Catalog Marketing Surge Is Fueled by Digital's Tracking Crackdown and Costs

AccuList® has a long list of consumer catalog clients, and we've noted renewed interest in traditional print catalogs, especially among direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. Why? One reason is Apple's crackdown on the ability of consumer data platforms, such as Google and Meta's Facebook, to track and target consumers, per a recent Ad Age report. For example, Insider Intelligence data shows DTC brands cut ad budgets for Facebook and Instagram by almost 8% between January 2021 and January 2022, and increased offline marketing from 12% to 15% of spending. 

Rising acquisition costs for digital channels are another factor driving expanded catalog budgets. A SeQuel Response survey found 44% of  DTC brands boosted direct mail spending in 2022, with more than half blaming the rising customer acquisition costs of digital channels. 

Catalogs also are seen as better retention tools. Ad Age cites menswear brand Todd Snyder's report that its catalog buyers tend to purchase from the brand for longer periods and to purchase more items, and that its annual holiday catalog is used to "bring back lapsed customers." 

Finally, unlike easily ignored digital advertising, catalogs are more likely to capture and keep consumer attention. Kara O'Brien, head of offline marketing at furniture and home goods retailer Wayfair, explained to Ad Age that their seasonal catalog gives "that extra real estate...to tell richer product stories and invite customers into all that Wayfair has to offer. And it has staying power—a tangible print piece is something consumers can keep, bookmark, revisit and even share with family and friends." 

If you're thinking of joining the trend by adding or expanding catalogs in your marketing mix, AccuList can help. See https://www.acculist.com/consumer-catalogs/

Facebook Aids and Challenges Fundraisers

Online giving has seen tremendous growth, but the latest M+R Benchmarks report shows a distinct slowdown, with online fundraisers reporting just 1% growth in 2018. M+R cites multiple trends underlying the lower growth—from declining e-mail response, to more low-dollar mobile traffic, to falling online donor retention. But the report starts by noting how rising Facebook usage has both undercut revenue measures and signaled potential for future growth. While changes to the Facebook algorithm resulted in, on average, only 7% of followers seeing any given post, use of Facebook Fundraisers' peer-to-peer giving really took hold for the first time in 2018. However, because of the way the donations are processed, the Facebook Fundraiser dollars were not included in M+R online revenue calculations. It's an important missing piece: The Facebook Fundraiser tool for hosted fundraising now accounts for about 99% of all nonprofit revenue processed on Facebook, with nonprofits raising $1.77 through Facebook for every $100 raised through other online channels, per M+R. The impact is big for some sectors. For example, health nonprofits received $29.88 from Facebook for every $100 in direct online revenue in 2018, accounting for about 30% as much revenue as every other source of online revenue, including e-mail, web giving, monthly donors, digital ads, and search. To turn the new Facebook Fundraiser use into a bigger boon, notes the M+R report, nonprofits need to get more individuals (the average now is 56) involved in hosting fundraisers and in attracting both more donors and higher-dollar donors (now the average per hosted fundraiser is seven donors and a modest $31 gift per donor). Another recent study pointed to a deeper issue with nonprofit Facebook efforts. The 2019 Digital Outlook Report—from care2, hjc and nten—found that nonprofits surveyed reported spending anywhere from $0 to $100,000 on Facebook and Instagram campaigns. But the majority (over 75%) answered "don't know" when asked about any resulting revenue! Clearly, the report urges, staff need training in tracking analytics and calculating not only resulting donations but the value of lead generation, e-mail signups, event attendance, etc. CauseMic recently offered some helpful tips for Facebook fundraising. In using Facebook Fundraiser, in order to benefit from site traffic and donor information as well as dollars, start by disabling the “donate” button and direct supporters to donate on your website rather than through Facebook. Donors will learn more about the mission and fundraisers can stay connected with them for better retention. Second, nonprofits shouldn't focus only on hosted fundraisers; they can use promoted posts and ads to grow the support base, interact with supporters, promote events, etc. When a breaking news story or emergency occurs that impacts giving, social media outreach can spread the word and raise money more quickly. Just make sure to use tracking analytics to avoid ROI ignorance! Remember that Facebook offers a proven response driver: video. Post videos about donation impact, host live videos or publicize upcoming events. Finally, pay attention to timing; M+R found that nearly a quarter of all Facebook revenue is raised in November. For a link to more M+R data, go to https://www.acculist.com/facebook-both-boosts-and-challenges-fundraising-efforts/

How Social Media and Mail Can Partner for ROI

Social media and traditional "snail mail" seem a marketing odd couple, but they can work well together to deliver improved response rates, customer insights, creative testing, targeting and branding. Mail lists can build social audience, and social ads can build mail names. In fact, Facebook, the biggest consumer social media platform with more than 2 billion users a month, actively encourages marketers to upload direct mailing lists for matching against user information in order to run hyper-targeted paid social ads. Plus, Facebook ads can drive prospects to a landing page that offers an incentive to capture a physical mailing address in order to build up mailing lists. Social geo-targeting can be used to tailor mail geo-targeting, too. Before prospecting in a specific geographic area with a costly mailing, try inexpensive research using social media. Send a promotion to a social media platform's users in targeted zip codes and review the analytics to see which areas responded to which messages most favorably and then tailor direct mail list and creative. Social media also can help optimize direct mail via social apps and ad analytics that provide demographics, interests, and response data for targeting consumer and business audiences. Those insights can be applied to mailing list segmentation and targeting selections to increase direct mail response. Plus, social media ad creative can be tested and tracked to see which messages and images perform best with which audience segments, with the results used to inform the messages and images used in physical mailers. Finally, marketers can merge social insights and data from social media profiles with CRM and marketing automation to craft direct mail triggers and to create personalized mail content. Marketers can cross-promote on social media and direct mail to marry social media's ability to generate engagement and excitement with mail's ability to deliver personalized, lasting, tangible information. Of course, the creative and offer should mirror each other in both channels for consistent branding. For example, marketers can pump a product launch on social media and then mail brochures when product hits stores. Vice versa, direct mail pieces can include social icons and QR codes linked to a social page to recruit social media followers or promote social sharing incentives. For more, see https://www.acculist.com/social-media-allied-with-direct-mail-delivers-marketing-wins/

Are Your Fundraising Plans Ready for 2019 Trends?

Nonprofit marketers making final tweaks to fundraising plans for 2019 may want to do a quick survey of this year’s top trends as identified by fundraising pros to make sure they are ready for all challenges. NonProfit PRO magazine cites three general 2019 trends that will affect both traditional direct mail and digital fundraising via e-mail, mobile, social media and website. First, nonprofits should include a commitment to story-telling in this year’s fundraising communications, the magazine says. Stories create an emotional connection to the mission and are remembered better than facts, studies show. NonProfit PRO urges creation of a story-telling culture via leadership buy-in, a mechanism to regularly encourage and gather stories, a story-banking method and regular and consistent story communications. “Personalization” is another marketing mantra for 2019, with success requiring clean up-to-date data and list segmentation to craft targeted messages for direct mail and e-mail. Finally, put that targeted story-telling into a video format to maximize results in a year when video is projected to represent 80% of Internet traffic. Meanwhile, the Nonprofit Tech for Good blog identifies some key digital trends to include in 2019 fundraising plans: 1) increased use of marketing automation software to create personalized appeals and individualized pathways and engagement with the general mission and specific programs; 2) more focus on a recurring-gift donor base and commitment to engagement strategies and technologies that nurture donors; 3) more relevant, personalized, contextual messaging based on data technologies; and 4) more disruption by commercial social media players like Facebook via removal of fundraising fees, matching funds and direct access to donor data and AI. The TrueSense Marketing blog came up with a whopping "21 Fundraising Trends and Best Practices You Need to Know in 2019" from a survey of fundraising pros. We’ll only cite a couple here, starting with a prediction that the visually oriented Instagram, which hit 1 billion monthly active users in 2018, including the 50-64 and 65+ age cohorts, will become a more popular platform for nonprofits in 2019. Another prediction is that, with data breaches continuing to grab headlines and a patchwork of data privacy regulations at the state level (such as California Consumer Privacy Act passed last summer), nonprofits will face added costs and changes in data collection and storage policies this year. For more, see our full on-site blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/is-your-fundraising-plan-ready-for-2019-challenges/

Performing Arts Win in Social Video Ticketing Growth

Performing arts marketers have more tools this year for reaching ticket buyers, fans and supporters via partnerships that link online ticketing and social media videos. The latest entry in the competitive social media ticketing race is Google-owned YouTube, which has partnered with Ticketmaster to show viewers upcoming U.S. tour dates and nearby concert listings on artists' YouTube videos and then allow viewers to jump directly to Ticketmaster to purchase tickets. YouTube is actually a latecomer to the social media ticketing world. Ticketmaster started promoting ticket sales on Spotify and Facebook in 2016. YouTube's end-of-2017 move is one reaction to Spotify's growth in the streaming market with integrated data and artist information. For Ticketmaster, its global roster of concerts and lock on the concert-ticket industry can only be enhanced by access to YouTube's 1.5 billion user base, driving more fans to pay Ticketmaster prices and service charges. But competitive social video ticketing is a win for performing arts promotion, too. YouTube is leveraging one of its strengths with the ticketing partnership; music videos account for 30% of all time spent on YouTube and represent 94% of the 250 most-viewed videos on the platform, per the Video Advertising Bureau. And that means performing arts promotions can look forward to generating additional ticket sales from the platform's added feature. The YouTube ticketing feature also addresses a running feud between YouTube and the recording industry. Some record labels have argued that YouTube hasn't paid enough in fees for music videos hosted on its platform, but now ticket sales will provide another revenue stream for labels to monetize and boost royalties. This kind of partnership may even help cut the sales drain from pirating since the increased ability to monetize videos via ticket sales is likely to push performing arts promotion to drive as much traffic as possible to official videos and be more proactive in flagging unofficial channels. See our website post: http://www.acculistusa.com/performing-arts-boosted-by-social-video-ticketing-partnerships/

Social Media Pros Forecast Range of 2018 Changes

B2B and B2C marketers planning to invest more in social media marketing in 2018 will want to take a look at the trends that social media experts are predicting for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest marketing in the year ahead, as recently gathered up by Social Media Examiner. Among the more than 33 predictions featured, multiple social media pros stressed the growth and impact of video, as "even simple selfie videos filmed on cell phones are propelling businesses higher than video-less businesses," to quote one forecaster. B2B marketers will be pleased to know that LinkedIn advertising is expected to roll out video ads for business pages and geofilters for videos, now in test. Facebook, which remains the social media ad leader, is positioning to become a major player in online video. In 2017, Facebook debuted Facebook Watch for select creators (a TV-like option). In 2018, it is forecast that the program will expand to all people and pages on Facebook, and also that Facebook will likely roll out new features for video creators, perhaps including preferential Facebook news feed exposure for original native video, revenue-sharing deals, or even a dedicated video app. With the video boom, metrics will need to get more sophisticated across platforms. Meanwhile, Instagram is expected to continue surging after fast growth in 2017, with 15 million businesses using Instagram by July 2017 (up from 8 million businesses in March 2017), with 80% of Instagram accounts now following at least one business, and with global advertising set to reach $4 billion by 2017 year-end. One reason is that Instagram has been improving its tools for marketers, including InstaStories promoted within the “news feed,” the Story Highlights feature that allows pages to host static collections of previously disappearing story posts on profiles, "swipe up" calls-to-action, posts that click through to online stores, and soon the ability to follow hashtags. The bad news for marketers is that the popularity of social media will translate into rising ad costs in 2018, with pricing of Facebook and Instagram ads predicted to rise over the next 12 months. However, that cost trend should actually spur businesses hesitating to invest; marketers who commit to social media ads now will generate awareness, build audience (particularly via e-mail subscribers) and gain a competitive advantage in the increasingly crowded market. Businesses also are urged to hone ad effectiveness—for example using retargeting, AI and other techniques to ensure prospects see the most relevant messaging for their point in the customer journey. And, as costs rise and organic reach declines in effectiveness, the importance of ad metrics increases. Marketers will need to track the metrics of each ad or promoted post, combining a paid acquisition model with historical data and personalized content. For more predictions, see http://www.acculistusa.com/social-media-pros-predict-wide-range-of-changes-in-2018/

Video Wins Key Place in 2018 Marketing Budgets

In supporting our digital marketing clients, AccuList USA has seen rapid growth in online video use, and a recent Forbes magazine article by John Hall, CEO of Influence & Co., cited video as one of six essential trends to include in 2018's digital marketing budget. Why? Researchers forecast that by 2020 online video will account for 80% of all consumer internet traffic. Already over 500 million people are watching video on Facebook every day. If you want a crack at that audience, you'll need to join the video world. That's especially important because video ads are not just good at promoting brand awareness and engagement; they deliver sales. Video creation service Animoto's most recent survey of 1,000 consumers and 500 marketers reinforces online video's clout: 64% of consumers say they purchase after watching branded social videos. No wonder more businesses are jumping on the video ad bandwagon and investing in paid/sponsored video as well as paying to "socialize" or promote videos. Helping the video boom is the relatively low production cost; in fact, 92% of marketers told Animoto they make videos with assets they already have. Meanwhile, a nationwide pricing survey of videographers and photographers found that the average small business marketing video cost less than $1,000 in 2015 and a medium-sized product demo video was around $2,000. Cost is not a barrier; coming up with engaging, targeted content is the challenge. So what platform will best deliver the target audience? Animoto's survey shows where consumers engage with branded videos daily: 49% on Facebook, 32% on YouTube, 24% on Instagram, 22% on Snapchat, and 22% on Twitter. Most brands hedge their bets by using multiple platforms, paying to capture eyes on YouTube and Facebook, for example. The more important goal, regardless of platform, is to optimize for mobile viewing since 84% of online video viewers watch on mobile devices--which is why 81% of marketers are optimizing their social videos for mobile viewership, per Animoto. Timing counts, too. Animoto's survey found 33% of video consumers watch during the lunch hour, 43% during the afternoon, 56% during the evening, 38% before bed, and 16% in the middle of the night. For more on online video trends, including tips on creative, see http://www.acculistusa.com/marketing-with-online-video-if-not-youre-behind-the-curve/

Making the Direct Mail Case in Multi-channel Plans

As multi-channel marketers polish their 2018 plans, it's a good time to remind them of the continued value of direct mail in this digital era. A recent infographic from direct marketing agency US Presort puts together data from The Data & Marketing Association (DMA), Social Media Examiner, Epsilon, Experian and Marketing Sherpa to make the case for a direct mail commitment in multi-channel plans. The majority of marketers (71%) say they believe in an integrated multi-channel approach. After all, a smart multi-channel strategy can combine the pervasive impact of digital (96% of consumers say they were influenced online in making a purchase decision) with the effectiveness of direct mail (digital can't beat mail's 80% open rate or its consumer trust rating of 76% compared with 61% for Google search, 43% for social and 39% for online ads). So why are so few marketers (just 29%) actually implementing those integrated multi-channel campaigns? One misconception, as the infographic points out, that causes hesitation over integrating direct mail with digital is mail's high perceived cost. Yet while direct mail costs more to produce and distribute, its response rates are also much higher than other channels, so its ROI remains competitive. For example, per the DMA's 2016 data, direct mail response rates averaged 5.3% for house lists and 2.9% for prospect lists, compared with online display ads at 0.9%, e-mail at 0.6% for house files and 0.3% for prospects, social media with 0.6%, and paid search at 0.5%. As a result, median ROI for direct mail, while behind e-mail, is on par with social media at 29% and 30%, respectively, and ahead of other digital channels. Others assume difficulties in digitally connecting and tracking paper promotions. But technology and U.S. Postal Service discounts are making mail easier and cheaper to integrate with digital via mobile device-scanned coupon links, QR codes, PURLs, and landing pages. Plus, direct mail can now be tracked in real time thanks to the U.S. Postal Service Intelligent Mail Barcode. To successfully leverage the power of direct mail in a multi-channel strategy consider a few key steps: Include the USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode on all mail to track delivery and coordinate with other channels; gather measurable response from multiple channels via tactics such as reply cards, 800-number call tracking, as well as mobile-scanned QR codes and PURLs; create campaign-specific landing pages and make sure they are mobile-friendly; integrate e-mail and direct mail messaging and lists, and coordinate e-mail blasts with mail delivery; create Facebook ad campaigns to target the same audience as your direct mail lists; consider IP Direct Mail or Web Direct Mail to target the same mail audience on Google with coordinated ad banners. For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/making-the-case-for-direct-mail-power-in-multi-channel-marketing/

How to Harness Social Media for Nonprofit Success

At the upcoming Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) 2017 Conference, we expect to hear a lot about nonprofit social media strategy, so we wondered what social media trends are impacting fundraising this year. A 2017 Redstart Creative blog post identified several noteworthy trends. As in the rest of the digital universe, video is the new response-getting must; now nonprofits can use live video to boost reach and engagement via tools such as new Facebook features allowing live video to be pushed to followers in notifications or timelines. As social media algorithms reduce organic reach and ad competition intensifies, Redstart advises uncluttered "less is more," quality-over-quantity content that focuses on resonating with the target audience. "Reply and engage" should be a new mantra, too, especially since major platform Facebook began keeping score publicly on all brand pages last year by adding a notification that tells viewers how quickly the page replies to messages. Meanwhile, a NonProfitPRO post by Dale Nirvani Pfeifer, founder of Goodworld, cites three basic steps for donor engagement on social media. Step No. 1: Respond quickly. As Pfeifer notes, 83% of Twitter users and 71% of Facebook users expect a brand to respond to their posts within 24 hours, and more than half of Twitter users expect a brand to respond within 2 hours! Step No. 2: Get personal. Responses can include a personal touch, but less time-consuming tactics include tagging supporters in thanks, or a simple “like” or “share” of comments. Step 3: Honor your donors. Even without personalization, make donors feel special via “thank you” messages and the transparency/inclusion of postings of organization news and fundraising goals. Finally, a recent post on npENGAGE by Jeanette Russell, marketing director of the social engagement platform Attentive.ly, underscores the power of "influencer marketing." Attentive.ly evaluated 90 of its nonprofit customers and found that the top 5% of influencers on a nonprofit's e-mail list of 140,000 can reach an average of 34 million people, or 85% the total reach of e-mail and Twitter combined. To identify influencers, use a social scoring methodology based on measurable factors: reach/number of followers, engagement of followers, relevancy, post frequency, and relationship with the organization. Then segment the influencers and their messaging into three main categories, Russell advises: the few high-scoring VIPs; Media (Blogger) Influencers who can be recruited to post to followers; and Everyday Influencers, who may have lower scores but are already on nonprofit e-mail lists so they can be quickly mobilized. For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/harnessing-social-media-to-drive-nonprofit-success/

2017 Event Marketing: Social, Visual, Data-Focused

Event professionals can look forward to some exciting new marketing trends in 2017--especially in the social, digital and data arenas--as recently highlighted in both an EventManagerBlog survey and a post by MarketingTango, the marketing blog for brands like PIP and Sir Speedy. Data, with a social twist, remains key, with many event professionals reporting to EventMB that they saw an increase in the amount and quality of data available through social media in 2016--data that can be used to improve retargeting and create better multi-channel campaigns in 2017. MarketingTango points out that tighter targeting of the right VIPs and digital influencers will allow marketers to ride their social media coattails to higher Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram traffic and maximize social data ROI. Underlying social media's growth as an event tool is its ability to boost engagement and professional connectivity. Certainly, per EventMB's survey, using contests and giveaways for posting or tagging in social media is a big trend with exhibitors, who not only reap booth traffic but free marketing buzz as people tag and share. MarketingTango likewise notes the growing use of a "digital social wall" to engage attendees in real-time and harness the power of hashtags to own conversations. Social media also offers more ways to connect, and EventMB's surveyed event pros reported increased use of Snapchat and Snapchat geolocation filters to meet and connect as well as use of guest-generated pop-up events such as Twitter meetups. Event marketers further stressed that today's attendees want websites and landing pages that are easy-to-use, faster and more concise, preferring bullets and visuals over wordy pages. Image-based platforms are winning more followers, and many event pros forecast growing popularity for video in event invitations and advertisements, virtual reality experiences to sell venues, etc. For more, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/2017-event-marketing-social-visual-data-focused/

Facebook's Search FYI Has Marketing Promise

Facebook's recent launch of Search FYI may offer exciting new scope for social and content marketing, as a recent post by econsultancy.com points out. With Search FYI, Facebook has updated its search function so that search results include posts from the entire Facebook universe, which consists of more than two trillion posts, as well as posts from users' connections, friends and family members. When users tap Facebook's search function on a mobile device or desktop to find connections and content, Facebook will now generate personalized search suggestions that may include timely topics and current events and will organize search results to include public posts deemed relevant to the query. This implies that, via Search FYI, marketers can use social content to reach users with whom they don't have a relationship already. Although Facebook's 1.5 billion daily searches are less than half the estimated daily searches on Google, Facebook's search scope is still big enough to earn marketers' close attention. Of course, there are unanswered questions, the post notes, such as how users will interact with Search FYI, how Facebook will determine post relevancy to queries, and how Facebook may end up monetizing the search function, via paid placement for example. But marketers will definitely want to observe and adjust strategy as Search FYI evolves. For the full post, go to https://econsultancy.com/blog/67097-what-facebook-s-major-search-update-means-for-marketers/

2015 Retail Marketers Boost Social Media Use

Social media advertising, especially on Facebook, has moved up significantly as a favored acquisition tool of retailers, according to the recent State of Retailing Online 2015 survey conducted by Shop.org, Forrester Research Inc. and Bizrate Insights. Per a recent story by Multichannel Merchant, the survey found that 25% of retailers now cite Facebook as a top acquisition platform, although paid search and e-mail marketing still top their list of most effective channels. Among the paid social media tools, 50% of retailers said they are spending more this year than last year on paid Facebook options such as promoted posts and paid ads. YouTube came in second place among paid social choices, with 29% of retailers saying they will spend more on paid YouTube promotion, followed by Pinterest with 27% planning an increase, Twitter 22%, Instagram 20% and Snapchat 6%. For more from the survey, including trends in online marketplaces, search engine marketing and online site merchandising, see http://multichannelmerchant.com/marketing/facebook-is-the-top-acquisition-platform-for-retailers-22072015/

How B2B Marketers Can Leverage Facebook,Twitter

Business-to-business marketers remain leery of advertising on consumer-oriented social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, assuming their value is limited to targeting small businesses and sole proprietors. So our thanks to a recent Forbes.com post by Mike Templeman, who offers tips on how to turn Facebook and Twitter into more effective B2B lead generation tools. First, he advises, optimize your Twitter and Facebook business pages with branding, messaging and organic posts in an active posting schedule. Next set up remarketing tags on your website using Facebook and Twitter ad platform tools, which will allow your social ads to appear in a website visitor's Facebook newsfeed and Twitter stream. Then create social media ad campaigns that engage and entice traffic to your website--via promotion of interesting content such as blog posts, downloadable white papers and guides, or a webinar. You can extend the reach of these ads by uploading your own customer and prospect e-mail lists into the social media platforms, which will automatically match against existing members. Templeman advises that you can expect a 30% to 60% match rate for business e-mail addresses on Facebook and Twitter. Plus, your custom audience will now be able to view social ads on mobile devices, where 80% of social users view content. You can also use digital tools to build personas of best customers to better target your ad campaigns. But remember, the key to social marketing success, B2B or B2C, remains targeted, quality content. For more, read  http://www.forbes.com/sites/miketempleman/2015/07/23/how-facebook-and-twitter-fit-into-b2b-marketing/

Prepping Non-Political Ads for Social Election Impact

The 2016 presidential election is already grabbing headlines, ad space and social media attention, and it's only going to get more intense. This election cycle, non-political marketers not only have to be concerned about competition for consumer attention in broadcast media and direct mail, they will need to plan for a political blitz in social media, such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Marketers need to start planning now for how to prevent their non-political messages from being drowned out, squeezed out, and priced out of the social media space. A recent Direct Marketing News magazine article by Perry Simpson, digital content coordinator, warns that cost-per-click (CPC) pricing--a popular way to sponsor and boost posts on Facebook and other social sites--is likely to increase significantly as politicians fight for attention. Simpson suggests three ways to prepare now for the social impact of the election frenzy. First, analyze your geographic performance, especially on a state level. Excluding battleground states, which are likely to see larger CPC spikes, is one option if those states are not key to performance. Next, test and hone messaging now to make sure your creative is as compelling as possible, since cost-per-click on networks like Facebook is affected by click-through rate (higher response lowers CPC). Finally, tighten up CPC bids before the election grabs the market. Lowering bids closer to your desired CPC will avoid outstripping target spend when bids start to climb because of political competition. For more detail, read http://www.dmnews.com/social-media/3-tips-for-non-political-marketing-during-the-presidential-elections/article/427133/

Tips for Integrating Social Media and E-mail

In today's multi-channel environment, integrating social media and e-mail is key to enhancing the digital marketing power of both for business and nonprofit organizations. A recent Entrepreneur magazine article cited six creative ways to get social and e-mail working in tandem, and provided step-by-step instructions to boot! The six tactics include: 1) uploading e-mail subscriber lists to social networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook); 2) retargeting e-mail subscribers/responders with social ads on Facebook and Twitter; 3) letting social networks send e-mails for you via notifications from social communities you join, such as LinkedIn groups; 4) automating e-mail to seek social shares by adding a CTA-share to an e-newsletter or leveraging personal e-mail sharing with tools such as SendBloom to get the ball rolling; 5) collecting e-mail addresses on Twitter and Facebook; and 6) creating an exclusive social group for e-mail subscribers. For the full article, go to http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244903

Small Tests to Yield Big Leaps in B2B Digital Leads

Boosting business-to-business digital leads doesn't have to overtax marketers' imaginations and budgets, reassures a recent hubspot.com blog post by Lisa Toner. She suggests five quick, low-cost experiments for boosting B2B leads and sales from social, e-mail and online traffic. First, she advises trying out an embedded one-field subscribe form at the end of blog posts, instead of a call-to-action button; it boosted hubspot's conversion 20%. Second, do A/B testing of content titles; the winning title for an ebook increased leads 776% in one hubspot test, she notes. Idea No. 3 is to experiment with targeted Facebook dark posts (News Feed-style ads published outside your News Feed); she cites one test of ads and targeting that yielded an ROI 35 times the small dollar commitment. Her post links to tutorials for those unfamiliar with dark posts. The fourth area to examine is reduction of form fields on landing pages; Toner cites the example of ImageScape, which reported a 120% improvement in conversion by cutting form fields from 11 to 4. To reduce fields without losing key user info, Toner points to "progressive profiling" software and provides links to explanatory articles. Finally, there is tried-and-true A/B creative testing, starting with something as fundamental as the color of call-to-action buttons. To see examples and links to relevant articles, go to http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/lead-generation-experiments 

Are Facebook, Twitter Brand Marketing Wastes?

Facebook and Twitter are wastes of time and money for brand relationship marketing, concludes a report by Forrester Research. As a story in Fast Company magazine highlights, a recent Forrester study found that posts from top brands on Twitter and Facebook reach just 2% of their followers. Engagement was even worse; only 0.07% of followers actually interacted with posts. Fast Company cites this conclusion by Nate Elliott, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester: "It’s clear that Facebook and Twitter don’t offer the relationships that marketing leaders crave. Yet most brands still use these sites as the centerpiece of their social efforts—thereby wasting significant financial, technological, and human resources on social networks that don’t deliver value." So what's a better digital bet for relationship marketers? Try e-mail, which gets delivered more than 90% of the time compared with the 2% delivery of Facebook posts, Elliott advises. "If you have to choose between adding a subscriber to your e-mail list or gaining a new Facebook fan, go for e-mail every time," he writes. For the article, see http://www.fastcompany.com/3038801/brands-are-wasting-time-and-money-on-facebook-and-twitter-report-says

Is Your Marketing Ready for Generation Z?

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

Firms Alter Social Tactics Due to Low Buying Impact

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

Social Media Still Lacks E-Commerce Sales Power

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