 |
|
Archives
|
Delivery Timing of Communications Pivotal in any Email Marketing CampaignAccording to a new research study put out by email delivery auditing and optimization firm Pivotal Veracity, the timing of delivery for communications in an email marketing campaign can be as, if not more, important than the actual relevancy and content of the messages themselves. The time of day, day of the week, and month of the year can all have a significant influence on the success of one’s campaign. Yet often times these factors are overlooked or downplayed, resulting in a limited engagement level from your target recipients, and an unnecessarily restricted ROI.Pivotal Veracity’s Engagement Index found that financial services, technology and communications firms tended to be most successful in holding the interest of their recipients, whereas retail, travel and hospitality companies struggled to engage users with their communications. Retail and travel marketers, however, were more apt to being effected by seasonality changes. Travel communications engagement received a nice boost in the months of April and May, just before the summer vacation season jumped into full swing, whereas retail outlets saw their biggest rebound in August as consumers returned to work and school.  Pivotal Veracity’s study also found that many email recipients, especially in the B2C sector, do not access their personal mailboxes as much as their work accounts. “The average elapsed time between when messages are first sent to when they are first seen grew from 23.2 hours in January to 25.9 in August,” Pivotal Veracity says. This significant increase means that in general, consumers will not see your message for more than 24 hours. This could spell major trouble for any marketer who relies on time sensitive campaigns in order to get their key brand messages across.  Importance and appeal of communications is a major player in determining how much time elapses between when a consumer receives a message to when he or she actually reads it. Pivotal Veracity’s Email Engagement Index technology found that travel marketers’ messages came in at the highest appeal and importance between the months of March and April, with an average elapsed time of 2.9 hours. Retailers on the other hand struggled during the month of August, coming in at almost 5 hours of elapsed time between when a communication was received, till when it was actually read.  The Relevancy & Response metric measures the percentage of email that is actually read and engaged with. Coming out on top with a 34% read rate, not surprisingly, were the communications of financial institutions, who often send out critical and time sensitive correspondence. Travel and hospitality fared the worst, which was only able to garner an 18% read rate from their target consumers.  Finally, contact frequency and deliverability can be an important metric for comparing your campaign performance with competitors. In addition, it can act as a source of discovery for any disconnect that may occur between the number of communications sent versus the number of emails found in a target consumer’s inbox. Here, retail and travel marketers come out on top, demonstrating a much higher message velocity of 4.8 and 3.7 messages a month respectively. Financial and technology communications, who as mentioned before both command a high read rate, also tended to be distributed the least amount per month, with only 2 and 2.6 emails on average being delivered to their intended target.  Multiple factors go in to creating and sustaining a successful email marketing campaign, and Pivotal Veracity’s report only stands to strongly reinforce this point. No longer can content alone attract and retain the interest of your target consumers. Instead, strategic distribution, time relevancy, and frequency of communication all play an increasingly important role in triggering desired consumer response and boosting ROI. Labels: Email Marketing 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Android Users vs. Apple UsersA study by comScore and Compete demonstrates similar usage patterns between Android smartphone users and Apple iPhone users.The percentage gap between both smartphone brands among users who consume mobile media is small, with 94% of Apple users and 92% of Android users engaging in mobile media. On the other hand, only 63% of Android users checked e-mail on their device, while 87% of Apple users used their phones for e-mail. This represents the largest percentage gap between Android and Apple users.  Smartphone applications have played a pivotal role in the success of Apple iPhones as well as the Android device. Fifty-two percent of Apple users and 44% of Android users spend most of their time using phone applications versus a web browser. Source: eMarketer; December 28, 2009 Labels: New Technology 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Internet Users Ready for Convergence of TV and OnlineDeloitte’s “State of the Media Democracy” reveals that users are ready for Internet and television to merge. Sixty-five percent of users in 2009 want to connect their TVs to the Internet, a 7-percentage-point increase from 2008. Millennials - those ages 14 to 26 - represent the largest group to welcome the merging of Internet and television, with 74% interested in connecting their TVs to the Internet. The recession has caused an increased demand for in-home entertainment. Most Internet users watched 18 hours of TV per week on average.TV also has the largest impact on buying decisions of Internet users in the US, having an influence in 83% of Internet users' purchases. Magazines, online sites and newspapers also played a large role in purchasing decisions.  Source: eMarketer; December 22, 2009Labels: Internet Behavior 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Americans Would Watch Television Ads for MoneyA majority of Americans dislike watching ads on television; however, a study shows that Americans would continue watching these ads if they were paid to do so.Almost three-quarters of Americans believe that there is too much advertising on television. Forty-four percent of American viewers skip television ads more than they did in previous years, either by changing the channel or muting the TV. Despite the opinions of American television viewers, 52% would watch these skipped ads if they were paid. According to an article on MediaBuyerPlanner, a form of payment might be a discount on viewers' cable television bills. Survey respondents also discussed their opinions on technology monitoring viewer habits in order to better target television and online ads. Thirty-two percent of Americans feel comfortable with the technology, as long as it does not collect personal data; however, 35% of Americans are not interested in this technology at all. Click here to read the full article. Labels: advertising tactics 0 comments. Click here to post comments. From the Facebook Press RoomWith 350 million active users, Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites on the web. As a result, users generate a wealth of content as the site continues to grow into an international phenomenon. Here are just a few of the interesting statistics that you may have not known about Facebook.Company Figures
Labels: Facebook 0 comments. Click here to post comments. College Students Still Appreciate FacebookThough statistics have proven Facebook's fastest growing audience is primarily older generations, Facebook continues to keep its cool among college students, according to an Anderson Analytics survey.Facebook is the favorite website among college students in 2009, with almost 28% listing the social network site as their top choice. This is a large increase since 2005, when only 8.2% of college students picked Facebook as their top website. Only 6.3% of students chose Google, which came in second, as their favorite website of all.  Though websites and word-of-mouth are two of the most popular ways to obtain product information, social networks prove to be valuable information sources as well. Fifty-eight percent of females and 44% of males obtain product information from social networking sites such as Facebook.  Source: eMarketer; December 15, 2009 Labels: Facebook, Social Media, Social Networking 0 comments. Click here to post comments. US Online Ad Spending Set to Drop for 2009For the first time since 2002, online advertising spending in the US is set to drop by 4.6%, with marketers spending $22.4 billion in 2009, compared to $23.4 billion in 2008. However, due to a recovering economy and changes in how marketers and public use media, online ad spending is expected to grow 5.5% to $23.6 billion in 2010. Each component of online ad spending reacts differently to these changes. For instance, classified ad spending is supposed to decline 30.2% in 2009, while video ad spending will grow between 34% to 45% each year between 2009 and 2014. The high growth rate in video ad spending is most likely due to videos becoming a main form of digital brand advertising.  Unfortunately, total media advertising spending will decline by 14.6% in 2009, with an estimated spending of $163 billion - the lowest total since 1999 - according to a report by eMarketer. Source: eMarketer; December 11, 2009Labels: Advertising Spending, Online Media 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Digital Point-of-Sale Media Influences ConsumersA number of in-store factors influence US consumers when making consumer packaged goods (CPG) purchasing decisions. Thirty-nine percent are influenced by shopper loyalty programs and 34% are influenced by flyers; however, digital point-of sale media has a major impact on consumers' purchasing decisions, according to an eMarketer report. CPG brands use digital point-of-sale media such as in-store video to promote product benefits, qualities and health messages. The technology also allows CPG marketers to monitor data in real-time to track sales, analyze ROI and tweak messaging. Marketers hope to better connect with consumers and turn them into loyal brand users. Source: eMarketer; December 8, 2009 Labels: New Media, New Technology, ROI 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Behavioral Targeting the Solution to Consumer Ad Avoidance?A global media and advertising study found that consumers tended to avoid ads whenever possible. Two-thirds felt there were too many ads on television, and 39% felt there were too many online ads.The study included respondents from the US and Canada. US consumers were 44% more likely than last year to skip ads when watching television or listening to the radio, compared to only 41% more of Canadians.  One solution to consumers' tendencies to avoid ads is behavioral targeting, or making ads more relevant to consumers according to their interests; however, due to Internet privacy concerns, implementing behavioral targeting may be a challenge. Consumers may find themselves resistant and require more transparency from marketers, therefore rejecting behavioral targeting. Other advertising-related activities included consumers' involvement with social media. In terms of social networking, the change in activity compared to last year showed a small increase, with 9% more promoting a brand or ad on Facebook and 4% more following a brand on Twitter. Source: eMarketer; December 7, 2009 Labels: advertising tactics, Marketing Trends 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Social Media is a Marketing SuccessAccording to marketing pros, social media has found success as adoption and awareness continue an upward trend. A majority of companies have reported to be familiar with social networking, with ninety-one percent using at least one social media tool in 2009.Social networking and blogging have shown impressive growth in 2009, by 80% and 45% respectively. Twitter has also shown strong growth in 2009, although reports from 2007 and 2008 are not available.  Wikis, blogs and social networks have topped the list of types of social media tools companies have successfully adopted. These companies were primarily using social media to measure hits, comments, leads or sales. Studies also show how private companies are quickly adopting social media into their marketing plans. This year, nine percent of Inc. 500 companies did not use social media, compared to 43% in 2007. Source: eMarketer; December 2, 2009 Labels: Marketing Trends, Social Media, Social Networking 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Retailers Planning Holiday Marketing StrategiesThis holiday season, retailers are resorting to more traditional marketing tactics, such as paid search and e-mail marketing, to achieve company sales objectives. With the economy in a recession, it is important for retailers to successfully execute these strategies. Fifty-five percent of CMOs at leading US retailers plan to focus on e-mail promotions this holiday season, according to an October 2009 survey by BDO Seidman. Other strategies retailers are likely to focus on include free shipping offers, search engine optimization and social networking. Though social media usage is increasing at the highest rate this holiday season, a small portion of online retailers do not plan to incorporate sites such as Facebook and MySpace in an overall marketing strategy. On the other hand, 100% of retailers will send e-mails to their house lists, and a majority (63.9%) will not include mobile phone alerts in marketing strategies. Due to a disconnect between ads clicked and the company landing page, some of these efforts are not as successful as they have the potential to be. For example, two-thirds of advertisers did not have a landing page relevant to purchased keywords, causing misdirected searches. In order to avoid this, retailers need to improve landing pages and increase visibility of marketing messages on e-commerce websites.Source: eMarketer; December 1, 2009 Labels: E-commerce, Email Marketing, Marketing Trends 0 comments. Click here to post comments. |
Blog Search
Categories
|
| Blog Home | Social Media Map | Schedule a Seminar | eMarketing Blog | Contact Bloggers | © 2002-2010 Overdrive. All Rights Reserved. |