Marketers may spend millions of pounds on advertising campaigns yet arguably the biggest influence on a consumer’s decision costs nothing: a word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted source. The great value of the internet is that it facilitates mass word-of-mouth recommendation possibilities.  According to a recent article from management consultants Mckinsey, word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20-50% of all purchasing decisions. Read More

Everywhere I look, every article I read, seems to hammer home the fact that peer influence marketing is becoming the most effective method of selling a brand. Word of mouth marketing has always been a reliable way to do business. Why? Because brands know that consumers would rather hear it from someone they know and trust. In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes the three characters needed to start an epidemic. Read More

No point re-writing what it says in the FT so here's their opening paragraph: Read More

Mobile shopping doesn't have a huge share of retail website traffic at present but things are moving. The big retailers are beginning to get their act together and more and more consumers have internet-enabled phones. Read More

If you go on holiday for two weeks, will you leave your front door unlocked and the windows open?  In the world of the internet thousands of website owners do just that. This is becoming a bigger problem as hackers are posing a widespread and persistent threat. Read More