Email marketing

Christian Lowe Blog Post - 4/10/2015 Essential for a company to achieve its goals of increasing its user base as well as user engagement levels is to source a robust list of emails of individuals with interests aligned with the company's core product offerings. Once the company has compiled this list, it will be able to construct and implement a series of test email campaigns to identify the correct messaging to employ for specific customer segments. The goal is to identify which messaging provides the most statistically significant lift in conversion rates as well as in engagement levels. The first step in this process is for the company to answer the following key questions: 1. How can we grow our email marketing list? 2. What's the best way to improve our email marketing deliverability? 3. How can we make social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, GooglePlus, etc. part of our email marketing. For marketers who don't have the option to test these offline tactics, consider implementing parallel tactics online, such as: It can often be difficult in generating a list of emails from which to conduct an email campaign. With approximately 72% of US consumers identifying email marketing as the number one way they’d prefer to receive permission-based promotions from businesses , it is essential for the company to compile a comprehensive email list as possible. 1. Require email to create an account on website and/or register mobile app 2. Registration with incentive on website 3. Promote content via social media that requires email registration to access 4. Option to opt into email when viewing mobile app content 5. Paid mobile ads A company can focus its subscriber growth strategy both online and offline, it depends on how its customers prefer to interact with your brand. Marketers needs to know more information about its customers, namely where they are, how they prefer to consumer media and then refine its strategies to connect with them. An important consideration in building its list is to understand the important and increasing role that mobile is playing in how customers consume media (i.e. read emails). It has been an increasing trend that consumers are buying smartphones at a rapid pace, with approximately 50% of consumers now reading email on their smartphones. The use of mobile devices is particularly important to the company based on the very nature of the company’s product offering, which is in and of itself best experienced in the mobile environment. Therefore, the Company marketing team must understand which smartphones their subscribers (and potential subscribers) are using to ensure that their emails are compatible and responsive to the mobile experience. As such, the company should be focused on designing its emails to convey the right messaging that will improve click-through rates on a mobile device. Furthermore, the marketers should focus on reaching its customers through email improve its key metrics of conversion and engagement because email has been proven to be the preferred vehicle for consumers to receive messaging. Consumers prefer email marketing because they are in control and they trust brands to respect their preferences. And they’re in control of email because marketers have rightfully given them that control, allowing customers to manage preferences and unsubscribes. Consumers get special offers that they actually want—more so than other channels—and trust that these messages are from the brand. The industry has become so trustworthy and spam is declining because internet service providers have put smarter algorithms in place to block spam and unwanted emails. The bottom line is consumers trust the inbox because marketers respect their permission. There aren’t many other media that allow consumers to manage communication with brands like that.

Which brands will profit from the Internet of Things?

Blog Entry - 03/27/2015 Christian Lowe Recent technological innovations (such as the Apple watch) indicate that 2015 is going to be the year of the Internet of Things (IoT). This provides a new dynamic/vehicle through which marketers will need to have the capacity to reach potential consumers. No longer will it suffice for a marketer to simply cover their bases by doing traditional marketing efforts nor just digital marketing or even mobile marketing any longer because the popularity of the devices such as the Apple Watch will garner an increased amount of an individual's attention. The advent of wearable technology, in-car systems and headsets should not be considered solely a hinderance to marketers but rather as an opportunity for them to reach consumers during what would have been inaccessible times. For example, the watch will be worn while an individual is engaged in activities that previously would have forced the individual to not access the internet via a computer or even from the individual's phone. Therefore, marketers have an opportunity to really engage potential customers through the wearables, which is why it is imperative that marketers begin developping applications and other mediums through which to connect with individuals. The brands that develop the best thoughtout, functional, and engaging IoT applications stand to succeed in garnering far more consumer attention than their competitors or even compared to how these brands are currently engaging with their customers. An interesting thought piece about the IoT challenge is below: http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2015/02/13/which-brands-will-profit-internet-things Several recent developments have indicated that 2015 will be the year that the Internet of Things (IoT) ceases to be part of an imagined future, and instead becomes a reality. For example, Apple has announced that the long-awaited, highly anticipated Apple Watch will be brought to market in April, and is encouraging developers to start working on apps for the platform. Australian airline Quantas, meanwhile, is trialling Samsung’s virtual reality headset, Gear VR, on its flights, while Samsung itself has predicted that wearables will become the new status symbols of high-value consumers this year. For brands, the widespread adoption of wearables, headsets, in-car systems like Android Auto and Apply CarPlay, and online TVs presents an unprecedented opportunity to engage with consumers. If the sharp increase in the use of Smartphones and tablets has led John Lewis MD Andy Street, among others, to refer to consumers as being ‘always on’, this phrase will prove even more accurate when shoppers are continually interacting with online objects. Whichever brands are able to rapidly make their mark on new wearable and other platforms, then, are likely to increase sales by reaching customers at hitherto inaccessible times and places. Not only that, but these brands will also achieve a significant advantage over their competitors online. Rushing into developing and releasing new IoT apps is not advisable, however – as is currently the case with mobile devices, releasing a buggy app would risk alienating customers and doing damage to a company’s brand image and revenue. In fact, this is even more likely to be the case with wearables, given that so few developers will have worked on new IoT platforms when they’re brought to market. Instead, software should be rigorously tested on a broad range of unique platforms to ensure it functions correctly for as many customers as possible. This could prove challenging for brands using internal teams or relying on 3rd party developers for testing, as simply testing software on a sufficient range of Smartphones and tablets is becoming impossible using these traditional methods. Adding IoT platforms to the increasing number of unique mobile devices being used by consumers will only increase the burden on already struggling test teams. To release fully functional, comprehensively tested IoT apps that engage consumers, brands should find a crowdsourced software testing partner. By maintaining worldwide communities of thousands of professional software testers, crowdsourcing companies, such as BugFinders, have the capacity to test software on hundreds of unique platforms. A crowdsourced team of up to 200 testers can thoroughly scrutinise an app for bugs on up to 200 devices, for example, in just 24 hours. The scalability of the crowdsourcing model means that IoT platforms could easily be added to, or included within, this number of devices, and crowdsourced testers could either supplement an in-house team or perform testing in its entirety. As online access is absorbed into the very fabric of everyday life, so brands will have the opportunity to engage with consumers on a much more frequent basis. Those that make sure their software is up to this task will flourish, while those that don’t will struggle to keep up in the new digital world that is, suddenly, right around the corner.

Social for Sales - It's Not Impossible, Just Different

Christian Lowe Blog Post - 03.13.2015 According to a UMass Center for Marketing Research study, a mere 32% of marketing executives are able to connect their social programs to revenue. And, if we believe popular reports about social media and commerce sales, it’s a pretty bleak picture with less than 1% of online sales originated from social media. These statistics can be pretty disheartening to individuals specializing in the digital marketing, particularly in Social. That said, there are brands who have successfully grown sales via social. Brands that have implemented successful social campaigns that resulted in strong revenues from social have done so through distinctive and innovative Social marketing strategies. The key to their success is that they were able to idenitfy their core customers, how to best reach them and how to target their specific interests. Even though digital marketing is definitely an art form, there is a necessary component of applying a scientific approach to a brand's social marketing campaigns. By combining the art and science, some brands have demonstrated immense success in social marketing. Couple of interesting case studies I found are below: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Children’s Fashion Brand Falls into Facebook and Builds Strategy to Drive Long Term Sales Despite falling by accident into her Facebook driven commerce business, the founder of Lolly Wolly Doodle identified the opportunity to sell via social in a unique way and defined an entire business model around it that’s exploded over the last few years, driving tens millions of dollars in sales. Initially, Facebook fans just liked and comment on a post with their email and size. Now the brand continues to offer its daily deal via that creative method but also promotes longer running items by adding a URL that drives easily traceable sales to their new online store via referring domain. What got people to buy was the relevance of the content, the rapid iteration of designs based on fan feedback driving top sellers and the ease of purchasing without having to interrupt their normal social behavior. Home Furnishings Leader Drives Higher Average Orders with Pinterest Wayfair sells beautiful home goods for all styles and recognized that imagery is what truly inspires their customers to realize the dreams they have for decorating their homes. By engaging on Pinterest using helpful tips and images, they have identified audiences that are both willing to engage and share – showing them what products will be popular – as well as shop, spending 50% more than shoppers from other channels. They have used Rich Pins and their inherent tracking functionality to close the loop with their online store. Though some estimates are dire, examples of doing it right are increasingly common and Gartner’s own surveys of commerce brands suggest that social commerce contributes 18% of digital commerce revenue and drives more business value than marketers think. If you are struggling to make the connection between your social efforts and sales, now may be the right time to take a step back and ask yourself some key strategic questions about your audience and what you want your social program to do for your brand. Ultimately, defining a strategy that will appeal to how your demographic wants to interact and instrumenting your activities so that you can determine the outcomes. http://blogs.gartner.com/kirsten-newbold-knipp/2015/03/11/social-sales-impossible-just-different/?nicam=rmsm13 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Digital Marketing Guidance for 2015

Christian Lowe Blog Entry - 03/06/2105 Prior to Facebook's IPO there were significant concerns amongst the banking analysts about Facebook's ability to make the leap to mobile. At the time, there was some justification regarding being concerned about Facebook's ability to compete for the digital marketing dollars being poured into the mobile advertising. That said, Facebook has overcome its initial position of weakness in the mobile marketing field and is now a dominant force; a player who offers significant benefits to marketers in this environment. When a marketing team is evaluating its most cost-effective options to generate the most significant sales lift, brand recognition, etc. (i.e. generates the highest ROI), platforms like Facebook are relatively much more affordable than PPC advertising is. Furthermore, Facebook is fairly user-friendly to advertising seeking to target narrow population segments for their marketing campaigns. With around 1.4 Bn active users worldwide, who spend a considerable amount of their time actively using Facebook (i.e. could be browsing through Facebook while watching live TV advertisers and thus missing the TV ads and/or any product placements). Therefore, marketers have the opportunity to actively engage consumers through vehicles like Facebook, target the particular segment of consumers they desire and direct them seamlessly to their website to potentially make a purchase almost in real-time. Thus, TV ad spend is much more inefficient compared to marketing through Facebook, which is even potentially far more cost-effective than buying ad space through Google. Below is an excerpt from an article details more guidance for digital marketing in 2015: http://www.inc.com/stephan-aarstol/it-s-almost-2015-bump-up-your-digital-marketing-strategy.html 1. It's affordable: Advertising on platforms such as Facebook is a bargain. Compared to pay-per-click marketing, you're paying relatively low costs for massive reach. But it won't always be that way. As more companies figure out how to make Facebook and other social media advertising work for them, the costs will rise. For example, when I started investing in online marketing in 1999, PPC rates were 1 cent per click. Now, they're $1 per click, which can put a huge dent in your marketing budget. There's likely a two- to three-year window on Facebook's ad affordability and effectiveness. Right now, you have the ability to reach millions of consumers, but they may soon find ways to avoid ads altogether. Go after online opportunities that are cost-effective and achievable and have the potential for major ROI right now. 2. There are low barriers to entry: If you learn something while it's new, it's usually fairly inexpensive to execute. If you sleep on the opportunity, however, you'll find yourself playing catch-up with more aggressive competitors. Early adopters will have already optimized their conversions, which allows them to spend more time creating barriers for their competitors. Books on digital strategies and professional development conferences on social media are great (and you should definitely invest in them), but there's nothing stopping you from jumping into creating social media ad campaigns and iterating from there. You may waste some money as you learn through live wiring, but that's the price of knowledge. And keep in mind that the price of waiting is much steeper. Two-Pronged Marketing in 2015 With an increased digital marketing budget, it's crucial that you allocate it smartly so you can reap the full benefits. You'll need to consider both your customers and your competitors when developing your online strategy. You need to know the best way to deliver content to consumers, along with how to edge out your competition. My company is betting on video this year because there's been a progression in the online space from text to images. Our customers don't want to read 1,500-word articles; they want content that's easy to consume. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a good video is worth millions. You need to look at the complete picture when it comes to digital marketing. Don't allocate a flat rate for marketing and let all costs fall under that. Instead, know exactly where to spend, whether that's PPC, social media, or a PR company. Invest in social media advertising first because there's more opportunity there, and carve out 20 percent of your budget for staff development. Your 2015 marketing plan should emphasize digital media and staying ahead of the curve. Knowing about new technology and opportunities will give you a competitive edge and help you meet consumers where they are. Smart strategies mean big ROI, and that means a happy 2015.

Customer Experience Is Clearly Very Important for Marketers to Focus on in 2015

Christian Lowe Blog Post - 2/27/2014 Something that is becoming very apparent, not just in digital marketing but in marketing in general, is that the customer experience is very important for marketers to address and enhance through any and all mediums. With the pervasive cost comparison capabilities the internet provides customers, it is now extremely important for brands to cultivate a higher quality experience for their customers in order to attract, retain and extract more value fro customers. Customers can now easily compare the costs of products that a brand offers, so a brand now finds the only true way to differentiate itself from its competitors y offering customers the best experience possible. For a brand to achieve a competitive advantage in experiential marketing, it must become much more innovative in its marketing approaches. No longer will direct marketing campaigns and loyalty programs suffice in this increasingly competitive marketplace. Brands have to expand its portfolio of vehicles it employs in its marketing efforts to its customer base because information is so expansive and customers have such a diverse array of options through which to consume media. Consequently, brands have to be much more cognizant of the importance of engaging in social marketing and content creation that seeks the consumers' input and interaction. Simply having prime advertising placing in Google searches or simply having a Facebook page will no longer secure the optimal responses to a marketing campaign. To increase its ROI on its marketing spend, brands need to actively engage in Instagram, seek out customers to provide their own input on the content that is created, and seek other ways in which a customer can feel like a contributing participant in the production of their desired products. Below is a link highlighting the need for content creation and experiential marketing: http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/05/digital-marketing-2015/

10 Surprising Social Media Facts

Christian Lowe Blog Post - February, 20th 2014 As we have been discussing the impact of Social Media on a companies ability to generate sales, it is important to therefore understand some important trends that are occuring in the Social Media landscape in relation to a company's marketing efforts. I found a great article that highlights 10 surprising facts about Social Media and each one has valuable implications on a company's strategy to use different Social Media vehicles to drive incremental revenues: 1. Your biggest advocates have the fewest followers - fewer than 10 mentions will come from "power users" (>500 followers) 2. Twitter has 6 distinct communication networks - Polarized crowds; Tight crowds; Brand clusters; Community Clusters; Broadcast Networks; Support Networks 3. Marketers say Written content trumps visuals 4. You have 1 Hour to respond on Twitter - 53% of users expect a response w/n 1 hr 5. Late night is the best time for retweets - 11PM - 1 AM have the most retweets on avg/day 6. Fridays are Facebooks best day for Engagement 7. Photos drive Engagement on Facebook Pages - 87% of shared posts are photos 8. Facebook, Pinterest & Twitter drive the most traffic 9. Aim for specific N interactions/post (depending on total fans) 10. There's a best day for everything on Pinterest - Monday = Fitness - Tuesday = Tech - Wednesday= Quotes - Thursday = Fashion - Friday = Humor - Saturday = Travel - Sunday = Food / Crafts Article link with create infographics: http://www.business2community.com/infographics/10-surprising-social-media-facts-infographic-0946278

Looking back at 2014 Trends and forward to emerging 2015 Trends

Christian Lowe Blog Post - 2/13/2015 A company's digital marketing strategy must not focus solely on email and web campaigns because individuals are increasingly consuming media through their mobile devices (phones and tablets). Consequently, it is increasingly important for companies to establish strong mobile marketing campaigns that are compelling and rich in content to engage the mobile audience. Unlike the traditional digital campaigns, a successful mobile marketing campaign can be tricky to accomplish because the delievery mechanism generally offers a small display (i.e. a 3" screen vs. a computer monitor >=~15"). Therefore, it can be harder to fully attracted the consumer's attention unless the mobile messaging is compelling/visible enough to capture the individual's attention. This was a challenge that occured throughout 2014 and it seems that companies have established stronger practices in their mobile campaigns. An example of this can be seen through how a lot of mobile campaigns are now videos or brightly colored. In 2015, there have been a number of key trends that have emerged but one that is of particular interest to me is the move towards optimization of a customer's experience through advanced analytic techniques. Employing statistical modeling and predictive analytic techniques enable companies to better predict what are the important aspects of their consumers' preferences and experiences. Technological innovations and software advancements have made it easier for companies to perform multiple tests and create increasingly accurate prediction models for expected behaviors of their customers. Continued demmand for these techniques will further refine the capacity companies can target their customers and personalize the messaging to them. Below is a snip from a good article about the Top 10 Expected Digital Marketing Trends for 2015: http://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/marketing-innovation/digital-marketing-trends-2015/ From Conversion Optimization to Experience Optimization We are long-time advocates of structured AB and multivariate testing at Smart Insights. But these tools tend to focus on single pages in the journey rather than overall customer journeys, but they have increased hugely in their ease of setup and use recently. Tools that support analysis across customer journeys and channels are evolving: Most popular AB testing tools * Optimizely * Visual Website Optimizer * Unbounce Customer Journey Tools Content management systems are now improving in their facilities to personalise and test. * Adobe Customer Experience Manager * EPiServer * Sitecore Below is a snip from a good article about the Top 10 Expected Digital Marketing Trends for 2014: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2386192/10-digital-marketing-trends-for-2015 Mobile-First Marketing You'd be hard-pressed to find a list of marketing trends that doesn't include a mobile-first strategy. Most analysts agree that brands will have to put more thought into leveraging mobile technology in the coming months in order to create experiences that serve consumers' needs. Kathy Stromberg, vice president of marketing at Webtrends, agrees. "Marketers now have to find a way to make media concise and digestible enough to resonate for consumers who are on the go and viewing from a 3-inch screen," she says. "Best practices are still being developed, so the opportunity is around defining what works and what doesn’t in the evolving space of mobile."

The 5 Big Data Insights For Effective Social Selling

Christian Lowe Blog Post - 02/06/2015 Big Data, Data Mining and Predictive Analytics are no longer just buzz words or ephemeral trends. The wealth of data that is collected by companies is no longer just available to the "nerds" in the back office developing complex codes/algorithms to generate predictive models for the marketing teams. The cost to house vast amounts of data have dramatically come down dramatically as technological innovations have enabled even the layperson to access clean/actionable analytical insights into underlying trends contained within the sea of data. With this exciting age of increased access to deep insight into customer behavior and overal econometric trends, it is extremely important that marketers acknowledge and take advantage of the insight that can be gained. A similar trend that has developped almost contemporaneously has been the importance of Social Networking and its impact on how companies can reach customers as well as to gain insight into customer and their networks' preferences. The blending of analytics with social networking provides marketers with the ability to accurately gauge in real-time what are consumer preferences, what are emerging trends in buying behaviors and to predict the net lift a successful digital marketing campaign can have. A prime example of the impact of using analytics with social networking is when Starbucks decided to discontinue is popular holiday Pumpkin latte. This decision proved to be a very poor strategy as customers voiced their outrage. Traditionally, prior to social media and analytics, Starbucks may not have observed the impact of a horrible straegic decision for at least a month when monthly sales figures were released. Fortunately, Starbucks, armed with a strong analytics and social team was able to find out almost real-time through monitoring social networking sites (i.e. Twitter, Instagram, and Faceboook) that the decision to discontinue the Pumpkin latte was overwhelming unpopular and thus was able to reverse course almost immediately, thus saving potentially millions of lost revenue. A good article that highlights some of the key insights into using Big Data with Social Networking is below: http://www.business2community.com/social-selling/5-insights-increase-revenue-big-data-social-selling-infographic-01026894 The 5 Big Data Insights For Effective Social Selling While there is no limit to the breadth and granularity of information that can be gleaned from Big Data marketing analytics, marketers should at a minimum be looking to gain the following insights from data listening: 1.Who is buying: Buyers come in many shapes and sizes but generally can be boiled down to comprehensible “buyer personas” that marketing and sales teams can watch for, understand and serve. 2.Buyer sentiment: Find out what the various buyer personas are saying about your brand and products (and those of your competitors!) 3.What your buyers want: Find out what needs and products are trending and what buyers are asking for and complaining about online. 4.What information sources they use: Analyze data to see which sources of information various buyer personas turn to, and which information is most influential upon their purchase decisions. 5.The ‘Buyer’s Journey’: Perhaps more important than any of the other insights that marketers can deliver to sales is identification of the unique steps a buyer takes from inception to purchase. Knowing how buyers gather information, establish options and make decisions is the critical context that makes social selling programs tick. Utilizing the five insights gathered from Big Data and Social Listening, marketing departments can now arm sales with the information, attitudes and interests of each buyer persona and provide highly relevant content that is in line with these insights. The CMO should engage the VP of Sales to develop programs by which sales reps learn how, where and when to connect with buyers and prospects on LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media marketing channels. The ability for sales reps to reach buyers in a personalized way with the right content, in the right context, at the right moment is the secret sauce of sales. By listening to data, analyzing buyer behavior for key insights and arming sales teams with highly relevant information marketers today are in a unique position to reinvigorate the value that sales teams offer in the Big Data era.

Have the Machines Won? How Digital Assistants Will Affects Digital Marketing to 1 Billion + Mobile Users

Christian Lowe Blog Post 2 - 01/29/2015 "The world is home to more than a billion smartphone users.1 Internet platforms are bringing those billion people together to share ideas and cocreate millions of apps that entertain us, simplify our daily tasks, and nudge us toward healthier living. Through mobile devices—and soon, sensors and the Internet of Things—the crowd is becoming personal." With over 1 Bn mobile users currently and the advancements made in sourcing customer specific data on individual preferences, buying behaviors, etc. digital marketing is becoming much more tailored to the individual. There are expectations that further technological innovations will enhance the capacity that marketers have to reach individuals with tailored messaging in real-time to the individuals. While there is much apprehension currently ammong the general consumer about companies knowing too much about them, most people should, in time, find the immense benefits that tools like mobile assistants can have in enhancing individuals' lives through improving efficiencies, predicting needs and providing promotional opportunities otherwise not available. Research has concluded that those areas of our brains that compel us to buy products will also push us to begin offloading mundane decision making to digital assistants, which will make decisions for us based on a pre-defined set of filters (i.e. spending limits, demographic and psychographic details, monthly needs, etc.). These digital assistants will act like a human assistant would in that they would handle a lot of the tasks that we may not have time for (i.e. grocery shopping, back-to-school shopping, ordering office supplies) or do not feel inclined to waste our time doing. These digital assistants will employ complex algorithms that will predict our individual needs and respond accordingly. While this may scare people to invest so much trust into an app, especially with security breaches, in time, I believe that people will come to accept these digital assistants as much as they would with an actual human assistant, only that the digital assistant probably can be trusted more than an individual person who can forget to do things for you or is limited in his/her capacity to scour the internet for the best deals for you possible. It will be an interesting technological development as well as a development between the individual interacts with the digital market. As such, this will provide a wealth of opportunities for digital marketers to not just target people but to figure out the right messaging that would be accepted by these digital assistants as something that would be beneficial to individual. Promotional responses should become much more mathematical and therefore predictable if digital marketers are able to successfully crack how to reach these digital assistants in the near future. Should be very interesting how the industry develops! "Within the next two years, autonomous mobile assistant purchasing will reach $2 billion annually. That means about 2.5% of mobile users will trust their digital assistants with $50 per year. Digital assistants will be on multiple platforms; however, mobile will be the most accessible, adopted device for digital assistants and will be the “killer application” by the end of 2016." Good articles that discuss how customers are shopping and their expectations for mobile applications going forward: http://gartnernews.com/digital-assistants-go-shopping/ http://dupress.com/articles/personalizing-customer-experiences-analytics/