As an Interactive Advertising Agency executive one of the things that we have learned is to talk about how "things are different" on the internet. Certianly interactions in the social medai space are different and web analtics allows us to track differently than traditional advertising.
And from a cost perspective email marketing is very different than direct mail. But it isn't about us, it is about the users. I found these stats interesting.
Generation X (ages 33-44) continues to lead in online shopping:
- 80% of Generation X (33-44) internet users buy products online
- 71% of internet users ages 18- 32 buy products online
- 38% of online teens buy products online
- 56% of internet users ages 64-72 do
- 47% of internet users age 73 and older buy online
This is According to surveys through 2008 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and can be found at: www.pewinternet.org
I find these nubmers to indicate that if you are 18 or older you are always more than 50% likely to buy on-line than not and in your peak earning years 80% likely to buy on-line. That to me says that the consumer will buy on line if you make it avaliable - at least better than half the time. Think about that, is a consumer likely to buy from your retail store 50% time if you are in one mall, town, or corner? Probably, if they see your store, it has things they want and the price is decent (a good reputation helps).
So if you have good search engine optimization, ppc plans, the right amount of online information to engage a buyer and a good reputation witin the social sphere - then you have a 50/50 shot or better. Digital doesn't seem so different at all.
Definition 6 Technical Project Manager,
Lance King, delivered an article presentation on how a simple execution of permission based email marketing campaign led to increased traffic and lead generation for marketing firm Enlighten.
For years Enlighten was delivering electronic holiday cards, costing the company marketing dollars while gaining very little exposure. Two years ago, they developed an online “Holiday Party Excuse Generator” which resulted in a viral marketing bonanza. They reaped the benefits even more when, a year later, traffic spiked despite any additional marketing efforts. The lesson: if you can create a low-budget campaign that has the potential to get people buzzing about it, sharing it and spreading it, that’s great in any situation but certainly more now that marketing dollars are being closely scrutinized.
Three final points from Lance’s article:
1. Create a timeless, targeted email marketing campaign
2. Create a campaign that is fun and easily shared with others
3. In addition to direct sends, get information out to the press and social media outlets about your campaign
You can read the full article at
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30964&pop=no#
Contact Definition 6 today to find out how we help our clients strategize and deliver impactful email campaigns.
According to the Mobile Marketing Association, 89% of companies use text and multimedia messaging to reach their audiences. Nearly one third of those companies plan to spend more than 10% percent of their marketing budgets on advertising in the text SMS marketing medium.
Short Message Service (SMS) is a low cost way to reach a large number of your customers through a device that they are sure to always have with them. You can reach your customers during those key times when they are out holiday shopping to promote special deals and offers – or you can insert coupon codes directly into your message so that your customers can redeem them in-store.
So how does Definition 6 help customers implement SMS as a low-cost solution to direct marketing? We offer 1-way and 2-way SMS text message campaigns, leveraging your existing web applications using SMS as a front-end. In just a brief 2-3 week engagement, we can deliver a landing page with an opt-in and sign up form, an interface to be used to send out SMS messages to registered users and all the necessary underlying infrastructure and services as part of a SaaS model. For more information and to talk to someone on our Business Development team for pricing, please visit the Definition 6 Contact Us page.
Today’s Client Services meeting led into a discussion about how economic forces affect our clients’ media planning and budgeting. Jeremy Bromwell, a Definition 6 Account Coordinator, shared some of his thoughts from an article he recently read on Marketing Sherpa…
Cuts for offline media and brand tactics are taking the biggest hits. As an interactive advertising agency, we are uniquely positioned to help our clients divert offline dollars to the interactive channel and use superior analytics tools to increase both ROI and ROAS. Jeremy’s key points included:
1. Over 50% of brand advertising is projected to have some to significant reductions in 2009. Brand advertising would consist of both online display ads and print ads.
2. 68% of direct advertising budgets are projected to have no change or to increase. Direct advertising includes tactics like direct mail and email campaigns.
3. When you split the same tactics between online and offline budgets, 12% of traditional media budgets are expected to increase while 31% expect increases in online budgets.
Brand efforts support direct tactics which can be especially important during an economic downturn, when brand advertising can underscore an organization’s strength. Further, a downturn creates a buyer’s market for brand impressions offline and online which can give opportunistic companies a chance to enhance their market position. As your overall marketing budget gets cut, evaluate the proportions like you would an investment and look for areas to reaportion funds to yield the most fruitful return. As consumer preferences evolve away from traditional channels, money can easily be diverted to a variety of interactive techniques to keep brand engagement high.
You can read the article in its entirety at:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?id=30914
Jeremy Bromwell, a Definition 6 Account Coordinator, reported on a Forrester research article...
Because many interactive marketing programs are fueled by measureable results, interactive marketing will survive and even thrive during a recession.
Jeremy covered a few points that have held extremely relevant:
1. Many interactive marketing formats target the decision to buy, rather than just boosting awareness. When people are worried about spending, increasing engagement is more likely to generate sales than shouting about a brand.
2. Predictions are that online display ads won't be hit too hard, money will flow towards search engine optimization solutions and email marketing will increase and social applications will strive in the soft economy.
3. Make sure results-based interactive gets its share of the mix. Your CEO is warning your VP of advertising to prepare to cut spending. You should be whispering in his/her other ear with stats about how your targeted email marketing, search engine optimization marketing, or online advertising programs are paying off. If the dollars get cut, this will keep interactive in the mix or even increase your share of the remaining marketing dollars.
Jeremy's final thought to the group was that interactive marketing initiaves should be top-of-mind during a recession as their measurable results can be used as leverage to hold on to or even expand interactive marketing programs. The ability to tie ROI and ROAS to an interactive campaign is one of the many advantages of the channel. Also, time to market and refinement cycles are much quicker with interactive and the cost is often lower too! The full article can be viewed at: http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,45128,00.html
Simple E-Mail Segmentation
Jeremy Bromwell and Cecilia Barella, Definition 6 Account Coordinators, recently spoke on articles they read on ClickZ...
List segmentation is often perceived as difficult or expensive; however, if you are not currently segmenting your list there are some very simple tactics you can use to better target content and improve performance of your direct email marketing efforts.
Jeremy and Cecilia explained segmenting your list based on metrics and developing 5 groups:
There are different strategies and tactics utilized to tailor your messaging for each of the above groups. Our email marketing services can not only help you segment you subscriber list, but also develop comprehensive strategies ranging from trigger-based transactional emails, quarterly schedules, to templates that view and convert well across multiple platforms and browsers.
The full article can be viewed at: http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3629708
Lisa Seals, a Definition 6 Technical Project Manager, discussed an article she read on ClickZ with the team...
Sometimes it can be frustrating to keep up with e-mail best practices. Regardless of the constant changes, though, there are some tactics and techniques that consistently drive a high ROI.
Lisa presented three best practices to keep in mind while email marketing:
1. Use Forms: If you want to reduce the churn between e-mail clicks and conversion, one of the best tactics you can use is to put a search box or form in your e-mail. In test after test, e-mail marketers have found that the ROI outweighs the usability issues every time. What is the most frequently used form in an e-mail? A search box.
2. Use Rich Media: The debate over rich media's effectiveness and purpose has been a source of constant discussion. The best-performing rich media campaigns start with a frame and creative shot that entices you to click and ends with a frame of directions, such as "Get more," "Try it," or "Go to companysite.com."
3. Use Apologies: Nothing drives stronger increases in open rates (and future readership rates) than the apology e-mail. A subject line saying, "Oops, we goofed," "Our apologies," or anything else that relates to potential issues will stand out in an e-mail box and drive a tremendous amount of readership. Whether sincere or a gimmick, apologies drive closer e-mail relationships.
Lisa's final thoughts was that this is a great time to evaluate the effectiveness of your current year's email strategy and implement some additional best practices to really turn up the ROI you're getting from your email campaigns. The full article can be viewed at: http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3630124
At Definition 6, I get this questions quite a bit, as an Interactive Advertising Agency we are often on the front lines of business managers arsenal of what to do during troubling times. Most organizations have a flight or fight response to troubled times and we help both type of customer's needs with our core services. I wanted to just provide two examples of why I feel the Interactive Ad Agency is a critical strategic asset for marketers today.
If you are one who is looking to "run from trouble", and I mean this to say you are thinking; "The economy is in trouble and I need to pull in the reins on spending and cut costs". I would suggest you talk to your agency about search engine optimization solutions and move away from paid search as your only expenditure. This will allow you to earn traffic instead of pay for traffic. The effort might take a few months to begin seeing results, but the cost savings over a 6 month period will be dramatic.
If you are inclined to believe that in hard times it is time to pump up the effort. We would recommend that you look closely at leveraging your in-house email lists and focus on email marketing. By simple taking some of your existing offers from your direct mail budget and rapidly moving them to online email marketing you should be able to impact sales within 3-4 weeks and reduce costs per sale by 1/3 to 50% just by channel shifting your efforts to online.
These are certainly simple examples, but I wanted to just wanted to start a thread about what to do in uncertain times. For additional points of view on this topic check out http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/2008/10/invest-in-online-advertising-now/ by Brian Yalung.
More to come soon.
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