By
09 Jun 2014
Unsubscribing does not have to be forever
Offering customers the option to unsubscribe without gathering any detailed information as to why the customer wants to unsubscribe is all too commonplace and wasteful. Some brands will go a step further by providing a tick list of reasons e.g. 'I receive too many emails from you', ' I receive them too frequently' etc. It almost feels like the email marketer has thrown in the towel by not taking things a step further as neither of these methods provides the brand with an opportunity to maintain a relationship.
Here is a different approach I have seen more recently which seems more enlightened.
Campaign Example for a Holiday brand
Work on the timing
Some brands have started to ask if the customer would like to receive emails again at a particular time e.g. in a year’s time or better still at a…
An approach and tools for deeper social media analysis
When it comes to social media, many marketers are still struggling to measure the success of their efforts. In fact, Pivotcon’s State of Marketing Report suggests that 53% of marketers do not even make an attempt to measure success. So, what should social media analysis look like? In this post I explore two approaches to social media analysis and provide examples of how to look beyond the numbers and find value in social noise.
Why Measure Social Media?
It is a no brainer really. You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Dedicating time and business resource to social media means that you need to be clear on what impact it is having on your business.
You need to provide success metrics and understand what value social media is providing to your brand.
If you have a Facebook brand page you…
2014 Media Landscape for B2B Marketers
B2B Marketing and Circle Research surveyed over 288 client-side marketers to gather insight into how B2B companies are using social media, who is posting content and their key challenges.
Their infographic shares these top level findings:
LinkedIn generates the most revenue.
Top 3 platforms for brand awareness are Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
75% of content is posted by the Marketing team, followed by Key Experts within the company and then the Management Team.
Key challenges are showing ROI and the time involved in social media.
Additional Resources on Social Media Marketing for B2B companies
Influencer outreach guide
Creating a social media strategy for B2B companies
Best social media for lead generation [Infographic]
Influencing B2B Technical Buyers [Infographic]
…
5 Findings from the Social Media Examiner 2014 report
Are you interested to find out where other marketers are focusing their efforts on social media to grow their business? Which techniques are proving effective and why? This regular, annual report from the Social Media Examiner is a useful summary of what is effective from over 2,500 marketers, so in this summary I cover 5 main findings from the report, which can be downloaded from the Social Media Examiner's website.
1. Benefits of Social Media?
In terms of business benefits, the top two benefits are increasing exposure (brand awareness) and driving additional traffic.
'92% of marketers have increased their exposure through social media and 80% had positive results in terms traffic'.
The graph below shows the range of benefits:
Respondents share their benefits…
An example showing recommended changes for cover image, tabs and apps
As previously notified on Smart Insights, in March Facebook announced there would be a major update to its Facebook brand pages. It has now confirmed that by 6 June all Facebook brand Pages (note brand Pages, not personal Profiles which changed a while ago now) will have a new look. A number of Pages have already been invited to switch on the new timeline design and I've been having a good poke around to share what I've found. As always I'm using the Musicademy Page to illustrate the changes.
Overview of changes
Firstly, whilst it does look quite different, there isn't any majorly different functionality. Facebook has simply moved things around a bit. But inevitably there are some implications for things such as cover image, tabs and apps.
The first thing you'll notice is that there is now a single column for posts and that…
How to build your email list using viral promotions
When building your email list, or indeed any lists for direct marketing, it is best practice to grow them organically, but of course that’s easier said than done and additional incentives will help grow a list more rapidly and can encourage sale as part of sales promotion. Social media will help amplify your promotions further.
Running viral promotions via social media, such as contests and sweepstakes and the other examples I will show in this post, are the perfect example of how social media can both increase engagement with prospects and clients as well as building your email list organically.
Before I explore the various viral promotions that you could utilise, we need to acknowledge the common pitfalls with viral promotions strategy and how to avoid them.
Prize hunters not paying customers
Viral promotions can attract the wrong type of prospects. There are always going to be those who will…
6 mistakes that will doom your social media strategy
Sure, you can be active in social media without a plan, but a company that uses social media marketing without a clear idea of what they want to achieve, and the steps they need to take to get there, is usually going to waste a lot of time and money, without seeing a return.
I think that a written strategy document is crucial for online success. But of course, not all social media strategies are created equal! Many times, the factors that make the difference between success and failure do not just concern what is in the document. Equally important are the steps companies take before and after compiling it. Here are some of the mistakes I've seen with social media planning which I look to make businesses aware…
By
20 May 2014
Best practices for managing CRM implementation projects to avoid the common sources of failure
CRM projects are well-known for high failure rates since there are many different obstacles along the way that can derail the initiative. In this article I will look at some of the typical challenges and ask experts how problems can be avoided.
Some of these obstacles to projects occur as a direct result of poor preparation. For example, in a study of over 500 individuals involved in CRM projects by Forrester Research, two-fifths (40%) reported that some of the biggest challenges they encountered related to CRM strategy, such as a lack of clearly defined objectives.
Other CRM obstacles are tools-related. In the Forrester study, a third (35%) reported that they had experienced challenges related to technology deficiencies,…
5 advanced measures to evaluate and improve subscriber engagement with your emails
How engaging are your emails? You will certainly have ideas about their strengths and weaknesses - but do you really know how engaging they are? It’s likely that you review open and clickthrough rates of different email campaigns and newsletters, but can you measure and prove how engaging your email marketing is?
In this article I’ll show some advanced techniques we recommend to assess subscriber engagement which go beyond the basic email metrics of delivery, open and clickthrough rates.
Techniques to Review Email Marketing Engagement
By using these more sophisticated measures to review your emails you will be able to zero in on which aspects of your emails aren’t working and so improve engagement.
1. Engagement with creative. Let’s start with the obvious short-term engagement with an email communication. This is where it’s common to measure opens…
7 key areas of focus to review and improve your email marketing capability
The last couple of days, I’ve been attending the International Email Expo at Frankfurt. It’s been nice to listen to and discuss the latest advice from email marketing consulting friends old and new @JordieVan Rijn, @KathPay, @TamaraGielen, @DelaQuist, Bruno Florence, @pignonsurmail, Philip Storey, @MichaelLeander and last but not least, my host Torsten Schwarz.
It’s been good to see how email marketing in thriving in Europe. It’s no more than what you would expect since email remains a core communications channel and Email drives far more revenue than social media. It’s been interesting to see from the talks and when judging the email marketing awards some really advanced examples of targeted, relevant emails which are delivering excellent results.
Reviewing your email marketing capability
In my talk I was looking to help attendees…
