To opt-in or double opt-in, that is the question

Should I use single or double opt-in when growing my email list? It's a question I'm frequently asked. However I don’t see it as a binary question of one or the other and I advocate using both. Sounds odd? I’ll explain. The common concern with double opt-in is that it requires the customer to perform the additional step of opening an email and clicking a link to confirm they want to opt-in. Double opt-in leaks That means there is leakage, not everyone completes the confirmation step. This could be because they don’t get the double opt-in confirmation email, don’t get around to reading and clicking the link in the email or have a change of mind. The leakage is significant, 20% is not uncommon and I’ve heard of brands with 40% of people signing-up failing to confirm opt-in. So there is no question that single opt-in will…

Ideas on how to engage customers from Dr Michael Lu

With brands busy beavering away on social media activity, precious little thought is being devoted to how sustainable their strategies are. And the reality is that while their social media strategies may be scalable, the vast majority are certainly not sustainable. That was the message from Dr Michael Wu of Lithium and author of The Science of Social II). This post summarises his advice from different conferences. He challenged attendees of the London show to think beyond the existing social media thinking. Necessary because spikes in social activity such as Views and Likes only ever equate to a 'tiny blip' that doesn’t last long from a financial perspective. Successful brands must adapt a strategy that is both sustainable and scalable, he explained. But there is a problem with this... 'Not many people think about sustainability,' he told…

5 practical techniques to help get your message through...

Value: [rating=4] Recommended link: Research from Bit.ly Blog

Our commentary on online attention spans

I remember reading a while ago in Tim O’Reilly’s book on Twitter marketing that most people most responses or tweets happen within 5 minutes of the original tweet - scary! Much worse than Email marketing where at least you have responses for hours rather than minutes. I’m not sure companies using social networks realise this unless they’ve looked at specific social media marketing reporting tools like Bit.ly which give hourly reports. The reason is obvious, most people have so many sources they follow in their stream and if they don’t see the message while browsing their stream then it’s gone. Life is too short to browse your whole stream To show how big this challenge is URL shortening service Bit.ly published some interesting research across different media. It's useful too, since…

Learning the commercial case for creative marketing

I'm a fan of marketing that thinks, before it does. And, if I am honest, tired of "digital" marketing that focuses on channels and moving media spend without addressing the real strategic challenges, without putting the customer, and so integrated marketing, first. It's why I posted recently about meaningful marketing and brands such as Dove, I think wherever brands are seeking to genuinely connect with the consumer, commercial success will follow. If brands act in a commoditised way, expect commoditised results. Just a few weeks ago the Coca-Cola Company won 20 awards at the 2013 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, presented with the 2013 Creative Marketer of the Year Award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, widely considered the world’s most important award for creative excellence in brand communications. So what can other…

6 steps to successfully managing multi-channel integration.

Value: [rating=3] Recommended link: Whitepaper - Meeting the Multi-channel challenge Vocalcom's whitepaper reviews approaches to customer care within a multi-channel environment. It includes some great insight into how companies are addressing customer service and Managers are meeting the challenges of today's multitude of touchpoints, being caused by greater transparency, insight and accessible technologies. It also provides recommendations on implementing a cloud based solution to support customer service. 'The common theme amongst Managers was a clear desire to understand how customers want to make contact, to integrate channels better, and to implement technology that can facilitate a seamless customer experience across all channels.'

We are sharing one of their table's on the challenges of multi-channel contact and more findings can read by downloading their full report from Vocalcom's website.

What is…

The End of PTAT and Virality measures as they are broken out?

Value/Importance: [rating=3] Recommended link: Facebook blog announcement If you’re a Facebook Admin, watch out for changes to Facebook Page Insights, the analytics tool for monitoring the performance of your Facebook Pages. Product Marketing Manager Galyn Burke told Techcrunch that this is the first time the Page Insights interface has been updated since October 2011. As with many Facebook changes, this has not been rolled out internationally yet, we’re not seeing it yet, but will update this post when it becomes more widely available. In the meantime, here is a preview of the new interface: The relevant update from Facebook is shown below - this suggests that, in what looks to me a backwards step, PTAT will be retired in favour of breaking out its components. Having an aggregate engagement measures is…

Making your brand promises matter

"Move from [product] differentiation to actually making a difference" Umair Haque, the director of the Havas Media Labs and Harvard Business Review blogger

Earning your way into a consumer's heart is something that we know is important. Helping consumers feel something positive is the goal, convincing someone of purchase can only be an easier win as a result, surely?

The case for this being important, I think we'd agree, has never been as strong, when so much of marketing success hinges on forming connections with consumers, earning even seconds of their valuable time.

This at a time when despite the billions of £/$'s spent on marketing, Haque's latest report states that consumers just don't care - 73% of people don't care if the brands in their life disappeared tomorrow. Ouch, and yet so obvious. If consumers are that indifferent, then we have to make them feel, we have to…

Questions to ask to improve the quality of online customer service by social media

With 44% of the adults now using the web to share grievances the importance of delivering a good quality of customer service across channels is self-evident. Frank Eliason blazed the trail for best practice in delivering customer support by social media  some years ago now, demonstrating how social platforms had the potential to usher in a new age of customer service. But some five years later a growing number of commentators are voicing their disappointment that the revolution has never materialised, including a recent feature on MyCustomer.com by IBM’s Guy Stephens. So what has happened? Was social media customer support a flash in the pan? Did our initial excitement blind us to the fundamental impracticalities of…

Marketing Automation Tool recommendations

Value/Importance: [rating=4]

Recommended link: B2B Marketing Automation Tools 2013: Marketers Guide

We thought it would be helpful to share this new free report since we have had several recent questions on our Answers forum about selecting CRM and Marketing Automation systems - CRM seems preferred as a term in the UK.

Can anyone recommend a marketing automation solution?Selecting a CRM DatabaseCRM tool recommendations

This guide provides many practical tips, checklists and advice for companies seeking to source the right marketing automation tool, ideas to overcome barriers and challenges, information to help justify the requirement for it and to find out the major players, and trends.

The 61 page document collates findings from primary and secondary research including interviews with marketing adopters, vendors of marketing automation and leading industry leaders.

You can access the full report to…

6 examples show how you can get your charity noticed

Enewsletter readers may be looking for this post Learning from the top 10 most meaningful brands 2013 As a marketing agency, The Marketing Bureau (TMB) knows the importance of a strong brand and awareness of digital marketing which is why they want to reach out and share their knowledge with others. This post was written to help charities who may not necessarily have access to the resources featured in these examples. Please read, share and enjoy to make the most of your marketing and to grow your charities. Over the past there’s been some great campaigns undertaken by charities which have helped them get noticed. Here’s a selection of TMB's  favourite campaigns that never fail to draw attention to themselves (and even raise a chuckle or shed a tear).

1. RNLI does the Harlem Shake

The RNLI has grasped the latest…