Practical approaches to connect you with consumers
The face of marketing looks entirely different from it did even a few years ago, and mastering the latest trends has become an ongoing struggle for marketers. But in the fight to stay innovative, many marketers lose sight of what really matters: truly understanding their audience.
Assuming that you know what your customers think is shortsighted. Like all humans, the needs, experiences, and expectations of clients and customers change. Taking the time to check in and discuss what’s important to them on a regular basis is the only way to deliver an experience that delights them.
Think about the last time you really felt heard. The person didn’t just listen patiently while you talked. She understood what you were saying and why. It felt pretty good, right?
Marketers who go above and beyond to make their customers feel heard tune in to underlying customer needs and desires. One…
Diners are expecting Personalisation, Rewards and Discounts in return for their loyalty
This research shows how Loyalty schemes and freebies can pay off for new restaurants or bars, and for established food and beverage companies focusing on customer retention. There are also some specific tips on email, mobile and social media marketing.
Coniq's research highlights the pay back businesses receive from loyalty programs, how rewards and incentives are expected by today's diners and what encourages them to return hungry for more.
This may seem second nature for some businesses, though the majority of UK restaurants are missing out as they still don’t offer a loyalty program, and customers would be 2x likely to return with a loyalty card.
Findings on loyalty habits showed that '80% of 1000 customers would return if they were offered a loyalty scheme’ and ‘70% of your social followers expect rewards.'
Coniq's CEO Ben Chesser said 'We have certainly seen…
Using the Three Cs Formula to engage your subscribers
The delete key is only seconds away, so how do you structure an email to avoid being deleted?
Eventbrite asked me to deliver email copywriting tips at the London Brite Space event, to help event marketers avoid the delete key and aid conversion.
As the copy tips are relevant to more than just event invitation emails and went down so well I thought I’d share them and slides here.
Stand in the readers shoes
Start by thinking from the readers’ perspective. The reader has simple questions:
1. What’s this email about?
2. Why should I care, what’s in it for me?
3. What action should I take?
Your job is to answer these questions – and quickly. Making sure the tone and voice is all about what the reader wants and not what you want. A simple…
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09 Feb 2015
Social media in 2015: The tech and trends to watch
You will have noticed that in the world of social media new tools and techniques change happens constantly. While we may now mercifully have a core of six key social networks, new social networks spring up while existing social platforms regularly introduce new functionality. All of this means that businesses need to keep their eye on the ball. If a new network or service emerges, or a social platform launches a new advertising tool, it could provide a valuable opportunity to improve engagement or provide new insight into customers and their opinions.
Last year was no exception, and there were several big stories from the world of social media that would have been of interest to businesses. For instance, 2014 was the year when social video – video content created by users with their smartphones – really hit the…
10 Email Marketing Experts recommend where to focus
When we ask readers which are the most important digital marketing techniques today, email marketing is always in the top three and getting increased budget in many companies. So, learning the latest email marketing approaches is important given the degree of competition and importance of new mobile email marketing approaches today.
'Even though email competes with organic and paid search for ecommerce orders, it delivers the highest sales volumes than social media or display'
As part of our new Email Marketing Trends 2015: A Visual Guide report we interviewed Email Marketing Experts from around the globe who are successfully delivering email marketing for their clients' brands and they enlightened us to how they feel companies should be maximising their email campaigns this year.
Here's a summary of their insight into their forecasts for 10 trends in email marketing we identified this year:
Trend 1: Simple Email design to work…
Ideas to turn Email Unsubscribes into Email 'Opt-Ins'
EmailMonks have another useful infographic here exploring creative ways renowned brands are including unsubscribes in their emails and retaining their lists. In their words 'at a point, where our readers have decided to opt-out, the most we can do, is take a chance by giving them a reason to stay! The company’s unsubscribe landing page should clearly state this ‘reason to stay’!
Their Infographic provides best practices, how to avoid known pitfalls and creative ways of managing this. Do you have a one click unsubscribe to save time or a preference centre. Take a look at how companies including Abercombie & Fitch and KissMetrics have become smarter at converting 'Opt-outs' to 'Opt-ins'.
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Although mobile opens are growing in importance, desktop clickthroughs dominate
This analysis of over 395 million sent via MailChimp reveals the impact of mobile devices on email engagement and how Responsive Design can improve email clickthrough rates (CTRs). We all know that mobile rendering is now important, but don't expect so many clicks from those emails read on mobile:
Email clicks are higher from desktops compared to the 'combined clicks from mobile and tablet devices' and desktop users click on more email links - unique CTRs are 40% higher on desktop compared to mobile.
So, the goal of emails rendered on mobile should be to make a big enough impact such that some readers will make a mental note to return to the email on desktop...
Their infographic shares more interesting email engagement facts as it's apparent that Email Marketers and Marketing Managers planning and designing their email marketing need to take on board these device differences,…
Three ways in which we can use social media insight to take action to improve our marketing
As social media continues to evolve, so too has the amount of data and insight available to marketers. From the ongoing development of tools such as Google Analytics, Sysomos and Salesforce.com, to the progression of native tools such as Facebook Insights, Twitter and Pinterest Analytics, marketers now have a wealth of social insight to choose from.
But as with all types of web or digital analytics , it’s essential that in order to make good business decisions we must take actionable insight from the social data we have available. Gone are the days when we could rely on top-level descriptive metrics such as the number of Likes or followers accrued over time and be able to report on what has happened.
Leaders and management now demand insight that demonstrates how social media is…
We ask is social media marketing "Mostly a waste of time"?
Are some marketers so obsessed by social media that they are not investing enough budget and attention on traditional advertising and marketing? This is what is increasingly being suggested by some commentators. For example, in this recent talk, Mark Ritson, Associate Professor of Marketing and Branding and Columnist on 'Marketing Week' acknowledges that 'social media is an amazing tool' but states that it is 'mostly a waste of time' and suggests that our focus is wrong when he says:
'Marketers are putting too much emphasis on social media due to the hype in the media, and are forgetting how powerful traditional advertising and marketing can be'.
http://youtu.be/S2NUayn2vP0
Some marketers and PR professionals like Nicola Swankie from Society felt the need to respond to his video on behalf of Social Media Practitioners. She responded in a …
Social Media Marketing campaign successes and failures
Every internet savvy person knows the potential of 'going viral' with content spread via social media. It’s about resonating your content so that it becomes popular, is shared and showcases your brand's reputation to improve your chances of your content being prominent, and engages with the right audience.
The infographic shares some examples of successful viral case studies and others which have flopped, along with their 'recipe for success'.
Thanks to BestMarketingDegrees.org for sharing their infographic and commentary with us. It's a resource guide for students, looking to follow a career in marketing and provides articles and graphics related to the latest development in the field of marketing.
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