This Christmas saw a surge in ownership of tablet computers in the UK. Some 12 million adults now currently own a tablet, and reports suggest that a further 7% intend to buy one before March 2013.

YouGov are reporting that the increase in adoption has been thanks to the release of new competitively priced tablets, such as the Kindle Fire and the Samsung Galaxy. Of the tablets received as gifts over Christmas, the Kindle Fire accounted for 35% of purchases with the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy following on 24% and 12% respectively. [More]

A recent report on eConsultancy has indicated that the adoption of mobile commerce (mCommerce) is due to finally become a main stream channel rather than the just another toy for aficionados. This is in thanks, largely, to the increased saturation of tablets within the personal computing market. [More]

Once again, the increasing trend of online consumer retail has grown year on year with Boxing Day 2012 breaking all records for eCommerce retail. Early figures suggest that a collective 14million hours were spent by users trawling through online stores, generating somewhere in the region of 113million visits to online shops, thus ensuring that 26/12/12 became the UK’s biggest day for internet shopping. [More]

So it’s that time of year again, the dodgy jumpers are being dusted off, choirs are getting ready for their most attended event of the year and the inevitable cold snap is starting to set in. It can only mean one thing, Christmas is nearly upon us. Looking back at when I was a teenager I used to love the hustle and bustle of the high street and the excitement and melee that came hand in hand with the town’s population descending on the same area at once, or so it seemed. However, as time has gone on and as the internet has developed, that excitement has turned to frustration and the melee is no longer fun, more an unnecessary evil associated with the pre-Yule build up. I, like so many consumers have become lazy in the convenience and solace of my own home. This coming Monday (2nd) forecast suggest that online customers will spend some £10,000 per second online, giving an estimated gross total of £465m via 115m visits to eCommerce websites, a rise by 33% on 2011! Customers are expected to peak between 9am and 9pm, which in web terms must be considered as being a huge trend. Seemingly the positive trend in economic growth is also set to be mirrored in online consumer spending with an estimated 6.8 million transactions due to take place online on Monday alone, which represents a 21% growth year on year. There are some things that I think the new millennium has spoiled in terms of tradition, engagement and participation, but, in this case I am happy to see the changes made in Christmas shopping. If you give me the option now of being hot and cold, wet and dry, frustrated and lumbered up dashing between store front to store front or being tucked up in the warmth with a brew, Soccer Saturday and the dog cuddled in whilst I shop online for my wife’s presents then there really is only ever going to be one winner.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend the first ever ‘Content Marketing Show’ in London. Run by the same people behind #BrightonSEO, the show was a real success which can partly be pinned down to variation in perspectives and the approaches discussed. Rather than do my ultra-long ‘take away’ blog post as normal (I think my last post had 150 takeaways!), I’ve written a more condensed post focusing on important actionable takeaways for SME’s or Agency’s working with SME’s. I’ve broken each speaker’s presentation into two parts; key points and actionable takeaways. Due to the shear depth and amount of topics covered during the day I’ve also split my blog post into two parts. Influence Flows – Phillip Sheldrake (@Sheldrake) The first talk of the day was Philip Sheldrake of Euler Partners who’s talk covered the history of content marketing, how it works and methods to measure in a real business context. Key Points Content marketing started over 100 years ago with newspapers, before moving to TV and Radio towards end of the last century. Then we have internet in its current form today. No matter how much content you produce online it will get consumed. Social Media users each have their own channel, which crosses over with other users channels. This is best illustrated by websites and Apps like FlipBoard and Instapaper. Influence can be defined as: "You have been influenced to do something you wouldn't have otherwise done". Everyone can be influential, but some are more influential than others, the end goal of producing content is to create influence. End users don’t have paid, earned or owned content channels, its one channel to them. Actionable Takeaways Write your content with the view that on some level you’re trying to influence an action. Be wary of using Klout to identify influencers or in reporting as it doesn’t measure sentiment when scoring. For every piece of content you produce make sure you have a strategy. The outcome of your content marketing should always reach your goal. Remember that every business is unique, so tailor your KPI to the important parts to your business. (See Slide Blow)   Content marketing 20 Nov 2012 from Philip Sheldrake Agile content strategy – Lauren Pope (@La_Pope) Lauren Pope’s experience of content marketing is one I’m sure many SME’s (or Agency’s working with SME’s) can relate to. She works on a small team with limited resources and limited time. Her presentation discussed methodologies she has taken from agile project management experience and applied to content marketing, to create effective content that works on a smaller scale. Key Points Angle content marketing is built on the three principals, to help inform your strategy and continually generate and inform future content production, showen in the slide below:   Agile content strategy from la_pope Place yourself in the reader’s shoes when defining a strategy. What is the readers purpose for reading the document? Don’t be afraid of retrospectively editing your content to improve it further based on feedback. Understand that content does have a life span and don’t be afraid to kill it when it runs out. Actionable Takeaways Brain storm with Post-It notes, getting all your ideas out in one place. Do this as a team and edit it down to those ideas you can actually achieve. With your idea’s filtered down, define your user story to guide your content production. Answer the below questions as these questions make sure you place your user at the centre of your content. The final question will also help define your KPI's. As a ____ I want a ____ In order to ____ Get something quick and dirty live; publish, gain feedback and then improve. Use Google Analytics to gain insights into which keywords perform best on a given page; those with high engagement (Long reading time etc…) and inform further content production or improvements to existing content. Look at metrics such as average visits, viewing time and conversions. Digital Storytelling: The Power of Content Marketing – Ian Humphreys (@ianphumphreys) Ian discussed the importance that narrative plays in great content and how it can drive discussion, further increasing its value. Key Points When writing content, think about your businesses story alongside your client’s story. For example an eCommerce website selling pillows, should not be marketing the great pillows they sell but instead promote a good night’s sleep. Narrative driven content marketing allows you to tell your own story and more importantly can allow your readers to tell their own story. Failures are part of good content marketing, if you don’t have them you’re not pushing hard enough. A great example of this story tell process is Chevy’s ‘My Dads Cars’ video (Shown Below)   Actionable Takeaways Make sure your content includes opportunities to share your own stories. Ensure the discussions you setup are built around the subjects you wish to promote. To avoid brand trolling like the recent Waitrose hash tag high jacking, take time to honestly step outside the brand and think how you could be mocked. Adjust your strategy based on your findings. There is nothing wrong with incentivising bloggers. This can be something as simple promoting their blog to help increase their readership it doesn't have to be paid! How To Win At Pooh Sticks – Tom Ewing (@tomewing) As a researcher rather than a marketer, Tom Ewing offered more of a cultural-analysis spin on content marketing. Primarily his point was that the content you produce should be viewed as part of the users stream on social media. Not one piece of content is bigger than the overall stream. Much like the game Rock Band, users are forever presented with further new content to consume. Content flows into the feed, most people forget it days later, your ‘stock’ items are the content you produce that is still interesting in two years. Friendship networks are the people you went to school with, interest networks are the people you wish you went school with. Content is not just created, its replicated and even mutated. For example Pinterest is a replication of content, where YouTube contains large amounts of video which is mutated from its original form. Actionable Takeaways Make sure you content marketing plans include content which stick in people’s flow in the long term. We generally tend to think much less than we actually realise. People like to ‘go with the flow’. Create content which matches their intentions and help guide them toward your end goals. Stories, Number & Conversations – Antony Mayfield (@amayfield) Antony’s presentation on data was primarily about the learning you can gain if you connect multiple ‘big data’ sources together to inform content marketing strategy. In some respects I do have some presentation issues as most businesses don’t have access to this kind of data, however I still think SME’s can take some learning from this approach. Key Points Story telling can scale. It is important to scale your ability to tell stories, listen to customers. 1-2-1 Conversations. Obama’s choice to do a Reddit Q&A during 2012 US election, was not driven by wanting to seem ‘cool’, but rather data telling his campaign team that there were large amounts of swing voters on Reddit. Real data insights when you connect multiple databases together, connect the dots so to speak. Gain insights about your customers. Finally make sure you keep your website the hub of your content marketing efforts to drive SEO success.   Stories that scale: Big Data + Big Stories from Antony Mayfield Actionable Takeaways Look at a way of integrating your databases. For example, find ways to link Google Analytics, Social Media, Customer and email marketing databases. Replace the sales funnel with the Mckinsey model to look at what content is needed at what stage and where their users are going to find it. Tales from a Content Marketing Rookie – Mila McLean Homburg (@mrshomburg) Mila like many in the industry is only just getting to grips with content marketing, so her initial insights in to this new (old) marketing discipline should resonate with many people. Key Points Good content isn’t cheap not just financially, but time wise, be prepared to invest. Larger content marketing projects require project management just like any other project. Utilise your team and work with those who aid your end goal and where possible have an interest in your/your clients sector. Don't be afraid to try something new and be willing to go beyond articles and blogs Importantly have standards and make sure your happy with the end result, once it's in the net it's there for a long time. Actionable Takeaways Find out who your customers are, does your manager/client agree that real people match up with analysis of data? If not then why? Leverage existing business/client relationships for content production, these can often be missed opportunities. Understand client/business brand guidelines and how they want to be presented externally. 5 Things You Always Wanted to Know About Journalists But Were Afraid To Ask – Désiré Athow (@desireathow) As the editor of ITproportal.com, Désiré Athow offered his perspective on how journalists and PR professionals interact and more importantly how to engage them in more effective ways. Key Points Journalists have been educated to be wary of those in PR as often their end goals differ. On the whole journalists are passion driven so gestures go a long way to building lasting relationships. Page views link directly to advertising revenue for journalists, understanding this KPI is important. Actionable Takeaways Get social with journalists, build relationships via social media before contacting them via email. Pitching via email works best as it doesn't interrupt their work flow as opposed to phone call pitches. Provide exclusives, even if that means reformatting old data and spinning it from a new angle. Use phone to calls to build relationships; Not pitches. Attend industry events and personally meet with them if possible.

Now the site is underway, I’m encountering visual problems that need to be addressed.  In particular, I’m noticing the image quality of the product images.  On the live site we optimise the images to best suit not only the space it has to fit in but also, mostly without thinking, the DPI / PPI is set to be 72, as 99% of desktop monitors are set like this.  However modern mobile devices have a much higher PPI to screen size ratio and so normal web images now look pixelated.  As I am creating the mobile version of the site from the same code base as the desktop one, and keeping clarity in mind, I have to resort to using a larger size image which will then be reduced down to the correct size for the different formats.   Also try where possible, to include images as CSS backgrounds as it will make it easier to modify them to look better on mobile devices. General rule of thumb on mobile websites is to use a larger image and re-size it down in order to keep the quality as crisp as possible.  This is even more evident on the new higher res phones.  It’s also handy to follow the Apple style guides when it comes to hi-res images as they make sense. Apple suggest creating an image, 1.75x to 2x the size of the standard image and then naming it with the ending of @2x. Example:I created a logo for a site and set it as a background image with its container being the correct height and width; {background:url(‘assets/harrisonslogo@2x.png’) no-repeat 0 0;width:135px;height:40px;display:block;} Now, as the image is up to twice the original size, we need to reduce it down by using a bit more of CSS3.  This time it’s the ‘background-size’.  As the name suggests it will reduce the background image size either by pixel of percentage.  The easiest thing I found was to set the width to be auto and the height to be 100%, making the image fit correctly within the container; {background:url(‘assets/harrisonslogo@2x.png’) no-repeat 0 0;width:135px;height:40px;display:block;background-size:auto 100%;} You can also add in a small script called retina.js.  This, once included onto the page, will look at the images on the page, and if the site is being viewed on a retina screen, it will go and seek out an image with the ending of ‘@2x’ within the same folder as the standard image, and swap the low-res one out for this version.  Very handy if you want to make carousel banners look crystal clear!

Gone are the days of having to think about supporting IE6, 7 or 8!  We now have much more freedom to utilise the wide range of CSS3 styles that are on offer.   In most cases using CSS attributes will not only improve page load, BUT it allows us to keep the design a lot more clean and polished, as the device is not required to pull extra images through from the server.  During the current project I’ve been working on, I have been using a mixture of the following: Gradient BackgroundsBox ShadowingText ShadowingBackground SizingBorder RadiusBox Sizing As I mentioned before, the benefit of being able to use the CSS3 attributes, means we can improve the look of the sites on mobile devices.  Most of them use a higher screen PPI so using a series of images would end up looking pixelated and generally naff!  Box Sizing: You know that annoying thing with percentages where if you set a containers width to be 50%, then add padding or borders, it will include them onto the overall width so it’s not 50% anymore? Well with Box Sizing applied to the container, it means that borders and paddings are included so the defined width of 50% will stay at 50%.  No more messing around trying to figure out padding in percentages or getting agitated when you want to add a border, as the container drops to the next line! BUT be aware… This is a CSS3 effect so IE will not have any of it.  Bit of a pain that... I would suggest only using it on mobile development for now as it should be supported across all mobile devices and I think that even applies to the Windows phones surprisingly! You also need to be aware that margin will still behave as it should do, creating space on the outside of a container. How to write it:-webkit-box-sizing:border-box;-moz-box-sizing:border-box;box-sizing:border-box;

It has quickly become apparent that although media queries should be the ideal and logical step for modifying CSS files ready for mobile site creation, it’s not entirely practical for an eCommerce website.  Using media queries above other alternatives is preferential, as it’s the quickest and most efficient way of modifying the styles to best suit your site, as long as the site has been properly structured.   The main issue with eCommerce sites, in particular sites that are already built, is that they don’t tend to be built with mobile users in mind. The use of media queries within a CSS file becomes a mine field as you have to start using important rules and trying, where possible, to change the current code to best suit the layout.  Even the thought of this is daunting, so the application will be even worse! There is however 2 alternatives I have come across to reduce the stress and hair pulling.  By using either JAVA, Media Screen calls or a mixture of the two, you can add and remove CSS files that appear on the site.  Admittedly this means that you will need to go through the site, re-coding it for mobile BUT in the long run it will be easier AND there is the added bonus of being able to use most if not all the CSS3 attributes at your disposal.  Good times! The information for the JAVA & CSS can be viewed more on http://css-tricks.com/resolution-specific-stylesheets/ Alternatively, I have added a quick overview of the method I currently use… Step 1:Firstly, apply the CSS link to the site as you would do normally, but also add in the Media Screen lookup: <link rel=’stylesheet’ media=’screen and (min-width: 701px)  href=’css/DESKTOP.css’ /> Step 2:Then add in the mobile version. See how we use the screen lookup to change the link used: <link rel=’stylesheet’ media=’screen and (max-width: 700px)  href=’css/MOBILE.css’ /> Step 3:The final thing that you will need to do, as IE is not a big fan of screen lookups, is to add in an if rule for anything lower then IE9: <!--[if lt IE 9]><link rel=’stylesheet’ media=’screen and (min-width: 701px)  href=’css/DESKTOP.css’ /><![enid]--> That’s about it!  You can use the same method to call other style sheets, but remember to add to the ‘if IE’ rule for the Desktop versions: <link rel=’stylesheet’ media=’screen and (min-width: 701px)  href=’css/DESKTOP.css’ /><link rel=’stylesheet’ media=’screen and (min-width: 701px)  href=’css/1COL.css’ /><link rel=’stylesheet’ media=’screen and (max-width: 700px)  href=’css/MOBILE.css’ /> <!--[if lt IE 9]><link rel=’stylesheet’ media=’screen and (min-width: 701px)  href=’css/DESKTOP.css’ /><link rel=’stylesheet’ media=’screen and (min-width: 701px)  href=’css/1COL.css’ /><![enid]-->

We are proud to announce the launch of a brand new brand and eCommerce website for Gardening Specialists, YouGarden. The branding project has been a key piece of work for EAOM, with YouGarden utilising a strong multi channel marketing campaign from launch, allowing our work to be seen UK wide throughout the National Press, Web and Television. To supplement the branding work, EAOM have also developed a new eCommerce website for YouGarden, which incorporates a significant amount of digital media to help the sales proposition. The website has been developed to supplement the online ads that are running through the National Media with the overall objective of gaining high conversion rates on consolidated offers. So far, the website has been a roaring success. The traffic drive has been helped by online marketing campaigns run by EAOM, including PPC and SEO, whilst direct traffic generated from a significant off the page campaign has also aided the traffic through the website. EAOM’s parent company, Exact Abacus, has also developed the main back office software which is responsible for the stock control, order processing, distribution, purchasing and accounting functions of the business. YouGarden are also operating a weekly slot on the TV network Bid.TV. In the coming months, YouGarden will be launching a number of white label versions of the YouGarden website in the coming months which will be utilising the 3ex.net platform, with the creative managed by EAOM.

One of the most frustrating things for an online retailer is losing a customer at the checkout stage. A lot of work goes into a website to get the customers to the checkout, from a strong SEO ranking to competitive product prices, and one of the reasons that make customers abandon their basket is due to a lack of available alternative payment methods. Traditionally credit/debit cards have been the norm for making payments online but there are multiple different providers available and customers can question security when they see one they don’t recognise. Research has been conducted (Forrester Research, 2010) which finds that 26% of customers would abandon their basket if their preferred payment method was not available so it is important to give customers a choice. There are a number of recognisable 3rd party payment gateways available to use within your online store in addition to your own standard credit/debit card system. PayPal and Google Checkout are two alternative methods of payment which customers can instantly recognise due to the associated brand and with that recognition comes the trust that their online transaction will be secure. Both of these payment gateways can be easily integrated into your website and help increase conversion rates by reassuring customers that their details will be safe by not directly entering card numbers within the site that they are buying from. 3rd party gateways such as these two often allow a much easier mobile checkout than your standard credit/debit card which can be invaluable with the increase in mobile and tablet devices which a lot of customers are now using for their online shopping. Although the costs per transaction of 3rd party payment gateways may be slightly more than your standard credit/debit card provider, the improvement in conversion rate from customers recognising and trusting these brands should far outweigh the difference. Alternative payment options should be seen as a necessity on your store, rather than an option.