Key Trends You Must Know: The 10 Top E-commerce and Digital Strategy Posts (March 2014)

Can you believe the first quarter is behind us? Seriously, we’re already one-fourth of the way through the year and, while these Spring days are getting longer, they seem to go faster too. Seems like a good time to step back and see how you’re doing — and what you might have missed so far, don’t you think?

To help you catch up, here are the top 10 posts this past month as determined by your fellow Big Thinkers. Check ’em out when you get a chance.

1. The clear winner this past month was “How to Use Emotion and Storytelling in Digital Marketing” from my Travel Tuesday series. But, don’t let the series throw you. Emotion and storytelling matter to customers across all verticals, not just travel. Your digital marketing can only improve if you incorporate appropriate emotions and effective storytelling into your campaigns. Don’t believe me? Well, the popularity of this post — it’s the 5th most popular post on the blog this year — suggests your fellow readers (and competitors) agree.
2. It’s no secret that most Thinks readers pay close attention to e-commerce and digital strategy trends. Which explains why these 5 E-commerce Trends Worth Watching This Week and the collection of the 10 Things You Need to Know: 10 Top E-commerce and Marketing Strategy Posts for February tied for the #2 spot.
3. Another Travel Tuesday post snuck into the top 5, this one looking at the 4 rules of social marketing for hotel marketers. As is usually the case, most of the examples listed actually work across verticals, so are wroth reviewing regardless of your industry.
4. My review of “The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies” by MIT professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee came in at number 4. I cannot stress enough how important this book is, not just for marketers, but for anyone wondering about the future of work, learning, and commerce in the 21st century. Excellent stuff.
5. Guest editor Megan Totka brought everyone this great look at 6 Simple Subject Line Tips for Boosting Email Open Rates, which makes the list at #5.
6. I call my weekly podcast Thinks Out Loud, and its episodes tend to be very popular. That’s certainly true for Episode 65, which explored Internet Marketing to Millennials (Gen X and Boomers Too).
7. Another trends post, 6 Key E-commerce Stories Worth Reading this Weekend, attracted lots of attention.
8. And Thinks Out Loud scores another entry on the most popular posts, with Episode 66, The Future of Social and Mobile Marketing is Happening Right Now.
9. A collection of The 7 Fastest Ways to Improve Your E-commerce Effectiveness was among the most popular and shared posts this past month.
10. And last, but not least, was a list of my Tools of the Trade: A Process (and 6 Blogging Tools) I Can’t Live Without, which detailed, as you might guess, both the tools I use to produce this blog every day and the way in which I actually do it. A pretty healthy number of you seemed to enjoy it.

There you have it, Big Thinkers, the 10 top e-commerce and digital strategy posts from March. If you like this list and want to see more like it in the future, or posts that drill down on any of these topics in more detail, be sure to leave a comment below.

You may also enjoy these slides from a recent speaking engagement, “Elements of E-commerce: How Digital Storytelling Drives Revenue and Results”, here. The talk was my most popular presentation on Slideshare this past month (as well as very well received by its audience):

Finally, if you’re interested in learning even more about the future of e-commerce and marketing via the social, local, mobile web, register to receive a special report I’ve produced in conjunction with hotel marketing firm Vizergy, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World.” While it’s targeted specifically at hotel and resort marketers, the lessons apply to just about any business. You can get your free copy of the report here.

You might also enjoy some of our past coverage of the social, local, mobile web and what it means for your business, including:

• What Your Customers Expect from Mobile and E-commerce in 2014.
• The Secrets Behind “It’s All E-commerce” for 2014
• Should Marketers Really Trust Google in 2014?
• The Zen of Digital Marketing Strategy
• 7 Steps to E-Commerce Heaven
• Today and Tomorrow: Mobile and The Changing Customer Journey
• Mobile Makes E-commerce Even More “Frictionless”
• Your 2014 Internet Marketing New Year’s Resolutions – Thinks Out Loud Episode 56