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Anonymity of Internet Brings Out Different Behaviors in PeopleA study from Euro RSCG Worldwide showed that people are more likely to behave more differently online than they would during face-to-face interactions. About 43% of respondents feel less inhibited online, according to research.With people displaying less inhibited behaviors, brand marketers need to remain aware of how brand messaging is being distributed over the Internet, as consumers can display positive and negative behaviors. A little over 30% of consumers feel more empowered over the Internet to do things they have been wanting to do. Approximately one-fifth of the survey's respondents had already negatively spoken out about or at a company and its brand.  However, it is important to realize the stigma associated with online social networking is disappearing. For example, 57.6% of respondents disagreed with the statement that "online socializing is for sad, antisocial types." Finally, 48.7% of Internet users also find online interaction more convenient than offline interaction. Despite these results, it is important to blend offline elements into a marketing campaign in order to alleviate any negativity consumers have exhibited about a brand via social media.  Source: eMarketer; November 30, 2009Labels: Internet Behavior, Social Media, Social Networking 0 comments. Click here to post comments. E-Mail and Social Media Marketing Popular Among Small BusinessesAlmost 75% of small businesses have included increased expenditure on e-mail marketing as one of their New Year's resolutions, according to a VerticalResponse survey. Following close behind, many smaller companies plan an increase in utilization of social media as an online marketing tactic, with almost 7 out of 10 agreeing that there are many benefits to be cited by employing such a strategy. Conversely, over 70% of companies polled planned on cutting back on or getting rid of online banner advertising altogether. The continued interest in e-mail marketing stems from the beliefs held by many small businesses of the benefits it can provide. The most commonly held opinion by those organizations who already participate in this marketing strategy is that it is an effective way of obtaining new prospects. This is also the most popular belief of small business that soon plan a foray into this field.  However, corporations that are currently in the process of implementing an e-mail marketing strategy do not see it as beneficial in terms of ROI or as a source of feedback on current campaigns, contrary to the opinion of small businesses with already established programs. Source: eMarketer, November 24, 2009 Labels: Email Marketing, Marketing Trends 0 comments. Click here to post comments. E-Mails Need to Be Relevant to ConsumersIrrelevance is the number one reason consumers are unsubscribing to e-mail newsletters, according to a report by CMO Council and InfoPrint Solutions Company. Nine out of ten consumers have claimed to unsubscribe from e-mail newsletters that they could not relate to. Additionally, 23% of consumers say they receive too much e-mail in their inbox. On the other hand, there are e-mails more consumers always open. Seventy-two percent of Internet consumers always open monthly bills, followed by 60% who open bank statements. Liz Miller, Vice President of Programs and Operations at the CMO Council, notes that irrelevance is a waste and should be a warning to marketers that consumers will disconnect from brands who deliver messages demonstrating "a lack of intimacy, customer insight and individual understanding."Source: eMarketer; November 23, 2009 Labels: Email Marketing 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Coupons Increase E-Mail Open RateAccording to a recent eMarketer article "coupons are cool." Though consumers have always sought out deals online, the recession has caused them to continue spendthrift ways.Studies by Experian have shown that consumers are more likely to open an e-mail if it includes a coupon. Coupon e-mails had open rates of 24% to 25%, while non-coupon campaigns only had open rates of about 16% to 18%.  Furthermore, higher open rates translated into higher click rates; e-mails containing coupons have a click-through rate of about 4%. Experian estimates nearly two-thirds of households use online coupons - almost a 46% growth in the past three years. Source: eMarketer; Thursday, November 19, 2009 Labels: Email Marketing, Internet Behavior 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Becoming Friends With BrandsOnline brand interaction has proved to be powerful: at least 97% of consumers have been influenced to buy a product or service from a certain brand after an online experience.A Razorfish study discovered that connected consumers - people who visit a community site, engage digital media and spent at least $150 online - were somehow connected to brands. Approximately 40% of these consumers have "friended" brands on Facebook or MySpace. The primary reason for this was to receive special offers and discounts for a brand's product or service.  Effects of "friending" a brand on Facebook or MySpace included recommending the brand to others, raised awareness and actually purchasing the brand's product or service. Source: eMarketer; November 18, 2009Labels: Facebook, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Twitter a "Missed Opportunity" for Fortune 100 CompaniesAn interesting report from Weber Shandwick indicates that many Fortune 100 companies are still not taking full advantage of Twitter's popularity to connect with consumers, despite Twitter large user base.The report points out that 50 million people worldwide currently use Twitter. Out of the 540 Fortune 100 Twitter accounts analyzed (owned by a total of 73 companies), 76% do not update often and 52% do not actively engage in the popular microblogging site. Why aren't companies using Twitter to its full potential if millions use Twitter? Those companies that had active Twitter accounts were not making Tweets interesting enough to engage consumers; only about one-third of the accounts had a personality, which included the name and picture of whoever posted the Tweets. The report also looked at the number of Tweets a company posted to its account. Seventy-six percent of the accounts had between 0 and 500 Tweets. Only a tiny percentage of blogs analyzed (1%) had 10,000+ posts. Weber Shandwick noted that companies are more likely to engage consumers the higher the amount of Tweets of value the company posts.  Read Weber Shandwick's full report, "Do Fortune 100 Companies Need a 'Twitter-Vention?".Source: cnet News; November 17, 2009 Source: Weber Shandwick Labels: Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Seniors Most Likely to Conduct E-Commerce ActivitySeniors are no stranger when it comes to the Internet. Data from the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) indicates that seniors are extremely Web-savvy when it comes to a wide range of Web activity, including e-mail, shopping online and reading news.At least 94% of those over the age of 65 use e-mail, followed by 77% of seniors using the Internet for shopping. Out of all age groups, seniors were most likely to carry out any e-commerce activity.  Despite seniors being the most likely to engage in e-commerce activities, their Internet presence is much smaller compared to baby boomers. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 11% of US Internet users were ages 64 and older. On the other hand, 28.8% (about 57.4 million) of Internet users were ages 45 to 63.Like seniors, baby boomers are quite Web-savvy, participating in various activity such as checking e-mail, shopping online, reading news and finding information.  Source: eMarketer; November 16, 2009Labels: E-commerce, Internet Behavior, Internet Demographics, Internet Usage 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Online Retailers Get Ready for Consumer SpendingDespite a long road ahead to recovery from the recession, online retailers are about to invest in advanced e-commerce applications to ensure consumers receive a superior online shopping experience.According to Internet Retailer and Vovici Corp., seven out of 10 online merchants plan to spend more on e-commerce applications and services this year. At least 38.5% of all respondents to the survey seek to add or replace applications in areas of content management. Additionally, 37% who responded to the survey plan to improve or add customer review and rating applications or develop more personalized online shopping experiences for consumers. Other applications online retailers want to add or replace include site searches, live chats and order management.  In reference to advanced models, social marketing is a high priority for online retailers, with 49.5% of respondents planning to develop social media applications for consumers. It is important that online retailers keep up with changing technology in order to ensure consumers are satisfied with their shopping experience. Any difficulties consumers face in shopping online may result in lost business for retailers. Source: eMarketer; November 13, 2009 Labels: E-commerce, Retail 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Social Media Use on Mobile Devices Provides Opportunity for MarketersOne of the fastest-growing mobile Internet activities, social networking, proves to have great impact on mobile Internet usage.There will be an estimated 141.1 million mobile social network users worldwide by the end of 2009. That number is expected to skyrocket by 2014 to approximately 760.1 million, almost half of the mobile Internet user population.  According to a July 2009 report, Facebook is the top social network website users access on mobile Internet, with a 6.1% reach. MySpace, YouTube and Twitter take the second, third and fourth spots, respectively. Though the mobile and social media channels are still emerging, causing premature estimates, the impressive numbers and promising user base open up developing opportunities for marketers. Some marketers have prepared to incorporate these channels into their marketing mix strategies, although programs are small and in experimental stages.Source: eMarketer; November 12, 2009 Labels: Mobile Web, Online Media, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Younger Women Adapt to Social Media Easier than Older WomenA report entitled “Why Y Women?” by PopSugar and Radar Research indicates that Generation Y women are more likely to turn to their peers for brand information and product reviews, rather than experts and celebrities, unlike Generation X women.Forty-two-percent of Gen Y women discover brands and products through social networking and status update websites, compared to only 22% of Gen X women. Additionally, Gen Y women are more influenced by blogs written by professionals as well as people they can relate to. On the other end of the spectrum, Gen X women (66%) are most likely to hear about product and brand information through an online newspaper or magazine.  Furthermore, the report says that 69% of Gen Y women call friends or tell them in-person about new products and brands; however, it is interesting to note that they are more likely to use social media resources to spread information about new findings than Gen X. For example, 28% of Gen Y will use a social networking site to share information about brands and products they like, versus 15% of Gen X. Source: eMarketer; November 11, 2009Labels: Blogs, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0 0 comments. Click here to post comments. For Those Looking to Save Money Traveling, Online is the First StopFor those traveling this year, one of the biggest concerns is saving money. At least 52% of people in an About.com survey do not plan to even travel this year. Of those who do decide to travel, 46% are searching for travel deals online prior to a trip.Other ways people are using the Internet to save money on leisure travel include seeking less expensive hotels, meals and activities. Forty-five-percent of respondents stay close to home and use the Internet to research local activities, such as festivals, parks and picnics.  Another trend among those who desire to save money is that they are more attentive to online advertisements featuring discounts on more expensive items. Seventy-percent of respondents will pay attention to an online ad featuring an airfare discount, for example. Additionally, 67% of respondents are likely to click on an ad emphasizing discounts in hotel accommodations. A September report by PhoCusWright and Compete indicated that traffic and conversion rates had increased in Q2 in travel categories.“Consumers are certainly spending less, but they are not giving up travel, nor are they turning away from the Web sites that offer them the selection and convenience they value,” said Carroll Rheem, director of research at PhoCusWright. Source: eMarketer; November 10, 2009 Labels: Internet Behavior, Search Behavior 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Using Digital Health ServicesWould you use digital health care services if given the opportunity? In a CTIA – The Wireless Association and Harris Interactive poll, about two-thirds of Internet users would use mobile health services if available to the public, with 23% actually replacing in-person doctor visits with mobile health care.Respondents are most interested in mobile exams and consultations, followed by mobile wellness care, according to an index of what mobile healthcare options users would be willing to pursue. The poll indicates users are least interested in using mobile healthcare for infant monitoring. Respondents also indicated that people in remote locations or with chronic conditions would benefit most from a mobile healthcare system.  In another survey by Lightspeed Research, focused on patient-doctor communication, almost half of the respondents saw e-mail had an advantage in communicating with their primary care physician, mostly due to its ability to save time. Fifty-nine-percent of respondents saw e-mail as a way to avoid timely in-person doctor consultations, and 56% said e-mail would allow them to wait less time for an appointment. Other reasons why respondents preferred e-mail communication with doctors included avoidance of other ill patients in waiting rooms, the opportunity to save money and transportation costs and not miss work and less public embarrassment.  Source: eMarketer; November 9, 2009Labels: Internet Behavior, Mobile Web, New Technology 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Consumers, Brands and Social MediaSocial media plays a role in how consumers are learning more about certain brands according to a joint study by Performics, the marketing branch of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi Nerve Center, and ROI Research, an analytics and technology firm.Research shows that Twitter drives most consumers to look for a product on a search engine, with 48% searching for the product after reading about it on the popular micro-blogging website, compared to only 34% on other social media sites. Michael Kahn, Performics Marketing Senior Vice President, said, "Being in a social network is like going to someone's barbecue. People are talking about the experiences of their lives. The sharing experience that happens in the physical world also happens in the social." Likewise, 30% of 3,000 active social networkers admitted to learning about a product, brand or service on a social network site such as Facebook and Twitter. Twenty-five-percent actually visited an online retailer's website after learning about the product on social media sites. Forty-four-percent of survey respondents have already recommended a product on Twitter and 46% claim they would recommend a product on Facebook. Consumers are more tolerant of brand marketing messages than previously thought and open to online interaction in regards to various products, services and brands. To read more about how consumers are finding out about and recommending brands, read Laurie Sullivan's full article here. Source: MediaPost Publications, Online Media Daily; November 5, 2009 Labels: Facebook, Internet Behavior, Search Behavior, Social Media, Twitter 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Internet is a Major Influencer in Car PurchasesWhen you are looking to buy a car, where is the first place you look? A report by J.D. Power and Associates shows that in 2009, about 46% of used-car buyers searched the Internet for information about cars.Though many buyers visit car dealerships to research potential purchases, the report shows that there is a higher purchasing rate when buyers shop for used-cars online versus at a dealership, with 31% making online purchases (compared to 28% at a dealership).  The Internet has been a major influencer in buyers' car purchases, perhaps due to the wealth of information available at buyers' fingertips. Buyers do not have to leave home and can easily sort through information to find cars that best align with their specifications. Another study by Ad-ology specifies which media channels buyers are influenced by in making a vehicle purchase. Car manufacturer websites are the biggest influence in online car purchases, having played a role in just under 50% of vehicle purchases. Other key influencers include dealership and auto classified websites.  However consumers decide to purchase their next vehicle, the Internet has certainly had a major impact on their car-buying decisions. Source: eMarketer; November 5, 2009 Labels: Internet Behavior 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Massive Revenue Growth Ahead for FacebookFacebook's revenue is expected to surpass $500 million by the end of 2009, a number that is only a fraction of what Google generated last year - $21.7 billion; however, with the right strategy, Facebook may very well find themselves on the same level as larger, publicly traded tech companies.According to a study by Piper Jaffray & Co., local online advertising spending is expected to increase over the next few years, with an estimated $19.18 billion in spending by 2013, compared to only $14.47 billion in spending for national online advertising.  Since local businesses have repeatedly found success with Facebook's advertising platform, Facebook can dominate the local advertising space if the trend continues. Furthermore, with a growth in brand advertising space and a solid virtual platform, it is likely Facebook's revenue will eventually match or even surpass Google's. Though there has been some uproar due to Facebook's continually changing platform, the social media site maintains a large active user base that will enable a revenue explosion. Click here to read the Unofficial Facebook Resource blog post. Source: The Unofficial Facebook Resource; November 4, 2009 Source: eMarketer; November 3, 2009 Labels: Advertising Spending, Facebook 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Younger Generations and Internet-Ready People Use Twitter the MostStudies by the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that 33% of adults ages 18 to 29 are updating their statuses online using Twitter and other popular social networking websites. These findings contrast earlier studies by Pew that users ages 30 to 49 made up the primary group of Twitter-users. Further research indicates that younger audiences are embracing Twitter and constantly updating their statuses. In May 2009 Sysomos reported 66% of Twitter users who revealed their age were under 25.The Pew study also shows a trend among those who own multiple Internet-connected devices: the more Internet-ready devices users have, the more likely they will update their statuses. Likewise, of those who own four or more devices, 39% use Twitter or another status update social network website. On the other hand, only 10% of users who own one device are updating their statuses.  Source: eMarketer, November 3, 2009Labels: Social Media, Twitter 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Paid Social Networking Revenue Expected to IncreaseAccording to Piper Jaffray, paid social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, Classmates.com and MyLife.com, are doing well and are expected to increase in revenue by 2013.In 2008, paid social media accounted for approximately $502 million in revenue. That number is expected to increase by 25% at the end of 2009 to $627 million. Piper forecasts that number to more than double to $1.4 billion by 2013 as a result of a combination of new, paid services from existing social media networks and increased use of premium services on websites such as LinkedIn and Classmates.com.  Social media leaders predict the best way to monetize social media is to offer a "freemium" service; that is, offer users the ability to access basic features for free, but charge a fee for premium content. For example, LinkedIn allows users to post job experience and browse other profiles at no fee; however, they must pay for a premium account to maximize search results, better organize contacts and contact certain people. These findings also present an opportunity for free social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to explore revenue streams for users willing to pay for such services. The eMarketer report suggests users are willing to pay for content on social media websites as long as they "cater to specific market niches as opposed to broader, mainstream audiences."Source: eMarketer, November 2, 2009 Labels: Social Media, Social Networking 0 comments. Click here to post comments. |
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