Is Your Marketing Ready for the E-commerce Surge?

Pandemic lockdowns across the nation have turbocharged e-commerce, with online sales growing by triple-digits. Is your marketing ready? Most marketers are not, according to a recent Profitero and Kantar survey of 200 brand executives, which found that only 17% believe their organizations are leading competitors in e-commerce. E-commerce marketers need to quickly prioritize strategies, advises a recent post by Forbes magazine’s CMO Network contributor Sarah Hofstetter. A problem identified by the Profitero and Kantar survey, for example, is that only 11% of organizations have functional-level e-commerce goals in place. Hofstetter urges making e-commerce a part of everyone’s job, from building e-commerce KPIs into bonuses to content accountability on retail websites to overcoming silos with cross-functional goals. Next, marketers should boost online profiles and product discovery efforts. That includes targeted SEO and SEM, strong ratings and reviews, engaging targeted content, and aligned multichannel outreach. Third, shift from offline to speedier online tactics, such as algorithmic matching of competitor price changes and real-time tailoring of product assortments and promotional strategies by audience. Fourth, boost online agility. Note that 63% of brands do not test and optimize their content to improve sales impact (Profitero and Kantar survey). So brands that digitally test new products, new traffic-generating variables and new marketing messages gain an edge. Janet Balis, a principal of Ernst & Young LLP, recently penned a Harvard Business Journal article offering more advice.The nuances of creative messaging have become more delicate, she notes, warning that while exploitative brands will not fare well, organizations that promote doing good, from food bank donations to repurposed manufacturing, can enhance brand image as long as contributions are seen as material and not solely for commercial benefit. Next, since the mix of preferred media platforms has changed, marketers may want to modify the media mix, for example with more ad-supported premium video streaming for spiking digital entertainment, or ads around peak news consumption. Finally, marketers will want to put a greater emphasis on behavior trends and response tracking to better adapt messaging and targeting. Small, less sophisticated retailers can take advantage of Google tools, such as using Google Trends, Google Alerts  and retail-category metrics for Google Search and Shopping campaigns to spot shifts in demand. They can frequently update Google Ads, customer-facing websites and Buyer Profiles on Google Maps and Search, and can enable automatic item updates in the Google Merchant Center to keep product data current. For more, see https://www.acculist.com/has-your-marketing-adjusted-for-the-current-e-commerce-surge/

Data & Content Key to Publishers' Audience Building

In the age of big data and exploding digital content, targeted data quality and database management are more essential than ever to profitable circulation marketing and audience development for publishers and media owners. A recent Marketo blog post backs up that assertion with their advice. Demographics and firmographics are a key starting point, but now media owners also can mine transactional data, behavioral data, and psychographics/interests across channels, the post notes. Smart use of first-, second- and third-party data allows for tailored content, offers and channel targeting. As the Marketo article explains, "For example, you may know that a reader is a part of a cohort that is female, between 18-35 years old, with a household income between $64-96K....But what could you do–in terms of engagement–if you learn through her content consumption patterns that she’s interested in football, responds to sponsored content from travel brands, and mostly responds to content that’s shared on Facebook?" Yet more data from multiple sources–web, print, mail, e-mail, social media–also presents challenges, and Marketo cites Folio's recent survey of publishing leaders, which found 71% citing data management as a top priority for creating and monetizing media products. The solution is a single hub for audience data and automated cross-channel processing in real-time, the post advises, in order to deliver the right message at the right time to the right target. Finally, in publication/media marketing even more than other brand marketing, content counts. Faced with ever-growing digital content noise, media owners must work even harder to deliver content that interests and engages the target audience. For more, including advice on content marketing wins and misses, see to our complete onsite post at http://www.acculistusa.com/data-content-are-keys-to-profitable-audience-building/

Marketing Pros Share Biggest Mistakes (and Fixes)

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

Messy Marketing? See Stanley Steemer's Cleanup

Stanley Steemer's e-mail and direct mail strategies were sending customers on a messy path through channel silos and poorly targeted messaging, until the company decided to clean up its marketing. Take a look at the national carpet and floor cleaning firm's successful marketing revamp, as reported recently by Direct Marketing News magazine. Stanley Steemer's e-mail and direct mail weren't working together and results were hard to track, the company says of its pre-2014 marketing efforts. The cleaning firm decided to tackle one channel at a time, starting with upgrading e-mail frequency, content, and segmentation. So it went from one promotional e-mail a month to three, with the same offer at the beginning of the month and end of the month and a content-driven e-mail in between. Its e-mail welcome series' design and content were also refreshed. Then Stanley Steemer changed its e-mail segmentation strategy, going from segmenting only by branch or franchise contacts to segmenting by customer engagement (opens and clicks), purchase behavior, and offers, as well as branch or franchise group. By April 2014, it was time to tackle direct mail segmentation and content targeting, too. Now Stanley Steemer sends nine direct mail pieces a year with 10 to 20 different segmented versions per campaign, based on list information and purchase behavior. Results? Stanley Steemer saw a 33% increase in direct mail-generated bookings, and a 200% increase in mail response rates after launching its acquisition strategy. For e-mail, campaigns have delivered a 20% month-over-month increase in online bookings. Just introduced this March, a new e-mail trigger program for incomplete or cancelled orders had delivered a 50% rise in average open rates by April. For more details, read http://www.dmnews.com/email-marketing/stanley-steemer-cleans-up-its-email-and-direct-mail-strategies/article/410071/

B2B Lead Plan Hones Aim to Hit Today's Buyers

Today's business-to-business buyers may have completed 90% of the buying process by the time they see a company's marketing message! So a lot of B2B lead gen is probably missing the mark with mistimed or irrelevant messaging, which is why marketers who want to improve their B2B aim should check out a recent b2bmarketing.net post's four-step plan. Step 1: Realize that one-size-fits-all automated communications aren't enough in today's competitive landscape. Create data-driven "buyer personas" to personalize and guide relevant messaging along the sales cycle. For B2B buyers, a persona would include names of the person and company as well as key characteristics such as job responsibilities, sources of information, role in the purchase process, business goals, pain points, preferred content medium, objections anticipated, etc. Step 2: Win over leads by matching messaging to the B2B buying journey so you deliver desired content at each stage. Note that a recent B2B buyer survey found 61% of buyers choose vendors who deliver a better mix of content. Step 3: Accept that today's average sales cycle is 22% longer than it was five years ago, so invest in nurturing leads for the extended sales journey. Research shows nurturing produces a 20% increase in sales leads on average. Use intelligence across multi-channel touch points to keep buyers moving toward sale. Step 4: Create brand advocates to cheer on those leads as they travel toward purchase. Research shows that 67% of B2B buyers say they had heard of the chosen supplier before they ever purchased. So make it easy for customers and partners to become brand advocates by rewarding and recognizing referrals, reviews, content sharing, and content generation. For a free B2B marketing guide, including how to build buyer personas, along with links to relevant articles, see http://www.b2bmarketing.net/blog/posts/2015/04/21/marketing-modern-b2b-buyer

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/