Thursday, October 30, 2014

Predict Your Marketing Plan Fate (Sans Crystal Ball)

It's that scary time of year when many marketers finalize plans for 2015 success, and Halloween celebrates a very different kid of future insight via black magic, spirit guides, tarot cards and the like. Now Marketo brings together those two disparate seasonal themes with "What's in the Cards," an infographic of the three factors most predictive of a marketing plan's fate, based on interviews with 400 marketers. Planning Secret No. 1: "Write Your Marketing Destiny," meaning generate a documented plan of action, clearly stating strategy and tactics, with stakeholder buy-in and individual accountability. You'll be joining 66% of marketers interviewed, who use a shared planning document to dodge the most deadly marketing failures, including constantly changing directions and priorities, lack of coordination within the marketing team, and lack of coordination between marketing and other teams. No. 2: "Add a Mix of Techniques and Channels," ranging from e-mail, social and pay-per-click to offline events. Get the right mix by analyzing audience preferences and behavior and then, of course, testing and measuring. No. 3: "The Right Calendar Makes You a Mind-Reader." Two-thirds of marketers interviewed stressed the importance of a marketing calendar, ranging from high-tech online tracking to simple whiteboard. Top calendar requirements cited were easy movement of activities, tracking of tentative vs. confirmed activities, filtering by attributes (channel, product, audience, segment) and a view of the metrics per program. Share Marketo's infographic Halloween treat with marketing team members by going to http://blog.marketo.com/2014/10/infographic-whats-in-the-cards-decide-your-marketings-fate.html

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

B2B Content Marketers Doubt Their Effectiveness

The Content Marketing Institute's latest survey of business-to-business marketers found 86% using content marketing, but only 38% believing they are actually effective at it. One reason respondents may doubt their success is poor tracking of content marketing ROI; just 5% consider their ROI tracking "very successful," while the majority (33%) rate ROI measurement efforts as merely "neutral." Another 10% rate tracking as "not at all successful," and 15% do no tracking. For those engaged in content-marketing results measurement, website traffic was the most common metric, followed by sales lead quality and conversion rates. As far as the type of B2B content marketing done, the most popular content (92%) was for social media (other than blogs), followed by e-newsletters (83%) and website articles (81%). What were the most important goals of content marketing? Brand awareness, lead generation and engagement led the list in the survey. The study also pegged 28% as the average amount of total marketing budget spent on B2B content marketing. Unsurprisingly, there was a correlation between perceived effectiveness and spending; those rating themselves as most effective allocated 37% of the marketing budget to B2B content, while the least effective cut their spend to 16% or less of the total budget. For more data from the survey, check out the marketingland.com report at http://marketingland.com/study-21-marketers-tracking-content-marketing-results-102263

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Attention-Getting Design Trends Bolster Mail Impact

Attention-grabbing design is one way direct mail marketers can break through the promotional noise that bombards its busy audience. In a recent Target Marketing Magazine article, Paul Bobnak, director of research at Who's Mailing What!, cites three new creative trends that help the direct mail catalogued by his firm to stand out in mailboxes and earn recipient response. First, he notes an upswing in impactful, four-color envelopes, including full bleeds and color on both sides. Second, there is increased use of icons mimicking those from digital screens (desktop, tablet or mobile). It's an especially popular tactic in mail aimed at younger, highly digital audiences, but many mailers now commonly use icons on reply forms and call-to-action devices as prompts to online action or reminders of available response options. The third trend spotted by Bobnak is increasing use of advanced personalization. In a quest for the proven response lift delivered by personalization, mailers are rolling out personalized targeting that goes beyond including the prospect's name to leveraging mailing list data such as geography, buying/donation history, age, gender, etc. in targeted text and imagery. For Bobnak's comments, see http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/3-trends-direct-mail-design-2014-top-50-mailers/1

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Fundraising Envelope Changes Spur Response

"Testing isn't difficult or costly, but it is the lifeblood of your program," Bryan Terpstra, senior vice president of RobbinsKersten Direct, advised direct mail fundraisers in a recent report by The NonProfit TimesBut where to start testing? How about with the first thing a recipient sees: the envelope. If the target audience doesn't even open the envelope, the great appeal inside is wasted. That's why moving from a standard #10 envelope to a larger package can really spur response, not only helping a solicitation stand out in the mail but enabling fundraisers to increase the size of text and graphics, inside and out, Terpstra notes. He provides the following example of how much difference an envelope change can make: When the Special Olympics increased its format from a 6-inch by 4-inch package to a 7.25-inch by 5.25-inch package, its response rate jumped nearly 10%. Of course, once that envelope is opened, there are letter and copy treatments, including changing the "gift array" or "ask ladder," to test as response boosters. For more direct mail testing suggestions, see the article at http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/news-articles/envelope-change-boosted-fundraising-results-10/

Thursday, October 16, 2014

How to Avoid Common and Costly E-mail Flubs

Some e-mail mistakes sneak up on even experienced marketers. Check out the recent MarketingProfs article by Amanda Kiviaho to see five of the most common e-mail pitfalls and tips for avoiding costly marketing tumbles. At the top of her list is tacking on the subject line as a marketing afterthought. The subject line is key to open rate and thus click-through, so make sure it is part of e-mail strategy from the get-go, is based on past performance metrics, and is constantly tested to optimize, Kiviaho advises. Next, though relevant content is supposedly a marketing mantra, e-mails still blast out without regard to recipient interest or value, resulting in a disengaged. even disappearing, audience. The lesson: Content needs to be tied to smart e-mail list segmentation--using past response metrics such as opens, clicks, purchases or sign-ups. Expecting creative changes to result in immediate lift also can lead e-mail marketers astray toward ineffective updates or premature abandonment of changes, Kiviaho warns. Use A/B testing before roll-out and then be patient in judging results; response to new creative can initially dip before outperforming a control over time. Another common error is focus on revenue generation to the point of counterproductive over-mailing; one antidote is a disciplined e-mail calendar that monitors frequency and response by segment. Finally, e-mail does not earn optimum performance as a stand-alone, Kiviaho cautions; e-mail plans should draw input across the organization and marketing channels. Read more at http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/26200/five-email-mistakes-even-the-experts-make

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Ringing in the 2014 Holiday Fundraising Season

Year-end fundraising is a key marketing initiative for nonprofits, so what are some ways to make the 2014 holiday season cheery in terms of donations? Thanks to Elizabeth Chung of Classy online fundraising for recently posting her list of holiday-fundraising trends. First, if you are a nonprofit marketer, you've hopefully already started your push for donors because year-end giving has been starting earlier year after year. A Google study found that 2013 donation-related searches jumped 30% as early as August and September, as Chung notes. Since the same Google study also found that 75% of donors go online to learn about nonprofits, an effective online site with online fundraising capability is more critical than ever. The stage is set for a surge in online holiday donations; the first half of 2014 already recorded an 8% increase in online giving over last year. Include Giving Tuesday in online planning, suggests Chung. Since debuting in 2012, Giving Tuesday has won increasing support. Last year, donors gave 90% more than they did in 2013, and 10,000 charitable organizations participated. Here's a Trend for All Seasons: Make holiday fundraising effective with targeted list segmentation. Chung focuses on e-mail lists, but the principle applies to direct mail and telemarketing lists, too. Some suggested segmentation parameters: average donation size, last campaign or program donated to, the last time donated, and annual vs. recurring donors. Finally, use technology to enhance, not distract, from the personal giving emotion of the holidays. Personalization of mail and e-mail messages should be standard policy, along with holiday programs for donors to dedicate a gift on behalf of a loved one. Chung suggests taking the holiday card tradition digital with personalized e-cards, including e-cards for gift dedication. See the article at http://www.classy.org/blog/5-holiday-fundraising-trends/

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Time to Create a Video Marketing Strategy?

Marketing statistics are showing the potential power of online video in terms of audience, engagement and response, but successful video marketing requires a careful strategy. A recent MarketingProfs article by Michael Litt, CEO of video marketing platform Vidyard, comes to the aid of video neophytes, suggesting five basic steps for achieving video marketing goals. Step No. 1 is to decide what your video content seeks to accomplish for the brand, including defining the audience, its needs and desired added value at the outset. Step No. 2 moves on to selecting video story topics (questions from the target audience are one starting point) and then the type of video (webinar, how-to, leader interview, product demo, customer testimonials, case studies, etc.) that fits with the story-telling. Step. No. 3 is to assess resources and budget and clearly assign responsibility for video creative and content. Whether the video is put together by an in-house team or outsourced to an agency, don't neglect key stakeholder feedback during the process. Next, decide where the video will reside on your website and direct customers and prospects there. Note that YouTube is a great distribution channel but it serves competitors and distractions, too, so make sure you have links to your site within SEO-optimized YouTube descriptions and a destination on your site where prospects can learn more. Finally, measure results by setting up metrics-gathering from video platform and distribution, including attention span and drop-off rates, click-through rates and video consumption patterns. For more detail, go to http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/26187/five-steps-to-creating-a-video-marketing-strategy

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

How B2B Can Succeed With Native Advertising

Native advertising has big fans in consumer online marketing, and business-to-business marketers are being urged to take the plunge. B2B strategists who resist embracing native ads after disappointing results from traditional banners and pop-ups should consider these statistics provided in a recent MarketingProfs article by Helen Grimshaw: 52% of people who click on native ads have purchase intent, compared with only 34% for banner ads; 70% want to learn about products through content rather than traditional advertising; and 75% of publishers already offer some type of native advertising. Just to be clear, native advertising is a form of paid media that seamlessly integrates with a site to add value to the user experience. So native ads work best, Grimshaw advises, if the B2B campaign masters two strategic elements: placement and relevancy. As an example of successful placement, Grimshaw cites Relendex, a secured peer-to-peer lending company, which created co-branded online pages with Property Week magazine, a commercial property publication with a large audience of lenders and borrowers. The partner pages used semantic ad targeting technology to serve up educational links to Relendex's site. Grimshaw's example of smart relevancy comes from Delta Airline's TechOps division, a full-service aviation maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) company. TechOps got the word out that it offered MRO services for any airline, not just Delta, by placing native ads with Flightglobal, an online news and information provider for the aviation and aerospace industries. The campaign used semantic search technology to create links between Flightglobal's articles and Delta TechOps's related content. For more detail on results, read http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2014/26145/why-b2b-marketers-need-to-embrace-native-advertising

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Is E-Mail Marketing Favored Just Because It's Easy?

Surveys and studies consistently rate e-mail as the most effective digital marketing method, far outpacing mobile, content marketing, social media, and paid search. But a new study by Marketing Charts adds an interesting spin, showing that marketers also rate e-mail as the least difficult form of digital marketing. The implication is that a lot of e-mail marketing may occur simply because marketers find it easy to do, and the larger volumes (generating more leads and sales) then fuels the belief that it is also a more successful digital channel. For example, e-mail was rated as the most effective marketing tool by 54% and as most difficult to implement by just 11% of digital marketers in the Marketing Charts study. In contrast, while social media was rated as most effective by 43%, a larger 49% also rated it as difficult to do. Similarly, content marketing was judged effective by 38%, but 42% also rated it as the most difficult method to master. And mobile/SMS marketing fell even lower on the success scale, with just 9% rating it as an effective marketing method and 34% categorizing it as difficult to execute. It is worrisome to think that perceived difficulty may be scaring marketers away from potentially successful marketing methods! As a Business2Community post by Graham Jones points out, independent analyses by firms such as HubSpot have shown that content marketing is the single most successful online method of generating sales -- yet marketers still place its effectiveness behind that of e-mail. As Jones warns, "Sometimes, a business benefits when you concentrate on the more difficult tasks, rather than the easy ones." For more data from the Marketing Charts study, go to http://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/email-marketing-successful-just-plain-easy-01022936

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Is USPS Planning New Mail Technology Discounts?

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) may be considering more discounts for direct mailers who use emerging mail technologies -- at least that's the implication of a "Mail Innovations" report just released by the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG). The report details and encourages use of 10 types of innovations, hinting that these may also come up for promotional discounting. Three tools listed under "Connected Mail," meaning mail that incorporates digital via Internet-enabled devices, already get discounts from the USPS: QR Codes, Augmented Reality (AR) and Near-Field Communication (NFC). The OIG report adds Webkeys, which can be plugged into USBs to launch web pages, to the Connected Mail category for potential promotion. The OIG report also discusses three technologies in an "Electronic Mail" category, meaning direct mail with an embedded electronic component: video in print, which creates a screen on paper that can play up to five videos; mobile in print with call or text buttons connecting directly to the marketer; and conductive ink mail that can link to an electricity source such as a battery or processing chip to do things like light a bulb or create a noise. Finally, the OIG report looks at "Dimensional Mail" innovations, such as "interesting links" that allow consumers to interact with mail by making colors appear or disappear; customized MarketMail that uses shape, size and texture, often without an envelope; and 3D mail that folds or pops into a message, similar to a pop-up book. For more on the new USPS OIG report and emerging mail technologies, see the Target Marketing magazine post at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/usps-new-direct-mail-discounts-innovators/1

Thursday, September 25, 2014

An Easy Way to Calculate Your B2B Lead Quota

Here's a crucial question for business-to-business marketers: How many B2B leads do you need to reach your revenue target? The financial penalties for the wrong answer are significant. Too few leads means missed sales revenue, while too many to handle means wasted marketing dollars. Ruth Stevens, who has literally written the Maximizing Lead Generation book for B2B marketers, provides a simple calculator to avoid risky guesswork. Inputs to the calculation are average revenue quota per sales rep for the target sales period, average revenue per order, percent of revenue self-generated by sales staff without leads (from referrals and existing accounts, for example), and average conversion rate from qualified lead to sale. Those magic numbers can be derived by consulting sales management, finance staff and your own general business experience -- or you need more than a lead calculator to get on track. Just plug in the numbers to figure target leads per rep. Next, back even further up the sales funnel and calculate the number of inquiries needed per qualified lead! For an example of how it works, go to http://biznology.com/2014/04/how-many-leads-do-you-need-to-generate-use-this-simple-calculator/

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Is Your Marketing Ready for Generation Z?

Much has been said about marketing to Millennials, but what about the next "Generation Z" of 16- to 19-year-olds just entering the marketplace? Even if you aren't in the youth market, it's time to plan for a new approach to these current and future consumers. Why? First, the so-called Generation Z makes up the largest percentage (25.9%) of the U.S. population. Second, they are different from their consumer predecessors on key marketing parameters. An infographic from Marketo, passed along by MarketingProfs, shows how. As Marketo sums up, "This generation knows the ins and outs of the Internet, shops online, and is ambitious about work." So if you want to inform Gen Z, go digital: 52% do research assignments via social media or YouTube, 33% watch lessons online, and 20% read textbooks on tablets. This is a resourceful DIY group (76% wish their hobbies would turn into full-time jobs, compared with just 50% of Millennials) characterized by self-directed, ambitious work aspirations (72% want to start their own businesses). Good news for nonprofits: Gen Z is also a cohort of do-gooders, with 76% concerned about humanity's overall impact on the planet and 60% wanting their jobs to positively affect their world. If you want to communicate with them, you'll have lots of options: Gen Z prefers to multitask with up to five screens (mobile, TV, laptop, iPod, etc.), compared with Millennials' two-screen world. But that multitasking means short attention spans, so focus on quick-read, attention-grabbing visuals since Gen Z prefers to communicate with images instead of text. Just got your Facebook marketing down pat? You'll miss the boat with many 16- to 19-year-olds: Only 23% used Facebook in 2014, down from 42% in 2012. Many have migrated to image-heavy Instagram and more privacy-oriented platforms like snapchat. For more on Gen Z consumers, go to http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2014/26050/get-to-know-generation-z-marketings-next-big-audience-infographic

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Online Donations Weak? Check for Common Errors

Nonprofits dissatisfied with online giving dollars and growth should inspect their online fundraising for some common donation-sapping mistakes, per the advice in a recent post by Julia Campbell of J Campbell Social Marketing. She outlines six ways nonprofits often get it wrong when it comes to online giving, and here are just three takeaways that we'll pass along.. Basic Error No. 1: Online fundraising doesn't work if it leads potential donors to a badly executed, hard-to-navigate website, especially one that is not mobile-friendly. With more people projected to access the web via mobile devices than via desktop as soon as next year, it's shocking that 84% of nonprofits still aren't making donation pages readable by mobile users, as reported recently by Philanthropy.com. Basic Error No. 2: Online fundraising doesn't work if it is hard to find and hard to do. Yet, as the article notes, a recent study found that 65% of nonprofit websites ask visitors to click through three or more pages to donate, losing about 40% of visitors with each click per research. Also, many websites simply fail to clearly ask for a donation. Get rid of that vague "Get Involved" button and put a bold "Donate Now" button on all pages, and then link every button to a single page with an easy-to-use form for entering credit card information. Basic Error No. 3: Online fundraising doesn't work if it is not promoted. If you build a great donation page, donors will not just come. Online giving needs to be promoted in e-mail channels, social media channels, and direct mail pieces, as well as at events and in other interactions with potential donors. For more suggestions on removing roadblocks to online donation success, see http://jcsocialmarketing.com/2014/05/6-ways-nonprofits-getting-online-fundraising-wrong/

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

These Smart Brands Offer E-Mail Success Lessons

We often pass along articles on common mistakes in e-mail marketing, but how about the positive lessons, the success stories? Kevin Ward, recently posted an inspirational piece for Business2Community about tips gleaned from six well-known brands' e-mail campaigns. All are producing e-mails that have personality, easy readability, user-friendliness, and attention-grabbing appeal  -- plus specific, well-executed tactics to stay ahead of the competition. For example, Ralph Lauren wins sales with its clear, targeted call to action. Amazon leads the field with personalization. Betty Crocker's recipe for success is warm Pinterest-style personality. ThinkGeek thinks about conversions with extra coupons and deals. Huckberry revs up the urgency with limited time offers for its deals. Crate & Barrel has lots to peddle but uses e-mail focus, with a single customer-driven product offer, to funnel sales. For e-mail creative examples: https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/six-brands-doing-email-marketing-175149715.html

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Using a Scientific Approach to Direct Marketing

Thanks to evolving technology, today's direct marketing can rely more on scientific discipline than risky, intuitive market reads. A recent article in Direct Marketing News highlighted a five-step scientific approach that you can apply to almost any marketing channel -- social media, e-mail, mobile, display ads and, of course, direct mail -- courtesy of Matt Dopkiss, CEO and founder of Dynamit, a data, design, and technology company. Here's Matt's "big bang theory meets big data." First, identify the hypothesis, or marketing question, that a campaign is seeking to answer (say, which offer gets to highest response). Make sure that the test hypothesis is specific, measurable and actionable. Second, use a control model for comparison of results. Compare the response of subscribers receiving a new e-mail version with a set of subscribers not receiving the e-mail, for example. Third, use statistics to verify your theory, collecting enough data to draw valid conclusions -- but not such a huge data set that noise overwhelms actionable results. Fourth, repeat tests to make sure results can be reproduced and are not due to timing or extraneous factors (such as weather, news events, etc.). Finally, be certain you are applying the right technical tools and methods (and trained staff) to extract actionable data. For more detail, go to http://www.dmnews.com/the-big-bang-theory-meets-big-data/article/369346/

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Digital Marketers: Poor Data Stymies Personalization

Personalized marketing is such a basic today, it's shocking to learn that the majority of digital marketers still struggle with personalizing large-scale efforts. And the problem is rooted in something even more fundamental: customer data. More than half of digital marketers (53%) say they always or often struggle with personalizing their marketing efforts at a large scale, according to a recent report from Neustar, which was recently reported by MarketingProfs. Only 4% say they never struggle with personalization, per the survey of 100 U.S.-based digital media and marketing executives.The marketers surveyed say they struggle with scaled personalization for a mix of reasons, but weak data leads the list: 33% cite poor or incomplete customer data as the biggest obstacle, 26% say they have difficulty turning their data into action, and 15% struggle to identify customers across different devices. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (63%) say they need both better data and better marketing platforms to make personalization easier. To read the MarketingProfs report, go to http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/25590/marketers-top-obstacles-to-effective-personalization

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Top Event Marketing Tools: Direct Mail & E-Mail

Direct mail and e-mail marketing are the most popular -- and the most effective -- forms of attendee promotion, according to the Center of Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) “Cost to Attract Attendees” study released earlier this year. Direct mail and e-mail together accounted for 56% of the event advertising budgets of survey respondents. The popularity of the two marketing tools held steady across a variety of different metrics, including event size, event cost, marketing reach and event organizer. So it's no surprise that respondents also judged direct mail and e-mail as the most effective forms of advertising in drawing attendees. On a five-point scale, 87% of those surveyed gave direct mail a rating of “4 – Effective” or “5 – Highly Effective.” E-mail marketing scored a four or five rating in 86% of cases. The CEIR study was based on 137 responses from executives and event coordinators for many different industries and for events with revenues ranging from under $250,000 to over $10 million. Respondents reported more variation in cost per attendee depending on event metrics. Cost per attendee showed a relatively stable decrease as overall event costs rose but remained in the low $20.00 range. Cost per attendee was more skewed by total attendance; median cost per verified attendee for events drawing fewer than 1,500 guests soared to $46.70, for example. For access to the whole report, go to http://www.abmassociation.com/News/3314/Direct-mail,-e-mail-best-event-marketing-methods

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

E-mail Beats Text in Tapping Luxury Brand Buyers

Luxury brands seeking affluent customers should favor e-mail over mobile text messaging, according to 2014 first-quarter data from the Luxury Institute. As recently reported by eMarketer, the Luxury Institute found that just 17% of U.S. affluent internet users, those with an income of $150,000 or more, had signed up to receive, or were somewhat to very likely to opt in to, text messages from a luxury brand. Even tech-savvy, affluent millennials were not interested in luxury brand messages popping up on their phones: Only around a quarter said they had or would be interested in receiving such communications, a percentage similar to Generation Xers. In contrast, 49% of respondents said they had opted in, or were somewhat to very likely to opt in, to receiving e-mails from a luxury brand. Luxury brand e-mails are likely to do even better with younger affluents, however. The overall e-mail acceptance of 49% was skewed lower by boomers (44%) compared with millennials (61%) and GenXers (54%). The study held another discouraging note for digital luxury-brand marketers: Digital generally doesn't appear to play a major role in U.S. affluent internet users’ shopping or purchase processes for luxury items. For example, only 22% of all affluent respondents (27% for techie millennials) said they researched luxury brands online and then purchased in-store. For more, see http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Affluents-Dont-Want-Texts-Luxury-Brands/1010867

Thursday, August 28, 2014

How to Use Direct Mail to Rev Trade Show Marketing

With direct mail accounting for 30% of trade show attendees' ad spending, snail mail is still essential to show marketing even in this increasingly digital world, points out Charles Dugan in a recent Trade Show News Network post. Based on his experience as owner of a trade show display firm, Dugan offers some good tips on direct mail tactics. Starting with the basics, he advises planning at least two campaigns: an early awareness mailing to get planners to put the show on their calendars and then a follow-up mailing closer to the show with exciting materials and attendance incentives. Then cut costs and boost response with targeting, both geographic and demographic. Use available mailing list data to personalize, ranging from gender all the way to ethnicity or specific hobbies. Offer incentives for attendance, with the inclusion of complementary tickets for example. Take advantage of direct mail's unique physicality to make a dimensional package that's fun and enticing, boosting open rates and response. And integrate snail mail with digital, via QR codes for example. QR codes can be used to promote access to exciting website materials, including videos, or something as simple as an online RSVP. For more, see the article at http://www.tsnn.com/news-blogs/why-direct-mail-should-still-be-your-trade-show-marketing-plans

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Top E-Mail Marketers Widen Lead in CTRs, Opens

In e-mail marketing, there's a widening gap between top and bottom performers. A 2014 E-mail Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study from Silverpop found that the top-performing quartile of e-mail marketers scored a 9.5% click-through rate (CTR), six times higher than the overall median click-through rate of 1.5%, per a summary report in Marketing Land. Meanwhile, bottom-quartile performers mustered CTRs of just 0.2%. Analyzing marketing e-mails sent by 3,000 brands from 40 different countries during 2013, Silverpop calculated mean and median benchmarks for various e-mail metrics, including click-through rates, open rates and bounce rates. Evaluating the CTRs of fourteen different industries, the study found real estate, construction, health care, consumer services and nonprofits generated the highest median CTRs. According to the study, transactional e-mails – messages triggered automatically by events such as purchases, subscriptions and account activity – earned a median CTR of 4.2%, compared to a median CTR of 1.5% for non-transactional emails. The study also reported that unique open rates for the top-performing quartile of e-mail marketers stood at 39.4%, more than double the median for all marketers and way above the bottom-quartile performance of 6.5%. Health care, nonprofits and education represented industries earning the highest median unique open rates. For a summary of Silverpop's study in terms of CTRs and open rates by industry, go to http://marketingland.com/study-top-performing-email-marketers-see-60-higher-click-rates-87025

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Loyalty Rewards Needed to Woo Millennial Shoppers

To win over the fickle millennial shopper, a loyalty rewards program is essential, at least based on a new report from Bond Brand Loyalty. As reported recently in Ad Age, Bond's fourth-annual survey of more than 6,000 consumers, found that 37% of millennials, defined as 20- to 34-year-olds, said they would not be loyal to a brand that doesn't have a strong loyalty program (compared with 30% of all respondents). And brand loyalty programs must keep competing to please these younger buyers: Of millennials surveyed, 68% said they change when and where they make purchases to get loyalty rewards, and 60% will switch brands if incentivized. No wonder loyalty programs are elbowing each other in a crowded field. On average, people are enrolled in 10.4 loyalty programs, according to the Bond study, although they are only active in 70% of them. Looking for loyalty rewards worth emulating? See the survey's top-ranked loyalty programs by company in each market category at http://adage.com/article/datadriven-marketing/dove-jetblue-top-loyalty-program-rankings/293499/

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Nonprofit Insight: Track Donors, Not Channels

"Track the donor, not the channel," to create effective nonprofit integrated marketing campaigns, recommended Sean Powell of The Engage Group, speaking at the DMA Nonprofit Federation’s Nonprofit Digital Day. Powell was joined on a Digital Fundraising 101 panel by Mikaela King, vice president of marketing at Defenders of Wildlife, who provided hands-on advice based on her organization's shift from structural division by marketing channels, such as direct mail and social media, to division by audiences, such as donors and advocates. "It’s not about how the organization is structured. It’s about what’s most important for the donor," explained King. "It is very hard to integrate marketing when you are not integrated internally." After restructuring for a donor focus, King advocated a three-step approach; first target the audience, then determine what you will offer, and finally create the messaging. It's especially critical for successful integration to sync data, added Heather Marsh of ABD Direct: "Make sure that your data is in line before starting a large integrated campaign. If you can’t really make sure you’re talking to people accurately, don’t do it." For more panel insights, read the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) report at http://thedma.org/advance/best-of-dma/insights-from-dma-nonprofit-digital-day-track-the-donor-not-the-channel/

Thursday, August 14, 2014

E-mail Inbox Flooded? It Must Be Thursday

If your e-mail inbox is especially crowded, it's probably Thursday. Thursday is the most popular day for sending e-mails, with Tuesday a close second, according to the Who's Mailing What! review of e-mails sent between June 2013 and May 2014 by more than 2,500 companies and organizations. Almost 84% of all e-mails were received on a weekday, led by Thursday and Tuesday, as retailers and publishers blasted inboxes all week long, with many sending multiple e-mails daily for their various brands or titles. The top e-mail categories for Thursday alone were Catalogs-Consumer, Retail Traffic Builders, Magazines-Special Interest, Magazines-Business/Financial, Fundraising-Social Action (Causes), Newsletters-General, Seminars/Conferences, Catalogs-Food & Kitchenware, Catalogs-Children/Teen and Fundraising-Politics. For details, see http://www.directmarketingiq.com/article/thursday-tuesday-still-top-days-sending-email/1

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Firms Alter Social Tactics Due to Low Buying Impact

Marketers are refining social media strategies as research shows social media's minimal direct effect on purchasing, reports the Wall Street Journal. Companies are taking note of information like the recent Gallup poll finding that 62% of the more than 18,000 U.S. consumers questioned said social media had no influence on their buying decisions. Gallup concludes that "consumers are highly adept at tuning out brand-related Facebook and Twitter content." At the same time, brand advertisers must deal with Facebook's changed management of users' news feeds, going from a largely chronological stream to featuring items Facebook thinks users will want. As a result, brands reached just 6.5% of their fans with Facebook posts in March, down from 16% in February 2012, according to EdgeRank Checker, a social-media analytics firm. So U.S. companies, which spent $5.1 billion on social-media advertising in 2013, are beginning to shift gears. Per the WSJ story, many are no longer seeking to maximize the quantity of Facebook fans or Twitter followers as much as the quality of interactions, by tracking brand mentions for example. However, this adjusting of social marketing strategies hasn't hurt Facebook so far, according to WSJ. Facebook first quarter net income nearly tripled on a 72% increase in revenue. For more of the article, read http://online.wsj.com/articles/companies-alter-social-media-strategies-1403499658

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Direct Mail Dying? Not With Young Response High

Paper mail volumes may be declining, but there's a sign that direct mail is nowhere near extinction: the high response rates of younger adults. In the introduction to the Direct Mail chapter of the Direct Marketing Association's 2014 Statistical Fact Book, Laurie Beasley, president of Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc., reassures anxious direct mailers, "An encouraging sign for direct mail marketers is that very young adults, 24 and younger, are among the most mail responsive groups today." Why? Because getting paper mail is a life experience that it is becoming rarer and rarer in the digital age, Laurie posits. Young millennial adults are not as desensitized to receiving vast volumes of paper mail addressed to them, tailored to them, as were their parents and grandparents. So what was once a mundane activity is now an uncommon and slightly exciting experience. Everything old is new again apparently, and that's good news for direct mail. See Laurie's comments at http://thedma.org/advance/saturday-stats/saturday-stats-getting-mail-is-a-life-experience/

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Personalization Key to E-mail's B2B Success

E-mail continues to be a medium of choice for business-to-business (B2B) digital marketing because of its effectiveness, says Patrick Kehoe, worldwide director of product marketing at HP Exstream, in a recent interview with eMarketer’s Rimma Kats. But Kehoe added an important caveat: "E-mail can be an effective delivery device, but it isn’t always an effective delivery device. You have to make sure that you’ve got the right messaging and the right personalization in it. If someone perceives that the content is not relevant to them, then they’re likely to ignore that message. We all get bombarded with hundreds of e-mails a day, and marketers’ focus needs to be to make sure that you’ve got the right subject lines, the right messages and the right content. Making it personalized helps reach specific individuals." Personalization is what sets B2B e-mail apart from many other digital options, including emerging channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter, Kehoe notes. "You can make e-mail so that it reaches out directly to an individual, and you can tailor the messaging and content for that person. That’s really tough to do when you’re using Twitter," he tells Kats. See the whole interview at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/B2B-Perspective-EmailStill-Medium-of-Choice/1010972

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Social Media Still Lacks E-Commerce Sales Power

Social media, including Facebook and Twitter, face a long uphill battle in the e-commerce space when up against proven solutions such as e-mail and search, concludes a recent Ad Age article by Tim Dunn of the digital agency Isobar. One piece of evidence is global management consultant McKinsey & Company's 2013 survey finding that e-mail is 40 times more effective at acquiring consumers than Facebook and Twitter combined. McKinsey results also showed that the average order value prompted by e-mail is 17% higher than those prompted by social media. Consumers just don't head to social media to buy things; shopping and browsing products didn't even register as reasons for using Facebook in a recent survey by Pew Research. Dunn hastens to add that social interaction still has a place in the sales cycle, especially as consumers break down the distinction between content and commerce, and that the drive to interact can be harnessed by brands. He notes that fashion brand Free People's user-generated fashion showcase (called FPMe) not only drove passion for brand loyalists but also delivered a 42% increase in same-session sales conversion. However, Dunn advises marketers to exercise skepticism about using social to prompt immediate purchase and urges refocus on e-commerce basics, including touchpoint tracking, site experience and e-mail targeting. See the complete online post at http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/twitter-s-buy-button-a-gravy-train-brands/294031/

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Online Review Turns Customers Into Advertisers

With customers the most influential source of brand advertising today, marketers need to embrace online review to feed the customer relationships and loyalty that create brand advocates, urges Trustpilot CMO Jan Vels Jensen in a recent imediaconnection blog post. A Nielsen survey finding that 84% of respondents said word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family were more trustworthy than brand advertising should be a wake-up call to marketers about the value of customer voices. Creating an online review community shows consumers the human side of the brand before they make a purchase and allows companies to build trust and social proof, says Jensen. Brands can generate 40% additional revenue each year and lift sales by 18% by highlighting customer voices and incorporating online reviews into their advertising strategies, according to his data. Online reviews have also been shown to increase conversion rates, prevent basket abandonment and encourage repeat purchases and brand advocacy, he adds. And when customers are alerted to online reviews, it affects click-through rates on paid and organic search. Read the complete post at
http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2014/07/14/how-to-give-the-loudest-voice-to-your-best-advertisers-your-customers/

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Automation Revs E-mail Response, Data Demands

Automation technology can turbocharge e-mail response, provided your marketing organization is prepared to take advantage. Just take a look at Silverpop's impressive evidence of e-mail automation's impact on opens and clicks. According to Silverpop's annual e-mail marketing metrics benchmark study, automated messages achieved an open rate nearly 15% higher and a click-through rate nearly 79% higher than their manual counterparts last year. The study examined messages sent by more than 3,000 brands across industries and geographies in 2013. Response metrics like those recently inspired Ellen Valentine at ClickZ to urge expanded use of automation -- as long as the groundwork for success has been laid with marketing vision, skills and data. "If you don't have great data on your customers and prospects, you become much more limited in how you'll be able to deploy automation technology," warns Valentine. "Consider every way your customers interact with you -- whether it's on the Web, on a social channel, on a mobile app, or within an e-mail -- and how you can capture and integrate these behaviors into your marketing efforts." If the data tasks seem overwhelming to internal teams, she suggests calling in a third party to help augment databases and speed integration -- and that could include the data professionals at AccuList USA, of course. For the complete article, see.http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2355480/survey-says-automated-emails-outperform-manual-counterparts

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Sequenced Creatives Outdo CTA Ads, Per Study

Sequenced creative that walks customers down the sales funnel can outperform a call-to-action (CTA) digital ad campaign, according to new research from social media ad company Adaptly, Facebook, and fashion website Refinery29. Per a Direct Marketing News report, the test audience was built by Adaptly using a Facebook Custom Audience based on Refinery29's best e-mail subscribers, resulting in a Facebook lookalike audience of more than 2 million users split into three creative treatment groups. In May 2014, the sequenced creative was delivered evenly across 12 days to one test group, with the first creative a top-of-the-funnel brand message similar to a TV commercial introducing a brand's image and personality. The second creative in the sequence offered a product orientation similar to a brand website to spur middle-of-the-funnel consideration, and the last ad was a bottom-of-the-funnel CTA-based creative. The response of the sequenced-ad group was compared with response by a test group that received three CTA-focused ads, each delivered for four consecutive days, as well as behavior of a control group. The testing found that sequencing ads to move individuals down the marketing funnel generated 56% more conversions than a sustained CTA message delivered over the same period. The sequenced ads also increased view-throughs by 87%. To see the ad creatives, go to http://www.dmnews.com/in-the-age-of-storytelling-is-the-cta-still-viable/article/361103/

Thursday, July 17, 2014

E-mail Reigns As Most Effective Digital Tactic

E-mail is the most used and most effective digital marketing tool, per a recent report by Gigaom and Extole. In a survey of 300 digital marketers, e-mail was rated the most effective digital tactic overall by 56% of respondents, who cited its value in building awareness (41%), increasing acquisition (37%) and improving conversion (42%). Other tactics ranked in the survey included social media, SEO, paid search, content marketing, online display ads, referral marketing, mobile ads, video ads and affiliate marketing. Out of all tactics, e-mail was employed regularly by the largest number (86%), with that usage followed by social media (72%), SEO (70%) and content marketing (64%). While e-mail led the pack in overall effectiveness, most marketers attributed less than 25% of new customers to e-mail campaigns and reported that they used a multi-tactic digital marketing approach to fill the gap.  E-mail also was not the lead area for planned increases in digital program spending. Digital marketers said they expect to allocate more budget dollars to social media (38% plan to increase) and content marketing (28%) ahead of e-mail (25% plan to spend more) -- even though 52% admitted it is difficult to prove ROI for social media. For details of the study, see the MarketingProfs report at http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/25556/the-most-effective-used-budgeted-digital-marketing-tactics

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

How Direct Mail Can Win Hispanic Market Response

Direct mail is a powerful marketing tool for targeting Hispanic customers, as Hernan Tagliani, president of The Group Advertising and Hispanic communications pro, reminded in a recent article. To bolster his direct mail advocacy, Tagliani cites the Yankelovich Monitor Multicultural Marketing Study findings that 77% of Hispanics won’t discard mail before reading it and 54% of Hispanic adults respond to a direct-mail offer, so Hispanic households are 3.5 times more likely to respond to a direct-mail solicitation than non-Hispanic households. But he also stresses that crafting direct mail to successfully appeal to Hispanics is not simply a matter of sending an English piece to a Spanish-surname list, or translating existing mail copy verbatim into Spanish. He provides five important tips for direct mailers. First, consider the target audience, meaning the decision-maker and his or her likely acculturation level and language dominance -- and that means careful list selection, we would add. Next, make sure to personalize and customize the message whether the direct mail copy is in English, Spanish or bilingual. Get an expert translation if Spanish copy is required to avoid the ineffective, even insulting, impact of a poor literal translation. Customize visuals, too, so that they match and reinforce the multicultural marketing message. And the bottom line for any successful direct mail campaign: Make a compelling offer with a specific response time frame! For more detail, see http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/how-to/marketing/2014/07/direct-mail-geo-targeting-hispanic-buyers.html

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Digital, Mobile Fuel Big 2014 Ad Spend Growth

Mobile advertising is rising with the force of a tidal wave, forecast to reach 67.8% of all U.S. digital ad spending by 2018, according to the latest report from eMarketer. In fact, digital ad growth (including mobile) already is the key factor in doubling total worldwide ad spending this year. Global media ad spending (for print, TV and radio, outdoor and digital) will increase 5.7% in 2014 alone, eMarketer projects, more than double the growth rate of 2.6% from a year ago. The U.S. market takes the lion's share of those ad dollars, with total U.S. ad spending set to surpass $180 billion this year, equal to nearly one-third of the worldwide total. Digital channels are the driving force of advertising growth for 2014 and beyond: eMarketer estimates that global digital ad spending will increase 16.7% this year, totaling $140.15 billion and surpassing 25% of all media ad spending for the first time. And within the digital category, mobile is the catalyst. Advertising on tablets and smartphones will increase 84.7% worldwide in 2014 to reach $32.71 billion this year, or nearly one-quarter of the digital advertising spend globally, eMarketer estimates.Those trends are forecast to continue until digital snags a 32.3% share of global paid ad spending by 2018, with mobile making up over 50% of those worldwide digital ad budgets. For more details of the report, see http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Global-Ad-Spending-Growth-Double-This-Year/1010997

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

B2B Online Success Is Still Built on the Basics

Distracted by the buzz of new tech toys and tactics, B2B marketers sometimes need to be reminded of the basics of online success. For a review of B2B online fundamentals, check out Lee Odden's recent TopRankBlog post. Here are just the first four of the 21 basic tactics that he lists, and note that they are not high-tech investments but offline efforts with online impact: client testimonials that speak to the target audience; case studies that show the brand's problem-solving breadth and depth; industry recognition to enhance credibility; media relations to get quoted, profiled and linked in the press and blogosphere. Other, more online-specific basics include quality website design and functionality, targeted online advertising, search engine visibility on competitive terms, and so on. To further aid online success, we'd also like to remind of the basic marketing disciplines -- targeting, testing, tracking, updating and optimizing. Analyze your customer and make sure an event presentation, news release or social post offers useful content in a format likely to be shared by the target audience, for example. And avoid wasting ad, design and search dollars by implementing targeted, measurable response testing. For Odden's complete article, see http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/07/21-b2b-online-marketing-tactics/

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Do List Hygiene Myths Hobble Your E-mail Results?

A "clean" e-mail list is key to deliverability and marketing success, but some list hygiene assumptions can actually undercut effective list use. A recent Direct Marketing News article turned to industry experts to identify four common e-mail list hygiene "myths" to avoid. For example, if you think e-mail list hygiene is a simple matter of regularly scrubbing "bad" data (opt-outs, bounces and invalid addresses), you aren't going far enough to create a responsive e-mail list. Today, list hygiene also means identifying addresses that lack recent activity/engagement (opens and clicks), experts advised. And if your hygiene focus is simply to reach the inbox, you are myopic as well, assuming that a knock on the door is all it takes to win an open. Good list management goes beyond deliverability and "batch and blast" to effective list use via targeted, personalized, relevant messaging, industry leaders asserted in the article. Plus, if you believe your list hygiene has rooted out all the bots and spam traps, you may be living in a fool's paradise, especially if you are a product or retail marketer. Loren McDonald, VP of industry relations at Silverpop, flatly told DM News, “Bot use has become more of a problem.” Despite the growing volume and sophistication of e-mail boobytraps, he noted that there are also more services that can help with real-time verification to seek known bots and spam traps -- provided list hygiene programs realize the need. For the complete article, see http://www.dmnews.com/busting-myths-on-email-list-hygiene/article/356087/

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

How Does Your E-mail Response Measure Up?

Do you know if your e-mail response measures up competitively in terms of open rates and click-through rates? A recent blog post by Christopher Ratcliff, an econsultancy.com writer, helpfully put together benchmark measures by industry (and country) from third-party e-mail service providers MailChimp, Silverpop and UK-focused Sign-up.to. Just to give you a taste, Silverpop's 2014 benchmark study finds that the average U.S. unique open rate is 20.1% and the average U.S. click-through rate is 3.2%. But the differences between industries are significant. Just looking at Silverpop figures for example, health care scores the top average unique open rate of 26.2%, followed by education (25.7%) and nonprofits (25.3%). By comparison, travel and leisure e-mailers are at the bottom for unique opens with a low 15% average, along with media and publishing (16.6%). When it comes to click-through rates, Silverpop's top average goes to health care again with 4.8%, followed closely by consumer services (4.7%) and education (4.5%). Meanwhile, the travel and leisure industry also ranks lowest for average click rate with 2.2%. To check on e-mail response benchmarks for your industry, B2B or B2C, go to https://econsultancy.com/blog/65034-what-is-a-decent-email-marketing-response-rate#i.dm8nfzdnneipzz

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Cataloger's USPS Deal Creates Rate Relief Template

Catalogers struggling with climbing postal rates can take heart from cataloger Potpourri Group's groundbreaking rebate deal with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). As explained by Direct Marketing News Senior Editor Al Urbanski, the five-year Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) awards Potpourri -- a publisher of more than a dozen catalogs selling gifts, apparel, pet products and hobby accessories -- tiered rebates based on increased carrier route volume over a negotiated quarterly baseline. The negotiated baseline is a key breakthrough because it does not penalize prior-year increases, and the five-year term is also a step forward since most NSAs last only three years, according to Potpourri SVP of Marketing Robert Webb.  Best of all, the NSA is good news for other catalog mailers since USPS regulations require extending a similar deal to "similarly situated" companies, Webb told Urbanski. In Potpourri's case, eligible volume up to 10% above the quarterly baseline receives a 10% rebate from published rates, while incremental volume of 10%-18% gets a 15% rebate and volume over 18% above threshold gets a 20% rebate. "The real opportunity for us -- for any cataloger -- is increasing our prospect mailings," Webb explained. "We only earn the rebates if we mail incrementally more catalogs, and most of those will be devoted to prospecting." Potpourri plans to mail "tens of millions of more books," per Webb. Thanks to Potpourri's trailblazing effort of nearly three years, Webb said he has been told a "similarly situated" cataloger may be able to land its own NSA in a matter of months. For more, see the Direct Marketing News story: http://www.dmnews.com/cataloger-scores-an-nsa-from-the-postal-service/article/356868/

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Is Your Marketing Hobbled by These Data Missteps?

Make sure your "data-driven" marketing isn't undermined by data mishandling. A recent Adweek article outlined five of the most common blunders. At the top of the list is failing to take advantage of the deeper demographics being culled in this big-data era. Going beyond age and gender can reap big returns. An example from the article: The Neustar Global Media Intelligence Report for 2013 found retail marketers that targeted campaigns according to attributes like home value and brand of car earned a 500% performance lift over non-targeted campaigns. Second, marketers can focus on the wrong metrics, choosing "vanity metrics," such as Facebook fans, instead of behavioral data linked to conversions, such as navigational paths and brand preferences. A third data misstep is focusing on shiny new digital data without integrating offline inputs (such as retail stores), creating a false picture of marketing's multichannel ROI. Fourth, marketers can get stuck looking at past data to the neglect of predictive modeling and forward planning. A forward-thinking success story from the article: American Express used predictive analysis and behavioral data to identify at-risk customers, for a 740% increase in attrition-combating efficacy. Finally, organizations can fail to invest in crucial data management and analysis skills, and surveys of executives find a majority admitting as much. Do you recognize areas for improvement in your own organization? For the complete article, with links to relevant studies, see http://www.adweek.com/brandshare/5-ways-marketers-are-mishandling-data-156449

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Q1 E-mail: Insurance Tops CTR; Mobile Design Lack

Insurance e-mail marketing led other industries in terms of response in the first quarter of 2014, according to Yesmail's "Q1 Benchmarks Overview." Insurance e-mails scored the highest average open rate (31.4%), unique click rate (7.6%) and click-to-open rate (CTR) of 24.1%. Per the Yesmail study of more than 5 billion e-mails deployed in the first quarter, marketing/advertising company e-mails had the dubious distinction of the lowest average open rate (9.8%) as well as the lowest unique click rate (0.7%). However, the lowest CTRs were earned by the e-mail creative of Financial Services (3.7%) and Technology (5.3%), despite high 28% and 20% open rates, respectively. Overall, open rates rose 6% in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter of 2013, and unique click rates were up 8%, but those increases may have been due to 20% lower e-mail volume after the year-end holiday quarter. For e-mail marketers seeking to leverage mobile, there is some key news: E-mails using mobile-friendly responsive design had a 21% higher CTR in the first quarter when compared with non-responsive e-mails. Yet 75% of marketers neglected mobile design, with 31% not sending responsive e-mails at all, and 44% sending them less than half of the time. See more on the Yesmail e-mail benchmarks in the MarketingProfs report at http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/25246/marketing-email-benchmarks-open-rates-by-industry-device-trends

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

How to Use Preheader Text to Boost E-mail Opens

With a crowded e-mail inbox and a few seconds of e-mail attention span, snaring opens is a struggle -- even with a good subject line. What if you could reinforce the opening power of your subject line? A recent Target Marketing magazine article explains how to do that with preheader text. Preheader text is the grayed-out text that shows up after the subject line when checking e-mail in your Gmail inbox or on your mobile device. If you don't put in your own preheader text, you send a default message like "If you're having trouble viewing this e-mail…" -- which wastes space that could pack real marketing punch. The Target Marketing piece suggests how to use preheader text as a second chance to capture reader attention. You can use it to expand on the subject line, add call-to-action language or add an incentive offer, for example. And you can personalize the preheader for a more subtle friendliness than the personalized subject line, which offends some. One thing the preheader should not do is merely repeat or recast the subject line; that's a reader-annoying waste of marketing real estate. Plus, you're writing for the e-mail inbox, so keep the preheader short but impactful at 75 characters or less. Finally, since the preheader should be audience-targeted marketing copy, you should do A/B testing of variations. For more tips, check out the article at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/8-uses-preheader-text-improve-email-open-rates/1

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Ugly Can Outperform Pretty in Direct Mail

"Ugly" direct mail can attract more response than pretty mail. We were glad to see a recent reminder of that from direct marketing consultancy DMCG. It really isn't that surprising, since graphic design is not at the top of the list of mail-response predictors. In order of importance, response is due to audience targeting (the list), the offer, the channel and, at last, creative execution, the blog post notes. That means direct marketers need to put knowledge of their market and copywriting ahead of graphics in crafting pieces. Many marketers get fixated on creative look instead, the post opines, because response-generating copy based on study of audience and value proposition is a lot harder than producing fun graphics, because marketers fail to test creative rigorously or track sales back to creative, and because the volume of content required in the digital age has outstripped the availability of expert copywriters. (We would add, as data brokers, that organizations will fall short with a focus on tweaking graphics over finding, segmenting and testing data to reach the right mailboxes.) DMCG cites a real ugly-beats-pretty example in the success of its inexpensive, homely but official-looking Snap Pack format for clients such as AARP. See the full article at http://dmcgresults.com/direct-marketing-blog/2014/5/23/why-ugly-beats-beautiful-in-direct-mail.html

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Tips for Welcome E-mails That Win Engagement

Welcome-to-our-list e-mails are key to subscriber engagement, yet some marketers either don't send them or don't take care to make them effective. With two to six times the open rate of other e-mails, that first welcome is a once-in-a-digital-relationship opportunity, so get it right! Courtesy of a recent article in Target Marketing magazine by Cyndie Shaffstall, here are some tips for improving welcome e-mails. Start by using a short subject line that reminds the recipient of the new relationship ("Welcome" is one obvious word choice). A simple text e-mail is more likely to dodge spam filters, while interactive html encourages engagement. But why choose? You can send a text and follow with an html. As far as content, write clear and direct copy, repeat the WIIFM message that inspired subscriber opt-in, and personalize as much as possible. Send that welcome message immediately before they forget they opted in; an auto-response makes it easy. Set expectations on frequency, format and content -- and deliver as promised. Increase engagement and retention with a reward (any gift promised or a surprise offer) and make it easy to redeem rewards. Boost social sharing with incentives, too. Remind new subscribers to save/archive the message if it contains important account data. Of course, you can then use A/B testing to craft the best possible "thanks for subscribing" e-mail. For more detail and examples, read the article at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/blog/thanks-subscribing-10-tips-great-welcome-emails#

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Why Inbound Can't Replace B2B Direct Marketing

Inbound strategies are grabbing more marketing budget these days, and that can be bad news for business-to-business prospecting. Inbound marketing -- social media, e-newsletters, video, podcasts, white papers and some permission marketing -- should not displace traditional direct marketing -- cold calling, networking events and direct mail -- for three reasons, argues a recent article for LifeHealthPro.com. First, inbound marketing is designed to leverage a prospect's knowledge of needs. But, except for industrial commodities, most businesses aren't aware of the need for discretionary purchases until persuaded by a sales contact. This is especially true for business financial and insurance sales. Second, most business owners and executives are so busy with daily management that there is little window for inbound to break through. That's why the "interruptive prospecting techniques" of traditional cold calling, events and direct mail have higher response, the article proposes. Finally, if the goal is to increase leads while lowering cost per sale, marketers should be aware that the addition of inbound marketing may actually raise cost per sale. For example, if all inbound costs for an appointment with a decision-maker are included, the cost of cold calling alone is cheaper on a cost per lead basis than combining inbound marketing and cold calling to boost leads, based on the article's actual campaign data analysis. Assuming the same conversion rate for leads, the cost of sales is thus increased by adding inbound to a cold calling campaign. That's not to say inbound doesn't have its benefits in warming up prospects, providing compelling online support, or developing targeting data to improve response. The point is that b2b inbound marketing is no substitute for b2b direct marketing, since "waiting for the phone to ring has never been a particularly good strategy," the article concludes. For more on the analysis, see http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2014/03/05/is-inbound-marketing-right-for-prospecting-to-busi?t=life-practice-management

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Secrets to Getting Your Video Ad to Go Viral Online

If you're envious of ads that go viral online, with shares and brand recognition expanding exponentially, here are some hints to the secret sauce. MarketingProfs recently shared an Unruly study of online sharing of Super Bowl video ads via social media, blogs, etc. What do the top viral performers have in common? Don't count on the pull of a celebrity spokesman, the study shows. Only three of the top 12 most-shared ads online from this year's Super Bowl featured celebrities, and only 13% of the 100 most-shared ads of all time. Instead, try to trigger emotional response (reactions of sadness, anger, happiness, and so on). The most-shared Super Bowl video online this year was Budweiser's feel-good "Puppy Love," for example. Reaching for a humorous response may be risky, however. Most of the Super Bowl ads that tried to generate laughs fell flat as measured by online sharing. The Unruly analysis also cites inclusion of social motivators (appeals to social good, shared passions and opinions, for example) as a way to give an ad viral momentum -- with highest shares earned by ads that included multiple motivators to tap different viewer segments. Of course, sharing isn't much good without brand recall. Unfortunately, the study also found that brand promotion often fell short so that heavily shared ads did not always have equally high brand recall. For details of the analysis, see the MarketingProfs report at http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/25217/what-makes-an-ad-go-viral-online

Thursday, May 29, 2014

How to Feed 'Good' Data to Your Marketing Database

A challenge in the Big Data era of myriad potential data feeds is to select inputs that are usable, useful and cost-effective for marketing ROI. Not all data is created equal! To that end, we'd like to pass along a recent MarketingProfs six-point questionnaire to help you score data candidates for integration into your central customer and prospect database. Half of the questions deal with the crucial need for a unique identifier on imported data (such as an e-mail address or phone number) so that new data can be matched to the existing marketing database. If the identifier doesn't exist, can it be created (appended, for example)? Next, consider the overlap between a data feed and the customers and prospects already in the database: If the goal is inexpensive integration of targetable info (behavioral, purchase and demographic attributes, or additional contact points, for example), high overlap is good. (For database growth, not so good, we would add.) Finally -- and this is the key issue to our mind -- you need to determine the potential financial benefit from new data in terms of increased revenue. That, of course, assumes a basic understanding of customers from existing data. For the full MarketingProfs data-scoring article, see http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2014/25212/is-your-data-any-good-six-questions-to-help-score-your-data-resources

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Is Digital Age Changing Consumer Research Rules?

Be cautious about using traditional market research to guide a major consumer product change. That's the warning from the new book Absolute Value by Itamar Simonson and Emanuel Rosen. The authors take a Universal McCann study of consumer interest in the first iPhone as an object lesson in why research can miss the mark in predicting consumer behavior today: That study found that an iPhone-type product would be a hit in countries like India and Mexico but not in the United States, Germany and Japan. What went wrong? Why are consumers unreliable predictors of their own behavior? The problem, note the authors, is that traditional market research looks at prior preferences, beliefs and experiences, while future consumer buying decisions about a new product (one that involves more than tweaking an existing product) are affected by a mass of noisy, ever-changing inputs in today's digital age -- such as online user reviews, friend and expert opinions, price comparison tools, and emerging technologies or sources. If consumers are bad at predicting their own preferences, market "experts" are no better, the authors add, pointing out that many experts failed to predict the success of the telephone, television and Internet. Should marketers abandon market research? No, they should change focus, advise the authors. Instead of trying to predict long-term consumer preferences, researchers can go with the digital flow and track consumer trends and decisions on review sites, user forums and other social media -- so businesses can respond with better solutions. Simonson is a professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Rosen is author of The Anatomy of Buzz. For more on their book Absolute Value, see the news release: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/itamar-simonson-emanuel-rosen-how-digital-age-rewriting-rule-book-consumer-behavior

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Survey Finds Most B2B Buyers Ignore Social Media

Social media doesn't really turn on business-to-business buyers, suggests a new survey. Only 6% of B2B buyers said social media has "a lot" of impact on their buying process, according to the recently published "B2B Website Usability Report." But before scaling back social media involvement, B2B marketers should note that the survey -- conducted by DH Communications and KoMarketing Associates -- was focused on B2B buyer expectations of vendor websites and had a very small pool of respondents, with only 175 surveys completed. Respondents also were not the most technically savvy, since 49% did not use a smartphone to look for B2B products or services, and 18% did not know what was meant by a "responsive" website. That said, it's interesting that only 24% said they look for social media icons on a vendor website home page, and even fewer – 22% of respondents – look for a blog. However, B2B marketers probably should keep blog posting: Some 85% of buyers polled also said that a blog helps establish a vendor’s credibility. For more details from the report, see http://marketingland.com/report-6-buyers-claim-social-media-impacts-b2b-buying-process-76396

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Will Your Postcard Design Run Afoul of USPS Rules?

Your postcard campaign can have customer-winning copy, design, and offer and still flop because the U.S. Postal Service rejects it or makes it costly to reach target mailboxes. A recent Target Marketing magazine article reminded direct mailers of the sometimes complex postal regulations for postcard design. Some are pretty basic, such as size: To qualify for a postcard postage rate, dimensions can be 3.5 X 5 inches or 4.25 X 6 inches; that 6 X 9 postcard will stand out in the mail, but it will require the higher, letter rate. Paper stock must be at least .007 inch thick; anything flimsier will be devoured by postal machines. The aspect ratio, meaning mail panel length divided by height, must be between 1.3 and 2.5 to run through post office equipment. You also need to be careful with the placement, dimensions and treatment of the barcode addressing area, whether using an address block or a clear zone. For more details on this last point, and other tips for USPS automation and postal rate compliance, see the article at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/blog/why-cant-i-mail-it-usps-regulations-postcards#

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Single, Focused E-mail Call-to-Action Can Hike Clicks

One e-mail creative rule of thumb is that adding call-to-action buttons adds click-throughs, but recent e-mail testing by Whirlpool found that focusing on a single call-to-action (CTA) improved response. MarketingSherpa featured the Whirlpool results in a recent case study article. Whirlpool's e-mail control package had three buttons labeled "Learn more" at the bottom of the e-mail, each directing consumers to three different pages for information on different products. A fourth CTA button was located in the middle of the page: a gold "See Details" button directing to the rebate that the campaign was designed to promote. The test package paralleled the control but used only the one CTA gold button in the middle of the page, driving consumers to the rebate download landing page. "The theory was if you highlighted one call-to-action button that was the primary focus, you'd get more people to go to that landing page than the other creative, which sent people into completely different products," Thomas Mender, Senior Manager at Whirlpool, explained to MarketingSherpa. And the theory worked: The single, focused CTA creative achieved a 42% increase in clicks for Whirlpool. For more details of Whirlpool's e-mail testing, including subject lines and segmentation, go to http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/whirlpool-lift-clickthrough-testing-culture

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Overcautious CPL Targeting Can Sap Lead Volume

A recent Target Marketing magazine article addressed a common direct marketing challenge: A cost-per-lead (CPL) target in testing winnows acceptable lists or media and scales down roll-out for fewer potential leads. This occurs because conservative marketers prefer tested lists/media that outperform a target CPL to guard against any unexpected roll-out declines in response. That caution may actually undermine maximized results, however. Article author Chuck McLeester presents an alternative strategy of combining a test's "big winners" in terms of CPL with its "little losers" -- for a larger cumulative universe that will deliver more leads at an acceptable cumulative CPL. Of course, both winning and losing lists/media from a test should be re-tested at larger quantities to make sure response holds up before going to roll-out. Yet the end result of a cumulative-CPL strategy can be a big boost in cost-effective lead generation: McLeester provides an example that takes roll-out from a little over 4 million impressions, out of a potential 15 million, up to more than 12 million impressions, while keeping well within the target CPL. For his spreadsheet analysis example, see http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/blog/how-maximize-your-lead-volume-within-your-allowable-cost-per-lead#

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Mini Slim Offers Effective, Low-Cost Catalog Option

With postal rate hikes putting the squeeze on catalog mailers, some alternative print formats are worth a second look, suggests a recent Target Marketing magazine article. One option is the "mini slim" catalog. It uses USPS-approved spot tack closures with fugitive glue for easy opening without page tearing and avoids the expensive, hard-to-open wafer seals of "slim jim" catalogs. The mini slim is also less costly to produce because of reduced page count compared with full-size and even slim jim catalogs. Plus, mini slims offer significant postal savings. While a typical 10.5" x 8" catalog mails at standard "flat" rates, the mini slim catalogs are slim-jim size (10.5" x 5.875") and under 3 ounces with up to 10 pages, which qualifies for standard letter rates and reduces postage 10% to 20%. What about response and sales? The Target Marketing article quotes at least one catalog mailer as claiming to reap sales as good or better from a mini catalog as from a standard 84-page book, in addition to driving prospects to the website -- all for a cost close to that of producing and mailing a postcard. A caveat: The author is a direct mail printer, who acknowledges that mini catalogs are no replacement for a full-size effort. But his piece is a timely reminder that online isn't the only alternative to mail; there are cost-effective supplemental print ideas out there. For more, see the article at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/a-catalog-strategy-offset-usps-rate-hike/1

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Do You Follow the 3.33 Rule of Direct Mail?

Do you know the 3.33 rule for direct mail? Studies have shown that direct mailers have three minutes and 33 seconds to engage a potential customer: three seconds to catch a recipient's eye out of the stack in the mailbox, 30 seconds for the recipient to get the mail piece open, and then an additional three minutes for the potential customer to read and decide on response. We thank Pat Friesen of Direct Marketing IQ for reminding us of the challenge. The 3.33 rule applies more to solo pieces and self-mailers than catalogs, but the principles of making sure your message doesn't end up in the trash still apply. With the U.S. Postal Service requiring mail to be tabbed, wafer-sealed, spot or continuously glued for delivery, ease of opening is more than a printer, production and design issue;  effective marketers need to worry about those 30 critical seconds for openability. More important, marketing must focus on compelling creative and offer to make recipients want to spend even a few seconds of time and effort to engage with a piece before it's tossed. For Pat's apt comments, go to http://www.directmarketingiq.com/article/3-tips-deal-with-sticky-business-direct-mail/1

Thursday, May 1, 2014

B2B Closeout E-mail Has Big ROI

Smart marketing can leverage b-to-b product cycles to generate profits and move excess inventory, per a recent case study from MarketingSherpa. Creative Co-Op, which markets trendy gift and home décor products to a core audience of independent retailers, needed to sell closeout inventory as product cycles got ready to shift. Their successful solution was an automated e-mail campaign tailored to past purchasers of products on closeout. Creative Co-Op's agency set up relational tables that scanned through customer data, matching past purchase history to closeout products to create a target audience of active customers who had ordered at least one of the closeout items within the past 90 to 365 days. The personalized, behavior-based e-mail campaign contained images of the closeout products purchased by recipients, the original product pricing, and closeout sale prices marketed as "Value Buys" at a fraction of the original. A second variation of the e-mail was sent 10 days after the first if the customer had not yet taken action. The closeout e-mail campaign yielded an 808% ROI in its first month, along with a 42% increase in order conversion rate and a 255% increase in closeout items sold online! After the campaign, the team also tallied that 84% of the items sold were actually non-closeout products. For more detail, see the MarketingSherpa case study at https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/b2b-email-behavior-based-campaign

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Use the Weather Map in Your Geo-targeted Marketing

Is your geo-targeted marketing in sync with the weather map? A Business2Community article recently reminded marketers that they should leverage weather as a variable in geo-targeted campaigns. Although author Ruthie Ackerman provided examples based on this winter's snowy and icy conditions, geo-targeting by weather variables can be applied to summer sizzlers, too! Retailing, travel and hospitality industries, and online banking are three areas that can use weather news to their advantage, she pointed out. For example, rather than cursing the polar vortex this past winter, smart apparel stores push cold-weather items, travel industry ads entice frigid consumers with a tropical vacation, and online banking could tap browser history and real-time e-mail to offer helpful vacation savings calculators to fund that tropical getaway. See the full post at http://www.business2community.com/marketing/leverage-weather-geo-targeted-marketing-campaigns-0773590

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Proven Tactics Trump Marketing Tricks in B2B Sales

While new business-to-business marketing tricks get press, marketing basics, not some technology sleight of hand, remain the surest way to find, win and keep customers. And we thank Larry Kim, founder and CTO of WordStream, a search engine software firm, for that reminder in his recent article for Inc. magazine. Kim cites five basic strategies that have delivered B2B sales increases for his company: First "be a thought leader" to provide potential clients with information that underscores your expertise and authority via multiple channels, including website, blogging, podcasts, video, conference presentations, Twitter chats, you name it. Next, build brand ambassadors inside (employees) and outside (clients); encourage social media as one way for ambassadors to get the word out. Third, develop a profile of your ideal client and find out where to reach them and what message connects with them; since it costs five times as much to acquire a new client as it does to generate business from existing customers, targeting high-ROI prospects is essential. Fourth, Kim advises to "be real" in marketing and lead nurturing -- the tried-and-true tactic of underpromising and overdelivering. Finally, learn target prospects' paths to purchase in order to provide needed information in preferred formats and channels at the right timing for onboarding clients. Yes, it's common sense, but, alas, it's not always common practice! For the complete article, go to http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/how-we-got-thousands-of-b2b-clients.html

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Nonprofits See Year of Generous Giving Ahead

Seven out of 10 nonprofits expect donations to increase this year, and 13% expect their gains to be substantial—growing by at least 15%, according to a recently released survey of 538 charities by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative. As reported by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, charities in the survey said say they are optimistic because 2013 was stronger than any other year since the recession started. Indeed, Blackbaud's Charitable Giving Report for last year showed overall charitable giving grew 4.9% in 2013, while online giving grew 13.5%. The growing impact of online giving also was reflected in the Nonprofit Research Collaborative survey: Nonprofit respondents attributed much of last year’s growth in donations to special fundraising events and e-mail and online appeals, as well as big gifts from wealthy donors. Nonprofits that raised the most said they targeted a mix of donors for small, medium, and large gifts and diversified how they pursued donations by combining channels such as direct mail, social media, e-mail, and grant proposals. See the report on the Nonprofit Research Collaborative survey at https://philanthropy.com/article/70-of-Charities-Expect-Gains/145437/

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Senior Market Increases Use of Internet and Mobile

Seniors are not as tech savvy as millennials yet, but older consumers' Internet and mobile use is climbing. In fact, if higher-income Americans age 65 and up are the target market, be aware that these seniors now use the Internet and broadband at rates approaching or even exceeding the usage rate of the general adult population, according to the latest Pew Research Center study as reported by MarketingProfs. For example, 90% of seniors with an annual household income of $75,000 or more go online and 82% have broadband Internet access at home, compared with rates of 86% and 70% respectively for all adults over age 18. That said, only 59% of seniors overall reported going online in 2013, although that senior rate was still six percentage points ahead of where the 65-plus crowd was in 2012. And, of the seniors who did use the Internet, 71% reported going online every day or almost every day. The Pew study had some senior news for mobile marketers, too: By last year, 77% of U.S. seniors owned a cell phone (up from 69% a year earlier), although only 18% of seniors reported owning a smartphone and 27% had a tablet or e-reader. For more on the Pew data, see the MarketingProfs article at http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/24878/how-older-americans-are-using-technology

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Increase Triggered E-mails to Upgrade ROI

Looking to improve e-mail marketing performance? Behaviorally triggered e-mail should be on the agenda. Research shows behaviorally targeted, triggered e-mail campaigns achieve 30% higher open and click-through rates and three times the conversion rates of broadcast e-mail, as a recent MarketingProfs article "Three E-mail Marketing Improvement Challenges for 2014" pointed out. Of course, the article included triggered e-mail as a top recommended improvement! The first step is to select programmed "triggers," meaning the customer action/inaction, time or event to trigger e-mail delivery. To boost response, e-mails can then be tailored for delivery timing, subject line and content, and target recipient or recipient group data. More sophisticated programs (such as lead nurturing) can involve sequenced messaging (a track), along with the timing, number and content of messages in each sequence/track. Perhaps you already use basic welcome e-mails and bounce-back purchase thank-yous, but what about adding triggered up-sell or cross-sell suggestions, a lead nurturing series, an educational series, renewal and re-order offers, birthday greetings or customer anniversary e-mails, and reactivation efforts? For more, read http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/24909/three-email-marketing-improvement-challenges-for-2014?adref=nlt041514