Magazine Audiences Grow, Increase Mobile Viewing

The good news for publishers is that total audience—across print, Web, mobile and video—grew robustly in 2016, up 6.4% over the prior year, according to the 2016 Magazine Media 360° Brand Audience Report from the Association of Magazine Media (MPA). But there is a challenge for publications within the data: the continued shift to a mobile audience. Although print and digital editions continued to garner the largest audience for magazine media last year, the mobile platform had the most rapid growth rate, per the MPA's trend analysis. Nearly 80% of the brands reporting showed mobile growth, with 79% of those brands up by either double- or triple-digit percentages. More than a quarter of the brands in the report grew their mobile unique visitors by one million or more each. That mobile growth came at the expense of Web (desktop/laptop) users. In fact, the Web audience represented the only magazine media platform to decline as consumers spent more time on portable devices than computers. Meanwhile, though video remained the smallest audience platform in 2016, it also recorded strong growth, per MPA, up by double-digit percentage rates. For more, see our post at  http://www.acculistusa.com/growing-magazine-audiences-continue-shift-toward-mobile/

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

Content Often Misses the Mark With Mobile Users

Content marketing often fails to engage, especially when it comes to mobile users, per recent findings from BrightEdge's “Content Engagement Report” posted by B2B marketing firm KoMarketing Associates. Engagement rates for content vary by industry, coming in at 33% to 50% overall, with hospitality at the high end of the engagement rate spectrum and retail at the low end. However, industry engagement rates also differ based on whether the audience accesses content via a mobile device or a desktop, with engagement rates consistently lower for mobile users. For the B2B technology industry, as an example, there was a 53% engagement rate among desktop users, but engagement fell to 26% when content was viewed on a mobile device. The poorer mobile engagement is not surprising given that one in four mobile sites are not optimized correctly, resulting in an average smartphone traffic loss of 68%, KoMarketing points out. What is surprising is the slow response of some marketers to the need for mobile-friendly content to engage the 35%-40% of website visits coming from mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones. KoMarketing cites a 2015 survey published by Clutch showing that only 56% of small businesses have mobile-friendly websites, and 10% said they have no plans to create mobile-responsive design! For more, read http://www.komarketingassociates.com/industry-news/report-less-half-todays-content-leads-engagement-2430/