Qing Yan

Marketing enthusiast!

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How to make email marketing work better ?!

Although email marketing has been widely acknowledged to be low cost and effective, it is still not fully used. 

First, marketers should fully used the customer data. Actually, most of the marketers just send the same type of email to all the customers on the email list. Only 28% of those used data from across multiple channels to create records for each customer. What marketers should try to do is that collecting data from different platforms, use data to divide the customers into different segments, and then use different emails targeting different segments. However, most of the companies don’t do that. If you think collecting data through different platforms cost too much, focus on one platform can also collect abundant data. For example,  Birdleaf is a new program that automatically collects and analyzes demographical information on your customers (potential, current, and past) from only their email address. 

Secondly, assume that customers read the email on their mobile devices. According the research from eMarketer, we find that marketers realize the need to optimise emails for mobile, only 28% act on it.It is the lowest one among all the email tactics, which should be paid attention on.

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Last-click attribution doesn’t always tell a true story

                                                                                                       2015.4 29

Last-Click attribution refers to a web analytics model in which the “last click” is given credit for a sale or conversion. It is a simple and popular approach to measure ROI. However, many marketers decide to say goodbye to it, since we could not tell from last-click attribution about which marketing technique works best for the following reasons.

First, different marketing channel serve different purposes. Some works on increasing awareness. Some works on promoting sales. Last-click attribution focuses on the sales, ignoring awareness or brand sentiment, which be proven to contribute a lot to the final sales. 

Secondly, customer buying process becomes much more complicated, and each individual channel should be given credits to. Customers are in a world of multi-channel and omni-channel, their final purchase decisions are always lead by multiple channels both online and offline. Using last-click attribution ignore the importance of some of the channels. Maybe lacking of each of the individual channel, the customer won’t purchase. Therefore, we should try to figure out the whole process instead of giving credits to the last one.

There is a question leaving to the marketers how could we abandon the inaccurate last-click attribute and find more logical metrics to better show the true value of each channel.

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Hyper targeted display ads works!

Hyper targeted display advertisement works or not. Some believes it doesn’t work due to the intrusive issue. However, I think it is effective. First, let us look at the data below.

If we don’t take those people who don’t have habits interacting with ads into account, the top reason people don’t interact with display ads is that there were nothing they want to learn about the product. It means that the information is not what they want. What if we use hyper targeted display ads? This problem can be partly solved. When people are in the process of doing research and brand provides display advertisement at the same time, it would be less like advertising and more like information.

According to an article by Harry Gold in online publisher ClickZ,[3] the general field of hypertargeting draws information from 3 sources:

Registration - basic data gathered when users register for site access (e.g. age, sex, location)

Profile - detailed content completed by active users (e.g. favorite movies, activities, brands)

Behavioral history - data gathered from online activities like sites visited, purchases made, groups joined, etc.

Now Facebook has become a more popular and precise way to draw information, since it knows its users, their interests and their lives. For example, during Super Bowl this year, Facebook announce that the Big Game targeting segment is Facebook's first segment that utilizes real-time conversations. And also, The segment includes not just football fans who like the Seahawks or the Patriots but also people engaging (e.g., likes, comments, shares) around party planning, sharing recipes, buying a new flat-screen TV, halftime show commentary, chatter about your favorite ads, and more, to identify new targets for the segment. 

Since hypertargeting information seems to be more precise and comprehensive, I believe that it will work better. Whether it is work or not, it really depends on the content and forms of the display ads. I think it will work if the ads are made interactive and precisely targeted. 

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Everything is Mobile! How about SEM?

Today, I happen to read the article “What 'Mobile First' Means For Search Marketers”, which makes me think a lot. Nowadays, everything goes mobile. Then what does “mobile first”  mean for search engine?

According to Global Web Index, mobile is the second popular devices used to search. According to Per comScore, nearly 50% of all retail paid search clicks come from mobile devices during the holiday seasons. It just takes some time that mobile search surpasses PC search. So it's no longer a case of asking whether mobile SEM important, we know it is! It's now a question about how to use it better.

Compared to PC search engine marketing, mobile have several advantages need to be fully used. Below I have listed two which I think is the most important advantages of mobile.

  Location targeting

         Compared to PC search, mobile search can have a better use of location information.  Recently, google plan to launch a new service to connect searchers with local plumbers, electricians, singers and other home service providers. It is good news for local small business use mobile search engine for marketing.

    Call tracking

Including a phone number directly in the search results is a convenient way for the customers to have a deeper interaction with the company. Searching is always the beginning of the purchase circle, however, phone calls can be a good way to create leads and make purchase decisions.

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Matt Cutts Hurts me!!

I read carefully this morning about Matt Cutts blog. I am so happy to find that he plan to launch a project about AutoSEO. People write the text, and AutoSEO can processes the content in a beautiful format. What’s more, it can also automate social posts, which can tell the best times to post for maximum spread and impact. Happily,it is free for small companies and individual. It is such a good news, since it saves time and money for SEM. Then I search more info bout AutoSEO, and sadly I find it is just a joke. Think it seriously! SEO is a unique project and it seems to be impossible to automate all of this process using one system.  Feel silly about myself!

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Integrate social media with email marketing

Email marketing is still viewed as an effective marketing tactic. According to the recent research, people buy products via email spend 138% more than those who don’t receive email offers. However, due to the research by MailChimp, the average open rate for email marketing campaigns is about 22%, and the click rate is about 3%. Another research finds that the average inactivity for a email list is 63%. That is to say, though people recognize the high value of email marketing, there is still a lot of work to do to improve the ROI of email marketing. An optimal way to improve it is integrating social media with email marketing, which could help to increase to accuracy of targeting.

Integrate social media with email marketing is viable and effective, since audience on this two platforms are similar. Both of them are existing customers. Marketers get the email list mostly at the transactional time. Research from DDB shows that 84% of fans of company Facebook pages are current customers. Since the audience base is similar, integrating them will make the customer profile comprehensive. What’ more，social media is a platform that can help to collect more useful and specific consumer profile data. How to connect the customer base of this two platform? Below are some common way used by marketers.

1.     Including social icons in the email is important and basic way. It seems to be too basic and easy, however, a lot of companies fail to do so. For example, the promotion email from BestBuy, there is no social icons. For some company, they do include, however, the icons are so difficult to find.

2.     Promote email Sign-up Via social networks. Using the Facebook landing tab as an email opt-in opportunity.

3.     Email subscription with Social log-in. It is a good way to build a unified database.

4.     Include best performing email products in Facebook page. Using the transactional data via email to have a better known of the customers. Promote the outcome via social media to target the consumer more accurately.

5.     Using popular and interesting updates from followers on social media as email content. This helps to develop more intimate relationship with the subscribers.

There are still a lot of ways of integrating. The integration of this two channels are important, since the combination will have the power of 1+1>2. According to the DMA's National Client Email Survey 2014, a 760 percent increase in email revenue came from segmented emails. How to combine the database and content  better needs more discussion.

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Improve mobile viewability

“Mobile first” has been generally accepted by marketers. Some marketers even argue about  "mobile only"--design website just for mobile use. It seems that more and more marketers realize the importance of mobile. However, in reality, compared to the time people spent on mobile, the ad budget on mobile is far less. One reason is that marketers don't believe the advertisements on mobile have really been viewed by users, although the ad impression is high. Improving viewability should become the focus of improving the effectiveness of mobile ads, since viewability is the first step towards engagement. We are supposed to think seriously about improving mobile viewability. Ad analytics company Moat, reports that the industry average for mobile viewability is a meager 44% of pixels in view for one continuous second. There is still a lot of space to improve. 

Following are several tips to improve mobile viewability.

 1. Use more native ads

Marketer should choose publishers who provide premium content. As we know, a lot of content below the fold have not been seen, especially for ads. If marketers want their ads to be seen, they should choose friendly environment to attract more people. Native ad is also a good choice. Almost all the social media platforms try to optimise the environment for brands to insert native ads, which is easier to be accepted by users. According to the research by Inmobi, 97% of respondents know what Native advertising is and along with its benefits; despite that only 36% of respondents use it. Why native ads are not fully used? 29% blamed lack of expert suppliers and best practices. A lot of  marketers find the opportunity. For example, Rubicon Project and InMobi are doing with the launch of their new Mobile Native Ad Server, which will enable publishers to sell native ads for mobile campaigns directly, alongside indirect buys, through a programmatic interface. Companies, especially for the small one can get supports from this kind of platforms.

2.Choose the right timing

Timing is a crucial element that mobile ads could not ignore. It has been proven that post-activity ads have actually proven to be 5-times more engaging than traditional interstitial advertising. When people jump from one app to another, it is a good timing for advertising and haven't been used.

What' more, great timing for pushing notifications is also very important. Pushing notifications have already been widely used, since people believe that it is more effective than email newsletter and access to collect more data.And also, since users have downloaded the apps, it is proven that they may be interested in the related advertisement . Choosing a suitable time for pushing notification is very important. Marketers should consider users’ behaviour and the urgency. Users are willing to receive urgent notification. For notification, which is not very urgent, marketers should minimize the disruption. If you disturb the users, they will never forgive you.

3. Don't forget multichannel 

The most recent report shows that 51% of advertisers ran their campaigns on more than one screen (e.g., PC and mobile) in Q4 2014, compared to just 17% in Q1 2014. The effectiveness of multichannel has been gradually realised by marketers. From the customer buying journey, different platforms have been involved in the purchase process. The power of mobile can be strengthened when combining with other platforms.

[kellykellyyan]

NIKE VS. ADIDAS  - Website comparision

Today, I am going to compare the website of two renowned global sportswear brands: Nike and Adidas. 

Before proceeding, we need to have a brief knowledge of these two brands and the purpose of the their websites.Although Nike's principal target markets are those people into basketball and running, and Adidas' key markets are those people into soccer and tennis, they still have pretty much the same target: People who loves sports. 

Both of their websites serve the well-rounded purposes, including building reputation, generate leads, generate sales and provide customer services.

http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

http://www.adidas.com/us/

1. Texts and pictures

Homepage plays an important role in attracting attention and keeping visitors staying on the pages. From this point of view, I think Nike does a better job. Its homepage is simple but powerful. Don't directly tell you everything and leave people same space to discover the content itself. It is a smart way to keep visitors. Compared to Adidas's homepage, the picture is more delicate, which seems to tell a story to the visitors and the expression is more metaphorical, which is better for conveying attitude and building brand images. 

As we can seen from the form below, Nike has less words and their page, however, it has more link words. It meets the need that people want to see less text, however, they can explore more information by themselves.

2.Navigation

The navigation bar of the two websites are almost the same, which has huge drop-down menus. However, adidas has not only the navigation bar at the top of the page, but also a huge menu at the bottom of the page. I don't think it is necessary, since most of the people view the page follow the F pattern. The text on the bottom is difficult for people to notice, and too much content on the page make people annoying. 

What's more,  on Nike's website, people can easily find the link to social media, where they can have a direct conversation with the corporate. However, only when you click into a specific page, you can find the link. The link doesn't show up on Adidas's homepage.

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Advices on  Kate Spade's Landing pages

We can find in Wikipedia that landing pages fall in two types: reference and transactional. It depends on whether the campaign aims at generating leads or generating sales.

I have received a lot of promotional emails every day. Following ads from Kate spade is a good example of transactional landing pages. Its purpose is to tell the brand lovers that something new comes and you can take an action right now. Although the purpose is direct, I don't think the landing page should be so bold.

Firstly, we could not deny that this email plays an important role to attract visitors to the landing page. I think the email from Kate Spade works well judging from AIDI principle, The delicate picture successfully attracts people’s attention. The obvious white characters “ New Arrivals” highlight the benefits to the customer and inspires needs. Then visitors click and they enter into the landing page.

However, when I click the email page, they directly enter into the transaction page instead of the page that describes the designing ideas or the current trend. I do think I have accumulated enough desires to make a purchase. And also I lose the happiness to discover what I want step by step, instead, I was told everything right away. It is better for me to have more information about the new arrivals. Then there can be a CTA button like “ Shop the new arrivals”.

Don't you think the following page is more suitable for Kate Spade's as a landing page?

[kellykellyyan]

Building community doesn't equal to managing social network

When mentioning building community, marketer always think it as online community like a knee-jerk reaction. Though social network is a good place for interaction, strong relationship always arises from offline interaction. To cultivate brand loyalty, building or guiding brand community seems to be a good choice. However, marketers should realize the power of off-line interaction, like creating a "third place" for conversation, holding some events for meeting members needs, and so on. From the case of Harley, we can find the power of community, therefore, try to guide the community strategy into the right way.

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Why not try the autoplay premium video ads on Facebook?

According to the eMarketer, the amount of video in users' News Feed has more than tripled than the last year. Since more and more users switch to watching videos on Facebook, more ad budget should follow. We need to take Facebook autoplay premium video ads should been taken into consideration when doing media plan.

Facebook autoplay premium video ads have some advantages than ads on other platforms. Firstly, it targets accurately. The ads can target at the specific group of people. Since it contains link directed to the purchase website, it is good platform for call-to-action advertisements. Secondly, it is measured easily. Facebook’s autoplay premium video ads provide tactic campaign measurement tools. Thirdly, the launching of the ads can be flexible. Advertisers can choose the launching time and how many times it is ran. For example, ads for restaurants can be ran before the mealtime. It is easier to control than TV commercials.

Due to the advantages above, Facebook video ads seem to be good for some e-commerce advertisers with specific target products run some call-to action campaigns. For example, Zara can launch a video ad combined with other digital marketing strategy on Facebook, and contain a link for purchase. After attracted by the video ads, audience can easily make a purchase on the official website. There may be people arguing that the conversation on Facebook is private and users may feel interrupted by the autoplay video ads. However, since more and more video ads show up in News Feed, people may feel normal or even interested if the ads can be created as a native ad. It is not the ads interrupted the users, but the boring content. If the ads can be created in a engaging and native way, it will become a good topic which earn more free conversation.

(Resource:http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/05/facebook-news-feed-too-quiet-auto-play-video-ads-are-coming/)

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Use the right social media

Different products and services require different types of promotions.  Some need deeper engagement. Others may need real-time interaction. Different social media have different personalities and strengths. However, so many companies take the social media as a whole and apply the same content to all different kinds of social media. Companies should figure out the differences between each social media.

Facebook is available for different types of advertising element, like links, images, posts and videos, and different forms of advertising formats, like classic display ads, Facebook contests, promoted posts, sponsored stories and so on. Due to the containing of large amount of information, it is better for business to show rich content and fully show its identity.

Twitter distributes short, disconnected messages, thus it is better for real-time engagement. Business can use the headlines to engage more people and then increase awareness.

On Instagram, people usually generate personal content, which can show their personalities. It is a good to share the attitude of the company and build organization culture, which makes the business look creative and shows its human side.

On Pinterest, people usually use it to search for useful content, usually in the end of the purchase process. Business can provide more call-to-action information.

Tumblr, or other blogs have more staying power. It won’t disappear on the timeline because of the constantly updating information. It is better for high involvement products.

All in all, content, platform and audience aren't one-size-fits-all. Business should determine the platform and content on the audience and its marketing purpose.

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Never put eggs in one basket.

Digital marketing is effective and promising marketing method. It has some incomparable advantages over other marketing methods, such as real time, interactivity, low cost, and so on. However, I don’t think it is the best way for branding or for direct response marketing.

For branding, traditional media, which are a trusted source for information, are better for building a healthy and trustful brand image. Additionally, they have a widespread reach, which is much more effective for increasing brand awareness. What’ more, audience are compelled to receive the marketing message repeatedly, which is good for reinforcing brand image. Maybe those are the reasons why many advertisers still shell out a large amount of ad dollars in super bowl.

For direct response marketing, digital marketing may do a better job than on branding. The company can have a real-time conversation with the customers. It can be used to help the customer solve their problems instantly. It is a platform that can contain resourceful products’ messages. However, we still could not ignore the power of other types of direct response marketing, like salesperson. Although many processes can be completed through Internet in a convenient way, without face-to-face interaction, it is difficult to persuade a potential customer or have a conversation between heart and heart.

All in all, the importance of digital marketing depends on different industries and different marketing objectives. Also, companies should not put all the eggs in one basket. Integrated digital marketing with other marketing methods may have a better effect.