ESSENTIAL FOR SMALL BUSINESS', Home
Business Magazine: The Home-Based Entrepreneur's Magazine, 16, 1, p. 40, Business Source
Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 September 2014.
Nielson (2014). Global Advertising Consumers Trust Real Friends and Virtual Strangers the
Most. [online] Nielsen.com. Available at:
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2009/global-advertising-consumers-trust-real-
friends-and-virtual-strangers-the-most.html [Accessed 1 Sep. 2014].
Spencer, S. (2014). Scaling & Systematizing Your Link Building. [online] Search Engine Land.
Available at: http://searchengineland.com/scaling-systematizing-link-building-190469
[Accessed 27 July. 2014].
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Searchmetrics.com, (2014). SEO Ranking Factors - Rank Correlation 2013 for Google USA
2013. [online] Available at: http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/knowledge-base/ranking-
factors-us-2013/ [Accessed 1Sep. 2014].
Scott, R 2010, 'SEO Picked as Top Conversion Tactic for Marketers', Min's B2B, 13, 12, p. 7,
Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 September 2014.
Search Engine Land, (2014). What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization?. [online] Available
at: http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo [Accessed 1 Sep. 2014].
Torres, M. (2014). Optimize Your Content for Inbound Marketing: Part 1. [online] Business 2 Community. Available at: http://www.business2community.com/inbound-marketing/optimize-content-inbound-marketing-part-1-0910238#W46r49IhLPQZusgi.99 [Accessed: 27 July 2014).
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Appendices
Source: Nielson (2009) trust and recommendations from peers
72
Source: hapininmarketing “Paid search”
Source: Searchmetrics, 2013
73
Source (Moz.com, 2014)
A link building strategy is priority in order for the website Xtemepush to gain visibility
online
Source (Moz.com ,2014)
74
Keyword ibeacon’s grade on the new website has changed from F to B.
Source: (Moz.com, 2014)
75
Conclusion
From undertaking my learning portfolio, it has taught me and equipped me with the
necessary digital marketing tools and techniques required to carry out a successful
marketing campaign. Although my campaigns carried out may not have necessarily driven
traction to my social media, I have identified shortcomings, and what I would do next that I
didn’t do this time. Timing played another important factor in the outcome and
deliverability of my campaigns. Working full time in a digital marketing role meant that my
time was stretched between various campaigns. However undertaking this portfolio has
been an extremely valuable experience. If I could do it all again I would certainly give more
time to the campaigns and start earlier. I will certainly be applying some of the exploratory
sections that I did not cover here such as video marketing into future endeavours that my
career may entail.