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...Among other things, baby-boomer marketers need to accept the fact that millennials have not inherited their parents' love for the "touch" of paper. They do not naturally go gaga over double-page spreads of either editorial or advertising in magazines. They do not feel compelled to seek their fashion and beauty direction from the magazines that served as bibles for older generations. Nor do millennials feel the need to park themselves in front of a TV at the time appointed for their favorite show, or even to watch TV on a TV at all. Millennials spend a huge amount of their lives online: on smartphones (59%), on tablets (35%) and on their laptops (70%). As of 2011, 91% of millennials are regular internet users, according to Forrester Research....
Measuring the efficacy of social media marketing still isn't an exact science, regardless of what the gurus and ninjas tell you. So how can we whittle all the thousands of social campaigns we've seen this year down to a definitive list of the '10 best of 2012'? Do we gauge it on the number of new fans acquired, retweets, ROI, YouTube views, the number of people it reached, sentiment analysis, the amount of traffic it drove or maybe the number of new brand advocates it created? The answer is any of the above and any number of other social metrics, so for this list I've instead gone for the campaigns that I found to be most memorable, innovative, or downright funny....
Eloqua has teamed up with infographic design firm JESS3 again to create Modern Marketing Insights, a series of 40 infographics using big data analysis that can help marketers anywhere. Did you know that dynamic content can improve conversions by 50%? Or that emails sent on a Saturday get the highest number of click-throughs? Were you aware that when influencers share your content on social it can result in a dramatic increase in traffic and conversions? That’s why we produce a chart every week that modern marketers can easily learn from and use. And it’s why we’ve gone back with our friends at JESS3 to reproduce the most indispensable data points, coming up with 40 understandable, actionable charts. Wide-ranging in scope, the charts hit the most important topics hitting marketers today – from social media to email.... [What a terrific marketing, social media resource! ~ Jeff]
It's not going to be mobile-only... [This is a very powerful presentation on the future of digital. It impacts marketing, PR and every business. ~ Jeff]
Via Carla Bulhões
Retailers are mining personal data to learn everything about you so they can help you help yourself to their products. Black Thriday is over. So is Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Today, in case you didn’t know, is either Green Tuesday or Giving Tuesday, depending on whether you feel like eco-shopping or giving to charity. Not sure what tomorrow may bring (How about Weird Relative Gift Wednesday?), but I suppose shopping does feel less chaotic if someone’s organizing it into theme days, although that doesn’t always stop it from devolving into a contact sport. Can you imagine American shoppers embracing something like iButterfly, a mobile app popular in Asia where customers earn coupons by tracking down virtual butterflies with their smartphones? Me neither. In the U.S., it’s about cutting to the chase and here the chase is after the sweetest deals, pure and simple, without having to bother with running after faux flying insects. And retailers have ratcheted up the competition, using the latest tracking technology to closely monitor their competitors’ pricing decisions and undercut them, in close to real-time, on their own websites. When Best Buy, for instance, published advertising saying it would be selling a $1,500 Nikon camera for $1,000, Amazon responded on Thanksgiving morning by cutting its price for the same camera to $997.... [Smithsonian offers a valuable marketing context for Black Friday shopping phenomena ~ Jeff]
You might be asking 'what are the biggest marketing trends for 2013?' or 'how can I leverage the latest marketing initiatives to improve my business?' Well I think the biggest shift change in how we go to market will be all about the social website. And that doesn't mean adding a share or like button to your home page. I honestly believe that within 3 years more consumers will be finding product information, reviews, news and information on your business through already established social networks than through company owned websites. The days of www.yourbusiness.com are limited. Imagine LinkedIn.com/yourbusiness, Facebook.com/yourbusiness or Pinterest.com/yourbusiness as 3 examples.... [Thoughtful reflection on the future of marketing through social media ~ Jeff]
IBM asked CEOs all over the world what they believe is going to happen with social media for the next three to five years. What they had to say was revealing. “For the first time in my career, I feel old. People in their 20s work and think about this social stuff in a different way,” a U.K. insurance industry CEO shared. “We’re using it as a way of connecting with friends and socializing; the kids coming up are using it as a way of life.”
But do most CEOs acknowledge what is happening with social?
Over half of the CEOs "expect social channels to be a primary way of engaging customers." [But are they committing resources and does social improve the bottom line? ~ Jeff]
These places celebrate the essence of the coffee bean, each in a unique and delicious way. Maybe it's all that caffeine in their bloodstreams, but talking about the world's best coffee gets people really amped. Countless varieties, roasting techniques, brewing preferences, and adornments yield dramatically different brews around the world, all with avid fans and vociferous critics. We've rounded up this list of 10 places that celebrate the essence of the bean, each in a unique and delicious way. There's a 100 percent chance that we've left off one of your favorites, though, so go to bat for your team in the comments.... [Several surprises for inquiring minds ~ Jeff]
A more nimble approach can help startups succeed. Traditional marketing planning (TMP) activities have been a mainstay for the past four decades, but the theories behind them have limited relevance for new ventures facing extreme uncertainty. The old routine of analyzing existing markets, predicting an optimal outcome, and then designing marketing plans to capture that outcome is too slow and cumbersome for today's startups. To be successful, new ventures must eschew these theories and instead rely on effectual marketing planning. This strategy uses a different set of management processes focused on speedy action, learning through failure, and a premeditated approach to market experimentation that creates instant feedback. It can help new ventures be more successful, more informed, and more fully understood. We saw firsthand how effectual marketing planning can be put to use when, earlier this year, we worked with a startup struggling with its marketing plan (or lack thereof).... [What is hypercycle planning for 500 points? ~ Jeff]
social media evolves, marketers realize that a social presence is no longer an option, but a necessity. Many have noticed a disconnect, however, between consumer reach provided by social media and actual, quantifiable customer acquisition and return on investment. Recent research by The Incyte Group provides unprecedented insight into four major consumer segments that are researching your brand online and more importantly the best ways you can reach them. The implications of the findings are not a one size fits all solution for social engagement. Rather, the research provides insight into four consumer segments that can have a major impact on your social strategy if you understand what motivates them.... [You'll find these four consumer segments very interesting and worth exploring for marketing, content marketing and PR.]
Leah Bell, president of UQ Marketing, is more optimistic about the power of word-of- mouth offline. “There’s no denying the popularity of texting and social media among college students,” she says. “However, students begin to develop their long-term purchasing habits based on recommendations from their peers.” She and Sepso agree, though, about brands’ needs to infiltrate young consumers’ daily lives. “Brands need to interject themselves into these real-world conversations,” says Bell. That’s surprisingly difficult, consider how very connected these young adults are: 80 percent use two or more devices while watching TV, 76 percent spend at least an hour on Facebook everyday, and 59 percent even go on Facebook during class. The huge obstacle for marketers trying to reach consumers through disruptive channels like Facebook and Reddit is creating authentic content and experiences. The only way to accomplish this is through transparency and respect.... [Fascinating marketing insight: Totally awesome and hard to reach; Dude, text me ~ Jeff]
This infographic shows how smart devices and social media impact your shopping habits. Pre-Internet, the motto for shopping could’ve been “try and buy.” Nowadays, social media and mobile devices add a new dimension to the retail experience. Online tools such as review sites, social networks and smartphones produce data for merchants that, if analyzed properly “in real time,” can transform the way consumers shop, according to a new infographic by custom development firm Symphony Teleca. This, in turn, can equal big bucks for business owners. “By mining the mountain of internal and external data they’re compiling, retailers can provide targeted, relevant and timely offers to their customers, simultaneously improving the customer shopping experience and the company’s bottom-line,” says spokeswoman Brittany Klontz. Entitled “The Meaning of Like,” the infographic shows just how much consumers are connected to the web. A staggering 167 million people will shop online this year, spending an average of $1,800 per person, it reveals. Unsurprisingly, shoppers are using their smartphones to look for sales and special deals, as well as read product reviews and ratings.... [Valuable trends and insight for retailers and marketers ~ Jeff]
Customer Research: Learn how to conduct research on social media to find out more about your customers. With the right social media tools, you can learn what questions your customers have and which types of content they’re sharing. This information will help you answer their questions, solve their problems and define your social media and content strategies. In this post, you’ll learn how to quickly conduct research on social media and put it into action. [Practical tips you can use on the most popular social media platforms -JD]
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How "cool" is your brand? Marketers may soon get the answers... A Breakthrough In Measuring Cool Business leaders can now determine whether their brands are perceived as cool and how much emotional heat they have as a measure of future business success. Results from a recent study in the beer and spirits categories are described below to illustrate the new insights available from measuring cool. Today there is too much noise, too much clutter and too many choices for customers to navigate in virtually every category. When a brand evokes the characteristics of cool, it stands out and drives consumption. For brand owners and innovators it has been increasingly difficult to differentiate on functional features and benefits to get ahead of competitive brands and private label. The accumulated research on quantifying cool by Buyology has demonstrated: - Cool is a key driver of brand favorability across a wide spectrum of product and service categories - Cool is relevant and important to all age groups, although what is considered to be cool may vary by age. - Cool brands have different characteristic patterns - Cool is more reliably measured through non-conscious methods, where perception and intuition operate in our thinking...
Here are some top analytics to avoid when measuring marketing ROI and proving revenue.
I recently wrote about how to build a data-driven marketing team. But what metrics should that team track? There are literally hundreds if not thousands of possible marketing management metrics to choose from, and almost all of them measure something of some kind of value. The problem is that most of them relate very little to the revenue and profitability metrics that concern the CEO, CFO and the board....
Here are the top categories of metrics to avoid....
As content creators look to keep audiences interested and clicking on more assets, they would do well to consider audience composition, as research suggests demographics can have a substantial effect on how web users behave once they have found interesting content. Research from content optimization firm nRelate shows that age is one major factor in how users engage with content online. An October 2012 survey found that younger US web users, especially younger males, had a high propensity to click on related articles and videos after reading online content. Older users tended to click on links to related content on a weekly basis, and women—especially older women—were more likely to be drawn to a story that featured a photo.... [Useful social marketing insight ~ Jeff]
As a creative marketing guy, I love a good idea. In fact, I’ve spent many hours sitting in conference rooms brainstorming with teammates to come up with them. So when I first saw Verizon Wireless’ big new campaign called Share America – I was instantly engaged. It is a great concept involving an up and coming band (Hot Chelle Rae), a tour bus, multiple cities, and a concept to unite people across America by inviting them all to sing one of the most iconic holiday songs ever: Jingle Bell Rock. The video was just released on their Facebook page this weekend and has already racked up more than 25,000 likes and been shared nearly 7000 times. The YouTube version is taking off more slowly, with just 1000 views to date (but will likely pick up in the coming days). The problem with the campaign is that it makes the same mistake that many brands are making today with social media … they forget about the power of the people involved to create engagement and help the campaign succeed. Verizon isn’t the only brand to miss this opportunity. It happens all the time. So in an effort to use their campaign as a learning moment, here are five suggestions that could have amplified this campaign and used social media far more effectively to involve the people behind the video and make their shared passion for the project a much bigger word of mouth driver for others to engage in it.... [Rohit Bhargava shares valuable social media lessons and insight for brands ~ Jeff]
Instagram is most definitely its own beast. Businesses thinking they can parlay a Pinterest strategy into Instagram will be sorely mistaken, thanks to strikingly different user engagement styles on the two platforms. Without clear “transactional” support, Instagram is proving to be much more about brand building and brand allegiance. If your company doesn't hold the term "brand" highly, simply stay off Instagram for now -- there are other platforms more worth your transactional-based time. However, for the brand-conscience, recent metrics show Instagram might be a worthwhile marketing tool.... [Bryan Boettger offers insight into marketing on Instagram ~ Jeff]
In this special 'Ask Entrepreneur' feature, marketing expert Jason Falls discusses how business owners can convert followers into paying... In this special feature of 'Ask Entrepreneur,' Facebook fan Amy Clark Braden from Austin, Texas, asks: Which social network is better for converting followers into customers? So far we haven't had much luck with Facebook. What about Twitter or Google+? Converting customers through social channels is not as cut-and-dried as most business owners think it should be. Put yourself in your customer's shoes and ask, "Why would I engage with this brand on Facebook?" Often, the answer is not, "So I can buy stuff from them." Perhaps a better question to ask is, "Where would I buy things from a brand?" Chances are, Facebook is not going to be the first answer for many.... [Jason Falls answers a great question with practical suggestions for marketers ~ Jeff]
Consumer commerce has changed radically over the past half century. Today, abundant supply is chasing relatively scarce demand, and new technologies have empowered individuals, giving rise to a new breed of consumer. Consumer commerce has changed radically over the past half century. Today, abundant supply is chasing relatively scarce demand, and new technologies have empowered individuals, giving rise to a new breed of consumer. "Consumer 3.0" is firmly in control of the shopping landscape. To succeed in this environment, all companies in every industry need to be engaging customers online and meeting their expectations, though the expectations bar has never been set higher. The world of retailing is no longer built around products but around consumers. It is critical in this environment that companies adopt a thoroughly customer-centric focus. Five principles can guide companies, pointing the way to strategies that captivate Customer 3.0 and turn the new market dynamics to competitive advantage. In this HBR webinar, Jeffrey Rayport explained the forces that have reshaped the consumer landscape and five principles that can help companies leverage the opportunities of the new reality....
With input from experts at ClickZ, this year's survey focuses on the key areas where digital marketers need to excel in order to ensure online marketing success: social media, mobile, personalization, and customer experience. The results reveal how:
* Social media has taken a valued role as a bona fide marketing channel
* Agility is crucial to take advantage of and understand new customer insights
* Testing throughout the conversion funnel helps marketers identify the direct links to conversion behavior... [Valuable report on best practices for better online ROI, free with registration ~ Jeff]
Twitter drives the most traffic of all the major social networks, but it’s Facebook that generates the most revenue, reveals a new study by Eventbrite. Shares made on Twitter trigger, on average, 33 visits to websites, compared to 14 for Facebook and 10 for LinkedIn. But the value of that share skews heavily in Facebook’s favour, with its $4.15 revenue rate more than twice that of Twitter’s ($1.85) and four times that of LinkedIn ($0.92). The value of a share across all social networks was $3.23, largely thanks to Facebook. Of note: the revenue worth of a share varies around the world, with Ireland being the marketer’s country of choice on both Twitter and Facebook, and France performing best for LinkedIn.... [Data for marketing and PR to ponder, but I still think it is very dependent on your product and the level of influence you're seeking ~ Jeff]
Do you have a team listening to what is being said about your company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and discussion forums?... It’s very likely a company will engage in the customer service scenario described above, according to the third edition of the Social Customer Engagement Index, a study conducted by Social Media Today and sponsored by SAP. Chances are growing that customers will use a channel other than a phone call or in-person and instead opt for a social media channel for service, whether Twitter, an online forum, a Web site or a social networking site such as Facebook. SocialCRM thought leader Paul Greenberg of the 56 Group, who wrote the foreword to this study report, describes “a company like me,” as how consumers engage with companies through commonalities – such as social engagement channels. Key Findings Adoption of social media as a channel for serving and engaging with customers is accelerating, and it looks like there’s no turning back. Over a third of respondents (34%) said their company has gathered two-plus years of experience using social media tools for customer service, compared with 20.3% in 2011. Even more dramatic is the increase in the percentage of customer inquiries being addressed over social channels. The number of companies handling greater than 25% of customer service inquiries via social media doubled this year, growing to 18% from 9% last year. The number of companies handling fewer than 5% of customer inquiries over social channels decreased to 41%, down from 56%.... [if you're not serving your customers and engaging with themthrough social media, your competitors soon will be according to the research ~ Jeff]
Check out the new Definitive Guide to Social Marketing. Discover how to add social to every marketing activity to drive buyer engagement, new business, and revenue. "This is the most comprehensive free ebook I've seen on social media marketing! As you dive into the 80+ pages of this ebook you'll discover valuable insights, including what to avoid, how to develop a strategy and actionable tactics you can put to use immediately." Michael Stelzner, Founder, Social Media Examiner [Another great free resource for marketing, PR and social media managers ~ Jeff]
Major Airline SM Word Cloud via Brian Solis It amazes me that even in today's social media savvy business environment there are still big companies that fail to engage with their customers, particularly customers that are frustrated and unhappy. [Ignoring customer complaints, especially online, is no longer an option for savvy companies. The outcome positive or negative will impact your brand equity. This report should be required reading for marketers and reputation managers. - JD]
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Okay Boomer marketers. Listen up. Milllennials are different. Here's why that matters.