Can your customer loyalty program pass the ‘grandma test’?

An elderly lady washing carrots.

A best-in-class loyalty program goes way beyond traditional ‘points-for-purchase punchcards’. There’s also no one-size-fits-all customer loyalty template. The key to success is a data-driven loyalty strategy that combines customer data to create unique, personalised offers, resulting in increased engagement and revenue, according to András Szöcs, senior director and head of customer programs and centre of excellence at leading European retailer, Salling Group.

Speaking...

9 May 2022 | Best Practice

Marketing effectively in today’s multifaceted buying landscape

A collection of Sterling notes.

The buying landscape has changed. Two thirds of B2B buyers in the last year preferred remote human interactions and digital self-service over traditional buyer experiences - indicating that we’re seeing the end of old school selling. Buyers have more power than ever before, demanding smarter, more flexible, and quicker routes to purchase. The sales cycle has therefore become much more complicated, and many sales teams are falling behind as a result.

We’re entering a new era of...

23 April 2022 | Best Practice

Junior marketers are driving customer experience innovation

A team planning with post-it notes.

Junior marketers are playing a leading role in driving innovation, with 50% saying that trying out new techniques and ideas to improve customer experiences is a major part of their day-to-day activities, according to a survey from digital experience platform provider Optimizely.

In its Culture of Experimentation report, based on a survey of 200 UK in-house marketing executives, assistants and managers, Optimizely also highlights that 50% of marketing assistants are directly...

21 April 2022 | Best Practice

97% of companies have moved at least part of their digital marketing in-house

A house lit up in the evening.

The past 12 months have completely altered the way brands approach their digital initiatives, according to a study by creative management platform Bannerflow, which surveyed senior European marketers to investigate how in-house marketing teams are evolving in 2022.

The report includes responses from businesses in a range of different industries, including entertainment & media, mobile & online gaming, retail & e-commerce, iGaming, consumer tech, financial services,...

7 March 2022 | Automation

Four in five UK companies ‘unable to scale’ digital transformation plans

People sitting at a table with a phone and laptop.

Many UK businesses are in danger of suffering stunted growth due to a lack of investment in core IT connectivity systems.

A new report has found that four in every five UK firms are unable to scale plans to their fullest potential with current connectivity arrangements. Just 20% of UK businesses state they are in a position to undertake digital transformation plans.

This comes as 84% of enterprise organisations state their digital transformation plans have accelerated...

17 February 2022 | Automation

Half of top websites fail to meet Google’s user experience requirements

Someone using Goolge on a laptop.

Around 50% of the top 100 most visible websites on Google.com still fail to deliver a ‘good’ page experience on desktop as defined in the search engine’s Core Web Vitals update which finished rolling out in August 2021. 

And 44% of the top 100 websites fail on mobile, according to research by research from Searchmetrics.

As of October, Walmart.com, Target.com and Tripadvisor.com as well as social sites such as Facebook.com, Instagram.com and Pinterest.com were...

1 December 2021 | Best Practice

Lush shuns social media in user safety protest

A Lush shop.

British cosmetics retailer Lush has ditched social media in protest at what it deems to be a lack of action taken by the social media networks to improve user welfare.

From November 26, the brand has turned its back on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat, until the platforms take action to provide a safer environment for users. This policy is rolling out across all the 48 countries where Lush operates.  

In the same way that evidence against climate change...

30 November 2021 | Best Practice

More than half of UK marketers expect 10-25% revenue drop from cookie deprecation

A plate of chocolate chip cookies.

Two fifths (42%) of marketers say the loss of cookies will decrease revenue and over half of these (57%) expect a drop of 10-25%. 

This is according to a study by data management firm Lotame. The company surveyed 200 UK senior decision-makers in digital media and marketing to evaluate identity solution adoption amid the flurry of data privacy changes reshaping the open web. Respondents were polled in September 2021, after Google revealed another delay to deprecating...

9 November 2021 | Best Practice

Taking back responsibility for data

A graph displayed on a laptop.

It is an obvious statement to say that the more information brands hold about their customers, and the higher the quality of that information, the more accurate and relevant the marketing of products and services can be.

In today’s digital world, it’s a safe bet that much of the customer insights utilised by marketers comes from third party cookies. This has always, however, been somewhat of a scattergun approach as the science behind cookies is not very...

15 October 2021 | Best Practice

Three quarters of CMOs ‘are contributing to business growth’

A man looking at a computer screen displaying a graph.

CMOs’ responsibilities are shifting, with around three quarters of them now responsible for contributing to business growth (76%) and data and technology (74%). 

This is according to the latest Capgemini Research Institute report, ‘A new playbook for chief marketing officers: Why CMOs should enable real-time marketing to drive sustained growth’. 

Despite the CMO’s new data-focused responsibilities, only 12% of marketers have the requisite data access,...

12 October 2021 | Best Practice