May – SEO and marketing news

0
Jun 22, 2018 / by
May – SEO and marketing news

Brexit blamed for dramatic fall in UK business registrations

With Brexit looming, many foreign companies are leaving the UK or withholding investment. French companies have invested in 48% fewer businesses in 2016-17 than the previous year. Belgium have invested 38% less, and the Netherlands report a 52% drop. In what is being called a business ‘collapse’, many companies are reluctant to invest due to the uncertainty of Brexit. Manufacturing businesses have also reported a 13% increase in EU natives leaving the UK to settle permanently within the EU. Theresa May is being criticized by several business leaders and thinktanks for her failure to secure a more detailed agreement inside her own party before triggering Article 50 last spring.

Tim Thomas, the director of skills and employment Policy at EEF, said:

“Skills shortages are endemic in manufacturing and engineering, and companies are becoming increasingly concerned about their ability to access the skills they need post-Brexit.”

GDPR scrambling has spawned a swell of data protection ‘charlatans’

GDPRIn a lesson on how one shouldn’t procrastinate or search for ‘quick-fix’ solutions, many companies are jumping on fast solutions to prep for the GDPR. As a result, they are producing shoddy advice and services. Due to the vagueness of the GDPR and its requirements, many have come forward claiming to be GDPR ‘experts’ on LinkedIn with no background to back it up. The problem is that there are no real requirements to claim you are an expert, unless you are a Data Protection Officer, which has a clear role defined by the ICO.

“The formal certifications mentioned in the GDPR haven’t been created yet, so companies saying they are certified — by whom? They can only be self-certified or have had a lawyer check it, but that’s not enough,” said Chad Wollen, chief marketing officer of ad tech vendor Smartpipe.

With the deadline already past, companies cannot afford to find out that their certification is false and have to start over. Part of the problem is the lack of skilled data protection professionals, and with companies that don’t know any better they turn to quasi-experts for guidance. The silver lining to this, however, is that now that the deadline has passed the fakers will be weeded out as good ideas and practices are put into effect by actual experts.

Bing Ads Rolls Out In-Market Audience Targeting to All Advertisers

Bing is introducing a new feature for advertisers to target in-market audiences, who have been proven as the most likely to buy. Originally only limited in use as a pilot program last year, the feature is now available to all advertisers. The program is very similar to Google AdWords, which introduced in-audience advertising last year. Through algorithmic artificial intelligence Bing will gather purchase intent data for certain categories, such ad clicks and the wording of a search. In testing, Bing has stated that in-market audience targeting has led to a 28% increase in click rates as well as a 48% conversion rate. Whether this is Bing playing catch-up or if it will somehow differentiate them from Google has yet to be seen.

SSE And Sky Get In Bed To Deliver UK Business Connectivity

In a move to bring UK businesses faster internet speed, SSE Enterprise Telecoms and Sky Business have formed a connectivity partnership. This partnership will expand SSE Enterprise Telecoms to cover 96% of the UK and 3000 exchanges.

Colin Sempill, managing director at SSE Enterprise Telecoms, said:

“Over the next few years UK businesses will demand better core network bandwidth, and our partnership with Sky directly addresses that need. For us it’s all about giving the wholesale market clarity of choice, where it can sometimes be confusing, and the quality is not always there. With this deal we’re providing one place for businesses to source a truly market-competitive price for high-capacity bandwidth services to support their growth needs.”

Tags: / /