COPENHAGEN

2 days / 15 talks
Awesome and great blog

January 25-27

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Reposted from Core

This blog was written by Shane Lyons – Business Director at Core. 3XE will be welcoming him as a keynote speaker at the Search Marketing Conference this October. This article can be found here.


 

Amazon vs. Google – What’s the Impact for Advertisers in Ireland?

Alphabet (the holding company of Google), recently released their financials for the first quarter of 2019 and to many people’s surprise, their revenue fell below analyst estimates. Google have consistently expanded at 20% or more in previous quarters, whereas in the first quarter of this year they achieved growth of 15%; nearly a 10% decline in growth for the same period last year.

 

Of course, at the scale that Google now operates at, it is difficult to constantly achieve large scale growth, but it is also interesting to consider the reasons as to why they are experiencing this deceleration in ad revenue growth. Similarly, we are asking how these reasons might impact local advertising strategies here in Ireland.

The Rise of Amazon as a Marketing Platform

The main factor appears to be the rapid growth of Amazon’s Advertising Suite in markets like the US and UK. For the first time Google have a serious rival and many advertisers, especially online retailers, have diverted some of their Google budget into trialling activity on Amazon. Amazon is certainly popular here in Ireland but not remotely as ubiquitous as it is in the States where it is an absolute giant of eCommerce. $160.2B of the company’s total net sales of $232.9B in 2018, were generated from the US (69%), mostly thanks to the mass adoption of Amazon Prime over there.

More than 100 million people subscribe to Prime in the US and this has completely changed the way people shop there. Prime members are extremely loyal to Amazon, a recent survey by Feedvisor found that of all consumers who belong to Amazon Prime, nearly half (48%) buy products online once a week and nearly three-quarters (74%) shop online at least every few weeks. Once a shopper is subscribed to Prime, it seems that Amazon automatically becomes first preference for most purchases. They have already paid $119 for the privilege of free, two-day shipping so why not make the most of it?

What’s most concerning for Google however is that Amazon rather than Google is seen as the place to initiate research and then ultimately purchase products. Two-thirds of respondents (66%) typically start their search for new products on Amazon, compared with one-fifth (20%) who start on a search engine such as Google. And when consumers are ready to buy a specific product, 74% go directly to Amazon.

Locally, research on the e-commerce market is limited, so predicting the number of Amazon customers in Ireland is difficult however, An Post revealed a substantial growth in online shopping in general, up 40% in 2018 versus the previous year. It’s safe to say that Amazon’s influence on the retail market will continue to increase like other markets, but what will this mean for advertisers?


Read the full article by Shane Lyons on Core’s website.


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Reposted from Friday Agency

Actively blogging at his home agency (Friday.ie), Gavin Duff is appearing at the 3XE Digital Search Marketing Conference on October 23rd, 2019. This article was written by Gavin and can be viewed on their website.


How Long Should My Blog Posts Be?

If this headline caught your attention and you’ve come here looking for the answer, you’ll be disappointed.

But don’t go anywhere, this is still relevant…

The question you should be asking instead is “How good should my blog posts be?”

It’s not about length

Too often in discussion around content, this question is asked. “How long does it need to be?”. If you’re asking this, your approach is all wrong.

There’s nothing new to say here that we haven’t already been trying to drill home. It’s not about length, it’s about the user.

It’s about relevance, originality, quality, and engagement. And if it can be entertaining, informative, controversial or opinionated, then even better – people might actually share it.

Share my content

You may have seen studies out there suggesting that the longer your piece of content is the higher it will rank on Google. And yes, this is true in many cases. But not in every case. Let me explain…

I just searched on Google for “how long should a meta description be?” and this page ranked first – https://blog.spotibo.com/meta-description-length/

You know why? It’s rich content, its original, it’s got the length checker tool, there’s a useful image and then appropriate text length. That’s the key here – “appropriate”. It’s not two thousand words long but it certainly goes a long way towards answering my query.

Now, if my question instead had been “why do I need meta descriptions?” Then there’s an argument for writing more in order to give background, context and actionable value. Now that’s one I could easily write 2,000 words on. Not that length matters…

One core question

There is 1 core question you need to ask yourself at 3 key points while creating a blog post. And that question is: “Why should someone read this content and not someone else’s?

And you should ask it:

  1. Before you create your piece of content
  2. While you write it
  3. When you review it for publishing

So, at every point.

If you cannot answer that question, then start again.

You should ask yourself the same about your brand, product, service, website… it should be a part of everything that you do. But that’s another day’s discussion, and that could easily be 10,000 words… or whatever is appropriate.


Read the full article here at Friday Agency by Gavin Duff, the Head of Digital Performance.


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You are reading about one of Ireland’s longest established Digital Marketing Agencies – Brightspark Consulting. It offers all the services (search and social) required to get found online, to drive leads, and to build loyalty amongst customers.

Explaining the company approach, Founder Maryrose Lyons says, “At Brightspark, we operate at the intersection of how humans use social media and how the platforms change their algorithms to drive highly targeted leads for our client’s businesses.”

“Our toolbox changes to meet an ever-evolving industry, and that’s exactly how we help you stay ahead of the curve.”

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Founder of Brightspark Consulting

Maryrose Lyons is the woman behind the hugely successful Brightspark Consulting, who founded it in 2003. Maryrose has  great ability to spot the trends that will last, and has been successfully operating in the industry since the very beginning.

“Social media hadn’t been invented when I set up Brightspark,” she laughs.

One of the current opportunities lies in the area of Messenger Marketing and Maryrose will deliver a keynote at the conference on Irish businesses that are killing it with messenger marketing. Maryrose’s advice: “start building your Messenger list now… you can thank me later!”

Brightspark Consulting Maryrose Lyons presentation topic is Drive engagement through Facebook Messenger

Irish Businesses Killing It With Facebook Messenger

On 23rd October, Maryrose Lyons will be delivering a keynote presentation on the topic ‘Irish Businesses Killing It With Facebook Messenger’. 

Maryrose will share examples of Irish businesses who are driving Facebook engagement through Messenger. The future of social is private. Messenger marketing is a great tool for one-to-one conversations with customers at scale.

Brightspark Consulting Maryrose Lyons presentation topic is Drive engagement through Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger Marketing Guide

Of the 70 million businesses on Facebook, less than 1% are using Facebook Messenger as a marketing tool. 

To know what is Facebook Messenger Marketing and what are chatbots, there is an excellent article by Brightspark. 

This is the link to the Facebook Messenger Marketing Guide shared by Brightspark Consulting.

You can be one of the first businesses to take advantage of Facebook Messenger Marketing! Join us at the 3XE Search Marketing Conference on 23rd October in Dublin, where Maryrose Lyons will be one of our esteemed speakers. 

Check the Event Schedule for more details and you can register using the Early Bird Offer.


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With Zalando’s Marketing Lead, let’s take a look at the Marketing story at Zalando.

Zalando is Europe’s leading online platform for fashion and lifestyle. Founded in Berlin in 2008, they bring head-to-toe fashion to more than 27 million active customers in 17 markets, offering clothing, footwear, accessories, and beauty. The assortment of international brands range from world-famous names to local labels. 

Their platform is a one-stop fashion destination for inspiration, innovation, and interaction. As Europe’s most fashionable tech company, Zalando puts in a lot of hard work to find digital solutions for every aspect of the fashion journey – for our customers, partners and every valuable player in the Zalando story. 

Zalando’s goal is to become the starting point for fashion.

Marketing at Zalando

Zalando found success in the fast developing digital world with the help of platform-based business model. You can study their successful business model and understand how they focus on three key areas –  customers, partners and infrastructure. 

Melissa Weston is the Marketing Lead UK & Ireland at Zalando. Melissa believes that for potential digital growth, Search Marketing is one of the most important marketing channels to generate web traffic. She tells us “It compliments SEO and content marketing and gets your brand at the top of Google or any other search engine. It’s accessible to companies of all sizes, it is conversion focussed and can even contribute to brand awareness when ads are above the fold.”

For Zalando, an extremely helpful method to optimise for search has been personalisation.

What is personalisation in marketing?

Personalisation in marketing means improving customer experience by creating personal interactions using relevant content. Personalisation is possible through data collection (of browsing behaviour, purchase history, preferences, demographics, etc.), analyzing the data and using this information to serve the needs of the online users. 

Personalisation in Search 

Melissa Weston tells us that personalisation in search has been hugely helpful to target and reach their customers at Zalando. The 5 important ways that Zalando is using personalisation in search are – Algorithmic Fashion Companion (AFC), Sizing, Homepage, Mobile and Big Data.

We are inviting Melissa Weston to 3XE Search Marketing Conference in Dublin on 23rd October, 2019. As a main stage speaker, Melissa will present the different factors that affect search personalisation.

Using the case studies from Zalando, Melissa will be sharing the key insights of working on personalisation. She will also elaborate on the 5 areas where Zalando is using search personalisation. Melissa will take us through the development of personalisation in online fashion retail.

Quick fixes in Search Engine Optimisation

Melissa explains the quick and easy SEO fixes that brand managers should attend to:

Link Building – Include working with your PR agency to create new backlinks to your website on relevant sites or alternatively find and redirect dead links.

Mobile First – With an increase in mobile traffic, making sure your website is optimised for mobile is one of the most important SEO fixes. 

Internal Links – Getting initial traffic is great, but return visitors really push your search rankings up, so one way to increase this is to add related suggestions at the bottom of your content or similar items below fashion choices for example.

Search Marketing Influencers

Today Melissa is responsible for the full marketing budget, strategy planning and media buying for UK & Ireland at Zalando. When she started learning about SEO and SEM, Neil Patel’s videos were really valuable for her, as well as MOZ blog and various marketing events in London.

 

Future of Search as per the Marketing Lead at Zalando

Looking at the growth in digital industry, she believes that Artificial Intelligence, more specific targeting and more automation will play a much more strategic role in Search Marketing moving forward. “Programmatic advertising has already had a huge impact here using AI to automatically buy advertising space, using data, to determine which audience the ads should target. It will be interesting to see how influencer marketing is affected here and also how video marketing can adapt to become more personalised. In terms of SEO, I think voice optimisation will become more key, as adoption rates grow.”

Connect with Melissa Weston:

LinkedIn

At the 3XE Search Marketing Conference – 23rd Oct, 2019

Marketing Lead at Zalando to speak at 3XE Digital Conference


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Matrix Internet is a full-service Digital Agency, with a team of Digital Marketing Specialists, UX Experts, UI Designers, Developers, SEO Specialists and Experienced Content Writers.

Through engaging content and effective user experience, they have been delivering results for their clients like – An Post, Meath GAA, Dublin City Council, Go Car and many more.

Keynote Speaker at User Experience Conference 2019

Head of Design, Treasa Flynn, will be gracing the main stage at UX Conference on May 16th. In her keynote talk, Treasa will be discussing ‘Journey Mapping: Actions, Mindset and Emotions’.

She will explain why it is important to understand your customers. Treasa says “Put yourself and your team in your customers’ shoes. Walk in their footsteps, through research and empathy, improve your customer engagement.”   

The 3 key takeaways from the presentation will be:

  1. How to look at the entire experience from the customer or user’s perspective.
  2. Communicate an understanding of your customer or service to your entire team.
  3. Through the experience understand and recognise opportunities.

Treasa believes the best products are designed when the end user is at the core of decision making. Good design and frictionless user experience is a minimum requirement if an organisation is to flourish online in a challenging digital marketplace.  

Treasa Flynn, Head of Design | 3XE User Experience Conference

In our recent interaction with Treasa Flynn, we discussed on topics related to UX and what she thinks will be the hot digital trends this year.

How would you define UX Design and why is it important?

This might seem like a simple question, but the answer is not.

UX design is an approach to building products that are created with the customer in mind. A method that takes into account all aspects of the end users’ interaction with a product or service. Not just the functional requirements (usability and accessibility) are considered, but the emotional needs (delight and satisfaction) of the customer becomes part of the decision making process.

A range of disciplines, such as user research, service design, information architecture, visual design, usability, and human-centred design are required. Successful UX design occurs when the customers’ functional and emotional needs are achieved via seamless interactions.

“A bad website is like a grumpy salesperson.” — Jakob Nielsen of Nielsen Norman Group.

What is the role of creativity in UX Design?

In a practical world, people want to achieve their goals without frustration. But in the real world, they want to achieve their goals but smile while doing so. People love beautiful products that trigger their emotions. Aesthetically pleasing design can make users more tolerant of minor usability issues.

Websites that can help in improving UX

Treasa finds inspiration from Nielsen Norman Group. She says “As in all industries, budget and time will always affect the research a project team can produce. Over the past 20 years, Nielsen Norman Group has been the champions of UX research and methodologies. The surveys, research and findings they publish allow projects with limited budgets to access data and industry-specific findings.“

The 2 websites she names as examples of good user experience, are WeTransfer and AirBnb. Read the article, Examples of Good UX, to know what Treasa and other UX experts have to say about websites that offer good UX.

Digital Trends this year!

UX Writing: Copy is as crucial to the overall design of the product as wireframes, prototypes, and UI elements. In the last year, brands have realised that what they are saying, the story they are telling and how they are saying it, is an integral part of a customer’s user experience.

Device-agnostic experiences: We are on the cusp of a new phase of digital interactions. With the growth in the market of wearables and voice assistants technologies, a more holistic approach to UX is being developed. The opportunity for customers to interact with a product or service is no longer limited to desktop or mobile. Brands looking to stay ahead of the curve must take advantage of this innovation. Giving the customer control of when and where they want to interact with a product or service. Ensuring these interactions, regardless of the device, are frictionless will be the challenge that UX designers will have to navigate in the coming year(s).

Join Treasa Flynn and many other UX Design masterminds at the UX Conference on May 16th.

Check the Event Schedule – UX Conference at Croke Park | May 16th

Reserve your seat – There are limited seats available in the Group Tickets Offer.


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Fast growth and an ever-more-valuable brand are gratifying, but for Andrew Fulton, CEO of the digital product firm Dawson Andrews, he’s in it for the long run.

Dawson Andrews is a global and independent digital product house with offices in Belfast and Sydney. Dawson Andrews specialise in driving commercial value through digital products and services, for startups and international businesses.

Dawson Andrews’ clients include Toys R Us, GSMA, Danske Bank and leading Irish retailer Bathshack.

We are inviting their MD, Andrew Fulton, as a Keynote Speaker to the UX Conference on May 16th. In his presentation, Andrew will be sharing the Business Value of Design.

Andrew’s digital experience began in corporate finance and analytics before founding digital product studio Dawson Andrews. Since it’s launch four years ago they have become digital partners for fortune 500s and some of Ireland’s leading e-commerce brands. Andrew brings a commercial focus that has resulted in multi-million Euros in increased revenues for his client partners.

Andrew will unpack an approach to design that puts economics at the forefront. Well known for his no-bullshit approach, Andrew brings a commercial perspective to UX and unpacks how it can build tangible business value.

Here are the excerpts from our Q&A with Andrew Fulton.

How do you measure success?

In work, it all comes down to a few numbers at the end of the day. Are we growing value for Dawson Andrews as a company? Are we growing value for our clients’ businesses? Did we make the boat go faster? We design and build digital experiences, both largely subjective tasks that requires discretion to place a value on. At DA, we do our best to measure everything to prove or disprove value with fact rather than opinion.

The speed at which we grow is important but the means by which we get there are far more important. Short term gains can easily become vanity metrics – We’re aiming for long term sustainable growth over 20+ years.

What was the hardest lesson in your first year of business?

We’d been working on a big e-commerce project when our client (Toys R Us) went through a chapter 11 bankruptcy in our second year of trading. US bankruptcy process is vastly different to the UK where we’re based so it wasn’t easy to navigate. Managing the volatility and exposure of outstanding service contracts, and managing our cash position was probably the hardest lesson. We dealt with it well, without compromising job security for our people which is what I’m most proud of. It certainly made us a robust & resilient company.

If given the chance again, would you take a high-value contract with a soon-to-be bankrupt retailer?

Yes. We’ve now done it a few times and consider ourselves ‘search & rescue’ specialists. I wouldn’t consider us a risky business, we’re actually relatively conservative but with the right mechanisms in place to mitigate against high exposure we’re happy to work with troubled companies just as much as we like to work with large sustainable brands.

How is Dawson Andrews different now from when it started?

At the beginning we worked on smaller projects for smaller companies, building & designing apps for startups and SMEs. Whilst we still like this type of work now and again, we’re now working on larger digital transformation projects with bigger multinational companies.

We’re also a lot more focused on our own products. Our first product, Ripley Chat is live and generating license revenue.

What’s your proudest accomplishment in your business?

Probably building out the team we have today. We’ve got great credibility amongst our client base, long term contracts & partnerships and plenty of sustainable growth ahead.

What’s the biggest myth in business?

Build it and they will come.

Instead – find ‘them’ first, ask them if they ‘need it’ rather than if they ‘want’ it. If they need it bad enough, they should be willing to pay part of it upfront.

With so much accomplished in such a short space of time, what are your hopes and dreams to what Dawson Andrews can aspire?

We’re aspiring to become one of the best digital product studios in the world which means opening more studios in different regions. We’re also pushing forward hard with DAX – our R&D & Ventures arm of the studio where we create & launch our own IP, conduct joint ventures and build product revenues. We’ve done it successfully with Ripley as I mentioned earlier but we’ve a few more irons in the fire which we want to push forward on. I guess the grand plan is that we have our core services business which is delivering best in class digital experiences for our clients and a portfolio of owned products that may or not be split into independent businesses.

Of course, you should never chase two rabbits in case you catch none so whilst it’s easy to tout a plan, executing on it is a different matter.

What attributes contribute to a successful digital firm? Can you share with us your management philosophy?

Hire good people. Get the heck out of their way.

How are your business and industry transforming? What are some of the major changes and trends you are anticipating?

The biggest one I see is that digital leaders inside of companies are only now becoming numbers & ROI driven. Sure, data-driven methodology has been used for a number of years but marking that against ROI and financial performance of the company is something that has been neglected. This is starting to change because CEOs, CFOs and other leaders who have P&L responsibility are starting to understand digital more and more. Their skepticism towards digital spend is filtering down through their team who harness this scrutiny by really digging into it and ensuring digital spend is producing business value.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

How to fix a boiler!? Being handy isn’t exactly what I’m known for but a youtube video did the trick.

Meet this genius and seasoned digital professional at 3XE Digital’s UX & Design Thinking Conference on May 16th, 2019.

Event Schedule – User Experience & Design Thinking Conference 2019

Book your seat – Group Offers & Special Deals Available


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Allow us to introduce you to Wolfgang Digital. They are a team of Digital Marketing nerds! They are Ireland’s leading Digital Agency. They are winners of Best Search, Best Social & Agency of the Year in 2018.

The data experts from Wolfgang Digital are coming again as Keynote Speakers at 3XE Digital’s Conference on 16th May – UX & Design Thinking Conference 2019.

The team of Kevin Moore (Deputy Head of SEO), Gustavo Pelogia (SEO Specialist & Client Lead) and Robbie Deighan (PPC Specialist) will deliver a main stage presentation on the topic ‘How to Manage your Google UX in 2019 & Beyond

5 simple ways business can improve their local SEO, Wolfgang Digital

To give you a head start on this topic, they decided to share 5 effective & simple methods to improve your local SEO. Let us look into the suggestions by Wolfgang Digital.

It’s true that search engine optimisation (SEO) is often complicated, full of technicalities and dubious language which often ends with an “it depends” kind of answer. However, if you think SEO usually sounds like another language, some areas are actually very simple.

Local SEO is one of these areas. Just to have everyone on the same page, a local search means Google shows you information about things that are physically located in your area. It could be a restaurant, a store, a pub or any brick and mortar business or service where you can visit a physical location, like a locksmith or a plumber.

Usually, a local search will return a local pack, which are map results such as below:

5 simple ways business can improve their local SEO, Wolfgang Digital

Let’s say you’re searching for a pub or a restaurant near you. Chances are that you’re looking for a place to go right now and all you need is a phone number or an address – At this point, many of us will go to an application such as Google Maps and find our way.

Did you see what happened here? I made my journey from online to offline and converted without necessarily going through their website. Often these results will also lead to what’s known as no-click searches.

With the rise of voice search on mobile phones and smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, we could have done that even without an interface—checking the opening hours of that restaurant or requesting a taxi just after we decided where to go.

We’ll discuss more in depth the world of local searches, no-clicks and voice in our talk ‘How to Manage your Google UX in 2019 & Beyond at 11h20 on 3XE UX Conference 2019, but here we’d like to start by giving you five places to start your local SEO.

The steps below are a starter pack, although the talk at 3XE will go more in-depth into the local SEO world and cover beyond the basics.

Ready?

Claim your business

If your company has been out there for a while, chances are that your business is already on Google Search and Maps, even if you didn’t ask for it. Google has a team working to add new businesses on its platform, as well as rely on users to create those. The first step is to search for your company name or address on Google Maps. Once you find it, follow the steps to claim the location using a service called Google My Business, which is used to manage your company details. You can verify ownership by phone, letter or email (the latter is only available for some businesses and you must have a @yourcompany.com email address)

The basics: name, address, phone and opening hours

Here’s a scenario: someone is looking for a local service they’re not familiar with. Let’s imagine you need a solicitor, which is something that many of us will need at some point but won’t easily be able to pinpoint which firm to use (it’s not like picking your favourite pub!).

You’re potentially looking for a service near you, as you’ll have to pay them a visit, talk about costs and meet your lawyer. Many companies fail in this simple step to correctly display the business name, address, phone number and website as listed on their profile. Also very important to mention, you should have your opening hours up to date as well, including holidays and any days you might be closed or open.

Google My Business allows you to update all year at once, for many locations you can update your Christmas hours, when you’re closed for renovations or any other dates and times. Are you open on Good Friday? This is a classic example where some businesses are open and some not.

You don’t need to understand a thing about SEO to know the frustration of a customer when they find a closed door or when they can’t reach you. For many businesses, this means losing a client to your competitor around the corner!

Google Posts

This feature is the easiest place to highlight any promotions, offers, jobs or any urgent message your client needs to know. Google gives rare opportunities for businesses to control what customers see when they search and this is one of them. You can create any message to feature in your profile, much like a social media post.

Here’s an example from HOMS Solicitors promoting their job openings in Limerick:

5 simple ways business can improve their local SEO, Wolfgang Digital

Any publications on Google Posts become available instantly and remain live for seven days, after which they go to archive but remain visible under “View previous posts on Google”.

Business Categories: let Google understand what you offer

Did you ever go to Google trying to find something but you weren’t really sure how to search for it? Or found a company, but aren’t sure if they offer exactly what you’re looking for?

Let’s say you need to find a gym. In your way from home to work, there are dozens of options. This gym must have a swimming pool, so you already filtered out many options. Lastly, you would like a personal trainer. This has narrowed down to just a few businesses.

How would Google know that your gym offers all three services? This is where the business categories come into play. Any company can have one primary category, that represents your business as a whole and nine others called additional categories. Here’s an example:

5 simple ways business can improve their local SEO, Wolfgang Digital

Once you select your main category, try all others that would fit your business by typing some of other categories you can think of. Google My Business categories can be very specific, such as “hydroponics equipment” to “egg supplier”.

This doesn’t allow you to treat your website poorly because Google still uses information from your website. Here’s proof: if you search for “afternoon tea” in Dublin, Google is using information from a page to display information directly on search results:

5 simple ways business can improve their local SEO, Wolfgang Digital

If you have a page about this topic or offering and it also mentions the same as a business category, that’s a double confirmation that your business matter for that.

Reviews are Key

Everyone has a bad day sometimes and everyone running a business knows how clients can be hard to please. We all resort to social media when we need to show our frustration with a company and as business owners and managers, it’s our goal to calm those unhappy customers and try to turn the situation around.

You’re not just replying to those who had a bad experience, but for all other sceptical customers who will read those comments before making the decision to do business with you.

Another reason why replies are so important is that they influence your results too. Let’s imagine you’re looking for a coffee shop near Grafton Street in Dublin. Such a busy area has more coffee shops than one could visit in a week.

If all have similar average review scores and are located within walking distance, reviews will play a role when Google decides which shop to show. If a particular location has a lot of positive reviews where customers mention “Grafton street”, this could be a tie breaker into making you appear on Google or not. First step: ask your best clients to leave you a review, or use personalised posters templates which Google offers for free.

We have a few examples where reviews helped businesses to appear on the local pack in a matter of hours, but you’ll have to attend our talk at 3XE to find out about those!

The Bottom Line

Even if you know nothing about SEO, the recommendations above can help your business to thrive on Google. None of them require technical knowledge and many of them are simple to understand for business people. The results can be immediate, so make sure you don’t fall behind!

 Event Schedule – 3XE User Experience & Design Thinking Conference, 16th May 2019

Reserve your seat – Group Ticket Offers are available!


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Many factors add to a good User Experience (UX) – it should be easy to navigate, aesthetically appealing, display relevant content, hassle-free in completing transactions, trustworthy and many more things. Above all, it should understand humans.

Gareth Dunlop of Fathom says “UX design expresses itself with an obsessive attention to detail, never missing up an opportunity to delight – at its heart it is insight driven creativity”

Treasa Flynn from Matrix Internet tells “UX design is an approach to building products that are created with the customer in mind. A method that takes into account all aspects of the end users interaction with a product or service. Not just the functional requirements (usability and accessibility) are considered, but the emotional needs (delight and satisfaction) of the customer becomes part of the decision making process.”

To understand what features can make a website delightful to use, we spoke to the expert UX and Design professionals. They handpicked their favourite websites that offer good user experience.

Let us take a look at the best examples of websites offering good UX :

Wetransfer – Simplicity

WeTransfer, a good User experience website

Treasa Flynn, the Head of Design at Matrix Internet says “the interaction is simple and intuitive. It delivers one service simply with no complexity. But also ticks the box for the emotional needs of the customer by providing feedback when the interaction is completed via fun animated gifs, simple but effective.”

Airbnb – Trustworthy and Pleasing

AirBnb, a good User experience website

Treasa Flynn’s other favourite is AirBnb. She tells ”As a concept, Airbnb should not work. Who lets strangers into their home? It is counter-intuitive to all we are taught. However, this disrupter has rocked the world and is an unbelievable success. Not just because of the intuitive digital interface, but because the business model works. Trust is central to the whole user experience, from those who share their homes to those that book and pay online. A truly user-centric solution.”

AirBnb has also appealed to the Design Director at SAP.com, Goran Peuc. He explains “The primary reason they are winning the game is user experience. I never ever want to book a hotel again, because the mere thought of going to some hotel website, as opposed to going to AirBnB website, makes my blood curdle. AirBnB made it a delight to book accommodation, whereas your typical hotel website is cringe inducing.”

Tesla – Perfect replacement to Offline purchases

Tesla, a good User experience website

Another one that impresses Goran is Tesla – “they are betting their whole sales nowadays on their website, since they are closing lots of brick and mortar stores. So the site better be amazing.”

Bird and Blend Tea  – Attention to Detail

Bird and Blend Tea, a good User experience website

Jono Alderson is a Marketing Technologist, who leads the Special Ops at Yoast. Delighted with his experience, Jono tells “I recently bought some tea (exciting, I know!) from Bird and Blend Tea, and really enjoyed how well the website reflected their brand values and style. They’d paid attention to every detail, from the first touch point, right through to the way the product is presented.”

D BrandPersonalised

D Brand, a good User experience website

Jono bought a vinyl skin for his laptop and says “every touchpoint – their emails, packaging, tutorials – was delightfully crafted. I recommend both brands to everybody, now, because they were genuinely delightful to buy from.”

SkyscannerRelevant Content

Skyscanner, a good User experience website

Gareth Dunlop is the CEO of UX Design Agency in Belfast – Fathom. Gareth informs “UX Design is how we make our users feel when they interact with our stuff.  In essence it relates to how well we are treating them. It manifests itself in a culmination of language, visual language, flow, design, and interaction.” Picking two of his favourites, Gareth tells Skyscanner and  Travel Republic are websites with good UX.

Travel RepublicBuilding with Reviews

Travel Republic, a good User experience website

Travel Republic is a holiday booking website that has great reviews by its users for good pricing, easy booking, exceptional service and also amazing website.

RevolutEasy to use

Revolut, a good User experience website

The Founder of Friday Digital Agency in Dublin, Graham Carroll chose convenience over heavy designing. He says “Revolut, the online wallet – their website is easy to use and on boarding is intuitive and frictionless. Their app is also really easy to use.”

MediumSmooth with minimal design
Medium, a good User experience website

Graham tells us “I love the minimal design and it’s so easy to read and create content. Also, its algorithm works brilliantly and its model for rewarding and promoting better content is great.

All the above mentioned UX and Design Experts will be present at the upcoming UX and Design Thinking Conference in Dublin, on 16th May 2019. This is your chance to meet them, learn and discuss all things User Experience.

Here’s the Event Schedule – 3XE Digital UX and Design Thinking Conference in Croke Park

Register today – Book Tickets in the Early Bird and Group Ticket Offers.


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In the process of delivering a smooth customer experience, the glitch you want to avoid is – trust issues. It will be a tough comeback from there! On 16th May, the Co-Founder of Friday Agency, Graham Carroll will be talking about the challenges we face in understanding the user experience process. He will offer insights on how to work through the UX Design process to achieve desired business results.

UX Design Process by Friday Agency at 3XE Digital Conference

Graham Carroll is also the Business Director at Friday Agency in Dublin. Graham spends his day managing the agency growth and working on digital strategies for their bigger client accounts.

Friday Agency is a UX Design and Digital Marketing agency that helps brands and businesses to achieve their goals. This involves a special mix of research, planning, UX design and content development. Graham says “In simple terms, we make their user and customer experiences better.”

Keynote Speaker at UX Conference 2019

We are inviting Graham is a Keynote Speaker at the 3XE User Experience & Design Thinking Conference on 16th May, 2019. The topic of his presentation is ‘Trust Issues – Living the User Experience Journey’.

The 3 key highlights of his presentation will be:

  • How to build trust in the UX process and gain internal buy-in.
  • How to use that trust to participate and engage.
  • He will explain how UX process is a journey that needs constant care and optimisation.

Graham explains that UX Design is a way of helping users to perform any task online, with the least amount of friction. He adds “it’s also emotional as it helps to develop a positive feeling about your brand, product or service among users”.

Graham Carroll at 3XE Digital Conference - UX Design Process

Digital World in 2019 and beyond

Talking about the Digital Industry in 2019, he says “trends are short-lived.” However, he has some advice on what the future in digital will look like.

Education – For 2019 and in future, obviously more roles and jobs will be created in UX. But there is a big skills gap and education is key to filling that gap. The work that people like Colman Walsh are doing with the UX Design Institute will be a big help.

Businesses and Brands: Every business needs to improve and optimise their user and customer experience. It is a journey that will bring success if you trust in the process and engage in the work that is needed to succeed. Research is key to that.

UI Designers: If you are not already, fight to be a part of and involved in your projects from the start. You’ll do better work.

Role of Creativity in UX Design

Graham tells us” UX designers are primarily involved in research, information architecture and wire-framing. They are not typically part of the creative process of designing. But, despite not involving finished interface design artwork, there is still plenty of opportunity for creativity in UX Design with creating layouts, information architecture and micro interactions.”

Websites and people that influence him on a day to day basis!

“Marketing guru Seth Godin is a huge motivator, www.sethgodin.com – his blog and books just make sense and are easy to read and absorb.

Also Gerry McGovern is a force in digital customer experience and another huge inspiration for me – please check him out at gerrymcgovern.com.”

Graham studied Business in college but it was his old friend Sam who helped him explore the business opportunities in digital space. His friend was one of the main people involved in setting up the first internet cafe in Dublin, the Internet Exchange, way back in the mid 90s. Through him, Graham was introduced to the web and the new opportunities it was bringing.

Graham says “ Someone else in my career who has inspired me is my business partner and co-founder at Friday, Dave Jackson. As our Head of UX he has a brilliant work ethic and an uncompromising commitment to doing things the right way for our clients.”

“Together we have learned the importance and value of having a good team with the right mix of skills and a process that makes good UX and happy clients.”

Meet Graham Carroll at the 3XE Digital UX & Design Thinking Conference on 16th May, 2019.

Check the schedule – We have a great speaker line-up on 16th May.

Register – Reserve your seat today!


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Hold on tight, things are going to be fast. Jono Alderson, the marketing technologist from Yoast is coming with a comprehensive plan that can load websites in under 1 second! Yes, we are talking about website speed and happy customers. Jono tells “slow sites frustrate consumers and frustration costs money.”

Jono handles the ‘Special Ops’ at Yoast, a company best-known for the SEO software. Good-humoured Jono says “Special Ops is just a fancy way of saying that I do all of the weird projects which don’t fit into other peoples’ jobs.” His days at work are a combination of R&D, product road-mapping, development and any manner of things. This is apart from the time that he spends on speaking at conferences on topics related to technical SEO, futurology, digital transformation and marketing strategies.

Yoast – SEO for everyone!

Yoast is largely popular for the WordPress SEO plugin that helps in optimising the website content. This plugin runs on over 9 million websites worldwide. Apart from that, Yoast also has a bunch of other softwares (find them here) and a learning academy with multiple digital training courses. Jono says “we even take occasional consultancy projects to keep us sharp.”

Yoast at 3XE Digital Conference

 

Website Speed & SEO !

Do you know what should be your website load time and how important is that for SEO?

On 16th May 2019, we are inviting Jono Alderson as a Keynote Speaker at User Experience & Design Thinking Conference. Jono describes his presentation “I am going to talk about site speed and share ways in which everybody (technical or otherwise) can make their sites faster and more performant. That’s super-important as speed forms such a crucial part of SEO.

He will share the tips, tools and tactics to accomplish faster page load time. This is a feature that can help companies to stay ahead of the competition and also have a positive impact on Google rankings.

The 3 key takeaways from his presentation:

  • He will convince why companies should prioritise website performance.
  • He will share a framework to read and analyse your website speed.
  • You will go back to work, with tools and processes that will make an immediate improvement to your website.

What is UX Design?

In very simple words, Jono explains UX design “UX is the lens through which we judge our brand interactions. As the world becomes more digital, more connected, and more consumer-orientated, the only thing which differentiates individual companies or services is the quality of the experience they deliver.”

“Good UX is at the heart of that, so we all need to be upping our game!”

Role of Creativity

Telling more about UX design, Jono clarifies the role of creativity in there. He says ”differentiation is key and creativity is the fuel behind this differentiation. People aren’t always rational, and, don’t always make logical, informed decisions. If they did, every brand, every product and every website could just be designed and built to a checklist. What separates the winners and losers are the decisions they make on how to present themselves, how to connect with their audience, and how to stand out.”

We continued the interesting conversation with Jono with these questions:

What do you predict as the digital trends for 2019?

I think we’ll see personal digital assistants (Alexa, Google Home, etc) really starting to change how people behave. It’s not about voice, so much as outsourcing decision making.

Many of the strategies and tactics we deploy today are based on interrupting the research behaviour of users as they work through ‘the funnel’. With digital assistants doing more and more of that work (“OK Google, find me a good vegan restaurant within walking distance”), a lot of our tactics stop working. You can’t interrupt the research process when the user isn’t there. In that world, the role of brand becomes much more important, and, I don’t think many people in digital are really thinking about that.

Tell us about your journey in the digital world and one thing that inspired you.

I started out as a bedroom web developer, building little websites for local businesses. I became obsessed about improving things – my code quality, speed, accessibility, etc – and that really sparked my career in SEO.

What continues to amaze me is that I’ve done all this with no formal education, and being entirely self-taught. I love that the digital world’s level playing field gave me an opportunity to prove myself, to be listened to and respected, and to do good work – despite having a humble background. I think it’s still much more accessible than the ‘real world’.

What websites and people influence you on a day to day basis?

I’m addicted to Twitter. I need to know what’s happening out there, right now. Editorially, I love https://aeon.co – it’s a great source of ‘big think’ journalism and challenging ideas.

A little more on the life of this marketer!

Life of a Marketer - Jono Alderson from Yoast

Meet the Digital Expert, Jono Alderson on 16th May at 3XE User Experience & Design Thinking Conference, happening in Croke Park.

This is the Event Schedule – 16th May, Croke Park Dublin.

Register – Mega Early Bird prices are available.