Crumbs from the Scone
The hit TV sitcom The Office has extended its brand reach and consumer appeal through clever uses of social media. “Although there are only around 23 episodes [per year] … the show has become far more than just 30 minutes of weekly airtime,” Case Ernsting writes in a recent post at the SEO & Marketing blog. “In fact, these half-hour installments have proven to be the axis for a very extensive and enthusiastic leap into new media.”
Among the show’s social-media efforts that have reaped a huge fan following are these:
- Character blogs at the show’s website, and character Flickr accounts and Twitter handles.
- Interactivity—such as a recent Fanisode that allowed fans to upload their own remakes of scenes from a previous episode.
- Multichannel integration: The show’s new-media devices act as magnets that draw fans to the website again and again.
Such uses of new media is an example that businesses of all types can follow, Ernsting says. He offers tips based on the show’s success. Among the ideas he presents:
Model your social-media campaigns around your people. Make your customers fans by “providing insight into the things that make your company tick,” Ernsting suggests. Let your staff’s individual personalities shine through.
Build brand loyalty based on emotional connections. What about your brand resonates with customers? Think of ways to translate that appeal to social interactivity.
Match the medium to your message. Consider, up front, which social-media outlets best match your outreach, Ernsting advises. A call-to-action message? Consider Twitter. An image-based campaign? Use Facebook.
Find your audience appeal. Consider using social media in clever ways to illuminate the uniqueness of your product, service—or staff. You could have a hit on your hands!
Source: SEO & Marketing.
Crumbs from the Scone
“Your email database might show big numbers,” writes Loren McDonald at Silverpop, “but 25 percent to 40 percent of your subscribers, or more, could be inactive without showing any obvious symptoms.”
Described by Dela Quist as “unemotionally subscribed,” such recipients have active email accounts, but don’t open your messages, click through, unsubscribe or report your messages as spam. They do… nothing.
And while it’s nice to keep subscriber numbers up, the presence of inactive accounts can have a negative impact on your:
- Deliverability rates. “ISPs are beginning to factor activity into the algorithms they use to determine whether to deliver or block email messages,” notes McDonald.
- Performance measurements. “Including nonresponders in your metrics analysis depresses your email engagement and response rates and leads to muddied assessments of your email program’s performance.”
- Resource allocation. Email campaigns have a relatively low cost, but there’s no sense in spending any money on subscribers who will never open a message. “These resources will deliver a better ROI when focused on the actively engaged,” he explains.
To help resolve the situation, McDonald recommends a four-step action plan:
- Segment your inactive subscribers into customers who have made a purchase and prospects who have done nothing more than open a message.
- Create reactivation campaigns that give recipients clear opportunities to re-engage or unsubscribe.
- Manage nonresponders, for instance by sending less frequent, more aggressive offers. If you become confident they’re unlikely to re-engage, remove them from your active database.
- Monitor and optimize your reactivation campaigns based on the results you see.
Give ’em a nudge. The worst thing you can do with inactive subscribers is nothing. So spark their interest—or drop them.
Source: Silverpop
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Don’t make the mistake of assuming thought leadership springs automatically from content marketing. “Thought leadership is not created with one, two or three pieces of content,” writes Ardath Albee at Marketing Interactions. “It’s created with the consistent application of ideas and concepts that helps to define a strategic direction your prospects should pursue to get what they want over the long haul.”
So how do you become a thought leader? Albee gives this advice:
Offer a glimpse into the future. “This means that you can’t just pontificate about the current state of affairs,” she says, “but must demonstrate that you have a vision for what’s coming down the pike.”
Bring something new to the conversation. There’s no value in telling people what they’ve already heard 20 times this week—give them a fresh perspective. “For your content to be considered thought leadership, it has to, well, stir up some thinking,” she explains. “Innovative content needs to get people to think about things differently.”
Inspire others to take action. Genuine thought leadership gets people excited about doing something—whether having a discussion with colleagues or improving a process—and provides them with actionable next steps. “You must narrow the focus to a specific audience in order to make these insights relevant and enticing enough because they’re understood and applicable to your audience’s specific situations,” she says.
You’re not a thought leader until your content marketing inspires an audience with innovative, insightful, actionable ideas and perspectives.
Source: Marketing Interactions.
Crumbs from the Scone
“It’s a global trend,” writes Geri Stengel at MarketingProfs. “Consumers want to buy from, employees want to work for, and other businesses want supplies from, socially responsible enterprises.” So how can you demonstrate your commitment while improving your bottom line? Stengel suggests the following:
Treat your employees with respect. Social responsibility begins within your organization and can yield tremendous rewards. “Employees who feel valued because they are paid a living wage or treated as an asset in a startup will serve customers better and generate a friendly atmosphere” says Stengel. “[T]hey feel as if they have a stake in the success of the business.”
Partner with a worthy cause. The smaller your business, she argues, the more you’ll benefit from an association with charitable organizations. You might sponsor an event, provide prizes for a raffle or serve as a drop-off point for donations. “Just do your research first,” she says. “Make sure the cause is one that matters to your target customers, and inform them about how you are helping.”
Make a monetary contribution. “Give part of your profits, whether for one night or on a regular basis, to a nonprofit or a fundraising event, such as Pizza Night for Little League,” she recommends. “Chances are, you’ll get new customers from among the nonprofit’s supporters.”
Buy from socially responsible suppliers. Customers want to know that the products or services they buy have a “clean” supply chain. They will look kindly, for instance, on materials acquired through Fair Trade channels and goods assembled without sweatshop labor.
With a socially responsible game plan, you do right by your community and your community does right by you.
Source: MarketingProfs.
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“Brand identifiability is under the advertiser’s control and is a key consideration in ad design,” note the authors of a recent research report on the effectiveness of visual ads. But because of rising “media noise” due to competing advertisements and “active ad avoidance by consumers,” it has become challenging for firms to grab attention, they note.
To clarify what’s working these days, the study focused on two key areas affecting brand recognition:
- Feature complexity was measured by noting an ad’s jpeg file size, which is determined by the amount of detail and variation in the three basic visual features across an image—color, luminance and edges.
- Design complexity focused on six general principles: quantity of objects, irregularity of objects, dissimilarity of objects, detail of objects, asymmetry of object arrangement and irregularity of object arrangement.
Here is the short version of what they found:
- Feature complexity hurts brand attention and the viewer’s attitude toward an ad.
- Design complexity helps attention to the pictorial and to the advertisement as a whole, to ad comprehensibility and the attitude toward an ad.
The authors suggest that designers…
- Keep feature-based “visual clutter” to a minimum: White space is still important; brands still need to be showcased.
- Make design elements more complex: patterns on a shirt; one large object in front, smaller ones in back; objects with differing shapes, textures, colors—to keep things visually interesting.
Keep it simple, with complex touches. As advertisers compete for the attention of an image-saturated audience, a simple overall format with complex elements to draw the eye in may be the best approach to making a brand message stick.
Source: “The Stopping Power of Advertising: Measures and Effects of Visual Complexity” by Rik Pieters, Michel Wedel and Rajeev Batra.
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Crumbs from the Scone
“Even in an increasingly real-time Web, email remains a critical channel to embrace for B2B marketing success,” says Maria Pergolino in a post at the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog. “However, it’s a channel that’s poorly treated due to our excitement at the extreme ROI potential.”
Sloppiness can impair deliverability and damage your bottom line, Pergolino warns. To avoid that fate, consider tactics like these that ensure your messages continue to reach their intended recipients:
Create a compelling welcome message. According to Pergolino, many companies neglect this action, which is a critical component of any email marketing program. “It is essential as it sets the tone for what readers can expect,” she explains.
Keep your list squeaky clean. The presence of unknown users, inactive addresses and spam traps can do serious harm to your deliverability rate. “Focus on eliminating these addresses from your current list,” she advises, “and add steps in place to keep your list clean, such as quarantining new data, making it easy for customers to provide updated information, considering a confirmed opt-in, and vetting new data sources carefully.”
Authenticate yourself as a sender. The benefit of authentication is that it identifies you “as a legitimate business as opposed to someone involved in spamming or phishing scams.”
Organize your infrastructure. Work with your ESP and IT departments to identify and resolve problems as soon as they occur.
Send ultra-relevant messages. “Take the time to listen to your audience,” Pergolino advises. “Learn their behaviors and motivations; do this through both qualitative and quantitative methods.”
Know your readers, and help them know you. You’ll get the best results from your email marketing program by making sure your messages reach intended recipients who like receiving them.
Source: Daily Fix.
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The hit TV sitcom The Office has extended its brand reach and consumer appeal through clever uses of social media. “Although there are only around 23 episodes [per year] … the show has become far more than just 30 minutes of weekly airtime,” Case Ernsting writes in a recent post at the SEO & Marketing blog. “In fact, these half-hour installments have proven to be the axis for a very extensive and enthusiastic leap into new media.”
