Thursday, September 29, 2016

Ready for Holiday Sales? Don't Stint on Mail Power

As retailers head into the holiday sales season and balance their offline-online marketing mix, there's solid recent evidence to support direct mail investment, even by digital-first marketers. It's why AccuList USA continues updating mailing list research to hone response for a wide variety of multichannel retail campaigns in popular seasonal categories like gourmet and food gifts, health/beauty, hobbies/collectibles, and pets. We're buoyed by recent data. For example, among the findings of global marketing firm Epsilon's just released 2016 holiday shopping survey is shoppers' clear propensity to respond to mail. In fact, 77% of respondents said they feel advertisements received by mail will have at least “some influence” on their buying decisions this holiday shopping season. Compare that number to the just 41% of respondents who said that banner advertisements when searching online will have at least “some influence” on buying decisions. According to the survey respondents, they are influenced by direct mail because it usually contains an offer or discount and the format allows for leisurely review time. No surprises there. If any digital-first marketers are unconvinced, they should take a look at some real-life mail examples from digital market leaders, cited in a recent article for Target Marketing magazine by Paul Bobnak, director of Who's Mailing What!. For more detail on those mailing pieces, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/ready-for-the-holiday-retail-season-dont-miss-out-on-mail-power/

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Measuring ROI Is Top Multichannel Challenge

As highlighted recently in a MediaPost Real-Time Daily post, quantifying and optimizing ROI across channels is a top challenge for today's marketing execs.  Gone are the days when direct marketers could afford siloed channel strategies. Citing a new global survey conducted by the programmatic marketing and analytics firm DataXu, the Real-Time Daily article notes that U.S. senior marketers now say the single greatest challenge in their jobs is developing an accurate way to quantify ROI across the variety of channels. Another 37% of U.S. marketers say their biggest challenge is developing an efficient marketing mix across channels to drive ROI. The U.S. marketers are not alone, however; difficulty tracking the success of a marketing campaign into metrics was cited by one-third of global marketers as the largest threat to the success of their teams. In meeting multichannel challenges, marketers also feel the bar for technical skills is set higher than ever before because of expanding digital technologies and proliferating data sources. So it's no surprise that 78% of U.S. marketers point to understanding marketing technologies as a skill critical to their mission, and 72% think grasping digital media is crucial to success. Overall,  65% also say it is necessary to be data literate. Testing to optimize marketing mix ROI is an approach that some marketers are now taking, per the article, including survey author DataXu. These marketing teams are randomizing deployment of existing budgets across various channels and then measuring business outcomes to pinpoint where a campaign is most successful, transforming a media plan into a controlled experiment. For more on the article and its statistics, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/multichannel-marketers-see-roi-measurement-as-top-challenge/

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Print vs. Digital: Millennial Marketing Myths

Given that millennials love digital technology, does that mean they prefer digital marketing? Not according to a recent Target Marketing magazine article debunking several marketing myths about millennial customers, including the notion that digital advertising is the most effective way to reach those born between 1980 and 2000. Author Linda Antos, market development analyst at commercial printer Quad/Graphics, cites annual Quad/Graphics research that tracks millennial shopping and media habits and preferences to show that traditional print marketing--direct mail and catalogs--actually has greater power to move millennial buyers. The first myth Antos takes on is the belief that millennials ignore printed marketing. The Quad/Graphics study shows that 82% of millennials read direct mail and 54% look forward to receiving retail catalogs in the mail. Within 30 days of the survey, 49% reported taking print coupons to the store to shop and almost three in four used grocery retail inserts, higher than the average shopper. Myth No. 2 involves assuming that millennials' known addiction to daily digital interaction means they pay attention to digital advertising. The Quad/Graphics survey found that nearly half say they ignore e-mail and Internet ads, and 45% ignore mobile ads. By comparison, only 15% ignore direct mail ads. When it comes to millennial social networking, less than 10% say they made a purchase based on social media ads, and only 1% purchased from a social site. Another false generational stereotype is that millennials are less cost-conscious. In the Quad/Graphics millennials study, 49% said it was fun to see how much they could save with coupons, loyalty cards and discount offers, and 57% said they responded to "Buy One, Get One Free" offers in direct mail. The surprise power of direct mail with millennials doesn't diminish the need for digital marketing but does underscore the value of multichannel marketing, which is supported by more Quad/Graphics data. For the complete post, read http://www.acculistusa.com/study-debunks-marketing-myths-about-millennials/

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Targeted Lists Are Key to Dimensional Mail Success

Prospecting with dimensional mail is both attractive because of high response rates and risky because of high costs. So what's the key ingredient of success? Mailing lists that are appropriately and tightly targeted, answers a recent Entrepreneur magazine article on dimensional mail. Here are the facts: The Direct Marketing Association's 2015 "Response Rate Report" shows dimensional prospecting mail earns a median 2.8% response that betters the 1% of a letter envelope and postcard, or even the 2% of an oversized envelope. Dimensional mail works because it's often lumpy, bumpy, unusually shaped and/or weightier, which grabs attention in the mailbox and sparks a curiosity about internal rewards that leads to opens. However, while dimensional mail may earn top response rates, it also has the highest cost per thousand, at an average $1,205 compared with a standard letter envelope package's $583, per the DMA report. This raises the stakes but does not disqualify dimensional mail as an acquisition tool. Overall, dimensional mail for prospecting still comes in at the lowest $43 cost per response, compared with the highest cost per response turned in by catalogs ($112) and oversized mail ($105), per DMA stats. Success in this response-cost balancing act depends on another ingredient: list targeting. In his recent Entrepreneur article, Craig Simpson, owner of Simpson Direct, Inc., explains why dimensional mail works best with "a small, highly targeted group of prospects." It is also "invaluable" with "hard-to-reach niches," especially business-to-business  promotions that need to get past office "gatekeepers," he notes. Read the rest of our post at http://www.acculistusa.com/why-targeted-lists-are-key-to-dimensional-mail-success/

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Mail Still Stars in Multichannel Subscription Drives

As multichannel publishing evolves, traditional direct mail, long a staple of subscription acquisition campaigns, has evolved as well. So a recent Target Marketing magazine article by Paul Bobnak, director of Who's Mailing What!, caught our eye. The article provided an interesting example of how an established print publication brand successfully used targeted direct mail to promote multiplatform content and expand reach to a digital-first audience. Bobnak shares how The Economist, one of the world’s most respected magazines and a "big user of direct mail," created a new mail piece to promote its brand to an academic target market of college professors--and secondarily their students. The piece used a recent issue's eye-catching magazine cover as the non-address side of the outer portion of a brochure mailer, taking advantage of the visual, tactile and guaranteed-mailbox-delivery of direct mail. There were additional cover examples inside--up to 25 on its first page alone--to reinforce the value of an invitation to academics, at a "special academic rate," to join "one million leaders" in keeping abreast of significant political, business, finance, scientific and technical news and trends. Plus, the professors were encouraged to pass along the informational benefits of the magazine to their students, who could subscribe at a special individual rate or via a group subscription provided by the teacher. Recognizing that many academics, especially younger students, are digital-first today, a full page of the brochure highlighted a digital package. That package included options such as a weekly digital or audio edition sent to tablet or smartphone, and a "Daily Espresso" of top stories shot to the subscriber's device. So while the promotion was delivered via printed direct mail, the stress was on desirable content delivery--regardless of platform. For a link to the actual example, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/direct-mail-still-stars-in-multichannel-subscription-campaigns/

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Marketing Pros Share Biggest Mistakes (and Fixes)

To err is human, even for the best direct marketers. So it is instructive to learn from marketing pros when they admit mistakes and then share corrections and prevention advice. A recent Direct Marketing News magazine article asked 13 experienced marketers to share their biggest goofs, how they fixed them and lessons learned. Here we'll share just their e-mail marketing stories since we have experience helping clients address the same issues via our e-mail list brokerage support and data services. For example, Guillaume Cabane, vice president of growth at Internet software firm Segment, relates how he failed to take segment crossover and duplication into account. He ended up e-mailing the same user five times in a week because the user appeared in multiple different data sets of people. The subscriber was not only irritated by the flood of e-mail but also confused by "similar but different" messages. The solution? Cabane notes that using data services to exclude recipients who have recently received other communications is one way to avoid the problem. Next the team at Return Path, a leading e-mail data solutions provider, cites several lessons from a failure to update an e-mailed webinar promotion post-testing so that the subject line "TEST" went to the entire subscriber list. To learn about their fix and how they made lemonade from their subject line lemon, as well as other cautionary marketing tales, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/cautionary-tales-marketing-pros-share-e-mail-mistakes-and-fixes/

Thursday, August 11, 2016

How Direct Mail Can Boost Digital Marketing Power

Direct mail is becoming a key player in the digital marketing world, as Christopher Karpenko, executive director of brand marketing at the U.S. Postal Service, recently argued in an article for the Association of National Advertisers. His points are worth summarizing and support our own belief in the response power of combining direct mail with digital marketing channels, such as opt-in e-mail and social media, as we do in our Digital2Direct program. Karpenko points out that direct mail has evolved and now achieves even greater response power via technologies such as Augmented reality (AR), near-field communication (NFC), and quick response (QR) codes. These technologies bridge the physical and digital gap by launching a website, a video or an interactive experience right from a paper mailing piece. "These can be powerful ways of sparking product discovery and drawing consumers into the digital ecosystem of a particular brand," he writes. Technology is also removing the "snail" from "snail mail," with real-time delivery scan notifications already sent within a few minutes and now an "Informed Delivery" service on the horizon from the USPS. Informed Delivery will allow consumers to check their e-mail inbox, social media and mobile apps to actually see the front of most mail pieces coming to their physical mailbox before they arrive. To read our complete blog post, including how direct mail can leverage social media engagement, go to our website's full-length version, which also includes a link to Karpenko's article, with an interesting Chick-fil-A case study: http://www.acculistusa.com/how-direct-mail-boosts-digital-marketing-power/

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Mailed Sales Follow-up Can Grow Share of Wallet

Direct mail follow-up to in-store on online purchase can be an effective way to boost customer relationships and grow share of wallet. A recent Dell computer campaign is a case in point, as noted by Paul Bobnak, director of Who's Mailing What!, in a recent Target Marketing magazine piece. Bobnak spotlights a Dell mailer to recent computer purchasers. The consumer has already shelled out for a major purchase, so if Dell wants to win more dollars, its marketers need to push all the response buttons--personalization, relevancy, exclusivity and urgency. So Dell starts by personalizing the outer 6"X9"self-mailer with bold use of the customer's first name and an exclusive, limited-time 15% discount on electronics and accessories. Inside, the first page of a two-panel spread details deals on four items, including wireless speakers. But then Dell sweetens its pitch further on the second inside page with five more reasons to buy from Dell--from easy financing to 24/7 phone support. Dell's approach may prove instructive to retailers of other big-ticket items, such as cars or appliances. For a look at the mail creative Dell used to build customer rapport and sales, go to http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/dell-mail-share-of-customer/

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Basic Tips Aid Even Small Firms in E-mail Success

E-mail marketing success doesn't have to be limited to big firms with big-data technology. A recent CIO.com article combined suggestions from e-mail experts to create 15 basic tips that put an effective e-mail campaign within reach of even small- to mid-sized businesses. Here are just the top seven as an example. Start out by segmenting e-mail lists to select the relevant content and offer by customer or subscriber group. If discounts are available for students or retirees, then segment by age as an example. Next, make sure the e-mail creative uses responsive design and is mobile-friendly. Research shows 68% of recipients open e-mail on a mobile device, and 71% of those will delete an e-mail immediately if it doesn't display properly. Consider testing text-only e-mails versus image-based e-mails to take into account the e-mail clients, such as Outlook, which automatically block images. Try to have a promotional e-mail come from a real person (not just noreply), realizing that 64% of subscribers open an e-mail based on who it is from. Then craft a subject line to maximize opens by keeping it short (lines with fewer than 50 characters have higher open rates) but at the same time compelling and urgent/time-sensitive. Avoid a mass-marketing approach and personalize the subject line and content to the target segment--going beyond first name to use other data, such as past purchase behavior, for the relevance that drives response. Finally, add a clear, visible call-to-action. Research shows that if the recipient can't understand what they're expected to do within just 5 seconds, the e-mail risks deletion! For eight more tips and resource suggestions from the experts, read http://www.cio.com/article/3057992/email/15-ways-to-improve-your-email-marketing-campaigns.html

Thursday, April 21, 2016

E-mail Sender Reputation Key to Reaching Inboxes

Reputation matters in marketing, and e-mail marketers especially need a sterling sender reputation to ensure messages reach target inboxes. Mailbox providers use algorithms to filter and remove "spam," and marketing e-mails can be swept out of inboxes based on their sender reputation metrics, explained a recent Inc. magazine article by Peter Roesler, president of Web Marketing Pros. To show how important sender reputation is to inbox placement, Roesler cited recent Return Path research. The Return Path study measured e-mail marketer reputation with a Sender Score--a number between 0 and 100 (best)--to show how mailbox providers view a marketer's IP address. Return Path found one quarter of e-mail marketers with Sender Scores between 71 and 80 had their messages land in junk/spam folders, for example. Even marketers with scores between 81 and 90 had 10% of their messages diverted to junk/spam folders. Marketers want to be in the 99-100 score range, where only 2% of messages went into junk folders. Unfortunately, most e-mail marketers fall far short in terms of sender reputation; Return Path found 52% of e-mails were sent by marketers with scores below 71. One way to end up with a poor score, Roesler warns, is trying to jump-start e-mail marketing by purchase of an e-mail list with addresses that have not been properly obtained. Many of these e-mail recipients will mark unsolicited content as spam, spoiling reputation so legitimate e-mails get dumped in spam limbo. E-mail marketers need to know how they are viewed by mailbox providers if they want to improve reputation and keep it polished. Since scoring criteria vary by provider--based on combinations of open rates, bounce rates, spam complaints, etc.--it's best to go to an outside source to check reputation metrics, advises Roesler. He suggests resources such as SenderBase.org, ReputationAuthority and TrustedSource. See http://www.inc.com/peter-roesler/why-reputation-matters-for-email-marketing.html

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Direct Mail's New 'Moment' in the Digital Age

It's no surprise when the CEO of the powerful McCann ad agency, which manages $10 billion in annual marketing spend, stands up to champion direct mail at the recent National Postal Forum. McCann is the U.S. Postal Service's agency of record, paid to push the advantages of mail. But that doesn't diminish the value of the insights offered by CEO Harris Diamond, as reported by Direct Marketing News magazine's Senior Editor Al Urbanski. Arguing that "in a world in which people are endlessly bombarded with electronic messages, direct mail is now the most welcome house guest," Diamond backs up his belief in mail's value by citing a McCann finding that the average American spends 25 minutes out of each busy day with mail. Diamond calls that 25-minute opportunity "The Mail Moment." And he offers five creative principles McCann uses in marketing campaigns to maximize results from that precious Mail Moment. First, he advises, go to the customers to understand their perspectives, looking beyond traditional assumptions; he holds up the example of Pope Francis going out at night, dressed in street clothes, to spend time with the homeless. Second, use direct mail's unique physical properties to engage in ways unavailable to digital, and he cites an Australian Air Force recruitment piece that mailed radio parts sans instructions to prospective engineers and offered a commission to any who could build the radio and tune into a dedicated station. Third, put new technologies to work with mail to enhance engagement and branding, such as using augmented reality (AR) to add a digital experience to paper. Fourth, realize it's not about mail tweaking; it's about "reinventing" the mail medium, using technology creatively to drive action and leverage the Mail Moment to the max. And, finally, make mail a tool for developing a relationship in the digital age, using data to target, personalize and touch audiences. For more details of Diamond's remarks, read http://www.dmnews.com/direct-mail/mccann-ceo-direct-mails-moment-has-come-again/article/485318/

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Amid Digital Clutter, 'Simple' Mail Wins Notice

With multiple digital channels now used to communicate with customers--e-mail, online, mobile and social--businesses risk creating so much marketing clutter that they bury message and response. We've found that targeted direct mail is one way to cut through that marketing noise--and sometimes the simplest mail message speaks the loudest. Paul Bobnak, director of Who's Mailing What!, provides a good example in a recent Target Marketing magazine article. Independence Blue Cross, a healthcare insurer, wanted to contact members ahead of a deadline for renewal of 2016 health plan coverage. Since e-mails may be ignored in busy inboxes, the insurer decided to gather text opt-ins for renewal communications with members via a single, easy response channel--their ever-present mobile phones. And then Independent turned to a direct mail postcard as an outreach device that was sure to be delivered and "opened." The company mailed a two-sided 6-inch-by-11-inch postcard prompting mobile phone sign-ups for its text-messaging service. The front of the postcard simply announced "2016 health care coverage" and "Right from your phone," and drove home the point visually with a photo of a cell phone with a big "easy" text message bubble displayed. The reverse side of the postcard laid out the few steps, via a single call, to opt-in to insurer text alerts. For a look at the actual piece, go to http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/ibx-keeps-mail-simple/

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Consumers Shun Excess, Irrelevant Retail E-mail

Retailers count on e-mail to help drive sales--but overly frequent, poorly targeted e-mail currently may inspire more consumer irritation than shopping, according to recent research. A 2015 survey of more than 1,000 Internet users, conducted by First Insight, found the average consumer subscribes to 2.3 retailer e-mail lists and receives 13.1 e-mails a week from those lists. But most aren't happy about it. Two-thirds of the consumers who received six or more e-mails a week said it was “too many.” In contrast, only 21% of shoppers who received five e-mails per week thought that frequency too high. Individual retailers will want to aim for fewer than five e-mails, however; 61% of consumers said their favorite retailers only send them one or two e-mails a week. Excess frequency is not the only problem. Just 25% of retailer e-mails got opened, and the most common reason consumers gave for not opening more retailer e-mail was lack of relevance. Based on e-mails received, just 18% of respondents felt retailers understood them. Indeed, the average shopper said only about 5% of retailer e-mails were personally relevant. Unfortunately for retail e-marketers, consumers tend to express their frustration by opting out, with 45% saying they unsubscribed from a retailer’s e-mail list in the prior six months. On the other hand, the research also points out a solution: 43% of consumers said they would be more likely to open retailer e-mails if they knew the e-mails contained personalized suggestions of products aligned with past purchases, instead of promotion of products generally available or "on sale." For the study report: http://www.firstinsight.com/press-coverage/how-many-promotional-emails-a-week-is-too-many

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Are Wrong B2B Lead Concepts Hurting Sales?

Sales reps are key to converting business-to-business leads into sales for many firms. But most sales reps are completely wrong in their thinking about leads, asserts a recent HubSpot post by Ali Powell. First of all, sales reps should realize that a B2B lead is about a company, not just a specific individual contact, and any given company has many people involved in purchasing decisions. In fact, an average of 5.4 stakeholders are involved in each B2B sales deal per CEB data, Powell notes. So using an account-based approach, sales reps need to find multiple contacts at a company and engage each of them. But even before beginning to chase a company lead, it is important to research that company to make sure it is a good fit for the product or service promoted. Powell offers 12 places to start that research, from LinkedIn to news releases to internal CRM. Then compare the lead organization to the target customer profile, or at least to best clients. Sales reps can use two basic questions as a litmus test for lead pursuit, she suggests: Why am I working this lead and how can I help them? Be sure there are solid answers based on research and fit with client profile before moving forward. Reaching out to multiple contacts at a company doesn't mean a single one-size-fits-all approach, however; the sales pitch should be tailored to each individual contact's needs and roles, she advises. To tailor outreach, find a reason or trigger event to start a conversation. Here are steps suggested by Powell: Follow each contact and the company on LinkedIn; create a Google Alert to catch news and mentions online; follow the company on AngelList and Crunchbase; create a dedicated private Twitter list of contacts and company; and subscribe to the company blog if it exists. And, since leads are so valuable, be dogged in pursuit and don't quit before a definitive yes or no response, adds Powell. For the whole post: http://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-reps-are-thinking-about-leads-all-wrong

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Try These Tactics to Cut Shopping Cart Abandons

Shopping cart abandonment--meaning website visitors who start the buying process but leave without completing a transaction--is a basic challenge to online conversion. A recent Mobile Marketer post by Tom Villante, chairman and CEO of YapStone, cites six ways digital marketers can plug the online buyer drain. Start by making the buying process easy, and reduce transaction steps, he suggests. Next, deploy a mobile-first strategy for e-commerce; when 25% of mobile phone owners use them to access the Internet, 90% of mobile searches lead to action, and over half of mobile searches lead to sales, there's no ignoring the need to optimize customers' mobile experience. Seek and leverage social proof from social media reviews to boost trust and encourage customers on the purchase track. Pay attention to design, content and usability overall, and, via web analytics and usability testing, pay extra attention to pages where shopping carts are most often abandoned. Make it quick and easy to upload account information and payment info; for mobile applications, OCR scanning of credit/debit cards permits quick, less-error-prone account set-up. Target your retargeting and respect customer privacy; don't drive customers further away by peppering them with re-promotions online of the product they abandoned.  For more detail, read http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/22436.html

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Try These Tactics to Cut E-mail Unsubscribe Rate

Reducing the unsubscribe rate is key to a growing, high-ROI e-mail marketing database, so digital marketers will want to check their strategies against a recent Econsultancy.com post listing 10 ways to cut costly e-mail drop-outs. Here's a quick overview of some of the suggestions: The process of avoiding e-mail defection begins at sign-up, as the post points out. Without creating barriers to easy sign-up, such as a multitude of tick boxes, make it clear to potential subscribers what they are opting to receive in terms of content and frequency. Especially avoid a confusing mix of opt-in and opt-out, advises Econsultancy. Test e-mail frequency, a major factor in unsubscribe rates. The optimum strategy may surprise; Econsultancy notes how one e-mailer found that re-sending the same content to non-openers was more effective than reactivation, for example. Automate to craft content and timing for relevancy and engagement when it comes to communications such as welcome e-mails, inventory updates, incentivized reviews, cart abandonment, loyalty rewards, etc. Automation doesn't strengthen customer engagement at all points, however; also segment the database to match promotions to demographics and customer interest. Don't assume you know what is behind e-mail attrition; get feedback from unsubscribes to diagnose--for example, with a list of opt-out reasons before or after the unsubscribe option. Another tactic to combat e-mail loss is to allow for a change of heart by e-mail defectors with an unsubscribe retraction pop-up. Marketers have also had luck retaining e-mail addresses by offering alternatives to unsubscribing, such as a temporary break or frequency change. For details on all 10 tactics, with examples, go to https://econsultancy.com/blog/67644-10-ways-to-reduce-email-unsubscribes/

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Tailoring Direct Mail to Millennial Tastes

Research shows that millennials respond well to direct mail--but not necessarily to their father's style of direct mail. Summer Gould of Target Marketing magazine recently listed five traits to incorporate in direct mail creative to enhance its appeal to the millennial mindset. Authentic: The first rule is to strive for authenticity in messaging and imagery, keeping it in sync with the brand with a stress on consistency and transparency. Accessible: Make sure your company is accessible by providing multiple ways to respond, especially digitally and via mobile. Human: Keep it human and seek connection with personalized, emotional messaging. Also humanize the brand by highlighting real employees and user-generated content. Socially Aware: Showcase your company as socially aware, linking with charities and causes relevant to the brand. Tech Savvy: Make sure you include digital and mobile technology in printed pieces, going beyond QR codes to the more powerful Near Field Communication (NFC), Augmented Reality (AR), video and more. For the full article, read http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/direct-mail-marketing-millennials-5-tips/

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Survey: Marketers Bank on Personalization Success

Senior marketing professionals are optimistic about the success of their personalization strategies, according to a survey of senior marketers from the CMO Council and Microsoft. As recently reported by MarketingProfs, 26% of the 179 marketers interviewed said they were totally confident in how their companies approached personalization. Another 49% were "hopefully optimistic" about personalization results. The marketers were primarily business-to-business focused (48%), with 18% in business-to-consumer marketing and 34% involved in hybrid B2B and B2C marketing. When asked what criteria they thought would be key to personalization success, 37% of respondents cited a unified view of the customer, 29% counted on an omnichannel approach, 22% stressed flexible tools to enable engagement, and 12% listed predictive analytics as essential. Download the white paper for more details at http://www.cmocouncil.org/current_program_details.php?pid=139

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Don't Let Basic Flaws Doom Content Marketing

Content marketing may top 2016 agendas, but, as Ernan Roman, president of ERDM, points out in an insightful post for Forbes magazine's CMO Network, too many content strategies are headed for failure. Roman notes that although 81% of marketers are involved in content marketing, only 28% of organizations say they are effective, and he can cite five sources of that ineffectiveness. He starts with a basic failure to craft content based on customer research rather than general assumptions. Second, even if marketers know what engaging content looks like, too many don't know what an effective content strategy looks like; research shows only 32% of companies actually have a documented content marketing strategy, he points out. Third, part of the strategic vacuum is lack of content marketing success metrics. Such metrics could include increased lead quality/sales, increased web traffic, brand awareness lift, increased SEO ranking and increased renewal rates/subscriber rates, Roman suggests. Fourth, companies may not fully commit to content marketing because they don't realize its impact on brand perception; Roman points skeptics to research showing 60% of consumers seek out a product after reading content about it, and 82% feel more positive about a company after reading custom content.  Finally, with inbound marketing delivering 54% more leads than traditional outbound marketing, marketers miss ROI if they fail to use content to drive inbound web traffic. For the full post: http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2016/03/07/five-ways-cmos-are-failing-at-content/#6a926bc8420a

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Many Websites Miss the Mark on E-mail Sign-ups

The e-mail subscription efforts of commercial websites are surprisingly spotty, according to a recent study by digital marketing firm Publicare Marketing Communications. Publicare attempted to subscribe to e-mail lists on 6,757 websites. Shockingly, given the value of e-mail acquisition, 10% of sites did not even offer e-mail subscriptions, and 18% made it hard for visitors to sign up by hiding the subscription form on subpages or requiring a user account prior to sign-up. So congratulations to the 87.3% who put the subscription form on the home page, and the 29.7% of those who then promoted a simple form with a pop-up layer. But shame on the 13.2% who got folks to join their e-mail list and then dropped the ball, failing to deliver even one e-mail within two months of winning a subscriber. And despite the high ROI of e-mail marketing, only 18.8% offered an incentive, such as a coupon, for joining the mailing list. By the way, opt-in strategy ran the gamut from confirmed opt-in (46%) to single opt-in (34.2%) to double opt-in (19.8%). For a useful infographic, see https://hive.publicare.de/en/email-marketing-benchmark-part1/

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Leaping the Hurdles to Cross-Channel Attribution

Cross-channel attribution is an acknowledged challenge now that most marketers combine multiple channels--both digital (search, e-mail, social media) and offline (direct mail, TV)--for multiple customer touchpoints in the buying cycle and a flood of data. Multichannel marketers need to identify the sales contribution of each channel, campaign and component (offer, creative, data targeting, timing, etc.) to optimize marketing spend and maximize bottom line and growth. A recent Direct Marketing News magazine article by contributing writer Jason Compton outlined the complexity of the issue. Here's a telling statistic: 38% of digital marketers have no attribution model in place and 34% rely on a single touchpoint, per Webmarketing123's 2015 State of Digital Marketing survey. Issues include lack of a common and lasting customer identifier across channels; use of simplistic first-touch or last-touch attribution over complex data matching; the cost (69% of attribution tech users polled by Forrester were companies with over 1,000 employees); and failure to integrate offline with online channels. For example, Forrester Research found that over 90% of marketers included online display and paid search in attribution models but only 42% included mass media and just 26% incorporated direct mail or catalogs! The prospect of attribution improvement is not out of reach, however, and the article provides real-life success stories, from cataloger Cabela's to a small, regional quick-serve chain, plus some handy "do's" and "don'ts" for the attribution-challenged. For details, read http://www.dmnews.com/dataanalytics/curing-marketers-attribution-addiction/article/478079/

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Top NonProfit Subject Lines: Personal, Fun, Thankful

The most effective e-mail subject lines for nonprofit and association marketers in 2015 had some key lessons for any e-mail effort: The best were personal, fun and expressed gratitude for loyalty and support, according to digital-marketing agency Informz's study of 80 million A/B tested e-mails and 58 million e-mails with 40%+ open rates. As reported by NonProfit PRO magazine, the study found that personalization continues to prove its worth. For example, the subject line "FirstName, Your Membership is About to Expire" delivered a 13% better open rate than the impersonal "Your Membership is About to Expire." Subject lines that used humor and informality succeeded in punching up response to ordinary topics. For example "It's a trashy party, and you're invited!" got a 35% open rate, higher than the staid "Join Us at the Red Clay Valley Clean Up" (28%). Of course, caution is advised in this area, since there can be a fine line between lighthearted and unprofessional or offensive. Finally, the high open rates of simple thank-you subject lines proved that you can't overappreciate donors and members. "Thank you for making a real difference" earned a 66% open rate, for example. For more on subject line trends, go to http://www.nonprofitpro.com/article/the-best-nonprofit-email-subject-lines-of-2015/

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

2016 Digital Spending Set to Rise; Direct Mail Steady

Online advertising and social media engagement efforts are forecast for the biggest surges in marketing spend this year, while direct mail holds its own, according to the annual Target Marketing magazine "Media Usage Survey." Of surveyed marketers, 54% plan to increase online advertising and 55% plan to boost social media engagement (brand pages, sharing updates, interactions), plus 49% also plan to boost social media ad spending. E-mail rules the roost as the most popular marketing channel, with 97% of respondents planning e-mail campaigns (and 49% planning to increase e-mail budgets). However, marketers sent mixed signals on mobile marketing, despite its supposedly "must-have" status, with the 38% who say they plan to increase outlays balanced by the 33% who don't even plan to use mobile in 2016. Amid the channel ups and downs, direct mail remains a steady choice in the marketing channel mix; although slightly more plan no direct mail (25% compared with 22% last year), most marketers, 69%, say they will either increase spending or hold spending steady. Television is the biggest channel loser for direct marketers, with 79% avoiding any DR TV ads and 76% nixing non-infomercial TV ads, too. For details of trends for all channels: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/2016-channel-spending-trends/

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Aging Donors, Not Millennials, Lead Online Giving

Many fundraising strategists assume the millennial age group, as digital-social-mobile junkies, should be the top target of online giving strategy. Not so, according to the latest survey commissioned by Dunham+Company, a nonprofit marketing firm. The study found that older donors, those aged 40-59, now are the most likely to give online, with 67% donating online in 2015, a 20% rise since the survey started in 2010. A smaller 54% of those under 40 years old reported donating via website in 2015, down from 60% in 2014 and mirroring the 54% online giving by those over 60. Which channels are driving online giving today? E-mail appeals are growing response, with 20% donating online as a result of an e-mail in 2015, up from 6% in 2010. But direct mail continues to spur online donors, too, with 11% saying they gave online because of a direct mail appeal. Older donors, per conventional wisdom, are more influenced by direct mail, with 19% of those over 66 years old inspired to give online by a direct mail appeal, compared with 8% of those under 40. Social media, a presumed catalyst of millennial charity, is having more online-giving impact--but not because of charities' direct appeals. Community and engagement are the engine of social media fundraising, with more donors in 2015 (26%) making online donations at the urging of another individual (friend/influencer) on social media than in 2014 (20%).  The basic lesson, per Dunham, is the importance of a multichannel strategy across age cohorts. The survey's direct mail trends support that conclusion: While 36% of those responding to a direct mail appeal sent their donation through the mail last year, the majority (51%) said they go online to contribute, and 18% will make that online donation using a mobile device! For more from the survey: http://www.dunhamandcompany.com/2016/01/survey-shows-aging-donors-most-likely-to-give-online/#sthash.38GD6IY2.dpbs

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

2016 E-mail Winners: Mobile, Interactive, Automated

Digital marketers betting on e-mail ROI need to make sure they are playing a hand with winning strategy cards in 2016. A recent MarketingProfs post by Cynthia Price, marketing director at Emma e-mail marketing services, cited five high-scoring trends to include. With mobile exceeding desktop traffic for the first time last year, a dedicated mobile strategy of responsive design for small screens is a must--because 71% of e-mail recipients will delete immediately if an e-mail doesn't display properly. Next, invest in interactive content, Price urges. It's hard to argue against interactivity when adding video to an email can boost click rates by 300% and including dynamic content can increase click-to-open rates by 73%. And then be sure to make that content personalized, relevant and appealing; time to go beyond a first name greeting and generic pitch as consumers' e-mail screening options rise. One way to boost appeal is to leverage user-generated content, such as testimonials and product photos. Remember Nielsen found 84% of consumers trust recommendations from their peers, and just 15% trust brands' recommendations, Price points out. And finally, get automated. You can't argue with the 70.5% higher open rates and 152% higher click rates delivered by automation, Price asserts. Just look at her cited stats for basic automated e-mails: Welcome e-mails have 50% better open rates; birthday e-mails lift conversion rates by 60%; and thank-you e-mails, with an offer, drive 13 times more revenue. Read the whole post: http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2016/29443/five-superhot-email-marketing-trends

Thursday, February 25, 2016

'Old-Fashioned' Mail Proves Its Modern Appeal

"Old-fashioned" direct mail spending is expected to hold its own, even rise a tad, in forecasts of 2016 marketing budgets. Why? "Old-fashioned" direct mail continues to have modern appeal quite simply because it's a marketing channel that works, argues a recent Target Marketing magazine post by Carolyn Goodman, president of Goodman Marketing Partners. Mail still reaches target audiences and elicits response more effectively than most digital channels. Goodman cites the USPS "Household Diary Study" that found 42% of recipients read or scan direct mail pieces. Can online ads or e-mail claim the same kind of viewer attention given promotion overload and delivery issues? As Goodman points out, 72% of Internet users say pop-ups are "very annoying," and 49% say the same of banner ads. Goodman urges direct mail doubters to do the math. With a 1% response rate, which is the average direct mail response for prospecting per the Direct Marketing Association's 2015 "Response Rate Report" (3.7% for house lists), a mailing to 10,000 prospects generates 100 responses. In contrast, with a likely click-through of 0.14% and conversion rate as low as 2.35%, an Internet display ad will need to reach 3,035,700 targets to generate the same result, Goodman calculates. But what about mail's higher costs, especially those high postage rates? With its higher response, direct mail's ROI competes with most digital efforts. We can back Goodman's argument with the DMA Response Rate Report's median ROI data, putting direct mail ROI at 15%-17%, on par with social and ahead of mobile (12%-14%) and Internet display (6%). Even without highly targeted lists to up response, mailings to households just by zip or neighborhood, such as local retail promotions, can now be cost-effective with the new USPS Every Door Direct Mail program, with per household costs as low as $0.29, Goodman notes. Of course, direct mail success is not all math. The mail creative package must work, too! For Goodman's creative advice: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/direct-mail-is-it-old-fashioned-if-it-still-works/

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Bigger Firms Lead Marketing Budget Growth Trend

Multiple marketing industry surveys are forecasting higher marketing spending in 2016, but Target Marketing magazine's latest survey reveals an interesting trend behind the upbeat outlook: The higher the company revenue, the more aggressive the push in marketing budget for this year. Overall, for business-to-business and business-to-consumer firms, the survey found that more marketers are increasing budgets this year (37% compared with 31% in 2015), and fewer are keeping spending flat (39% in 2016 compared with near 44% last year). But marketing enthusiasm definitely varies by company size. For companies with less than $1 million in revenue, the survey found 54.7% are actually holding budgets level with 2015 and just 24.5% are increasing spending. In contrast, for companies with revenues of more than $50 million, 50.4% of marketers say they are boosting marketing dollars over last year, and only 27.8% are keeping budgets even with 2015. Companies in the middle size range, with revenues of $1 million to $50 million, reflect the general budget outlook, with 41% increasing marketing outlay and 37.3% sticking with the same budget. For the magazine's 2016 survey report, go to: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/2016-marketing-budget-trends/

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Online, Mobile Lead Charitable Giving Growth

Mobile giving scored headlines for Blackbaud's latest Charitable Giving Report, turning in a performance that shows nonprofits are "past the mobile tipping point when it comes to digital giving," per the report. Overall, the 2015 study found a 1.6% increase in donations via all channels from the previous year, but online outperformed with 9.2% growth--and mobile giving delivered 14% of those online donations. A NonProfitPro article recently provided a good summary of results from Blackbaud's 2015 survey of 5,000 nonprofits. Breaking out trends by nonprofit size and sector spotlights some key charitable giving ups and downs. For example, 2015's strongest donation growth was recorded by international giving, up 5.1% due to a number of big natural disasters, such as the Nepal earthquake, followed by faith-based appeals (up 3.9%) and health care (up 1.9%). Charitable giving actually slipped for other sectors, with human services donors the least generous last year (donations down 2.8%). Higher education, K-12 education, and public and societal benefit donations were also down slightly from 2014, while medical research appeals stayed flat. Yet almost all sectors showed big growth spurts in online giving, led by 15.2% more online donations for higher education, 12.3% growth for K-12 and an 11.2% online surge for environmental causes. Only medical research was down slightly for online donations. Looking at what Blackbaud calls the "key metric" of digital giving--online as a percentage of total giving--the new nonprofit benchmark for online dollars stepped up slightly to an average 7.1% share. But mobile giving stats, tracked for the first time, provide the eye-opener in this year's report, grabbing 14% of online giving dollars per those surveyed. For more detail, go to http://www.nonprofitpro.com/article/online-mobile-giving-grows-more-from-blackbauds-charitable-giving-report/

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

2016 Marketing Spend Seen Up for Most Channels

Marketers will be boosting spending for almost all marketing channels in 2016, according to the latest Winterberry Group forecast reported by Direct Marketing News magazine. Election-year politics and the Olympics are seen as key marketing drivers this year. Overall, data-driven channels, both direct and digital, are expected to grow by 6.4%, with the biggest bump for digital display (desktop and mobile), which is predicted to rise by 20.1%. Search and e-mail will also increase by 11.4% and 8.7%, respectively, per the Winterberry forecast. Still in the mix, direct mail will hold its own, boosted by electioneering, with an expected 0.4% rise. As a result, data spending to support direct mail, e-mail and display (lists, database management and hygiene, analytics) will see 1.1% growth. The only exceptions to the marketing growth trends are magazine and newspaper ads (forecast down 1.9% and 6 %, respectively), along with flat budgets expected for cinema, insert media and radio. Watch for programmatic ad spending to continue surging, grabbing a larger share of display budgets and driving up data spends, advise analysts. Plus, video, which exploded in 2015, is still on the upswing, per Winterberry. For forecast details, read the full article at http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-strategy/2016-will-be-a-growth-year-in-marketing-spending/article/469545/

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Direct Mail Gains Traction With 2016 Retailers

Direct mail, previously declining in retail use, is finding greater favor with 2016 retailers, according to a Direct Marketing News magazine report on a new AgilOne study.  Although 33% of 150 surveyed bricks-and-clicks retailers still said they would cut direct mail spending this year, that's lower than the 39% who were backing off direct mail in 2015. AgilOne cited better targeting and personalization for reversal of mail's downward retail trend, reports DM News. In contrast, print and TV advertising spends, which fell last year, will keep sliding in 2016 per retailing respondents. Digital--websites and e-mail--continue as priority channels. However, effective "omnichannel" marketing still eludes many merchants, with the 34% claiming a unified customer view across channels offset by the 37% reporting no unified customer view, and more than half admitting lack of a cohesive omnichannel strategy. For the whole story, go to http://www.dmnews.com/direct-mail/survey-retailers-will-stick-with-direct-mail-in-2016/article/467674/

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

USPS 2016 Programs Incentivize Innovative Mailers

The U.S. Postal Service is luring direct mailers toward creative and technology innovations that promise to punch up response this year. It's a siren song hard to resist in an election year of intensified mailbox competition. Target Marketing magazine recently outlined five key USPS promotional programs incentivizing 2016 mailers, especially those embracing print technology. For example, from March 1 to Aug. 31, an "Emerging and Advanced Technology/Video in Print Promotion" gives a 2% postage discount on First Class, Standard and Nonprofit letters, cards or flats using interactive technology: standard NFC, Video in print (ViP), beacon technology or "enhanced" augmented reality. During the same period, the "Tactile, Sensory and Interactive Mail Piece Engagement Promotion" offers a 2% postage discount on Standard and Nonprofit letters or flats offering special visual, sound, scent, or texture/tactile effects, as well as interactive dimensional features such as pop-ups. Another 2% postage discount can be earned for First Class Mail with the "Personalized Color Transpromo Promotion," starting July 1, just by adding a color sales message to a statement or invoice. Also starting in July, the "Mobile Shopping Promotion" gives a 2% postage discount to Standard and Nonprofit letters or flats using a mobile bar code or other print-to-mobile technology. Plus, the spring "Earned Value Promotion" rewards each piece of returned First Class Business Reply and First Class Courtesy Reply mail with a $0.02-$0.03 credit. For links to details, go to http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/5-usps-direct-mail-promotion-programs-2016/

Thursday, February 4, 2016

E-mail Marketers Fail at Subject Line Split-Testing

E-mail marketers are surprisingly sloppy when it comes to optimizing subject lines, a key element in e-mail response, especially open rates, per a recent study. A minority of surveyed e-mail marketers report consistent use of subject line split-testing prior to campaign launch, according to a study by Phrasee cited in a recent KoMarketing Associates post. Phrasee's "State of Split Testing" report shows that an average 22% of respondents said they had done no split testing of subject lines in their last month's campaigns, and 49% admitted to split testing for only a few campaigns. About a third said they split-tested subject lines for most (about 21%) or all (about 7%) of their campaigns. The low investment in subject line success was also shown by the brief time spent on developing test-worthy subject lines, with nearly 46% saying they spent only a few minutes on the task! Plus, many e-mail marketers who do test then fail to leverage results data for further testing; 44% told Phrasee they "don't really do much" to analyze results for design of future split tests. For the whole post, go to http://www.komarketingassociates.com/industry-news/report-split-testing-is-still-uncommon-in-email-marketing-2912/

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Where to Focus for Optimized E-mail Click-Through

Boosting e-mail click-through rate is a constant struggle, so we recommend to frustrated e-mail marketers a recent MarketingProfs article by Stephen Hovnanian--offering four basic areas to optimize for more quality clicks. His initial tip is to focus on optimizing user experience first--via seamless mobile and desktop designs and experiences that flow from e-mail open to final action. If your e-mail is mobile-optimized but your landing page or registration form is not mobile-friendly, you're wasting clicks, for example. Also target the audience by device usage and timing to optimize experience, and use "friction-mitigating" copy or visuals to guide recipients, advises Hovnanian. The second area of focus is varying call to action (CTA) by audience segment. For example, the CTA for the segment of top engagers (or brand champions) can go beyond clicks to urge valuable social sharing and brand advocacy. Segmenting for participation by type of content also delivers better CTA response, such as a webinar invite to past webinar attendees but a webinar recap to site visitors with interest in similar content. Third, leverage your online community and customer base for user-generated content (such as testimonials). It delivers social proof and brand advocacy building and can be paired with a strong, related CTA to boost click-through. Fourth, simply write better call-to-action copy! How? Hovnanian suggests completing the sentence "I want you to..." for active verbs and specific direction. For example, I want you to "Register for the Webinar." Of course, also test CTA design placement as well as buttons versus clickable text. For the full article, read http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2016/29194/four-email-optimizations-that-will-increase-your-click-through-rates

Thursday, January 28, 2016

2016 Customer-Centric Trends You Shouldn't Ignore

We've read many marketing trend predictions for 2016, but a recent Entrepreneur magazine article best emphasizes the new "customer-centric" focus of many shared predictions. Jay Arnold, vice president of marketing at FullContact, cites 10 marketing trends that he believes will make 2016 the "year of the customer." Here are just his first five forecasts. He foresees a proliferation of "marketing apps" this year, not just mobile apps but web apps, desktop apps and even TV apps, as marketers take advantage of the many free or low-cost apps that can now aid with tasks such as e-mail, social media, online ads, contact management, analytics and more. He also sees a shift to "insight-driven marketing," using analysis of the heaps of available data for more relevant targeting and messaging. Of course, this assumes a centralized database of multichannel customer info, so that is a priority task if not already under way. Content marketing got a lot of buzz last year, but Arnold now sees a greater shift from static content (such as social posts and white papers) to "interactive content," such as interactive assessments, calculators, training and games to keep people clicking and sharing useful information for sales. Everyone agrees that "personalization" will continue and grow as a proven response driver, but Arnold warns that 2016 will demand greater adaptation by channel and customer expectations. Consumers now expect relevant content tailored to them, but they will also be less tolerant of online and mobile advertising that is overly personal to the point of intrusive and creepy. Finally, Arnold predicts that 2016 will see a leap in "advocate marketing," as marketers realize that using customers to advocate for brands and generate referrals can be more effective than incentives and affiliate programs for referral generation--especially now that identifying influencers and advocates is easier than ever before via social and digital interactions. For five more of his customer-centric marketing predictions, go to http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254620

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

What B2B Marketers Can Do Better With Better Data

AccuList USA is dedicated to providing clean, up-to-date, targeted data for business-to-business direct marketing, and we urge any B2B marketer who still hesitates to invest in higher quality data and segmentation to read the recent CMO.com post by Ed King, founder and CEO of the Openprise data automation firm. King lists five ways high-quality data will make the B2B marketer's job easier and more effective. First, better data allows the addition of demographic scoring to the usual activity-based scoring for better targeting; for example, marketers won't prioritize a lead from online activity when demographic factors on the company or individual show it does not really meet buyer targeting. Second, with more accurate data about prospects and customers in terms of individual and company profiles, marketers can personalize communications and engagement for better conversion and reduced attrition throughout the sales funnel. Third, B2B marketers can better use account-based targeting as opposed to individual lead targeting, including improved use of automation platforms. Fourth, since all leads are not created equal, better data allows for optimized, speedier lead qualification and conversion--providing different treatment of net new leads versus leads from existing accounts, for example. Fifth, marketers can simplify their marketing technology investments, such as predictive, web or social bolt-ons with data cleansing mechanisms because of poor quality data from CRM or automation platforms. By improving source data, existing technology is more efficient and new technology investments can focus on other key needs, such as analytics or workflow. For detailed explanations and examples, read the full article at http://www.cmo.com/articles/2015/12/18/how-would-perfect-data-change-your-job.html

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Marketers Miss Personalization Edge of Social Data

Marketers are missing out on key opportunities to use social media data for multichannel personalization, reports Adweek magazine's SocialTimes blog, citing the "2016 Yesmail Channel Report." This is despite the fact that personalization has proven its value in response and conversion across channels. For example, marketers often fail to gather e-mail addresses, one of the most basic contact points, through social media. According to the report, 45% of marketers don't collect e-mail addresses on social media, and 70% don't collect e-mail from their own mobile apps. (Of course, an amazing 17% don't even collect e-mail via their own websites!) Even companies who build e-mail databases fail to then use freely collected social data points, such as demographic and location information, to effectively personalize e-mail communications. In fact, only 42% say they customize e-mail campaigns with the recipient's name, so it's no surprise that only 36% modify copy and just 34% alter images to personalize e-mail content. The problem stretches across channels: Only 50% say they modify any marketing materials based on easily collected demographic data from social channels, and just 36% use social media data, such as brand page likes, for personalized targeting. See the full article at http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/report-retailers-missing-cross-channel-personalization-opportunity/632710

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Get Ready for 2016 Ad Rate Rises Across Channels

U.S. advertising rates are set to rise for almost all channels in 2016, according to a MarketingProfs report of forecasting by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and Havas Media. The ad cost bump is partly driven by higher ad demand from presidential elections and the Summer Olympics, per the forecast. So it's not surprising that the biggest jumps are forecast for television ad rates: a 3.8% increase for national broadcast TV, a 5.5% rise for cable TV and a whopping 13% leap for spot TV. The good news is that digital channels, where supply is expected to offset demand, are mostly set for very modest increases in average CPMs: mobile, online video and Internet/display advertising all up just 1%, although paid search rates is expected to show a 3.3% jump. For traditional print, average CPM increases are moderate, with a 2.5% climb for newspaper ad rates and a 3% bump in magazine rates. Network radio is the only channel forecast to drop in cost, down 1%. For a comparison of ad rate trends by channel from 2010 through 2016, see the MarketingProfs article: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2016/29142/2016-advertising-rate-increases-forecast-for-nearly-all-channels

Thursday, January 14, 2016

2015 E-Mail Stats Provide Benchmarks for 2016

E-mail marketers are already launching their 2016 campaigns, but a quick look back at 2015's e-mail triumphs and troubles per marketing research can offer helpful benchmarks for this year. Direct Marketing News magazine recently summarized a slew of 2015 e-mail research data, starting with the tactics most likely to boost click rate response per marketers: Respondents in Ascend2's “Email Marketing Trends” report rated a meaningful call-to-action offer as the most effective tactic for boosting click-throughs (65%), followed by list segmentation for targeting (47%), message personalization (42%), and testing and optimization (35%). The bad news is that the same respondents also rated some of the more effective methods as the most difficult, with 41% citing list segmentation as the most difficult to implement, for example. Another survey found similar agreement on strategies for success: In a 2015 survey by Econsultancy and Adestra, most marketers rely on basic segmentation (76%), optimizing for mobile devices (61%), prompting content sharing on social media (56%), and routine list data cleansing (50%). But they also agreed that their efforts weren't outstandingly successful, with 44% rating e-mail campaign performance as average compared with 41% who saw performance as good to excellent. Nevertheless, e-mail remains a favored marketing channel because of its relatively higher ROI: The Relevancy Group surveyed 300 e-mail marketing executives and 91% rated e-mail somewhat or highly effective in terms of delivering revenue. And the Direct Marketing Association's 2015 "Response Rate Report" found e-mail campaigns provide the highest median ROI of 21%-23%, followed by telephone campaigns (19-20%), social media ads (15%-17%), and direct mail (15%-17%). For more e-mail stats, go to http://www.dmnews.com/email-marketing/email-by-the-numbers/article/462945/

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Mobile's Often Untapped Power: Call Generation

As mobile users soar to 73% of the world population, almost double Internet users, marketers are busy creating mobile-responsive websites and landing pages, mobile-friendly e-mail, mobile-optimized online ads and direct mail with mobile interaction, but their focus can miss mobile's real power. Remember that a mobile device is a phone, and it can generate valuable inbound phone calls, urges a recent MarketingProfs article by Eric Holmen. A 2014 Invoca analysis found that mobile marketing drives about 54% of calls to business, for example. So Holmen advises harnessing inbound call power with the following six steps: 1) Put phone numbers and "call us" CTA on websites and landing pages; 2) optimize your search ads with phone numbers; 3) make dialing easy with click-to-call and dynamic with individually assigned numbers; 4) track and analyze inbound calls by keywords, ad groups, campaigns, landing pages, regions and demographics; 5) track call outcomes, such as lead qualification, quote, sale, or lifetime value, to assess true ROI; 6) and, of course, test, adjust, repeat and optimize. See http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2015/29012/marketers-youre-doing-mobile-wrong-six-steps-for-doing-it-right

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Digital Lead Gen Forecast to Dominate Sales Funnel

Marketers consistently say quality lead generation is their top challenge, but the path to success can get lost in today's complex multichannel environment. A 2016 marketing forecast by Salesforce Principal of Marketing Insights, Matthew Sweezy, opines that marketers should recognize a fundamental sales funnel shift: 60% at the middle of the sales funnel must now be devoted to digital rapport-building and lead generation, leaving 20% of the funnel for traditional marketing at the top and 20% for sales acquisition at the bottom. The new sales funnel reflects today's overconnected, multichannel marketing challenge. By 2020, there will be seven connected devices for every person on earth (Gartner Research) and the average person already sees 5,000 ads a day from all channels, not counting social (Yankelovich). Bombarded by digital marketing messages, 18% of the U.S. audience already uses digital ad blockers, per PageFair and Adobe, undermining paid ad strategies. Consumers are also disturbed by big-data privacy concerns, with a third of customers abandoning a brand after a data breach, per The Economist research, so reluctance to provide personal information threatens data-gathering and targeting. The key, says Sweezy, is to give digital customers what they want, which is useful information and trust-building self-discovery (it's made Google is No, 1 in search), noting that 73% of consumers say that getting useful information is the most important factor in selecting a brand. Personalized targeting with behavioral, psychographic and internal data is key, and automation is a useful engagement system, but marketers must work smart. Retargeting ads for a product after purchase of the product just makes customers four times less likely to purchase again. And engagement must be swift, with the average consumer taking only 0.05 seconds to determine content value and 70% switching sites/apps if they are judged too slow. To capture the new digital middle of the funnel, companies need to improve the customer digital experience and close gaps by making frequent, small and socially interactive gestures that keep the brand in front of potential buyers and build trust and engagement, concludes Sweezy. For the whole presentation, go to Salesforce's Pardot blog: http://www.pardot.com/blog/future-marketing-2016-slideshare/

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Use These E-Mail Tactics to Breach Inbox Barriers

E-mail deliverability will remain a key marketing hurdle in 2016. So here are three basic tactics to drive up open and click rates and help overcome inbox filtering, courtesy of a BrandViews blog post by CRM software firm Marketo. First, use html buttons instead of image buttons for your e-mail call-to-action (CTA), advises the article. That way, when the e-mail is opened, the recipient won't have to wait for images to download; the html-coded button appears upon open and looks the same as an image-based button. Marketo reports that switching from image to html buttons delivered a 5% lift in open rate, a 15% lift in click-to-open rate and a 20% lift in click-through rate in its tests. Next, with 50% of e-mails opened on mobile phones and 65% of consumers starting the purchasing cycle on a mobile device, mobile-responsive e-mail design is clearly a must. A successful mobile e-mail version needs to include these components, per the post: the right breakpoints via media queries in the tag; larger text for readability on a small screen; and a CTA "above the fold" of the mobile screen. Marketo reports a 28% increase in click-through and a 31% boost in click-to-open rates thanks to improved mobile templates. Finally, with over 20% of e-mails landing in junk/spam folders, bouncing or blocked per Return Path, deliverability measures are clearly required. Marketo highlights these deliverability tips: retiring e-mail addresses after one hard bounce; lowering the soft-bounce threshold for retiring e-mail; and list hygiene to cull inactive and bad e-mail addresses. The goal is to only send e-mails to subscribers who want them. For design examples and resource links, read the full article at http://www.business2community.com/brandviews/marketo/3-email-marketing-must-haves-tackle-evolving-inbox-01409706#vt1T9WKppDor0isK.97