Here are three great gifts to add to marketers' end-of-year shopping. Recommended in a Business2Community post from digital marketing author and consultant Warren Knight, these simple tools analyze competitors' digital doings to help marketers get ahead of the pack--or at least stay in the online race. For example, SpyFu allows for easy research of competitors' most profitable keywords. On the SpyFu homepage, you can simply type in a competitor's url and then select "paid keywords" or "organic search" to find out competitor keyword strategy--and even export that research as a CSV or PDF file. With the average B2B marketer earning 67% more leads by blogging than do non-bloggers, digital content is another key element of competitive intelligence. To evaluate content effectiveness, including blog efforts, try QuickSprout, which also checks on traffic scores, SEO scores and social media performance. Finally, Alexa is a must for the competitive-intelligence toolbox. Alexa provides comparative insight on websites in terms of user profile, monthly page views, unique visits, time on site, bounce rate, and site behavior/conversions, as well as search rankings, keywords and links. Knight touts Alexa as a boon for any digital marketer, business owner or content manager. For more info, go to
http://www.business2community.com/marketing/tech-tuesday-3-simple-tools-analyze-competitors
If you want to lead the market, you'll need to market like the leaders. There's no arguing with the results: Companies with more advanced marketing and sales capabilities have 30% greater revenue growth than the average firm in their sector, according to a recent benchmarking study by McKinsey & Company. Per a report by The Economist Group, the McKinsey analysis looked at more than 140 leading B2B and B2B2C global businesses and identified the seven marketing and sales hallmarks of the top-tier firms. The seven ingredients of the market-leaders' secret sauce: 1) view marketing and sales as an investment, not an expense; 2) know what needs to be fixed based on detailed marketing comparisons against best-performing peers; 3) target the capabilities that matter most, so that while there may be 40 marketing and sales skills impacting growth and profitability, the best companies focus on improving only about six; 4) don't try to do too much at the same time; 5) tailor improvement in marketing capabilities to current stage of development, whether the performance challenge is growth, profitability or both; 6) think about institutional capabilities and priorities, not just individual skills; 7) have an operating model with specific, measurable goals, embedded in a culture of review, incentive and leadership. For more on the study's "seven habits" of successful marketing and sales, read http://www.economistgroup.com/leanback/the-next-big-thing/mckinsey-study-revenue-growth-marketing-leadership/
Wondering when to blast off that next e-mail promotion? Most e-mail marketers pick a Tuesday. Tuesday was the most popular day for sending e-mails in 2014 (17.4% of all weekly e-mails), with Thursday a close second (17.1%), according to a Who's Mailing What! review of e-mails received. Both days actually dipped slightly in popularity last year compared with 2013, when they also led e-mail blasts, but that might be attributed in part to the mid-term elections, which spiked weekend fundraising e-mails. A recent eMarketing & Commerce (eM+C) article detailed the findings of WMW! on e-mail delivery popularity by day and category. No matter the day of the week, the leading e-mail senders are Consumer Catalogs, Retail Traffic Builders and Special Interest Magazines per the WMW! categories. If you want to dodge the Tuesday and Thursday crowd, you can e-mail Wednesday, the third most popular day at 16.7% of 2014 weekly e-mails, or send your message on Monday, fourth place at 15.9% of e-mail. For more detail by day and category, go to http://www.emarketingandcommerce.com/article/more-emails-arrive-tuesdays-thursdays/1
Direct mail continues as a solid marketing performer across many industries, but even the trustiest workhorse can fall behind without occasional spurs to response. So if you need to inject new energy into your 2015 mail campaigns, consider these suggestions from Paul Bobnak, research and content director of Who's Mailing What! and DirectMarketingIQ. Bobnak recently looked over the mass of 2014 direct mail and picked out four standout ideas that mailers may want to test this year. First, consider individualized maps. Maps are common components to drive consumer traffic, especially in retail, but a postcard by Patient First, an urgent care center chain, made tweaks that really boosted impact, Bobnak asserts. Patient First used variable data to create a personalized "You are here" starting point at the prospect's home, made the map bigger "than you'll see in almost any direct mail package," and positioned the map above the postal indicia to maximize effect. Second, Bobnak suggests calling out the competition, especially on price increases, citing campaigns by both Comcast and Verizon cable services that boldly pressed consumer pain over competitor bills that had "gone up recently." Third, make testimonial copy work harder for you by boosting authenticity, Bobnak urges, pointing to the tactics of LifeLock, an identity security provider that sold its value proposition by highlighting "real-life" case studies with actual customer photos. Finally, update your direct mail with the digital icons that have acquired such call-to-action power, Bobnak suggests, using a 2014 Citi MasterCard letter as an example. To see the actual direct mail examples, go to http://www.directmarketingiq.com/article/4-direct-mail-ideas-try-2015/1
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
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
When 88% of business-to-business consumers say online content has played a major to moderate role in vendor selection, B2B marketers need to make sure they are creating compelling online content, and then promoting and targeting effectively. That 88% figure comes from a recent report by The CMO Council and NetLine, as reported by MarketingProfs. The study also found that 94% of B2B buyers, influencers and researchers are not just giving online content a quick look, they are curating and circulating information internally before purchasing B2B goods and services. Targeting and quality of content then should take into account the most common sharing cycles -- led by a from-the-middle-out strategy as execution-level execs use content to educate senior managers about their buying decisions (35%), followed by a from-the-bottom-up pattern as junior execs share with senior management to get buy decisions (30%), and rounded out by a from-the-top-down cycle as senior managers hand content to lower levels for purchase actions (29%). What content is dubbed the most valuable? Research reports and studies (65% of respondents), followed by technical spec sheets and data sheets (50%) and analyst intelligence and insights (46%), according to the survey of 352 B2B buyers (mostly from large companies). Equally important to know for marketers is how potential buyers find online content. The majority (68%) cite search engines and portals, with vendor websites (40%) and trusted sources/peers (25%) rounding out the sourcing. For more on the study, see http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/24769/how-b2b-buyers-consume-vendor-content
The audience for online video grew 4% in 2013, but the number of video ads was up 205%, according to comScore. Either a small group of people is watching a lot of video, or something is off with the numbers. A recent Adweek story cites research by ad-serving firm Vindico to show that the disparity reflects the fact that more than half of video ads are not actually viewable. "The number of ad impressions have exploded, but it’s totally manufactured viewing," Vindico President Matt Timothy told Adweek. In fact, Vindico, which claims to track 40% of all video ads served on the web, found that 57% of 2.7 billion ads tracked over a recent two-month period were not viewable. Which sites deliver the most video ad impressions per Vindico? No. 1 is Blinkx.com, a U.K.-based public company that has been accused of inflating its views in the past. Vindico recorded 217 million views on Blinkx, about 23% of which were viewable. In second place was CBS, with 195 million views and an 88% viewability rate. MSN was third, with just a 57% viewability rate. Several other top brands produced surprisingly low viewability rates, including AOL and HuffPost, each at 60%, according to Vindico data. The source of the bogus views is mainly a huge spike in autoplay video running below the fold where people can’t see it, claims Timothy, although bad guys using bots play some part in high video views. Basically, publishers haven't figured out how to use online space to tell a story and are mistakenly using a volume-driven, display advertising mentality when serving video ads, Timothy's opines. For more, see http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/number-online-video-ads-205-last-year-154520
Video and social media are hot content marketing tools, so which social video platform -- Facebook's new video capability for its Instagram photo-sharing app, or Twitter's Vine looping-video app -- give the most bang for your marketing buck? A recent MarketingProfs article by Russ Somers, vice president of marketing for Invodo, provides an interesting head-to-head comparison. When it comes to how well Vine and Instagram connect brands with viewers, he deems the winner to be Instagram since Vine's six-second video limit may be too short to tell a story, while Instagram offers fifteen seconds, basic editing capabilities, and the important ability to upload video from an iPhone. (Android phones, however, do not currently have this functionality.) How about reach? Vine lags with 40 million users compared to Instagram's 150 million, although Somers cautions that 100 million of the Instagram users are not necessarily all video fans since they joined before Instagram added video. Aggregated user-generated video content is a selling point for both platforms; it offers marketers a two-way channel of communication. If the goal is strictly to aggregate UGC, Instagram wins, even though brands aren't yet leveraging the video aspect of Instagram effectively, Somers rules. However, some of the best UGC campaigns, engaging fans on both digital and physical levels, are appearing on Vine, like Nissan's #VersaVid Vine campaign in which users printed out a paper Versa from a special site, folded it into shape, and created Vines featuring their paper car. The ease with which users find video content is another key marketing factor. Though both platforms allow the use of hashtags, they differ in other ways: Vine features categories and trending topics on their Explore screen, while Instagram encourages serendipity (merchandising of featured content). Those differences probably matter less than social media integration -- with Twitter (Vine) and Facebook (Instagram) -- which accounts for the majority of content discovery and works equally well for both apps. Somers concludes: If marketers have to choose only one, Instagram's bigger potential audience and story-telling advantage give it the edge. For the article, go to
http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2013/24073/instagram-video-vs-vine-which-is-the-video-marketing-champ
Print catalogs are still an important marketing tool in the direct-to-customer sector, according to results from Multichannel Merchant's Outlook 2013 survey. In fact, more than half of respondents said their companies market products directly to consumers and businesses through a print catalog. Even more interesting, nearly half of those merchants said they planned to increase print catalog circulation in 2013. Besides relying on catalogs to drive sales, business-to-business and business-to-consumer merchants also reported using catalogs as a prospecting tool and a web traffic driver. For a copy of the survey report, go to http://multichannelmerchant.com/mcm-outlook/mcm-outlook-2013-catalogs-still-have-staying-power-01072013/#_
A pin on Pinterest has a useful marketing life that’s thousands of times longer than that of a tweet or Facebook post, according to a new study by Piqora. The marketing response tail of a pin can last beyond 30 days, while Facebook posts can become obsolete in hours and the value of a Twitter tweet may expire in minutes. That's good news for a brand like Sephora, which says its Pinterest followers spend 15 times more than its Facebook fans. More marketers are figuring out how to put Pinterest to work for them as well. Piqora also found that Pinterest virality, the rate of "repinning," increased 42% from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013, which Piquora sees as an indicator that marketers are getting smarter in their pin usage. See the article at http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/17/why-the-half-life-of-a-pinterest-pin-is-thousands-of-times-longer-than-a-tweet-or-facebook-post/
Online gifts to U.S. nonprofits are growing far faster than other types of donations, according to new studies reported by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Donations rose 14% in 2012 from the prior year, to $2.1-billion, according to a study of 115,000 nonprofits whose giving totals were tracked by online-fundraising processors Blackbaud, Network for Good, and PayPal. Contributions to the nation’s biggest charities also grew 14%, to $785 million, according to The Chronicle's own survey of 149 large nonprofits. That vigorous growth can be contrasted with the anemic 1.5% post-inflation rise in 2012 contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations as reported by Giving USA. Despite the robust growth of online giving, online gifts still account for a small portion of most charitable fundraising, with a median share of just 2.1% of all donations from private sources, per The Chronicle's survey of large nonprofits. Still the survey also found many groups bullish about online's potential. Nearly three-quarters of the groups surveyed said their goal is to have online donations account for more than 10% of overall fundraising efforts in the next few years. About one in five expect Internet gifts to reach up to 20% of their overall donations by then. For more detail on online giving trends, see The Chronicle of Philanthropy story at http://philanthropy.com/article/The-Big-Boom-in-Online-Giving/139965/
If you believe the Digital Age dooms print marketing, check out the latest print audience figures for this year. Print reading audiences are posting growth, according to spring 2013 data released by measurement firm GfK MRI. Of the 181 magazine titles surveyed, about 42%, or 76 titles, saw print audience size increase by 5% or more from spring 2012 to spring 2013. About 35 publications saw audiences grow from 5% to 10%. Another 41 magazines saw gains of 10% or more, with 11 of the 41 titles growing readership by more than 20% year-over-year. The big winner was Diabetes Forecast, with a whopping increase of 48.73%. Of course, some titles lost readership. About 15 publications reported losses between 5% and 10%, with 12 losing 10% or more. The biggest loser was Meredith’s FamilyFun magazine, which reported a drop of 23.28%. When the digital audience (excluding Web traffic) is added to print readership, even more publishers have reason to celebrate growth. With combined digital and print audience, 39 publications saw audience gains between 5% and 10%, and 42 magazine titles saw gains of 10% or more when comparing the spring 2012 to 2013. For more, see the Folio report at http://www.foliomag.com/2013/magazine-audience-sizes-flat-growing-gfk-mri-numbers#.UgpLy9KyByI
More consumers use mobile to research purchases than make purchases, according to the latest Forrester Research. Only 13% of U.S. adults with a mobile phone report using it to purchase a product, although the purchase rate jumps to 30% for tablet users. As a result, the conversion rate on the average mobile site is only 1% compared with 2% to 3% for computer access. Marketers should still hone their mobile pitches, however, since 37% of U.S. online adult tablet owners and 14% of online adult mobile phone owners are using their devices to research products and prepare to make a purchase. U.S. online consumers are also using their devices to read customer product reviews (tablet 28%, mobile phone 10%), locate a store and check store hours (tablet 17%, mobile phone 16%), and check product availability online (tablet 16%, mobile phone 7%). If you want to get that mobile conversion rate up, make sure you aren't creating barriers to purchase. Forrester found the main stumbling blocks to more mobile purchasing were web sites not optimized for mobile, concerns over the security of mobile payments, and patchy wireless connections. For a more detailed portrait of mobile consumers, see the internetretailer.com story at http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/05/15/forrester-research-paints-vivid-picture-typical-mobile
Brevity may be the rule for most successful e-mailers, but certain target audiences may respond to a wordier approach. Who's Mailing What, which tracks 220 e-mail categories, reported recently that while most companies send e-mails with a word count below 250, a few categories are markedly more verbose. Social action fundraising e-mails topped the chart in terms of word count, weighing in with an average of 647 words to persuade donors to open their checkbooks. The second most wordy category was seminars/conferences with a 619 word count to convince prospects of the value of high-cost attendance. Also above 350 words per email were religious magazines, political fundraising, special interest magazines, general newsletters and business/financial magazines. The other 212 categories had word counts of 300 or less. See the report at http://www.directmarketingiq.com/slideshow/email-marketing-word-count-trends-companies-including-fundraisers-magazines
Direct mail response is 10 to 30 times higher than that of e-mail, and other digital channels have similar low response rates, according to the latest survey by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). The DMA report explains that "for every 1,000 existing customers receiving a direct-mail piece, 34 will respond on average. For e-mail, the average response -- measured by taking the click-through rate and multiplying the conversion per click -- is 0.12%," or one in 1,000. And that is true even though direct mail response has declined over time, from 4.37% in 2003 to an average response rate of 3.40% today. When it comes to ROI, however, the survey found that e-mail and digital channels win out. The ROI for e-mail was $28.50 in sales generated for every $1 dollar of e-mail spending. The direct mail ROI is pretty much equivalent to e-mail when acquiring a new customer, but e-mail definitely has the edge when it comes to existing customers, with an ROI that's four times higher than direct mail. For more data, see the Advertising Age article at http://adage.com/article/media/dma-snail-mail-phone-beat-digital-response-rates/235364/
Catalog and call-center retailers outperform retail chains, manufacturers and web-only retailers in one important e-commerce metric: conversion rate. That's according to data from the "2013 Internet Retailer Top 500" guide. As a group, catalog and call-center retailers had the highest average conversion rate of 5.1% in 2012, an improvement from 4.7% in 2011. In fact, they have consistently held the highest average conversion rate among the merchant types in the 10 years since Internet Retailer published its first guide to e-commerce. One reason for the higher conversion is that these retailers typically send catalogs focused on specific products, such as gifts or pet supplies, to consumers who buy those products and so intend to make a purchase when they visit the retailer’s e-commerce site. For more, see the Internet Retailer story at http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/04/29/catalogers-book-highest-conversion-rate-top-500
Online consumers who take at least two web “steps” before purchasing a product — say, a paid search ad or an e-mail marketing message — account for 66% of retail revenue, according to data from a new free tool that Google Inc. has made available online. “The Customer Journey to Online Purchase” is a website where users can toy around for free with information designed to show how online shoppers use web marketing in the aggregate. Findings are based on online marketing data from more than 36,000 Google clients and cover industries such as retail, automotive and consumer packaged goods, where the vast majority of purchases are relatively quick given that they usually require little research, according to Google. Data is also available on technology purchasing, a category in which product research takes more than 28 days but leads to purchases worth 3.5 times more than immediate transactions. Among data points that users can review are average order values by the days of research before buying. The site also shows how various online marketing methods impact sales. For more, see the Internet Retailer report at http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/04/26/google-launches-wide-view-tool-online-marketing
Yes, mobile commerce is growing, with 68% of smartphone and tablet owners attempting to make purchases with their devices. But note that they are only "attempting" to buy. Problems during the payment process force 66% to abandon their transaction, according to a new report from Jumio. Its “2013 Mobile Commerce Insights” study found that 47% said they had failed to complete a purchase because the checkout process took too long. Some 41% percent of consumers reported failure to complete a purchase because it was too difficult to enter credit card information, and 23% said they failed to complete a purchase because it would not go through. Finally, a majority of respondents – 51% – said they failed to complete an attempted purchase on a mobile device because they did not feel comfortable entering their credit card information for security reasons. The lesson for retailers: streamlined processes, mobile-friendly entry screens, and better communication about security. For more on the study, go to http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/66pc-abandon-mcommerce-purchases-because-of-issues-at-checkout
If you're looking for a way to get more "likes" for your Facebook ad campaign, using a photo of a cute kitten or puppy can do the trick. But if you want long-term engagement with your brand, deliver ads with relevant product images. That's according to a study of 3,000 images used in "Like Ads" from 125 brands on Facebook. Those with "beguiling images of animals" had the highest response, reported a recent MediaPost article. The research was conducted by SocialCode, one of a dozen strategic partners in Facebook's Preferred Marketing Developer program. SocialCode focused on Like Ads appearing in the news feed or in a page's right-hand column. However, while the image of a puppy or teddy bear tended to get higher initial response, ads that featured relevant product images scored best for long-term engagement after the first "like" click. Like Ads that featured only a brand logo had the lowest engagement or interaction after the initial "like," and text-only ads had the lowest response rate in terms of "like" clicks. For more on gender and generational differences, see the research report at http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199307/aww-facebook-ads-with-animal-images-get-most-lik.html#axzz2TsDrRchr
