An interview with Retail email specialist Dan Jak
There is a LOT written about best practices for email marketing, especially around creative and copy. Mark Brownlow has contributed many great posts to Smart Insights covering subject lines, email pre-headers and Email CTAs to name but 3. But there is far less written specifically about best practices for email marketing in retail ecommerce. The obvious exception is Chad White's Retail Email blog although Chad has diversified into more general email marketing advice with his new Email Marketing Rules book - we have a competition to win 3 copies running at the moment.
So, when I got chatting to Dan Jak in our LinkedIn group and discovered his experience on Email marketing I was keen to learn and share more. So in this interview we look at some retail-specific email marketing challenges, many of which apply more…
With a choice of LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google +, YouTube, where should you spend your precious time?
You could answer that your business should have a presence on each of these platforms but what evidence do you have to suggest that this approach is your best bet?
Let's take this down a level, if you are only going to choose LinkedIn as your preferred social media site for B2B, where should you spend your time - posting updates to your connections' newsfeeds, entering into discussions in LinkedIn groups, sending bulk messages to tagged connections? Which of these actions is best? Well, as far as you and your business is concerned, I can't answer that question - the only person who can is you.
[caption id="attachment_40329" align="alignleft" width="208"] Image courtesy of remibadozi.com[/caption]
It's about testing
Too many businesses and individuals sign up to LinkedIn,…
Should we give our content more personality - the most common feature of the most shareable content?
We talk about targeted and relevant content for our audience, though can we cross the line with humour and show our personal side, or does it have to be ‘corporate’? Some companies play it safe and keep it less personal where others show more personality with humour, if it aligns with their brand and tone of voice. Once we share content then we know that we can’t remove it, so is there any research to help us?
Which are the top 3 emotions we invoke in our social media content?
Over 10,000 top most shareable articles were analysed by Buzzsumo and the topic and tone matched to an emotion as shown in the chart. Interestingly, ‘the top 3 invoked emotions are awe, laughter and amusement.'
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5 tips to avoid drowning in social media
I am fortunate to be working in an agency environment, so I hear stories from various industries and brands related to digital marketing. It keeps me on my toes as it forces constant learning and hones my listening skills! One of the most common trends I hear and read about at the minute is how stressful and overwhelming people and brands are finding the management of "social media". It's my job in those circumstances to help give clients clarity and focus. I thought I would share my 6 tips for ensuring you don't fall into the same trap many others seem to.
I think that in recent years as more people in businesses have become alert to Social Media and even using it themselves it has forced it into the limelight for marketers. CEO's who want to have more likes…
New research shows the increase in social media stacking
It hit us all years ago, but when did we realise? In our busy lives, we 'multi-task' at work, or in our personal lives, and some are now calling this 'social media stacking'.
The Millward Brown's Ad Reaction report refers to it as 'putting the kettle on', as it's embedded in most of our daily lives. I am guilty of this behaviour - while watching the TV, I check my emails on my iPhone, answer a Tweet and time permitting will find a good recipe on Pinterest for the evening meal-- an ideal target for advertisers and publishers to connect with me beyond 'passive viewing'.
For brands, there are now multiple opportunities to connect, as Millward Brown global multiscreening report shows in their findings. The implication is that brands need to leverage this by evaluating reach…
Travel, retail and brand examples of marketing with the new virtual reality headset
You will know that the Oculus Rift is one of the hot technologies for 2015. It came to prominence in March this year when Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook's acquisition of the VR platform explaining that, as he sees it, it is much more than a new gaming platform.
'This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures'.
While no consumer launch date has been set yet, Oculus Rift Dev Kit 2, a developer version with headset has recently started shipping and it is expected to be released in 2015 with a price in the range of $200 to $300. At this price it seems inevitable…
Don't lose sight of your brand personality your #video strategy
Storytelling has been around for millennia. As children we grew up with tales and fondly remember stories opening with 'Once upon a time…'. With this nostalgic link in mind, businesses use stories as central parts of their advertising and messaging campaigns when seeking to humanise their brands.
Source: Shutterstock
Today, social media are an ideal vehicle to distribute these stories. And with good reason, the online landscape is becoming noisier every day. Storytelling is an effective method for getting heard above the din.
On a practical level, storytelling is a great way to engage, motivate and connect with your readers. But with so much content being shared daily by so many brands, the written word just doesn’t have the same impact anymore -- particularly for the reader who has grown up expecting…
What are the marketing opportunities, implications and actions for brands, businesses and marketers?
Tech watchers have become used to the regular September announcements from Apple. After a couple of years without major updates to the product line we were expecting a genuinely new Apple product and it’s here in the shape of the Apple Watch.
Of course, Apple announcements are huge news across mainstream and tech channels, so what can be said that hasn’t already be said!? So I’ll keep our alert brief focusing on the names, timelines and marketing implications for businesses and brand. There were hours of announcements across the Apple Live event, but there are 3 main releases to be aware of.
1. Apple Watch
Release date: Early 2015
Cost: $349 (£216)
Resolution: Not disclosed!
Battery life: Hours not days!
You will have heard that the Apple Watch will be touch screen, feature Siri voice interactions…
The latest tactics showing why Email marketing is "alive and well"
If you think about innovation, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t marketing, probably you are thinking of the latest gadgets, self-driving cars and drones. But in the quickly-evolving marketing world a lot has changed in the way brands and consumers communicate. With a trusted and solid channel like email marketing, where does the real innovation takes place?
Email is mature, but not outgrown
Email marketing is known to be a trusted and versatile marketing channel. In the Gartner Digital Marketing Hype cycle published last July places it has moved beyond 'the slope of Enlightenment' and on emerged onto the 'Plateau of productivity'.
Connected marketing concepts that we also find in this graph are still being hyped, meaning that it will take at least 2 – 5 years before marketers realistically will be getting the most out of these channels, if they…
Examples of rich, long-form, long-haul, brand-led content that don’t add to the noise
Let’s face it, success in marketing generally is difficult. In digital channels we can only see this getting harder and harder. In fact research this week by EMC showed evidence that there’ll be 32 Billion connected devices on the Internet by 2020. How brands get cut-through in the volume of traffic and data on that scale is therefore huge. Of course, with all the potential, it also reveals vast opportunity for those that can get it right.
What works in this emerging reality? There’s no "one size fits all answer", and yet rich, visual and long-form content marketing - complimenting real-time, social media and micro content - uses much higher levels of consideration and quality, it’s already demonstrating where brands can steal a march on their noisier, less considered competitors. We’ve seen long form content work wonders…
