Thursday, July 16, 2015

Clues That Your Media Mix Needs a Tune-up

Every budget cycle, marketers question whether they have the right media mix to optimize sales, whether they need to shift dollars between channels, especially in the rapidly changing digital landscape. In a recent Marketing Land article, Scott Rayden, chief revenue officer for 3Q Digital, offers seven clues that a change in your digital mix may be in order. Here are a few of his tips, starting with a no-brainer: If your brand, and non-brand, search numbers are declining, it's time to consider new ways to boost online brand awareness. He advises taking a look at options such as Twitter, display ads, video, Facebook, Pinterest, and Gmail sponsored promotions. Next, now that mobile traffic has topped desktop traffic, you are clearly behind the curve if most of your traffic, whether B2C or B2B, is desktop-driven, so invest in mobile. Rayden also notes that even with great CRM and well-segmented e-mail campaigns, you may not be mining all the gold in your first-party data. Consider using customer knowledge to prospect for lookalikes with new targeting programs offered by Facebook Lookalike Audiences, Google Similar Audiences and Twitter Tailored Audiences, he suggests. And if you are generating lots of leads but not enough paying customers, he advises rethinking targeting and linking CRM first-party data to marketing campaigns to weed out junk lead sources and boost channels delivering conversions. And, of course, pay attention to competitors; if they use many more channels to target the same demographics or firmographics, an expanded media mix may be in order. For more tips, read http://marketingland.com/7-signs-cmos-need-examine-media-mix-133456

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Best and Worst Subject Lines for E-mail Opens

The goal of an e-mail subject line is straightforward: Get the recipient to notice and open your communication. But crafting a good subject line is trickier. With the wrong subject line, your e-mail gets ignored, deleted or, worse, declared spam. A recent Target Marketing magazine article by Jeff Molander, a digital sales trainer and author, provides helpful guidelines for effective subject lines. Basically, to get recipients to open an e-mail from someone they don't know, the subject line needs to do one of three things--indicate an anticipated message, scare/worry, or spark curiosity. But there are definitely right and wrong ways to achieve those goals. So Molander starts with subject line copy to avoid: a yes/no question (since half are likely to say no and delete); overly specific (why open when you know what's inside); too vague (interest disconnects lead to deletes); asks for a meeting or time (people don't waste limited time on a stranger); sounds like a newsletter (unsolicited newsletters get dumped); sounds unbelievable (spammy claims get trashed); sounds too familiar (familiarity breeds deletes, too). So much for subject line don'ts; what are the subject line dos? The best subject lines are appealing and relevant, useful and goal-oriented, specific yet not too specific, believable, provocative yet credible, and, most of all, short, per Molander. Translating that into actual copy, he shares the three most effective subject lines based on his years of consulting with sales reps: "Know this about X?" (and make X something the prospect wants to know); "Advantages of X" (where X is not your product but something unexpected or negative that your product addresses); and "Is this a fit for X?" (where X can be personalized to "you, John" to spark curiosity). For more tips, read http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/death-subject-line/