People are renting fewer full-length movies as they shift from physical to digital media, according to a report by The NPD Group: The total number of movies rented by Americans in the first half of 2012 fell 10% from the same period a year earlier. more

The "S" word can be intimidating, but failure to articulate a clear strategy (and goals!) for your content marketing will undermine its effectiveness. Here, Michael Brenner discusses how SAP defines—and implements—its content strategy. more

Facebook overtook Yahoo as the second most popular website for online video viewing in July 2012, attracting some 53.0 million unique viewers during the month, compared with 48.7 million for Yahoo, according to data from the comScore Video Metrix service. more

The average order value (AOV) of smartphone traffic to online retailer websites reached $97.39 in the second quarter of 2012, higher than that of tablets ($96.11) and traditional devices ($91.86), according to a report by Monetate, which analyzed a random sample of more than 100 million online shopping experiences for ... more

Five years ago, Joel Chudleigh's team managed to boost a client's online conversion rate by 11% over a six-week period. "After seeing those results it is fair to say that I have been interested to the point of obsession in how much difference the right layout, the right copy, and the ... more

When using Facebook apps, only 28% of people prefer to view standard banner ads, whereas 72% prefer viewing immersive and integrated ads—those that offer virtual rewards or currency, or interactive video ads that occur during natural breaks in an app or game—according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive on ... more

Smartphone users who are familiar with mobile ads appear to be comfortable making a purchase or recommendation as a result of an ad, but many others still haven't viewed a mobile ad, according to a survey from Hipcricket Inc. more

Despite privacy concerns, consumers are more comfortable sharing their personal information with retailers than they are with social networks, particularly if sharing such data enhances the shopping experience, according to a survey from MyBuys and the e-tailing Group. more

Have you considered using an agency to handle your PPC campaigns? "Knowing what to expect, and what not to expect can help you judge whether or not outsourcing this work is a good fit for your organization," writes Nathan Pabich at the Renegade Search blog. Pabich offers nine points to consider ... more

Students are most interested in buying laptops, fridges, and large televisions to take with them as they begin college life. Also, though college tech needs are shifting overall—toward products that provide mobility and convenience—the tech items viewed as most essential to college life are still the basics: laptops and printers. more

Word-of-mouth is key to the success of daily deals: When making a daily deal purchase from a new or unfamiliar small business, fully one-half (50%) of consumers cite recommendations from friends or family as the factor most likely to influence their decision to purchase, according to a report by Constant ... more

Consumers tend to prefer starting their online purchasing research with Amazon rather than Google: 30% of online buyers surveyed say they began researching their most recent online purchase via Amazon, more than twice the proportion (13%) who began their research with Google, according to report by Forrester Research. more

The history of the business video dates back to the 1970s, when AT&T created the Picturephone. The device transmitted an image only once every two seconds—slow speeds that would make any Internet user cringe today. The way we access and share visual creations has changed a lot since those early ... more

We marketers often place media in three categories: paid, owned, and earned. But customers tend to ignore such distinctions. They're looking for the "right" media. How do you give them what they're looking for? These slides from the Altimeter Group can help. more

Most cell phone owners in the US use their devices while watching TV, often to get more information about televised content: Some 52% of all adult cell phone owners and 76% of those age 18-34 incorporate mobile phones into their television watching experience, according to a report by Pew Research. more

Marketers' use of social media and mobile marketing has steadied over the past year, whereas the use of viral online video (e.g., use of YouTube) has continued to grow, according to the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) 2012 Digital and Social Media Survey. more

As Google continues to personalize search results, the data you see in ranking reports might not mean what you think. Why? They only tell you what rankings would look like in a non-personalized search. Most of your customers, meanwhile, see rankings driven by their behavior—so your Web page might rank ... more

Though professional news organizations contributed more than one-half (51.2%) of the most popular news footage posted on YouTube during the 15 months ended March 2012, over one-third (39.2%) of such content was uploaded by private citizens, according to a report by Pew. more

If you're still wondering about the value of segmentation, consider these numbers from eMarketer, as reported by HubSpot: "39% of email marketers that practice list segmentation see better open rates; 28% see lower opt-out and unsubscribe rates; and 24% see better email deliverability, increased sales leads, and greater revenue." HubSpot's Corey ... more

As paid video content becomes more available via different channels, tablet and wireless phone viewing of paid video has increased from 2011 levels, while viewing via PC/Mac has decreased, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 US Residential Pay-to-View Study. more

Marketers remain bullish on the potential of QR codes, but a Temkin Group study in April found that only 24% of US adults are actually using them. So notes Dan Wilkerson in an article at Mashable. According to Wilkerson, there are five common mistakes being made by QR-code marketers that are turning ... more

It's easy to send "just one email with the same content to everyone in your database," writes Matthew Johnson at the Vision6 blog. "But how do you send that same email and make it relevant to everyone in your database?" The short answer is: You can't. And that's why you need conditional ... more

Mobile devices have a strong hold on today's consumers, so much so that some users are becoming totally mobile dependent, whether at home or on the go: Half of smartphone and tablet users (51.1%) say they now check their email using only their mobile device, according to a recent survey ... more

Google accounted for 65.02% of all US searches conducted in the four weeks ended June 2, 2012, according to Experian Marketing Services' Hitwise. Bing-powered search accounted for 28.12% of searches more

With smartphone’s taking the majority share in mobile phone usage in America this year, it’s easy to see that the future of the Web is mobile. No one can afford to ignore it. more