Correlation vs causation in an email

Did you know… that global warming is caused by a decrease in the number of pirates in the ocean? That’s what the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster believe! Just look at the ‘proof’ – as the number of pirates decreased, the global average temperature has increased! This is a silly example but the same misattributions happens in many areas of culture, science and certainly in marketing. With the availability of big data, the abundance of reporting and analysis tools, increasing time pressure and increasing importance of proving ROI; it can be easy to look at results and jump to conclusions. Seeing a correlation and assuming a causation is one of the most common examples of this.

Recognising correlations

We’re presented with correlations all the time, to the extent that people often want us to assume that one factor caused…

An alert about LinkedIn Sponsored Job Listings

Importance: ★★★ Recommended link: LinkedIn Sponsored Job Listings An alert to let you know about LinkedIn sponsored job listings if you're not aware of them. We get quite a few questions about how to expand awareness of new roles outside of traditional recruitment, so thought we'd share this option. These listings are now showing in the main feed on the member’s homepage where historically, they were only accessible in the ‘Jobs You May Be Interested in’ on the homepage and to email subscribers.

'The benefit to these listings is that they have the capability of reaching those who may not be actively looking for work, but happen across the job recommendation on the site or via email, and decide to learn more or apply' These will…

A case study showing how to research the impact of Facebook on sales

The journey of measuring Facebook success has been fast paced. It started with how big your fan page was (counting likes), then to visits from social profiles, to getting very excited by the concept of Engagement Rate. Some opinion believes social media is best used to drive brand awareness, others for customer service. And there are brands that use Facebook as a successful sales channel. There have been frameworks and methodologies as well as plenty of "proof" (largely published by service providers in the social media industry), yet the fact still remains that demonstrating the value of a Facebook page or Twitter account is still hard in 2013, especially if you're not a retail brand. The reason? For travel brands like us it's hard to imagine that anyone is going to see a post of ours on Facebook, click through…

...and what they mean for your own emails

Email marketing has been around a while. Anything with a long history inevitably picks up its own set of truths, half-truths, beliefs, myths, best practices, rules, guidelines and even jokes. A new infographic from Alchemy Worx highlights seven myths. Here's what they look like, followed by my quick review of the practical implications for your own email efforts.

My take on these myths... Yours?

As you might expect, there are plenty of nuances when it comes to analysing the implications of these myths, but here is one simple takeaway to go with each.

Myth 1: Consumers are drowning in emails from trusted brands

If people aren't getting that much brand email, then getting a piece of that inbox pie is critical. Are you making special efforts to promote your list to those who already have a good (customer)…

Do you dare ask your mailing list if they want to unsubscribe?

In this post, I'll veer away from my usual advice and updates on Facebook, although Facebook does feature. This is the story of what some might think is pretty much the anathema of a good marketer... I proactively tried to reduce the size of my mailing list. Why? Well a number of reasons, the idea was initially driven by the fact that we were about to go over a monthly price threshold in our email provider's pricing options. At the same time the list felt like it was getting a bit dated with open rates languishing and some names having been with us for up to a decade. We'd recently done a competition which rewarded people for referring "friends". It was clear from a look through some of these email addresses that they were in fact second or third emails…

It isn’t news that people are exposed to more ideas than ever before. This is due to the fact that people are exposed to more media than ever before. It is through the media (newspapers, television, radio, the internet and more specifically the social media…) that ideas are spread, but sheer quantity makes it difficult to be seen and heard above all of the noise.

In this climate, what can you do to make your ideas stand out?

Two people who have attempted to answer this question are brothers Chip and Dan Heath. There came a point when the brothers realised that despite working in very different fields, they had both reached a stage where they were trying to answer the same question: ‘why do some ideas stick while others fail?’ This question became the title of…

5 Tips for getting key employees involved in Content Marketing

Do you remember the scene in 'Far and Away' where Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman race against hundreds of people in wagons and on horseback to stake their claim in the Oklahoma Land Rush? Now, pretend all those men and women are CEOs for companies in one industry, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what the current race to establish thought leadership is like.

Everyone wants to be considered the Thought Leader in his industry, and just like the Oklahoma Land Rush, it’s a lot easier to establish yourself than it is to replace someone who’s already claimed that spot. Content marketing, if done correctly, leads to Thought Leadership for a brand. If you’re putting out engaging content that…

What social media marketing can learn from real-life networking events

One of the oldest forms of sales and marketing is to go to a real-life in-person networking event. While these real-life networking events don’t have all of the efficiency and measurability of social media marketing, if you’re looking to get more sales leads from your social media marketing efforts, there are a lot of tips and ideas that we can learn from being in a room with real people.

Using social media in networking events

Here are some ways that real-life networking events can inspire us to get better results from social media marketing: 1. Find out 'who should I meet?' When you go to a real-life networking event, it doesn’t do any good to just scurry around the room trying to talk with anyone and everyone. Instead, you should use a focused approach.Find a short list of 5-10 companies that you would definitely…

Follow Facebook conversations and key trends with #hashtag

Following the introduction of the new Facebook #hashtag this Summer, we have looked at how it's being used for Facebook content marketing. This infographic from Prestige Marketing's also prompts new ideas about using the approach. It's interesting to see some examples of how marketers have been gaining traction since the beginning, and using it successfully to track trending conversations at different stages of their planning and campaigns. …

New survey challenges the myths about consumer email relevancy

Each year, the UK's DMA, fast.MAP and Alchemy Worx produce the Email Tracking Report, covering email attitudes and email-related behaviours among consumers.

The 2013 survey results challenge a few myths about consumer inboxes. For example, of those signed up to at least some mail from brands, almost half of consumers (48%) get less than three a day on average.

Below the report's infographic from the DMA I will look at some specific charts around email relevancy, which have some surprises! I wrote the summary and commentary for the survey so I can recommend some of the most useful data points.

How relevant are marketing emails?

One of the many messages of the report is that consumers distinguish between "marketing mails" in general and the marketing mails they actually get. Putting it simplistically, ask people if they like emails…