According to Experian’s Data Advantage Report it was found that more than 99 percent of organizations had a plan, but 94 percent still had data errors. The reason for this is bad data quality. Data quality initiatives require investment. Cutting costs is not a solution. The report also found that 27 per cent of businesses are using manual database editing to tackle data quality. But, if data quality software is used, it automatically catches new data problems at the input stage before they are dedicated to a customer relationship management system (CRM). It also detect and remove the duplicates that already exist. This in turn cut down on the manual import and export operations and business moves towards a solution. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/how-to-win-the-crm-data-quality-battle-64966

According to a recent report from VWO, it was found that 55% of online shoppers say reviews from other shoppers are an important factor that influences their ultimate decision to buy or not to buy and 23% of consumers say they do not think reviews from others are important, and 22% are indifferent about the issue. 28% of respondents say they sometimes abandon their online shopping carts because of unexpected shipping costs and 23% don't purchase when forced to sign up for an account. Read more at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/26684/what-motivates-consumers-to-complete-e-commerce-purchases

In a study by IAB UK Mobile ad, it was found that 52% of traffic to retail websites originates from mobile. eMarketer also said that this year, mobile ad spend may exceed traditional media such as newspapers, magazines and radio for the first time. So, mobile advertising and mobile device adoption rate is growing at a remarkable rate. Technology is also helping the mobile advertising infrastructure. Programmatic mobile advertising, referred to as Real-time Bidding (RTB), is providing answers to the question of how to target audiences in such a huge and complex environment.  To know more, follow Stephen Upstone (CEO and Founder of LoopMe)’s article link: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/mobile-digital-marketing/forget-the-year-this-is-the-age-of-mobile-advertising/1286

Digital advertising is growing at a rapid space. Sarah Lawson Johnston (Managing Director Europe at Mediaocean), writes in her article about the trends in digital advertising  for the year 2015. They are: Multi-touch Attribution, Native advertising and Viewability. We can expect to have a significant effect on digital ad efficacy and accountability. To know more, follow:  http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-advertising/digital-advertising-industry-predictions-for-2015/1281

Advertisers rely on data when buying inventory in order to find out more about audiences and also they try to analyze their campaign messages. So, programmatic ad trading has become important. It is defined as automating the process of buying and selling digital media and advertising by using software. Programmatic trading has ensured that Data Management Platforms (DMP) software help marketers and publishers to employ the information they hold about users more effectively and enables publishers to learn about their audience – their likes and dislikes. The advantages of DPM goes beyond advertising, into content personalization, email, CRM. Read more at:  http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-data/data-management-platforms-beyond-advertising/1276

Gartner research forestalls that the customer relationship management (CRM) market will be worth $36.4 billion by 2017 because staying in touch with customers is the key for surviving in any business. The main purpose of a CRM solution is to provide any business with data that helps you to take the best decision and build relationships that establish strong customer loyalty. To do that, it’s important to track all types of interactions with your customers. Jeff Orloff (content developer for an e-mail security awareness company) in his article writes about some important customer touch points that are commonly tracked. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-customer-touch-points-you-arent-tracking-in-your-crm-system-64884

A Mobile CRM solution can be an effective way to bridge the gap between management's need for customer data and freeing up sales team members to focus on the customer. Businesses must focus on capturing real time information about customers and their activities, using mobile devices. So, businesses must value on mobile sales solutions. Businesses must integrate mobile CRM with existing systems. To know more, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/4-ways-to-get-more-value-from-crm-through-mobile-64915

The customer service team uses tools such as social media monitoring, engagement dashboards, CRM integration, personalized routing, supervisor visibility, and access to back-end systems. Marketing team uses social media monitoring and engagement dashboards, but it focuses on content creation, and analytics. To know more about how marketing and customer service contribute to the customer experience, follow Veronica Maria Jarski (Opinions editor and a senior writer at MarketingProfs)’s article link:  : http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2014/26637/how-marketing-and-customer-service-approach-customer-engagement-infographic

According to a recent report from Message Systems, it was found that consumers prefer to receive marketing messages, special offers, and coupons via email. It was also found that for non-emergency customer service issues, email is the most preferred. Phone conversations are the next most popular means for non-emergency customer service issues which is preferred by 29% followed by online chat (9%) and social media (7%). Read more at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/26627/how-consumers-prefer-to-receive-marketing-messages

Online presence is a must for every business nowadays. So, social media has become very important. According to Statista, there are about 1.79 billion users in social media in 2014 and it is projected to reach about 2.44 billion by 2018. William Johnson (Web Designer) writes in this article about the emerging trends in social media. These trends are: Social Media Marketing to Go Mobile, Use of Images, Marketing through Short Videos to Become Popular, Viral Marketing to Become Attractive, Companies to Use Real-time Marketing to Serve Customers, and LinkedIn and Instagram to Become the Most Important Platforms. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/top-7-anticipated-social-media-trends-2015

Nowadays companies need to know to about their customers very well because customers collect information from many channels and there is vast amount of data to analyze and little resources to map the insights against business goals. Social media analytics gives us that opportunity. By listening to the voice of the customer and analyzing, filtering and organizing the data, we can create customer segmentation that would benefit any brand. It allows us to go beyond CRM and audience targeting techniques and find out what is important to consumers. To know more, follow Ekaterina Walter (Bestselling Author; International Speaker; Global Evangelist, Sprinklr)’s article link: : http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/social-media-analytics-key-knowing-your-customers

Big Data is everywhere. Big Data also includes data from sources like radio-frequency identification tags, machine sensor data, and other continuous streams. Flow of data is affecting all areas of distribution, including sales and marketing through the customer relationship management (CRM) system. Companies are facing problems while storing large amount of information for their operations and make that information accessible in real time for users. The impact of big data is in improving business operations. So to overcome this problem, predictive models are being embedded in CRM systems. For example, telemarketers use predictive dialing systems to maximize their potential. CRM vendors are also integrating predictive models into their CRM systems. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/how-will-big-data-affect-distribution-crm-64820

According to a recent finding by Technology Business Research (TBR) it was found that business decision makers are seeking cloud professional service guidance at twice the rate of private and public cloud vendors. It was also found that public, private and hybrid cloud integration guidance demand will follow basic cloud professional services growth in coming years and private cloud adoption rate are expected to reach 85 percent by 2018. TBR also believes that there has been an evolution in the type of private clouds adopted -- with 65 percent of third-party-delivered private clouds, compared to 35 percent of self-built private clouds and they also forecasted the growth of the private cloud market to grow at a 15 percent CAGR to $72 billion in 2018. Read more at:  http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/exploring-demand-cloud-professional-services-0

TCN, a cloud based call center systems provider, is making its product Platform 3 Vocal Vision to work with Job Access with Speech (JAWS) technology, which allows visually impaired call center agents to navigate TCN's cloud-based contact center suite. This will help to improve agent productivity and also create new employment opportunities for the visually impaired. JAWS assists computer users with visual impairment to operate a mouse and Vocal Vision helps the agent navigate Platform 3.0's workflows via hot keys that use JAWS functionality during both incoming and outgoing calls, while audible tones signal the connection of an incoming call. Features of Vocal Vision support incoming and outgoing calls, agent dashboard along with reporting and call analytics. Read more at: http://betanews.com/2014/12/02/new-call-center-technology-adapts-to-visually-impaired-employees/

In a recent research by CCS Insight it was found that more than half of online purchases in the UK this Christmas are being made on a mobile device, whether it is from a tablet or a smartphone. But the fact is that retailers are not prepared for mobile advertising. M-commerce is now predominant and it will continue to increase. The retailers who are into mobile advertising have an opportunity to leap ahead of their competitors and capture consumers’ attention. Read more at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/mobile-digital-marketing/merry-mobile-christmas/1288

Today’s marketing has moved towards engage, share and buy model. Nowadays marketing is based on permission based marketing and storytelling. Disruptive advertising and brand storytelling – these are the key for marketers. In today’s world every brand has a story, and it is the job of the marketer to find a way to tell that story in a way that echoes the feeling of their customers.  To know more, follow: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/engage-share-and-buy-3-reasons-brand-storytelling-matters-more-ever-0

According to a recent report from Conductor and Ascend2, it was found that 54% of marketing and sales professionals say quality content creation is one of the most effective search engine optimization tactics they employ. It was also found that 50% of respondents say frequent website updating is also considered important to SEO success. To know more about SEO tactics, follow Ayaz Nanji (independent digital strategist)’s article link: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/26603/enterprise-seo-benchmarks-top-tactics-challenges-and-metrics

Nowadays mobile is important. So, companies are giving importance to mobile marketing. But we need to know what mobile marketing is. Mobile marketing is optimizing your marketing strategies for people using a mobile device i.e. to create an optimized experience for every single device. Companies should give importance to responsive design and mobile ROI. Read more at: : http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/generating-leads-mobile-marketing

Social media crisis is defined by Gartner a crisis that arises in or is amplified by social media, and results in negative mainstream media coverage, a change in business process, or financial loss. Brand loyalty and trust are elements that need to be built into your crisis strategy. Timely responses and communicating updates will help to keep customers satisfied. Businesses should have a good social media crisis strategy. To know more, follow: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-manage-social-media-crisis

In today’s world, the Voice of Customer (VOC) and data derived from social conversations are valuable as this helps businesses to know their customer. Social data help businesses to give a complete picture about your current and prospective customers, their needs, their likes/dislikes and in turn help to build and nurture long-term meaningful relationships with customers and also helps to make business strategy. To know more, follow Ekaterina Walter (Author; International Speaker; Global Evangelist, Sprinklr)’s article link: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/digital-analytics-unlocking-power-social-data