Here’s a quick round up of some of the biggest stories in marketing recently…
Apple Smash Their Own Record
You can’t fail to have noticed that Apple launched their latest iPhone model, the iPhone 6 last week. The launch was further publicised by the inclusion of free music giveaway of U2’s album, a topic of discussion on our LinkedIn group. What makes the launch even more newsworthy is the sheer volume of sales Apple clocked up over the weekend of the launch. In just 3 days, over ten million phones have flown off the shelves – smashing Apple’s previous record of nine million, which the iPhone 5S/C set. This includes the pre-order numbers, of which there were also a record amount for the tech giant.
One of the ten million new owners in particular found himself the centre of a little extra attention though, and not in a good way! The hapless customer was proudly unboxing his new purchase to show a news reporter, only to drop it live on television. See it here.
Losing Customers To Amazon? It Could Be Down To Your Website
Research from Digital River, reported on by The Drum, has shown how quickly online shoppers will change their allegiance when it comes to parting with their cash. One of the biggest statistics was that 78% of consumers would turn to Amazon if they could not buy a product from the brand’s own website. Of course, Amazon have a slick e-commerce site, and the big budget to make it so, but that doesn’t mean you can’t compete. For starters, make sure that customers can buy your products online – offering in-store purchases only certainly isn’t the way to win direct sales. Digital River survey respondents cited sites being difficult to navigate and cluttered as major turn-offs, to take a lead from that and take the simple-but-effective approach to your web design.
Adverts Are Coming To Pinterest
Pinterest has been slowly sharing details of its advertising product recently, and it certainly sounds like an interesting development for the platform. It will enable advertisers to target specific contacts using their email addresses. So, you could upload a list of emails, and Pinterest will match those details with their Pinterest users, showing your ‘Promoted Pin’ only to those people. This is a great way to be extremely targeted and personalised with messages, something which is so important in the crowded marketplace of online advertising.
Pinterest has also recognised the importance of tracking results, so have come up with a system to measure purchases made as a result of a customer viewing or clicking a Promoted Pin. The changes are due to take place next month, so if you’re planning to use the system, we’d love to hear how successful you find it!
Public relations jobs: Job description
Public relations – or PR – jobs are concerned primarily with building an awareness and interest in a particular company, brand, person or product. There are many different jobs within PR careers but they all contribute to that general theme. Although public relations jobs are closely related to advertising, there is a difference in that those with public relations jobs focus on gaining free media exposure rather than directly paying for it.
Could one fifth of Christmas e-shopping be mobile this year?
New research suggests that as many as one in five UK online sales could be made through a mobile device by Christmas 2012, with the percentage of site visits through the channel increasing to 30%.
Is a covering letter really necessary these days?
Career experts say covering letters are still vital. They play an important part in the recruitment process because they encourage recruiters to read your CV. While a CV sets out your skills and experience for a particular marketing job, the covering letter specifically demonstrates your understanding of the organisation and the nature of the job being advertised.
