Privacy In the Digital Age

Is Privacy Dead?

We find ourselves in the same predicament that we were in nearly 200 years ago, with the invention of the photograph and telecommunications. We have privacy issue laws with social media giants such as Facebook regarding how much information a company can collect on us, and for what reason.  Soon there will come a day when marketers will need to take a degree in law in order to proceed with digital marketing!

A recent court case in the US really caught my attention as it highlights this issue perfectly. The question is, do you think the right verdict was reached?

Riley V. California and United States V. Wurie.

Two famous U.S court cases were recently brought to the Supreme Courts, and the amicus briefs were filed in ‘Riley vs. California’ and ‘United States vs. Wurie’. In both cases, after the arrest of a suspect, law enforcement officers searched the arrestee’s cell phone without obtaining a warrant from a judge. Unsurprisingly, the suspect argued that examining the content of the phone without obtaining a warrant, had violated his constitutional rights. The Police argued that they had the right to search at the time of the arrest for their officers’ safety (in case suspects could potentially use their phone to detonate a bomb, or summon for accomplices).

Ultimately, the Supreme Judges had to determine if the constitution ‘protects’ the contents of a mobile phone from a search warrant arrest. They had to go right back to 1^st March 1792 when the fourth amendment was adopted. In June 2014, Supreme judges unanimously ruled (9-0) that the search incident to arrest exception does not extend to a cell phone, and that the police force will still need to obtain a search warrant in order to search an arrestee’s phone after the arrest has been made.

Here in the UK, it seems the Police have the right to search mobile devices, by copying everything off the device and processing it at a later date.

Here is an article from the Independent explaining more on the UK Police laws.

Undoubtedly at some point, the US Supreme Court’s decision will result in a UK debate over whether or not the same laws should be applied here.

What lawsuits such as these illustrate is that some laws of the horse and cart era have to be urgently reviewed in order to be relevant to our modern day digital society. Especially as the cracks of the old laws are now starting to show, and Internet ‘Privacy leaks’ become the norm that people have to deal with.

As always, we’d love to hear from you. Do privacy laws mean anything nowadays? Has technology evolved too fast to keep up with our own human rights?

Deck the halls with employee engagement!

What better time to promote employee engagement, than the jolly holiday season!

What some organisations don't know is just how valuable the week's that follow up to Christmas really is.
To ask the right questions, means the new year can be tackled head on, and have a positive impact for the future.

Re-engage: Being social with employee's from departments of the company you wouldn't normally speak to, is a great way to engage with colleagues. There's nothing more de-valuing than feeling invisible at a Christmas party.
Poor communication is one of the top key factors in employee dissatisfaction; Plus, it's always good to speak to the higher management.

Take Note: We all like to feel like we are being heard in our company, many organisations ask for employee feedback after a festive party, to see areas where they can better, and what they can do to change in the New Year. If your organisation currently does this, it would be great to hear what you do.

Finally, Celebrate! it's everyone's way of congratulating each other on getting through the year together, and successfully. A team that can celebrate together, stay's together.

Have a great Christmas, and an even happier New Year from us all at Rapport Agency!

4 Ways You Can Increase Sales This Festive Holiday 2014

I honestly believe that it is easy to adopt to a new email marketing campaign for the holiday season.
However "make it easy" doesn't mean take the minimalist approach to your campaigns. Here in this article on I will be informing you of, 4 simple ways you can increase conversion rates with your Holiday campaigns. Simple & Merry.

RESPOND!
If you want your customers to respond to your campaigns make sure you respond to them first, by making it readable on various devices. (Responsive).
(You only have to hear how well the android/smart phone industry are doing in order to realize the importance of responsive emails/websites).

BE SOCIAL THIS CHRISTMAS!
Make a social presence, If a customer likes or shares an article/product automatically enrich that prospects profile. Many vendors can do all this nowadays, and segment them in to a genre/field that will help emails that are sent out be more relevant and increase engagement.

LEAD SCORE!
Having just the data doesn't mean you will be automatically relevant, you will have to personalise your messages to your prospects/customers, but you could still risk the worry of being deemed irrelevant.
How to avoid this?

Combining data to interact in a more intelligent way will help increase how relevant you are to each customer. But you it is impossible to sit there and research what all your customers like individually, so why not let us help?

The score can be calculated from many aspects of a customers journey, their purchases, how complete their profiles are, interactions on social media and impressions they have made on emails.
Based on an individuals score we can then initiate 1-2-1 campaigns by being more relevant and appealing, remember no one-two people are the same. You yourself are unique.

Result: Increase in conversions.

SHINE BRIGHT!
Remember to highlight what makes you stand out, many people will be comparing their online shopping to many of your competitors, so ensure you stand out from the rest and apply the abandoned shopping cart & Lead Generation campaigns at least! T'is the season to be successful!
If all of the above has not be implemented then this could be a snippet of your customers this Christmas.

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3 Examples, Laughter is the best medicine

Life can be too serious sometimes, with a workplace or industry that can be too stern, can laughter be the best medicine? This article will briefly go through three examples across a wide industry spectrum, to showcase three positive companies that incorporate laughter in to their business ethics, and what impact it has on social engagement.

Why is light hearted laughter important in a work place? because, one of the major contributors to workplace stress, is fear of not being taken seriously, or thought of as "the joker". Stress is a common work place problem, and cause of long-term sickness absence in the UK to date, (Reference CIPD), resulting around £8 billion every year on the UK economy.

We have a fear of being seen as “the joker” which will threaten our professional position and career progression?
In history, the workplace has been seen as a place ‘to get the job done’; with employers and employees taking the view that if work isn’t a toil we simply aren’t working hard enough. What do you think?

The Productivity of laughter

"Surveys in the past have shown 98% of CEO's would much rather hire a candidate with a good sense of humour than a person without one. (Goodman, n.d).

That said, laughter is much more than a tonic to reduce stress. In fact, having humour in the workplace creates a positive environment that builds bonds between colleagues. encourages innovative and positive thinking, resulting in better communication between staff.

"Companies and agencies like Deloitte & Touche, IBM, Kodak, Monsanto, Honda and the internal revenue service have periodically hired humour consultants and organisations to infuse humour into their business (Nilsen & Nilsen 2000).

Here are three examples of how the world's largest organisations have embraced laughter & humour into their workplace:

1) Ben & Jerry's

We have all heard of Ben & Jerry's ice-cream, and they too have set up monthly incentives to reinforce the value of humour at work. "The company feels that employees are more motivated and productivity is higher when they are satisfied with their work". (As cited in Partel, 2001, p.14).

An example of they implement it, is in their production area, employees can listen to music, which rotates the radio stations, broadcasted in that area, "Actually, the joy gang bought our stereo. We listen to music and enjoy our work," says one of the plant employees (as cited in Labbs, 1996, P55).

2) South West Airlines

Have reported a profit every quarter since 1973, the US airline strongly endorses the importance of fun at work.

"The most important attribute for a southwest employee is a sense of humour"(as cited in Adair, 1995, p 47).

How they implement humour in the work place, is by finding it in prospective employees, and presenting organisational results via a rap and music videos. Here are Rapport, we also did something similar to this with Capital One, and 1000+ of their employees, to see the case study click here.Another way Southwest airlines introduce humour, is by having their flight attendants reinvent their safety announcements. "There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only six ways to leave this airplane". Pilots get in on the fun too. "We've reached our cruising altitude now, and I'm not turning the 'off seat belt' sign. I'm switching to autopilot, too, so I can come back there and visit with you all for the rest of the flight"(Freiberg, 1996, P. 211).

3) Deloitte & Touche

Believe too many hours are spent at work for it not to be fun. This company encourages laughter initiatives, as they understand the importance to collaborate, and see the results which include a more inclusive, supportive working environments to work in for their staff.

Creating a culture that is about enjoying each other, being passionate about what you do, and have fun doing it.

For humour to blossom, so does the environment in which it grows in. It is important for your staff to feel relaxed, welcomed and comfortable, this will then naturally inspire people to express themselves.

We don't always have to act serious in order to be taken seriously, or do we?

Perhaps you work in a fun environment just like the previous companies, if so, what do they implement?

it would be great to hear from you, to follow me just click here!

That which is measured is improved: Progressive Profiling,

That which is measured is improved: Progressive Profiling,:   We all know the importance of asking questions, however, if you think about it like dating, you will see why asking too many questions in...

Progressive Profiling,

 We all know the importance of asking questions, however, if you think about it like dating, you will see why asking too many questions in one go can make the other person switch off to you.

In order to decrease the amount of forms abandoned, and increase the engagement you receive, the best practice is only ask 2 or 3 questions at a time.
Don't worry about asking all the questions at once, get the key information first, i.e. 'Email address' and 'name'. Then the next time they visit, ask 'job position' & 'telephone'. 

It is important to take advantage of the fact that each return of a prospect is an opportunity to understand them better.SO DON'T WASTE IT!

• Increased conversion rate. Progressive profiling lets you dole out questions over time, rather than hitting someone with, for example, 20 questions on their first visit (which will likely send them running the other way!). Which results in less form abandonment's.
• Better experience. Dynamic forms mean your leads only see the fields, and questions that pertain to them. Forms stay small, tidy, and unobtrusive.
• Time Saver. Rather than having to create multiple forms and associated landing pages, progressive profiling allows you to create one "master" form that dynamically responds to each lead based on their previous actions and information.
• Improved targeting. Progressive profiling allows you to craft and hone nurturing campaigns that are more closely tailored to your leads and produce better results. Relevance is key!
• Shortened sales cycle. The dynamic nature of progressive profiling helps marketers more quickly, and uncover which leads are qualified and which need more nurturing. In turn, sales can spend more time focused on the hot opportunities. And ensuring ways to convert cold leads to warm.

 If this article interested you, follow me on Twitter @SarahLouiseTalb.

Good luck in your projects!

3 Holiday Strategies For Your Business

It's that time of year again, for some it's joy, for others it's chaos.
There is nothing worse to kill the holiday spirit, like the panic of last minute shopping. This is where you swoop in, here are 3 holiday strategies you can offer your customers this year, to ensure their traumatic experience is minimal. Here are a few cart and browse abandonment strategies you can implement in plenty of time for Christmas.

Browsing Leads To Buying

 Browsing doesn't always lead to abandonment, so long as there is a campaign to win back them shopping carts left. With cart abandonment, you can capture these browsers' behaviors, notice patterns, and trigger emails based on category browsed/interests.

Here is an  example as to how this can benefit your company this Christmas.
If a customer is looking at dolls house October/November, there is a good chance it is research prep for Father Christmas.
As long as you have their email address, you can send a list of best selling toys in regards to the appropriate age/gender groups. To find out more ways you can capture and obtain email addresses, click here to see a previous article.  


Personalisation is the key for this holiday, to be relevant and targeted with the messages, images and product categories sent.

 Don't Fold Too Quickly

If your  customers don't respond quickly to your first attempt at cart recovery, don't worry. It could be because the price is too high, or they are waiting to see if there is a better deal elsewhere. The way to get around this, is by setting up a trigger campaign based on abandoned items, sales, or better yet "stock is getting low" campaigns.

Sweet & Simple

When it comes down to it, adding a sense of urgency by offering a limited-time discount/ limited stock/ or free shipping if they complete a purchase soon. This could be the considering factors necessary for them to purchase with you. 

With these winning strategies, you'll help customers avoid the Christmas Chaos, and hopefully gain their trust and loyalty for life. 

If you liked this article, then feel free to follow me on Twitter @SarahLouiseTalb and