Aurora Looking To Maxymise Their Conversions

Aurora Fashions (Aurora), the group that owns some of the UK's most respected high-end women's brands -- including Karen Millen, Oasis and Coast -- has partnered with online conversion management expert, Maxymiser, to increase conversion rate and boost its online presence.

Maxymiser have a proven technology platform with a core proposition based around making the most of the traffic we already have visiting our websites rather than focusing on customer acquisition. We are aligned with this approach and as a result have broadened our focus from traffic generation campaigns to include customer retention marketing.

Using Maxymiser's conversion management solutions, Aurora Fashions will be trialling different web page layouts, sequences and content across the websites of Karen Millen, Oasis and Coast, in order to determine which content has the most positive effect in improving conversion rate.

As Julien Shirley, Head of E-Commerce at Aurora Fashions explains, "At Aurora, we are looking to enhance our online presence in order to provide our customers with the best possible service whilst also driving our e-commerce revenues. By using Maxymiser's conversion management solutions we will now be able to see a direct correlation between website content and performance."

Shirley continues, "Maxymiser have a proven technology platform with a core proposition based around making the most of the traffic we already have visiting our websites rather than focusing on customer acquisition. We are aligned with this approach and as a result have broadened our focus from traffic generation campaigns to include customer retention marketing."

Initially Aurora will be testing four different areas of the websites with Maxymiser in order to try and optimise the entire shopping journey. This will begin with a test on the category page to establish whether the specific category links or the innovative Fitting Room application - currently available on the Coast and Karen Millen sites - are more successful at driving traffic from the homepage through to individual product pages.

Simultaneously, Aurora will also be running tests on the product page - where the focus will be on understanding which elements of the diverse styles and formats currently used are most successful in generating larger basket sizes per visit; the shopping bag page - where the tests will look to understand how content can impact on consumer perceptions of site security and a brand's ability to cross sell; and the registrations page - where the best format to drive consumers through the final stage of this process will be examined.
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Punch Sees SEO Services Take The Lead

PR Company Punch Communications has announced that more than half of its clients are now commissioning search engine optimisation (SEO) activity as part of a traditional public relations campaign.

The dominance of Punch in its own search engine rankings has led to many clients tasking the agency with the job of achieving similar results on their behalf. An SEO campaign is a great way to send increased numbers of traffic towards a relevant website and so the return on investment for businesses following a successful spell of SEO activity is invaluable.

Punch's adoption of the skills necessary to become a successful SEO agency has been a major catalyst in its own growth, both in terms of the results that it has been able to achieve for itself, and the high quality, diverse offering that is provided to all of its clients. As budgets become ever tighter during the recession, the value to clients of the PR Consultants' expertise in SEO strategy and implementation has been of significant measurable benefit.

Pete Goold, Managing Director said: "Our advent as an SEO Agency has been a hugely positive development for us, providing us with key leads generated through our website, as well as enabling us to add another valuable service to our overall offering to clients.

"Our success is clearly demonstrated by the number of clients who have commissioned us to incorporate search engine optimisation into their overall public relations campaign. This also illustrates that SEO is increasingly being considered a subset of public relations, but that a growing number of businesses are investing in SEO as a core marketing discipline.

Punch has a vast array of expertise and experience within its team, from more traditional aspects of public relations such as media relations to more recent developments in PR, such as the use of social media for promotion and instigation of conversation. Punch is also again in a position to add more members to its team, which has doubled in size over the past two years.
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Social Media Is Making Marketing Campaigns More Effective

Marketing campaigns that incorporate a brand focused social network are more effective due to the increasing popularity of social media according to Reality Digital, the leading provider of social networking application software for brands and businesses.

Reality Digital have indicated that marketing campaigns that integrate social media activity, such as a social network dedicated to a brand, are far more influential in reaching out to key audiences than those that only focused on media content advertising.

A social networking platform provides the perfect focal point for marketing activity as the brand can unite its audiences within a single community, providing an efficient delivery platform for campaign messaging. These networks can be moderated by the brand too, removing any risk of negative content being uploaded and shared.
The advantages of using a social network as the hub of marketing activity in both online and offline promotion are numerous, particularly due to fact that the vast majority of consumers have an online presence. According to Reality Digital, the ability to direct consumers to a single point of engagement can make a marketing strategy even more effective.

The use of a central website or network as a focal point also makes it easier to reap benefits from a search engine optimisation perspective too, through the generation of URL's and keywords that match and compliment each other.

A brand focused video social network such as Reality Digital's Opus Platform allows fans of a company to interact with the brand in a much more direct way than other marketing strategies allow them to, on a mass level. A social network can also hold user generated content features that can be used as a marketing tool to create and manage competitions based around the brand and the network.

"The use of social networks in a marketing strategy is becoming more and more important in the engagement of consumers throughout a campaign" said Robert Proctor, Head of EMEA for Reality Digital.

"A social networking platform provides the perfect focal point for marketing activity as the brand can unite its audiences within a single community, providing an efficient delivery platform for campaign messaging. These networks can be moderated by the brand too, removing any risk of negative content being uploaded and shared."

The Opus Platform incorporates a number of cutting edge social networking tools guaranteed to entice users, from basic social network functionality and user generated content capabilities, to a high definition video engine.
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Beware of the Facecrook

Many social network users reveal personal information such as age, telephone number and address to approximately 59 million people worldwide and around seven million in the UK. When combined with 'status' updates that describe users as "on holiday" or "on a day out" this provides an open invitation to opportunistic burglars.
According the Home Office in 2008 there was a 4% rise in the number of UK burglaries in 2008, the largest rise in seven years and young people (16-24 yrs old) are twice as likely to be burgled as any other age group.

Steve Chelton, insurer development manager at Swinton home insurance, said: "Social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo or My Space are great for connecting people with friends, family and colleagues. But people are unaware of the potential risks associated with revealing personal information and updating their online status.

"We would advise all users not to include your address or telephone number on your profile and only ever accept online friends that you know and trust. Think carefully before updating a status, especially if going on holiday to avoid advertising to thieves that a home is empty and easily accessible. Also, keep profiles private so that only certified 'friends' can view it and status updates."

Swinton advises social network users to:

• Restrict all personal information without stating your exact address.
• Only accept people as a friend that you know or can trust.
• Set your profile to 'private' so that people who are not your friend cannot see your personal information.
• Never update your online status to tell people you are going away from your home.

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Jellyfish and Fresh Egg Sign Exclusive Partnership Deal

UK paid search specialist agency Jellyfish has concluded an exclusive partnership arrangement with Fresh Egg, the award-winning web design and internet marketing company specialising in SEO.Together, the two agencies now represent one of the UK's top 3 best-resourced integrated online PPC and SEO marketing providers, with a joint staff roster of 110, and clients including Skype, Which?, Visit Wales and NatWest.

Jellyfish has pioneered a CPA model that is second-to-none. Using CPA rather than the more traditional 'management fee' approach means that Jellyfish is focussed on quality, conversion and guaranteed ROI. That chimes exactly with the inherent approach we have to SEO at Fresh Egg. We both share the same commitment to delivering outstanding ROI.

Signing up Iwantoneofthose.com as our first client together is a hugely positive achievement, especially at such an early stage in our joint relationship. Combining our expertise in SEO and PPC is a match made in heaven, and by introducing Jellyfish's proven CPA model to clients we're confident that this partnership can offer brands a dynamic and cost-effective search solution.

The partnership arrangement will commit Jellyfish and Fresh Egg to working closely together to exchange knowledge to benefit their mutual and independent clients. While remaining completely separate businesses, they will present a seamless, one-stop-shop solution that will appeal to clients seeking a single source for briefing and reporting, with the appointment of dedicated account managers whose task will be to manage partnership business.

Unlike many other agencies that claim to have everything under one roof, this arrangement will present a coherent single source in terms of management and operation, but guarantees access to dedicated specialists and acknowledged experts in SEO and PPC.

Iwantoneofthose.com will be the first sign-up in the joint venture, with Fresh Egg handling SEO and Jellyfish Jellyfish handling PPC for the shopping site.

Earlier this year, Fresh Egg appointed leading entrepreneur and BBC Dragons' Den panellist James Caan as chairman following his investment in the agency.

Adam Stafford, managing director of Fresh Egg, said: "Jellyfish has pioneered a CPA model that is second-to-none. Using CPA rather than the more traditional 'management fee' approach means that Jellyfish is focussed on quality, conversion and guaranteed ROI. That chimes exactly with the inherent approach we have to SEO at Fresh Egg. We both share the same commitment to delivering outstanding ROI."

Rob Pierre, managing director of Jellyfish Jellyfish , added: "There are obvious synergies between our two companies that can be exploited to the benefit of our clients and each other. We will clearly be able to maximise our mutual effectiveness by access to skills and knowledge from one another. With this exclusive collaboration both Jellyfish and Fresh Egg provide a joint resource that challenges the biggest agencies in the UK and worldwide without diluting our core strengths."

James Caan, chairman of Fresh Egg, commented: "Signing up Iwantoneofthose.com as our first client together is a hugely positive achievement, especially at such an early stage in our joint relationship. Combining our expertise in SEO and PPC is a match made in heaven, and by introducing Jellyfish's proven CPA model to clients we're confident that this partnership can offer brands a dynamic and cost-effective search solution."
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Global Search Market Draws More Than 100 Billion Searches Per Month

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world has released a study of the global search market showing that more than 113 billion searches were conducted in July 2009, representing a 41-percent increase versus year ago. Google Sites attracted significantly more searches than any other engine with 76.7 billion searches conducted, or 67.5 percent market share. Yahoo! Sites ranked second worldwide with 8.9 billion searches (7.8 percent share), followed closely by Chinese search engine Baidu with 8 billion searches (7.0 percent share). Most of the top search properties worldwide experienced significant growth in search query volume versus last year, with Russian search engine Yandex growing at the fastest rate (94 percent) among the top ten.Europe Accounts for Most Searches, but Latin America Highest in Searches per Searcher

The dynamics of search behavior vary considerably across different parts of the world. Among the five global regions, Europe accounted for the highest share of searches at 32.1 percent, followed by Asia Pacific (30.8 percent) and North America (22.1 percent). Notably, Latin America exhibited the heaviest search behavior per person with an average of 13 search usage days in July and 130 searches per searcher. Europe had the second highest overall search volume per person (117 searches per searcher) while North America exhibited the second heaviest frequency (12.5 search usage days per searcher).
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BT Yahoo Chooses Google Search

In an amazing development in the UK, Google search has just replaced Yahoo’s web search engine for natural and sponsored results on BT Yahoo, the online portal for BT Broadband users that is run by Yahoo. The co-branded BT Yahoo service was initially launched in Sept 2003 and provided a wide-range of Y! services to BT Broadband users, including search. The new service will continue to provide Yahoo services such as email, but the Y! search engine has now been replaced by Google’s.

Google and Yahoo tried to agree a deal in 2008 in the US to replace Yahoo sponsored listings with Google’s higher value listings, but the deal ran into Justice Department issues and didn’t complete. This deal in the UK clearly goes one step further by replacing not only Yahoo’s sponsored results, but the whole Yahoo web search engine i.e natural results, with Google’s. Image and Video results appear to be still coming from Yahoo though.

The deal makes good sense to BT, the leading broadband provider in the UK with 35% market share of the market. Unlike in the US where Microsoft and Yahoo have respectable shares of the search market, the situation in the UK is very different with Google totally dominating the UK search market with over 90% of the market. By replacing Yahoo’s search engine, BT are hoping that overall search usage will increase by providing users easy access to the #1 service in the UK. By doing so, BT should also benefit from Google’s higher Revenue Per Search (RPS), which is believed to be up to 2-3x that of Yahoo’s. It will be interesting to see if any of Yahoo’s other ISP partners such as Rogers or SBC follow suit.

It represents a strange move for Yahoo on the back of the 10 year search deal that was announced with Microsoft last month, that will result in Microsoft Bing becoming the default search engine on Yahoo.com with Yahoo’s sales teams selling the ad inventory on both services. I wonder if Microsoft knew when they signed the deal that 35% of broadband users in the UK would be directed towards Google’s search engine, rather than the new Bing/Yahoo search engine when they signed the deal? Some UK advertisers may divert even more of their spend over to Google now that Yahoo will no longer represent BT’s users, which wouldn’t be good for Microsoft’s/Yahoo’s ambitions in the 2nd most valuable internet market in the world.

Google must be extremely happy to have sewn up BT’s users, the leading broadband provider in the UK with 35% market share. Capturing BT is a big coup for Google and they now have deals with all of the big ISPs in the UK.

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