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Ah, the mobile phone: we know it well as consumers, and as such are in a perfect position to approach it from a direct marketer’s POV. Here are a few ground rules for truly covetable mobile marketing:
Bait your line. A useful iPhone app could do you right, as could a nifty advergame, or exclusive discounts for top customers. Ooh!—and in 2007, SMS serials were all the rage in Japan. Suck ’em in with a story!
Plan well in advance. Set aside three months to spread the word and prepare related media buys. This is a great opportunity to snap up mobile numbers for future promos. Just ask Team Obama, which gathered a panoply of numbers when it offered to text Obama fans the name of his running-mate in advance of the media.
Nixus interruptus. Pop-ups didn’t last long chez Internet, and equally interruptive marketing has no future in mobile.
Always, always ask permission. Two weeks ago, AT&T got burned when it sent an unsolicited text message about American Idol’s season premier. Hundreds made vocal complaints all over Twitter.
Back it up. Your mobile marketing campaign needs a subsite where people can learn more. At the very least, the homepage should tout the same creative and tagline.
Be phone-friendly. You’d be surprised how many mobile marketers include a link in their messages, then forget to optimize the site for people visiting from their phones. (Even iPhones load faster when a site’s mobile-optimized.) Avoid this faux-pas! Be accessible!
In mobile as in life, it helps to know the rules of engagement. Keep these close at hand. (For best results, text to self!)
source: marketingprofs enewsletter
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“Social media, like any new marketing channel, is a sticky slope for B2B marketers,” says Justin Hitt in a recent blog. “I personally prefer keeping social media ‘business social’ rather than polluting it with advertisements.”
But, wait a minute: if ads are out, what else can B2B marketers do to monetize (and justify to the boss) their participation in online communities? Hitt offers a list of ways that he and his clients have been successfully using social media to boost their bottom lines. Among their “social” activities:
- Conducting research to understand more about a prospect’s or client’s “buying desires.”
- Finding decision makers for certain products and services.
- Extracting names from a given community for lead generation.
- Getting answers to questions, reaching out to other experts.
- Finding joint-venture marketing partners and creating various “cooperative opportunities.”
- Connecting with past customers, keeping them up-to-date.
The key word here? Research. There’s a wealth of data (leads, client preferences and shared wisdom) just waiting to be tapped by B2B marketing teams in these communities. “Social media is something I added to my existing mix,” Hitt reports, because “in some ways, it does it better (saving time, money and resources).”
But a word of caution: “An important thing to remember is that not all your prospective buyers are even online; don’t give up one channel for another,” he advises.
Even without ads, social media can pay off. One key is tapping online communities for the vast amount of insights they offer.
Source: Ask Justin Hitt.
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In a guest post at the HubSpot blog, Paul Gillin argues that women’s interest magazines like Redbook face the same basic challenge as your online properties: grabbing a distracted person’s attention and convincing her to become a regular reader. As he analyzes a sample issue swiped from his gym, he explains what you can learn from the magazine’s editors—here are a few highlights:
Tantalize readers with provocative cover lines. Gillin cites examples like: How to Ditch Your Debt For Good, The Seven Secrets to Lasting Love and The Superfood You Shouldn’t Skip. “The cover practically shouts at you that the September Redbook [sic] will make you happier, thinner, richer and better in bed,” he says. The implicit message—and one you can attempt to emulate—is that the reader will miss something important if she doesn’t take a look inside.
Create points of entry. Magazines like Redbook excel at presenting information in small, clearly defined segments, each with its own headline and images. “These same tactics can work online,” says Gillin. “Callouts, sidebars, pull-quotes, Q&As and other visual tools break up rivers of text and give readers more starting points to engage with the content.”
Speak directly to the reader. According to Gillin, these magazines are filled with personal pronouns: I, me, you, our and us. “Speaking to people in personal terms makes the content more conversational, personal and relevant,” he says. “It works.”
“While the media may be different, a lot of the tactics that the women’s magazines use to entice people in checkout lines also work online,” says Gillin. Next time you’re in the market, pick up a copy.
Source: HubSpot.
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Hold on to your high-quality prospects
“It probably comes as no surprise,” say Kara Trivunovic and Andrew Osterday in an article at MarketingProfs, “[that] the process of acquiring new customers comes with one of the higher price tags of any of your marketing initiatives.” This places a high priority on the cultivation of customer loyalty—and, therefore, the importance of a healthy email marketing program. Trivunovic and Osterday recommend strategies that:
Emphasize quality over quantity. “Adding 50 new and engaged customers or prospects can have a better positive net effect on your bottom line than adding 500 prospects that might not be as interested in what your organization has to offer,” they explain. They’re more likely to buy your product or service, and less likely to hit the “spam” button in annoyance.
Create a streamlined onboarding process. Keep new subscribers engaged by offering quick confirmations and keeping personal data requests to a reasonable minimum. “Collect only the information that you will use to help get the right message to the right recipient at the right time,” they say.
Keep tabs on the competition. Your customers don’t live in a vacuum, and you need to be aware of the other messages they hear. “Timely offers, [frequent testing] and clear product differentiation [encourage] your customers … to make purchase decisions quickly.”
Hold ’em close. By boosting customer loyalty with efficient, relevant emails, you’ll gain increased sales and lower costs.
Source: MarketingProfs.
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Like most of us, Christina Kerley (a.k.a. CK) will admit that she uses her digital video recorder to whiz past commercials on recorded programs. “So when I find a commercial that I like enough to watch—enough to rewind and re-watch the spot—it warrants a post,” she says.
One campaign she makes a point of watching comes from Jimmy Dean, the maker of frozen-breakfast foods. The company’s amusing spots feature regular guys working in regular office settings—except that they’re dressed up like the moon and the sun. “[T]hey’ve successfully made an otherwise inanimate object human,” she notes, “and we humans like that because now we can relate to them.”
But CK sees plenty of missed opportunities in the Jimmy Dean campaign’s social-media follow-up:
- The Jimmy Dean Web site has a section for streamed ads, but only shows one of the commercials—not the entire series.
- The dedicated YouTube channel, likewise, looks as if it hasn’t been updated since its creation, and hosts none of the Jimmy Dean ads.
- Jimmy Dean doesn’t appear to give fans perks like the chance to see new ads before they air, or poll them on future story lines.
Your Marketing Inspiration: “When you have a hit on your hands,” says CK, “don’t miss out on cost-effective, creative ways to extend your traditional campaign into social media with efforts that engage your fans … and bring you yet more attention.”
source: marketingprofs enewsletter
Crumbs from the Scone
“One of the little secrets in email marketing is that it’s not the same people opening your emails each time,” says Mark Brownlow in a post at Email Marketing Reports. “Even if your open rate stays relatively constant, a closer look reveals that it’s (usually) different people opening each time.” This happens for various reasons, he explains.
But whether one or more subscribers didn’t like a subject line or missed a message during a busy day, a quick roundup of previous content might pique their interest a second time around. Brownlow thinks offering seconds is worth a try, and presents a case in point:
He recently added an unobtrusive “Did you miss?” notation to the bottom of his e-newsletter. The brief paragraph—with links to past topics—read like this: “The holiday special highlighted a new article on best practices for animated gifs …”
While the new feature yielded a slim click-to-open rate of just over three percent, Brownlow says, “[T]hat’s a bunch of clicks that might never have happened otherwise.”
Even if some subscribers had read the previous message, it’s a good bet that few of them minded this recap. And those who didn’t see the email the first time around had a second shot at something that could be of real value to them.
Don’t be afraid of a rehash! Consider highlighting archived issues; after all, not everybody reads every email every day.
Source: Email Marketing Reports.
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“I’ve often written about ‘NASCAR Blindness,'” says Alan Wolk in an intelligent post at MarketingProfs’ Daily Fix blog, “the strongly held belief that if no one in your little bubble of upscale artsy BoBo friends is into something, then clearly no one else could be either—and how it afflicts the advertising community. But there’s an equally insidious syndrome affecting the tech community: Scoble Blindness.”
Wolk defines this condition as the belief that anyone who uses social media will be utterly fascinated by the ideas of influential thinkers like Robert Scoble. When in fact, argues Wolk, his ideas are relevant primarily to those immersed in the world of Silicon Valley.
“Think of how your friends and relations outside the Silicon Valley bubble use MySpace or Facebook,” he says. “Are they putting up blog posts about how to increase site traffic? Commenting on Zappos’ brilliant use of Twitter? Or are they commenting on their friend’s pictures from their trip to Jamaica last month and posting mildly funny clips they found on YouTube?” Exactly. “So what makes you all think they’re going to act any differently on Twitter?”
In all of our excitement over social-media tools—and how they work for us—we shouldn’t forget what Twitter and Facebook mean to our customers.
While Wolk’s discussion focuses on a specific industry, his Marketing Inspiration holds true regardless of your field. “[W]e’ve got to stop listening to the chatter coming out of Silicon Valley. To remember that the people we’re marketing to have a very different view of social media, it’s [sic] values and uses.
source: marketingprofs enewsletter
Crumbs from the Scone
Because your customers will abandon online purchases if they encounter a tedious checkout process, it’s critical to make your e-commerce functionality simple and efficient. In a post at the Conversation Marketing blog, Ian Lurie offers recommendations like these:
- Never make a customer log in before checkout. “If you show any kind of form requiring a password on the first checkout page,” he says, “you’re losing customers.”
- Display shipping costs on the same page as shipping options. There’s almost nothing more frustrating than getting to the confirmation page and discovering the two-day option costs much more than anticipated. A surprised customer might abandon the purchase, rather than going to the trouble of choosing a cheaper alternative.
- Request information you actually need. “Don’t need their phone number?” says Lurie. “Don’t ask for it. Don’t need their full ZIP+4 code? Don’t ask for it! Are 99% of your customers in the USA? Have that pre-selected in the billing and shipping form.”
- Make it quick. Small conveniences count—for instance, let customers check a box if billing and shipping addresses match, and make any edit from the order confirmation page.
“If your developer says they can’t make these changes, or even tries to bill you for it after swearing they could build a great site for you,” says a tongue-in-cheek Lurie, “slap them. When they fall down, kick them. When they stop crying, tell them to fix the damned site.”
Source: Conversation Marketing. Click here for the full post
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Ah, chocolate. Who doesn’t love it? Short of an ice cream cone, nothing produces an instant state of bliss better than a good chunk of the sweet stuff. Now, a new research study presents chocolate as a product that can virtually sell itself—better than any marketer can, anyway.
These researchers invited two sets of consumers to test a “new” brand of chocolate. One set was given vague information (just a brief description of ingredients), while the other set was given more precise information (ingredients, nutritional value). Each participant then indulged in the taste test, and was asked to rate the sample.
The consumers who rated the samples highest (more favorable on its positive attributes and less unfavorable on any negative attributes) were those who received vague information prior to sampling. In other words, those marketers who just offered customers the treat without wasting time with too much info got a happier response. The researchers dubbed this phenomenon the Blissful Ignorance Effect.
The message? Shut up and get out of the way! At least with yummy-factor products, try offering a bit of information, a sample, and then let your customers do the word-of-mouth marketing for you. “It would behoove marketers to capitalize on the enhanced optimism of the BIE as part of their ‘buzz’ marketing campaigns,” these researchers conclude.
Some products really can sell themselves. If you have a product with a yummy factor, try talking less, offering samples and encouraging post-sample buzz.
Source: “The Blissful Ignorance Effect: Pre- versus Post-action Effects on Outcome Expectancies Arising from Precise and Vague Information,” by Himanshu Mishra, Baba Shiv and Dhananjay Nayakankuppam. Journal of Consumer Research.
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When your subscribers cut back on spending, you might be tempted to compensate for lost revenue by stepping up your email campaigns. But be forewarned: It’s a potentially hazardous strategy. “Instead of being financially rewarded for emailing more,” says Barton Schaefer, PhD in an article at MarketingProfs, “you may be punished by a slackened or even negative response, and find that your revenue plummets while your email languishes in spam filters.”
He offers this advice for ensuring optimal deliverability:
Consider email marketing as a privilege, not a right. Make yourself a welcome guest in a subscriber’s inbox by sending relevant, timely offers based on their preferences and needs—not the product or service you’re trying to move off your shelf.
Plan ahead with time-sensitive messages. “You should expect rate limiting and network factors to prevent high-speed delivery on occasion,” notes Schaefer. “If you must mail … last-minute, remember that some customers won’t see your email until it’s too late.”
Cultivate a relationship with your ESP. Your service provider can be your partner in maintaining best practices and avoiding trouble before it begins. Start to ask more questions.
Don’t let an uncertain economy scare you into strategies that won’t do you any favors. Says Schaefer, “Practices that sound good around your company’s conference table may lower your email deliverability, which will only undermine your company in the long run.”
Source: MarketingProfs.
