At Year-end, Check KPIs to Gird 2018 Marketing

The busy year-end holiday season, especially for fundraisers and retailers, should not distract direct marketers from the working on the analytics they need to finalize next year’s marketing plans and ROI. Marketing ROI is about effective spending and requires tracking results by channel and campaign. KPIs use actual annual outlay for direct mail marketing (lists, print, lettershop, creative, postage), digital marketing (e-mail, SEO/SEM, landing pages, social media and creative), as well as spending on PR/events/content marketing. Marketers must keep a tally of the number of outbound leads attributed to direct mail or e-mail campaigns, as well as the inbound leads generated by efforts such as SEO, blog content or PR. Then a cost per lead acquired (CPL) can be calculated by dividing annual expenditure by the number of leads generated. Since the ultimate goal is sales not merely leads, the percentage of leads that become paying customers and the dollar sales per lead are key measures. Beyond general performance, marketers should use measurement to fine-tune future plans and budgets. This means identifying the response rates and conversion rates for each channel, for each direct mail and digital campaign, and for tests of creative, timing, frequency, lists and segments. Performance rates should be measured not only for campaigns to acquire new leads/customers but also targeting of existing customers and reactivation of dormant customers. Website traffic reports from Google Analytics can not only show online ad and SEM effectiveness but also track spikes around direct mail or e-mail promotions to give a fuller picture of response. A simple ratio of the return on marketing investment can be calculated by adding up incremental sales from marketing and subtracting marketing amount spent, and then dividing the result by amount spent on marketing. But remember that a focus on annual or campaign results can be myopic since these do not necessarily deliver long-term growth. Marketers need to look at customer and prospect databases to make sure they are growing year-over-year. Because acquiring a single sale per lead also is less profitable long-term than acquiring a repeat customer, average customer lifetime value is vital and calculated by multiplying average dollar sale per customer by the average number of purchases per year and the average retention time in years. For a helpful KPI checklist from Digital Dog Direct, see http://www.acculistusa.com/use-key-direct-marketing-kpis-to-gird-2018-plans/

E-mail Tops Digital ROI With Personalization, Mobile

E-mail marketers will be happy to know that e-mail outpaces other digital channels in terms of reported return on investment, ahead of SEO, content marketing, paid search, and social media, per the "2017 Email Marketing Industry Census" from Adestra, in association with Econsultancy. E-mail ROI was rated as good to excellent by 73% of marketers surveyed, just edging out SEO, with 72% giving SEO a good to excellent ROI rating. Content marketing slipped to third place, with 63% calling its ROI good to excellent. Paid search followed with 60% ranking its ROI as good to excellent, and social media trailed (44%). But the report also raised questions about how accurately marketers assess e-mail impact. The majority of marketers are using click-through rate (91%), open rate (80%) and conversion rate (62%) to track e-mail performance, while other important metrics, such as bounce rate, delivery rate and list growth rate, are used by a minority. List segmentation is another challenge that may be impeding even higher ROI, falling midway in the ranking of best practices even though those who carry out advanced segmentation are more than twice as likely to report "excellent" ROI from e-mail marketing as those who don’t segment. What practices do marketers use to push e-mail opens and clicks? The census found that sending personalized and relevant messaging led the list of e-mail best practices reported; 80% of marketers are already doing this and 14% are planning for it. Personalization was followed by mobile-optimizing of e-mail (73% doing and 19% planning to start), regular list cleaning (57% doing and 24% planning), and promoting social content sharing (49% doing and 22% planning on it). Personalization also is the area of e-mail marketing where most respondents (30%) say they need to focus in 2017. For more see http://www.acculistusa.com/e-mail-earns-top-digital-roi-via-personalization-mobile-strategies/

Study: Consumer E-mail Behavior Varies by Industry

To optimize consumer e-mail response, marketers must adjust strategy for consumer behavior that differs by market vertical and device use. So they'll find valuable guidance in Movable Ink’s "US Consumer Device Preference Report: Q1 2017" report on how opens, conversions, engagement and even order values are affected by market vertical and device preferences. For all industries studied—retail, travel and hospitality, financial services, and media/publishing and entertainment—the report found most e-mails are opened on a smartphone as opposed to a tablet or desktop. Smartphone e-mail opens have especially jumped for financial services, up 7% from the fourth quarter of 2016 to reach 70% of opens in the first quarter of this year. However, retail is not far behind, with 61% smartphone opens for apparel and 57% for non-apparel e-mails. While smartphones still led opens, the more content-heavy media, publishing and entertainment vertical also has a good portion of desktop e-mail opens at 32%, followed by travel and hospitality with 29% desktop opens. Tablet opens are also stronger for media and publishing at 18%, higher than any other industry.Mobile optimization is clearly key for open rates, but retailers should not neglect desktop design because that's where the orders are racked up. Non-apparel retailer e-mails attribute 73% of conversions to desktop use, for example, with 51% of conversions on desktop for apparel retailing. Desktops also deliver the highest average order value for retailers: $171.04 for apparel and $138.57 for non-apparel sales. When it comes to e-mail reading time, the study generally found that iPhones are able to capture more attention than Android mobile phones, Android tablets, desktop computers, or iPads. The finance industry had the longest read lengths on iPhones, with 68% of subscribers spending 15 or more seconds reading their e-mail thanks to the Apple devices. Media, publishing and entertainment e-mails also garnered high iPhone read time, with 61% reading e-mail for 15 seconds or more. For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/study-how-consumer-e-mail-behavior-varies-by-market-vertical/

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

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

Research Offers Five Clues to E-mail Success

While chasing the holy grail of e-mail response, marketers can get lost in a forest of subject line and offer gimmicks.  Here's some helpful guidance that Direct Marketing News shared from a recent study by Retention Science, a marketing platform provider. Based on Retention Science's analysis of one billion e-mails, the article can distill five tips for success. Tip No. 1 is that percent signs trump dollar signs: According to Retention Science, 38% of customers are more likely to click on e-mails containing percent-off offers than on dollar-off deals, and 47% are more likely to convert in response to percent-off. Tip No. 2 is that mystery is better than excitement in subject line punctuation: Subject lines containing question marks have a 44% higher open rate than those containing exclamation marks. Tip No. 3 is that brevity is the soul of response: Retention Science found that e-mails containing subject lines with six to 10 words generated the highest open rates, at 21%, compared with a 14% open rate for messages with 11- to 15-word subject lines. Tip No. 4 is that timing matters--depending on whether the goal is click-through, conversion or retention. While open rates are fairly consistent year-round, click-through rates jump during the early holiday months, rising to 30% in October and 27% in November, and conversion peaks in July, with a rate 21% higher than average. But then e-mail list retention hits its nadir in August, with unsubscribes at a 28% rate. And Tip No. 5 is that novelty may spur opens, but familiarity breeds clicks. A novelty item in the subject line yields a 6% lift in open rates, but necessities in the e-mail body (such as groceries) earn a 10% higher click-through rate than featuring specialty items, even if those special items won an open for the subject line. For more on the Retention Science study, read http://www.dmnews.com/email-marketing/how-to-send-the-almost-perfect-email/article/449482/

Why Do B2B Marketers Fail to Test Landing Pages?

We think of testing as a basic direct marketing tenet, yet a MarketingProfs survey published in September shows how remiss B2B marketers are when it comes to testing landing pages, an essential step in digital conversion success. Only 15% of respondents said they do extensive testing of landing pages (A/B, usability or multivariate), and 26% admitted to no testing of landing pages at all! The majority (59%) called their testing "limited." This lack of testing was despite the fact that respondents also said that A/B testing was the most effective method for optimizing landing page conversion rates. We perhaps understand low use of multivariate testing; it is rated as the most difficult tactic to execute by respondents. But what's the excuse for neglecting A/B testing? It was not only ranked most effective by 50% but also seen as one of the easiest methods to execute (only 14% rated it difficult)? A recent article in Marketing Land by columnist David Rodnitzky provides some common reasons online marketers give for skipping testing. Check to see if your marketing team is hiding behind one of these excuses: "We're at maximum efficiency," or "use it or lose it" budgeting pressures; "Our agency/marketing team can't be beat," or a bias in favor of existing assumptions/staff; and "We don't have time/budget," at least not enough to risk going outside what's already working. Rodnitzky shoots down each of these testing "fails," warning that "a complete lack of testing leads to decisions by HIPPO, 'the highest paid person’s opinion,'" When that person is influenced by bias and budget pressures, inefficient marketing results. "Don’t be a hippo, be a tester!" he urges. See his article: http://marketingland.com/test-everything-lies-online-marketers-tell-139072

Use Brain Science to Turn CTAs Into Click Magnets

Neuroscience offers proven ways to turn your next call-to-action effort into a click magnet, according to a recent eM+C article. The article cites three brain-science tips for boosting digital conversions. First, use images that point visitors in the right direction. It turns out that images of people and faces are what grab the brain's attention in your landing page or e-mail design. In fact, if you add a smiling face looking at a CTA button, studies show people will look where the image is looking--right at your CTA. Next, choose a button/text color that reinforces your message. Science shows that 90% of immediate subconscious judgment is based on color. For example, orange encourages immediate action (great for low-cost join /buy appeals); red increases the sense of urgency (a good limited-time offer choice); and blue builds trust and security (a financial offer favorite). Not sure which color will drive clicks? That's what A/B testing is for! Third, tell prospects exactly what you want them to do. For example, scientific testing finds the most effective CTAs use active, specific verbs (Download, Get, Start) and keep it short (the top converting buttons in a recent study were all two words or less). But don't forget urgency; just adding "Now" can significantly boost conversions. For more science-based tips to improve CTA results, read the full article at http://www.emarketingandcommerce.com/article/want-more-clicks-3-brain-science-hacks-that-boost-conversions/1

How Mailings Won 650% ROI for Data Backup Firm

Even high-tech firms can sometimes get bigger results from traditional direct mail than their usual digital efforts. Intronis, a 12-year-old cloud-based data protection service, is a case in point, as recently reported by Advertising Age. Intronis, which serves 50,000 small-business customers and sells through a network of 2,000 managed IT service providers, wanted to reach larger IT service providers. But e-mail and calling weren't getting the desired attention. So the company launched a two-part mailing campaign: Based on the demographics of the IT audience, the first piece hooked attention by including a "retro cool" Atari game player with the promise that if users spent 30 minutes on the phone with an Intronis salesperson, they would get a free gaming platform, with a choice of XBox, Wii or Sony Playstation. The company started small, sending out 50 Ataris and won meetings with 25 recipients, a 50% conversion. After 20 more waves, allowing for testing of messaging, packaging, timing and mail volume, the campaign had garnered an average 35% conversion rate (meetings) and an ROI of 650%, based on the value of deals generated divided by all campaign costs. Among the lessons learned per Ad Age reporting: With high-end premiums, send out relatively small numbers in each mail wave to reduce fulfillment costs. Put a lot of thought into the mail creative in terms of messaging and packaging; for example, the mailing worked best with a box that opened in one direction and with the brand message and cover letter on top and visible before the enclosed Atari. For the complete article, see http://adage.com/article/btob/data-backup-company-650-roi-atari-campaign/298195/

Is Digital Dazzle Blinding Marketers to Mail Power?

There's no denying that digital advertising offers a low-cost way to quickly reach millions of eyeballs and score a high volume of clicks/leads. But we like the caveat recently provided by a Target Marketing Magazine blog post by Carolyn Goodman, president of Goodman Marketing Partners. Goodman argues that the "digital mystique" should not blind marketers to the enduring value of snail mail in delivering actual buyers. As she points out, marketing experience proves that mass media vehicles (like online ads) will tend to drive higher lead volume, but they'll be lower quality leads (lower conversion to sale); meanwhile, targeted media (like direct mail) will tend to deliver lower lead volume, but the leads will be higher quality (likely to purchase). The weak net response for digital ads is further impacted by today's noisy online landscape, she notes. As any recent Internet foray shows, digital ads are often lost in sites' excess ad clutter, poorly targeted delivery, retargeting frequency excesses, and other annoyances. Thus, while The New York Times quotes the claim of Jon Swallen, chief research officer of Kantar Media North American, that "the cost efficiencies of digital advertising enable many marketers to buy more for less," many of Goodman's startup clients are asking about putting marketing dollars into direct mail. Goodman quotes one CEO's simple explanation: "Our board no longer has the patience for our slow pace of growth because we tied our marketing investment to the digital advertising landscape. We get lots of clicks, but very few buyers." To read the full post: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/blog/the-digital-mystique-all-smoke-mirrors

Lessons From Pet-Care Firm's Content Marketing

We help many pet care and animal welfare clients with direct marketing, and we'll be expanding our knowledge of market needs at the upcoming Animal Care Expo, March 29-April 1 in New Orleans. So we thought it especially timely to highlight a recent Direct Marketing News article about the content marketing success story of PetRelocation, a pet moving and travel service. After trying generic keyword and pay-per-click campaigns, PetRelocation decided to set up a content forum, using tools from Oracle Marketing Cloud, to address pet owner concerns, explains the DM News story. Great for customer relations, but it did a lot more. The marketing team culled popular answers from the forum to post directly on the website, for a boost to organic search results. The increase in online traffic and leads actually allowed the company to eliminate its pay-per-click ad spending. The content forum also gathered valuable testimonials that spurred lead-to-conversion. With the majority of annual revenue tied to online marketing, primarily content marketing, PetRelocation's success story should intrigue pet care marketers and B2C marketers in general. To read about it, go to http://www.dmnews.com/petrelocation-uses-content-marketing-to-drive-sales/article/404010/

Are You Optimizing LinkedIn's B2B Lead Power?

If you're a business-to-business marketer frustrated with results from LinkedIn, you're not alone. Using social media to generate qualified leads and measurable ROI is a challenge. So take a look at a recent online article for Advertising Age magazine by Sebastian Jespersen, president and CEO of Vertic Inc., a digital ad agency. Jespersen offers four tips for B2B marketers on how to optimize LinkedIn promotional investment, taking a cue from the lead-gen success of client firms like Microsoft, GE and Siemens. Tip No. 1: Measure the right part of the funnel. Understand that LinkedIn pours in fewer leads at the top but can have higher conversion rates than other channels at the bottom. Therefore, measure cost per lead or cost per conversion rather than cost per click or impression. Tip No. 2: To get conversion, create the right post-click experience. Don't send qualified traffic to a generic web page; build multiple customized pieces of content on-site and direct users to relevant messages. Tip No. 3 is a no-brainer: Use the data LinkedIn provides to target! Tip No. 4: Retarget. Successful LinkedIn campaigns get a 20% conversion rate, but that doesn't mean throwing away the other 80% of leads. Tap user behavior to retarget qualified responders on other relevant sites and get a second chance at conversion. For the complete article, go to http://adage.com/article/btob/b-b-marketers-improve-leads-linkedin/297386/

Top Digital Marketers Share 5 Secrets to Conversion

The top 20% of digital marketers have conversion rates almost twice the average 2.6%, according to Adobe's 2014 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey. How do they do it? As reported by Direct Marketing News, Adobe identified five common traits of the elite digital practitioners. First, they do more testing, with over 70% of champion converters testing, compared to only 46% of the field. Second, they spend more; 60% of respondents in the top 20% said they devoted more than 5% of their budgets to optimization activities, versus just 39% of the rest surveyed. Third, they target content, with 83% in the top 20% using automation to make content decisions, for example. Fourth, they "democratize" marketing, meaning they are 88% more likely to involve other departments in testing efforts, and that approach helped lift conversion to 4.3% instead of the 2.6% average. Fifth, those with the best digital conversion rates make mobile a key part of their strategy, with more than four-fifths of top converters describing mobile as important to cross-channel marketing success, as opposed to two-thirds of the rest of the survey. Of course, the devil's in the details; for more, read the DM News report at http://www.dmnews.com/top-20-percent-is-twice-as-good-at-converting-as-the-rest/article/378105/

B2B Content Marketers Doubt Their Effectiveness

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