By
15 Jan 2015
Social Media - One Word to Unlock the Insight Potential
That word is segmentation. In a previous post on Smart Insights, I highlighted the various sources of intelligence achievable through social media analytics and possible ways to measure them. Here I take a step back and discuss how those sources of intelligence are obtained through the careful segmentation of data.
The focus will be on the following media:
Earned social media (PR and customer generated)
Owned social media (both your channels and that of competitors)
Paid social media (e.g. using social case to inform paid promotions)
Unclaimed social media (e.g. related topics that may not mention your brand).
Below are some of the sources of intelligence that were addressed previously but segmented by business function to accomplish varying business needs.
Segmenting data will allow you to slice and dice information to enable greater insight for multiple stakeholders. It can therefore accommodate for different…
How well do businesses really know their customers?
As consumer expectations for relevant content and offers grow as they experience top retailers such as Amazon, companies need to focus even more on customer experience through relevant communications.
When completing our Managing Digital Marketing in 2015 research we were interested to see how well companies do understand their customers since many respondents said that improving use of CRM and applying Big Data concepts was a priority for this year.
We asked businesses which of the classic segmentation and targeting techniques they used to target their customers using online marketing, for example targeted emails or web-based personalisation.
The results show that, overall businesses are long way from the 360 degree customer view and personalised customer lifecycle marketing that many have discussed for a long time.
As marketers we see a lot of examples about how we should improve…
Are you tapping into the potential of niche social media communities?
Social media marketing still represents a key opportunity for most of us, despite the hype that's only been intensifying since 2012.
You might feel you've missed the boat, that you should be doing more. Depending on your progress, your market and your competitors, this will hold true to varying degrees.
Like the Digital Marketing Radar, which we featured yesterday in our update reviewing all the Smart Insights 'mindtool' infographics to review the opportunity of digital marketing, the Social Media Marketing Radar infographic helps show you the types of social sites you can consider. You can also download our full set of 10 infographics.
The radar helps focuses attention and resources on the sites appearing towards its centre, as these sites are generally agreed on as the most important within a business.
In this post I'll also explain why it's important to look beyond…
Does our business need CRM or Marketing Automation, or both?
Whilst most of us are now familiar with CRM (customer relationship management) systems, Marketing Automation is a relatively new approach. So it's often not clear how the scope of these marketing techniques and the tools used to manage them vary. In this post I'll introduce each and look to show the main difference.
At the heart of both CRM and Marketing Automation is the need to manage your customer relationships. By keeping data about our customers we are able to get to know them better over a period of time, developing better relationships, which leads to greater profitability.
Managing customer relationships
Managing customer relationships relies on our ability collect, store and manage customer data, and then and trigger business processes which lead to sales. So whether it’s a filing drawer, an excel spreadsheet, a CRM system such as Salesforce…
Plus how one post got a reach of over 400%
There's not a lot that Facebook offers brands for free any more but here's a little known technique that might just net you a few new fans without having to shell out any advertising spend.
Most reasonably popular posts on a brand's Facebook Page end up surfacing occasionally on the newsfeed of non fans - normally in the form of a notification that a friend has liked or commented on the post. With a really popular post you'll often find a domino effect whereby you pick up Likes to the post from the non fan too. What a fantastic opportunity to convert to fandom. But how to do it?
It's actually pretty simple. Take the post below. Now we have just over 10,500 fans on the Musicademy Facebook Page but I'd picked up on a news story that I knew would appeal…
By
27 Dec 2014
Examples showing how screencasts can help different types of business
Screencast videos are already a big hit in the education industry. Tuning into a video demonstration gives your audience a step-by-step guide, showing them exactly what to do.
This is exactly how big providers such as Khan Academy and Treehouse got started.
But screencasting doesn’t just have to be about how-to videos, it’s also a powerful tool that can be used to create clever customer-focussed videos or provide feedback on client assignments.
This means that the technology has applications across a range of industries for businesses of all sizes.
What is a screencast video?
Essentially, screencasting is recording your computer screen and adding audio to it.
Screencast programs usually highlight your cursor to make it clear to your viewer where the focus of attention should be.
Screencast videos can be sold as a series of tutorial products or uploaded as a how-to…
Practical techniques to increase response to your marketing emails, from copy to layout to product
An effective email is so much more than just finding some pretty images and filling the copy with superlatives and hype words, in the hope that someone will be motivated into action by this. Based on a recent breakfast seminar I’ve pulled together 15 of the best tips for better emails.
Pick images that speak for your email
We’ve all been told an image speaks a thousand words but the skill is picking an image that speaks the right 1000 words!
1. Show your products. An attractive woman or handsome man might make the email look beautiful but if you are selling products, a high quality product image is the better choice. It’s an absolute must in fashion and many retail verticals. Depending on your product showing it in use or context can help too. It helps customer imagine themselves using…
Essential checks even the email professionals get wrong. What should your Email marketing broadcast checklist contain?
Does your email campaign check all the boxes? A possible mistake can be at best embarrassing, at worst a legal risk or an opportunity cost of missed revenues that could lose you your job. Although as marketers it is our task to get the most out of our communication, the test, test, test mantra only applies to split testing and sometimes Quality Assurance for email doesn't get the attention it should as we all battle common sense / best practices amnesia from time-to-time and Murphy's law must have been developed for email marketing, right?
You'll know that there was once a man named Murphy whose law simply reads:
'Everything that can go wrong, will.'
Similarly in email marketing, the more campaigns you run, the more mistakes are likely. But rather than just accepting you can manage these risks, in fact this risk reduction approach…
8 reasons to use dynamic email personalisation and 18 scenarios for using dynamic content
EmailMonks have produced another informative infographic for email marketers looking to improve their use dynamic content.
As you will see in the infographic, dynamic, also known as smart or adaptive content enables email marketers to personalise their messages in an efficient way. Different messages or different offers can be given to different subscribers depending on their profile fields using the same template rather than creating a separate email for each target segment.
It's packed with examples, so you may need to click to expand to see the detail.
Thanks to Email Monks for sharing their Infographic. Email Monks offer fresh email design, template customization and design to HTML…
8 ways to integrate social media into your email marketing
Rather than email becoming obsolete, widespread use of social media updates via email has, in many ways, reinforced how email is an even more powerful marketing channel. I'm sure many of you already use email and social media separately to help promote your business but how many of you integrate your social media and email marketing?
Including and promoting social sharing or share with your network options in an email campaign is beneficial for a couple of reasons:
They extend the reach of your emails: The more people who share your email, the more potential you have for opens, clicks and conversions.
They provide an opportunity for list growth: The more eyes on your emails, the better chance you have of gaining new subscribers.
So how do you integrate email and social media? Here…
