Posted on Tue, Nov 29, 2011 @ 04:45 PM
With the boom of social media it may seem as if email has taken a back seat. Nothing could be further from the truth. Email Marketing is still one of the most powerful channel for staying in front of your customers and building relationships.
Near 100% penetration, ease of use, accessibility via mobile devices, low cost and targeting capabilities make email marketing very effective. Add to this the fact that a company can personalize lists by their interest and email marketing proves very influential. Tracking when, how and potentially where (using GPS on mobile devices) the email was opened and tracking each link click implies businesses have the ability to improve their efficiency and return on investment through targeting and hyper-localization.
Although email is a great marketing tool, there are some Do’s and Dont’s that one should follow.
Do
- Respect your customer’s time. Periodic emails with personalized and targeted content and a strong call to action far outweighs many emails that say the same thing.
- Provide an unsubscribe link. It’s not only “nice” and a show of good faith but it’s also the law!
- Remind your subscribers how/where they signed up to receive your emails. It removes any doubt of your company/email being labeled spam.
- Check your email mechanics for links, typos etc.
Don't
- Send an email without consent. There are multiple ways to ask for and gather opt-ins.
- Employ "black-hat" techniques to get through to the user's Inbox.
- Over-send the same email again and again.
- Send your entire email as an image. With images turned off, your message will not display at all. Instead, use a combination of text, images and intelligent layouts.
- Using a multi-channel approach to online marketing that involves social media, direct mail and email marketing you can be assured that you are deploying the best marketing techniques when building a strong marketing campaign and even stronger customer relationships.
Posted on Tue, Nov 22, 2011 @ 09:27 PM
QR Codes
- QR Codes were created back in 1994 by Toyota
- Americans scanned 14 million QR Codes (as of July 2011)
- 46% of the users scan QR Codes to get discounts
- Their usage was up a whopping 4,589% from 2010 – 2011
- 68% of QR Codes are scanned using an iPhone
For more information on how to create and use QR codes read QRious About QReating QR Codes?
Posted on Wed, Nov 16, 2011 @ 03:24 AM
Facebook Marketing
- Facebook has 800+ million users and counting. It’s the 3rd largest country in the world!
- 75% of Facebook’s users are outside the US
- CTR for links in News feeds is 1 in 715 or 0.13%
- CTR for links in Pagesis 1 in 280 or 0.35%
- Wednesdays are more likely to generate likes than Fridays
- Pages receive 1 click for every 1,000 Fans
More on Facebook? Read: Increase Brand Engagement with Facebook Fan Pages
Posted on Thu, Nov 03, 2011 @ 10:17 AM
CONTEXT
That’s what Google has that Facebook doesn’t. Allow me to indulge. Although both feature self-serve models for creating, managing, distributing and targeting ads to audiences in multiple formats and of various demographics across distributed geos, Search Ads i.e. Google AdWords tends to still fare better over Facebook Ads.
The average click-through rate (CTR) for Facebook ads in 2010 was 0.051%, or about one click-through for every 2,000 ad impressions (source: IT World). The CTR for Google AdWords was 0.09% in 2010, a slight decline from 0.1% in 2009 (source: Google). The exceptions to this CTR for Google AdWords was in China where it was a whopping 0.64%!
There are several factors (format, size, content itself, demographic, gender etc.) for what’s behind those numbers but one of them is "context".
When a person searches for "Toyota Prius" in Google, they are either looking to buy a toyota prius, perhaps for a repair center, research the car, or one of the other many things. But the important point is they are looking for something related to their search i.e. a Toyota Prius. So, an ad from a local Toyota dealership that appears in the sidebar stands a better chance of being clicked on. In fact, it could even be an ad from a Nissan featuring it’s hybrid, the Leaf. That could potentially result in a better CTR. In either case, the click take place because of this "context".
On the other hand, Facebook is less of a contextual platform than Google. You go to Facebook to update your status, post pictures from your recent trip to Italy and the isles of Sicily, or to find someone across the globe. Nowhere in this "thought process", is there room for annoying ads. It’s like those nasty banner ads. When was that last time you clicked on one? Probably back when MySpace ruled! Exactly. Or maybe you (accidentally) did only to click "back" in your browser at lightning speed!
So, it’s this "context" that I believe drives Google’s success in search over anyone else. Google’s approach is more "pull" based compared to Facebook’s which is "push" based.