Allocation of Online Marketing Tactics

I came across this chart from Marketing Sherpa showing how online marketing budgets in the US is allocated to each of the following online tactics. Pretty interesting reading:





View the whole article and chart at Marketing Sherpa:  
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=32135


Or read the article here:

Paid search, website management and design, and search engine optimization are the top three tactics to which organizations designate online marketing dollars.

Organizations devote one-quarter of their online marketing budgets to their websites. Even the best marketing efforts are for naught if the website is not optimized (in terms of performance and design) to communicate the “offer” and trigger a “response.”

Paid search also comprises 25% of the budget. Because SEO tactics often take time before having an impact on search rankings, many organizations use paid search to supplement SEO efforts.

Paid and organic search can work well together as a means for establishing authority on a search engine results page. Further segmenting the data, we found B2C organizations allocate more than half of online marketing dollars to PPC and SEO, which is more than their counterparts with primary business channels.

Advertising on social networks is gaining traction, particularly when viewed in light of the budget allocations of other tactics in this list. Companies focused on both business and consumer channels allocate nearly 10% of online marketing budgets to this area.

Organizations advertising in this arena need to bear in mind that social media users are focused on social interactions, unlike searchers who are seeking relevant information to a query. For this reason, social media ads may work better when they do not attempt to drive traffic off the social media platform, but instead aim to attract and engage fans.

PPC is the biggest area of investment for organizations of all sizes. Medium and large organizations direct 28% of online marketing budgets into this tactic, whereas small organizations set aside 24%.

Along with PPC, search engine optimization is another big area of investment for small organizations. On average, these organizations earmark 22% of online marketing dollars for SEO. They also designate a greater percentage of online marketing budgets for content marketing, a strong complementary tactic to SEO. Search engines index content, while people share content, making content good for an organization’s SEO efforts.

ABC - email marketing

It is perfectly possible to use email marketing without appearing spammy and annoying your users. But you can’t phone it in. Put some thought into your message. Content needs to be fresh, engaging and relevant to your subscribers.

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing to the end user that relies on email as its communication channel. This is unlike blog posts, banner ads or online articles, which require the person to first visit your website.Email marketing is one of the most effective (and overlooked) marketing channels on the Internet. 

Software tools

Many email marketing platforms are available on the Internet today. You will be able to use these platforms to collect email addresses, design email newsletters and send messages on a regular basis, as well as cross-promote and link up to your website and your social media profiles and get statistics/track your results. The most popular solutions are “hosted,” meaning the company will host the software for you, and you’ll just need to log in to its website to manage your email lists.

Popular, user-friendly platforms include Emma, Constant Contact, Vertical Response and MailChimp. 

Which to chose?

Consider deliverability rate (percentage of emails sent that reach the end user), available features and price. Take note of the platform’s compliance with anti-spam laws and opt-in mechanisms. Many plans start at $15 a month and are on a tiered pricing plan. The more email addresses you collect and emails you send, the more you will generally pay. For larger businesses, enterprise-level systems such as Exact Target are available. These are more costly with their robust analytics and cross-channel and interactive marketing campaigns, and Fortune 500 companies typically favor them.

Some platforms let you create templates and newsletters to share with franchisees, independent sales representatives or others. This will permit you to control company messaging while allowing your sales team to leverage their email databases.

Getting subscribers

After choosing a platform, it’s a matter of logging in, adding emails to your list(s) and creating your email newsletter form. They offer simple templates you can use by dragging and dropping fields. You can even customize your form from scratch. In either case, you can add images and company logos.

You should consider displaying your subscription form in multiple spots. It should be noted that businesses must explicitly ask permission to collect the email address and send future messages, and this is typically accomplished via an opt-in process (a form is completed with name and email address, often followed by a click on a confirmation link sent via email).

On your company website, encourage folks to opt in to your email list near the top of the home page and at the bottom of every blog post (if you have a company blog). These two spots are very visible, and usually they have high conversion rates.

Install an email collection application on your Facebook page. Many email marketing platforms (like Constant Contact) make it very easy to install apps that collect email addresses and “dump” them into your master email list.

Lists can be sorted and organized according to your specific business needs. Perhaps you want to send emails targeted to a certain subsection of your master list. This is possible, not to mention a good use of the tool. Be creative about your email collection process as well. Allow consumers to opt in to your email database when they enter a giveaway or sweepstakes promotion or when they request a free product sample. These incentives can be a simple way to build your list.

Content is king

An email piece should NOT be thought of exclusively as a sales circular. People will unsubscribe faster than you can hit “send” a second time. As with social media, trust and value are paramount to success. Provide solid content, earn trust, and then sell. It’s OK to send an email with a more “sales-y” tone, but don’t make that the norm. And think long and hard about your subject line — it can make or break your email open rate.

Have a editorial calendar in place

This makes it possible for all marketing platforms to march in the same direction at the same time and for messaging to be uniform and consistent. For example, the email piece might highlight the most recent blog post, which in turn gets promoted on Facebook and Twitter. All platforms have a place for readers to opt in and receive emails.

Frequency

There is no magic formula. Most platforms provide some analytics that will allow you to gauge the success of your emails by reviewing your open rate, click-through rate and more. Keep an eye on these metrics, and adjust your email strategy accordingly.

Social Sharing

Take advantage of the social media sharing icons included in most popular email marketing platforms. These are great calls to action for readers, encouraging them to share your email with others via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This is an easy way to expand the reach of your messaging.

No one loves Valentine’s Day more than email marketing people

I found this analysis from Elite Email and thought it would be a good reminder to send out those Valentine emails. According to Elite Email, as Valentine’s Day approaches, email marketers in all industries are sending out themed email marketing campaigns. An email trend analysis done by the company shows that a huge number of small businesses and non for profit organizations sends out themed campaigns to their mailing list. Not hard to agree with as we know customer engagement increases when the timing is right and the topic is relevant. 

Also, specific sectors such as retailers selling flowers or chocolates and many businesses in the hospitality industry such as hotels and restaurants have increased email sending volume leading up to the holiday. 

Examples of other themes they identified in the report are:

December:    Holiday and celebrations

January:       Super Bowl

February:     Valentine’s Day.

The spike in themed email marketing sending volume comes also from sellers of chocolates and flowers, which is a consistent trend year-over-year as those merchants can truly capitalize on the holiday. 

Other organizations in just about every vertical market are sending out themed emails as well. The hospitality industry uses email technology to really push their Valentine’s Day marketing initiatives in an effort to drive consumers into their establishment. Many hotels offered exclusive promotions to the contacts on their mailing list to increase occupancy during the holiday. While restaurants and bars found emails to be an effective way to spread the news about their holiday menu or offer coupons to be redeemed on Valentine’s Day only.

Non for profit organizations are also among those who use cupid, hearts and other Valentine's Day related imagery to remind people not only about giving to their loved ones, but other people in need as well.

With Email marketing software, organizations of all sizes are empowered to send out timely and relevant emails. Unlike tradition print media that has large lead times, expensive design fees, a business can launch a Valentine’s Day email marketing campaign with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Timely and Relevant

An analysis of the response metrics to Valentine’s Day themed emails shows a slightly higher than average engagement rates (open and click rates) as consumers are quicker to open more relevant messages. This higher email marketing engagement leads to even greater ROI for the business as more consumers interact with their brands content.

The analysis by Elite Email concludes that many organizations are hoping to capitalize on the “last minute” before Valentine’s Day, sending out final campaigns on February 13th and 14th. These emails are crafted so that if all previous emails were ignored, once Valentine’s Day has arrived and is all over the media, the email sitting in their inbox is even more relevant.

There is still time for that last email...

4 Ideas on Howto do Business Marketing on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has more than 134 million members. It has changed how we connect, even though most users are not as active as on Facebook and Twitter, there are some great opportunities worth exploring.

I have compiled ideas on how to do your business marketing on LinkedIn through starting a groups,posting events, engage in Q&A and straight up advertising.

Groups
This is the favorite activity on LinkedIn, by creating a group you will be on your way to generate leads and promote your business to other professionals. When starting s group, keep the following in mind:

• Find a niche topic in your industry that creates pain which correlates with what your business offer
• Name the group in a way that describe the topic, not the name of your business
• Promote the group in your other marketing channels and invite your brand champions in to comment and promote discussions
• Have a content and activity plan, what messages, how often and how will you moderate group discussions
• And as a bonus, use the best discussions and questions in blog post or to develop new products and services to you customers.

Events
Post your events with a short description and link to a registration page. Here is a few tips:

• Link the event to your company LinkedIn page
• Direct potential attendees to click on “I’m attending” this will make you show up on their timeline and for their friends to find out about your event
• Set up the event early in the planning process to give everyone (sponsors, speakers, volunteers…) an opportunity to “attend”

Questions and Answers
This is the largest professional Q&A site there is. Here you have an opportunity to connect, position yourself as an expert within your field and build credibility. A few tips though:

• Interact regularly, daily or weekly
• Pick the subjects and be a heavy hitter on these specific topics Be helpful and point to resources
• Be careful not to push your products constantly
• Look for opportunities to reuse your answers in blog posts

Advertising
You are addressing a specific audience of professionals and similar to Google Adwords you bid as to how often your text ad will appear at the top, right under LinkedIn navigation menu or the sidebar with your logo next to it. Here is a few tips on how to manage your advertising in LinkedIn:

• The headline is 25 caracters and the body 75, so be short, compelling and direct
• Test – use A/B testing to test performance of different messages. Your minimum spent per day is $10.00 so it is affordable to test
• Pay attention to fatigue, you may have to change content weekly to keep up performance

According to LinkedIn their audience is more affluent than the leading business magazines, there is a huge value in this network. Leverage these techniques and test it out for yourself.

Culture Eats Strategy For Lunch

Corporate culture is a hot topic among businesses who want to attract the best talent, translate their values to their products and services, and show customers what they're all about. And it doesn't cost a thing 

Get on a Southwest flight to anywhere, buy shoes from Zappos.com, pants from Nordstrom, groceries from Whole Foods, anything from Costco, a Starbucks espresso, or a Double-Double from In N' Out, and you'll get a taste of these brands’ vibrant cultures.

Culture is a balanced blend of human psychology, attitudes, actions, and beliefs that combined create either pleasure or pain, serious momentum or miserable stagnation. A strong culture flourishes with a clear set of values and norms that actively guide the way a company operates. Employees are actively and passionately engaged in the business, operating from a sense of confidence and empowerment rather than navigating their days through miserably extensive procedures and mind-numbing bureaucracy. Performance-oriented cultures possess statistically better financial growth, with high employee involvement, strong internal communication, and an acceptance of a healthy level of risk-taking in order to achieve new levels of innovation.

Misunderstood and mismanaged
Culture, like brand, is misunderstood and often discounted as a touchy-feely component of business that belongs to HR. It's not intangible or fluffy, it's not a vibe or the office décor. It's one of the most important drivers that has to be set or adjusted to push long-term, sustainable success. It's not good enough just to have an amazing product and a healthy bank balance. Long-term success is dependent on a culture that is nurtured and alive. Culture is the environment in which your strategy and your brand thrives or dies a slow death.

Think about it like a nurturing habitat for success. Culture cannot be manufactured. It has to be genuinely nurtured by everyone from the CEO down. Ignoring the health of your culture is like letting aquarium water get dirty.

If there's any doubt about the value of investing time in culture, there are significant benefits that come from a vibrant and alive culture:

• Focus: Aligns the entire company towards achieving its vision, mission, and goals. 
• Motivation: Builds higher employee motivation and loyalty. 
• Connection: Builds team cohesiveness among the company’s various departments and divisions. 
• Cohesion: Builds consistency and encourages coordination and control within the company. 
• Spirit: Shapes employee behavior at work, enabling the organization to be more efficient and alive.

Mission accomplished
Think about the Marines: the few, the proud. They have a connected community that is second to none, and it comes from the early indoctrination of every member of the Corps and the clear communication of their purpose and value system. It is completely clear that they are privileged to be joining an elite community that is committed to improvising, adapting, and overcoming in the face of any adversity. The culture is so strong that it glues the community together and engenders a sense of pride that makes them unparalleled. The culture is what each Marine relies on in battle and in preparation. It is an amazing example of a living culture that drives pride and performance. It is important to step back and ask whether the purpose of your organization is clear and whether you have a compelling value system that is easy to understand. Mobilizing and energizing a culture is predicated on the organization clearly understanding the vision, mission, values, and goals. It's leadership’s responsibility to involve the entire organization, informing and inspiring them to live out the purpose the organization in the construct of the values.

Vibrant and healthy
Do you run into your culture every day? Does it inspire you, or smack you in the face and get in your way, slowing and wearing you down? Is it overpowering or does it inspire you to overcome challenges? It's important to understand what is driving your culture. Is it power and ego that people react to, and try to gain power, or a culture of encouragement and empowerment? Is it driven from top-down directives, or cross-department collaboration? To get a taste of your culture, all you have to do is sit in an executive meeting, the cafe or the lunch room, listen to the conversations, look at the way decisions are made and the way departments cooperate. Take time out and get a good read on the health of your culture.

Culture fuels brand
A vibrant culture provides a cooperative and collaborative environment for a brand to thrive in. Your brand is the single most important asset to differentiate you consistently over time, and it needs to be nurtured, evolved, and invigorated by the people entrusted to keep it true and alive. Without a functional and relevant culture, the money invested in research and development, product differentiation, marketing, and human resources is never maximized and often wasted because it's not fueled by a sustaining and functional culture.

Look at Zappos, one of the fastest companies to reach $1 billion in recent years, fueled by an electric and eclectic culture, one that's inclusionary, encouraging, and empowering. It's well-documented, celebrated, and shared willingly with anyone who wants to learn from it. Compare that to American Apparel, the controversial and prolific fashion retailer with a well-documented and highly dysfunctional culture. Zappos is thriving and on its way to $2 billion, while American Apparel is mired in bankruptcy and controversy. Both companies are living out their missions--one is to create happiness, and the other is based on self-centered perversity. Authenticity and values always win.

Uncommon sense for a courageous and vibrant culture
It's easy to look at companies like Stonyfield Farms, Zappos, Google, Virgin, Whole Foods, or Southwest Airlines and admire them for their passionate, engaged, and active cultures that are on display for the world to see. Building a strong culture takes hard work and true commitment and, while not something you can tick off in boxes, here are some very basic building blocks to consider:

1. Dynamic and engaged leadership
   A vibrant culture is organic and evolving. It is fueled and inspired by leadership that is actively involved and informed about the realities of the business. They genuinely care about the company's role in the world and are passionately engaged. They are great communicators and motivators who set out a clearly communicated vision, mission, values, and goals and create an environment for them to come alive.
   
2. Living values
   It's one thing to have beliefs and values spelled out in a frame in the conference room. It's another thing to have genuine and memorable beliefs that are directional, alive and modeled throughout the organization daily. It's important that departments and individuals are motivated and measured against the way they model the values. And, if you want a values-driven culture, hire people using the values as a filter. If you want your company to embody the culture, empower people and ensure every department understands what's expected. Don't just list your company’s values in PowerPoints; bring them to life in people, products, spaces, at events, and in communication.
   
3. Responsibility and accountability
   Strong cultures empower their people, they recognize their talents, and give them a very clear role with responsibilities they're accountable for. It's amazing how basic this is, but how absent the principle is in many businesses.
   
4. Celebrate success and failure
   Most companies that run at speed often forget to celebrate their victories both big and small, and they rarely have time or the humility to acknowledge and learn from their failures. Celebrate both your victories and failures in your own unique way, but share them and share them often.

This article is written by FC Expert Blogger Shawn ParrTue Jan 24, 2012. Really worthwhile reading and keeping for later references. 

Shawn Parr is the The Guvner & CEO of Bulldog Drummond, an innovation and design consultancy headquartered in San Diego whose clients and partners have included Starbucks, Diageo, Jack in the Box, Adidas, MTV, Nestle, Pinkberry, American Eagle Outfitters, IDEO, Virgin, Disney, Nike, Mattel, Heineken, Annie's Homegrown, The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, CleanWell, The Honest Kitchen and World Vision. Follow the conversation at @BULLDOGDRUMMOND.

Vanity Metrics

This article appeared in the latest issue of Bozell Thinking. I found it very readable so here it is:

Judging people based on possessions is something we just do. No it’s not right but that’s just how it is. We are constantly bombarded by flashy reality television shows flaunting über fancy “cribs” and cars. We’re told through advertising that if we don’t have the latest iPhone, iPad and matching Mac Book Pro … well, then, you ain’t cool. As a culture, we’ve always been concerned with “the haves.”

But, over the last few years, as social media becomes a bigger part of our culture and lives, an interesting shift has occurred in how we are viewing status symbols. There’s a new dimension to what people are paying attention to. On top of status being based on worldly possessions, we’re now judging people based on virtual followings. Kim Kardashian, for example, is rarely mentioned in the tabloid magazines without including that she has 11.5 million Twitter followers. She is looked at as more of a legitimate celebrity simply for having a massive online following.

This new status measurement is also used with digital marketers and brands. Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and Klout scores are used as a quick barometer for how competent individuals are and how well brands are doing. Marketers are the first to jump for excitement when they reach a high number of Facebook fans, as if they’ve achieved validation for success. Social media blogs write stories about what brands have the most fans and followers.

We seem to have replaced “keeping up with the Joneses” with “keeping up with the @kardashians.” And the culprit responsible is what we call vanity metrics.

There is a certain segment of social media metrics that we often use as a measurement of businesses’ success. These metrics are called vanity metrics, and marketers are hypnotized by them. Vanity metrics are numbers that most marketers focus on because they look great in press releases, but they don’t necessarily affect overall marketing or business goals.

The term vanity metrics was coined by Eric Ries and made popular by his book, The Lean Startup. They are defined as numbers that might make you feel good, but they don’t offer clear guidance for what your business should or should not do in the future. Their intense focus is a big reason why social media ROI is difficult for most brands to judge. Vanity metrics do not necessarily correlate with other measurable numbers that really do matter for your business. These growth metrics can often be signs of traction (which is why they should be monitored), but it is important to distinguish between these vanity metrics and real digital metrics, like conversation rates.

A brand with a huge online following can be less successful than a smaller following of passionate and raving customers. Follower counts alone do not help to evaluate whether or not your strategy is working. They are no indication that your competition is doing better or worse than you. These metrics should be watched, but you should not to be fooled by them.

Moral of the story is to not get swept up in the hype of who has more. Businesses would be wise to quit trying to keep up with the @kardashians and, instead, focus on keeping up with the strategy.

Address List for the IT Market

A reminder. Here is a great selection of names and addresses if you are in the business of selling to the IT industry. These masterfiles from 1105 Media offer comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the IT Market. They are comprised of subscribers from 1105 Media’s leading information technology publications and newsletters—as well as attendees to their many popular events. These files from 1105 Media offer complete coverage of such hot IT vertical markets as Government and Education. 1105 Media is also the leading source for buyers of Cloud & Virtualization products and services—one of the most promising areas of IT for 2012!

For a complete list of rental opportunities from 1105 Media, visit http://tx3.mrd-mail.com

Jane Nicholson:jnicholson@meritdirect.com

Direct response and the coarsening of culture

I will not claim to have written this myself. All credit goes to Seth Godin,  I am re-posting his important cautions against foregoing the nurturing of your brand for short term results. 

Her he is:

Direct response advertising to strangers is demanding. You pay for your click or you pay for your stamp and then you get a shot at making a sale. No sale, no revenue, no revenue, no more stamps.
As a result, direct marketers sometimes race to the bottom. They sell what sells the first time, and use the words that work right now. If the largest conversion rate is for a flat belly diet, then it's the flat belly diet that gets sold. The public gets what it wants.

And what does the mass public want? Shortcuts. Discounts. Claims. No room for subtlety or even innovation.

Yes, there are great products sold by direct marketing, but in most cases, those products were dreamed up and refined and beloved in a less measurable world.

In a world that was 90% retailers and pr and word of mouth, the direct response around the edges was no big deal. It brings us the Veg-o-matic and bald spot hairspray, but it doesn't really direct the culture.

Here's the thing: going forward, just about all the growth in marketing spend is happening on the direct response side. Google ads, email campaigns--these are measured in percentage points and in clicks. Without the tastemaking sensibilities of the buyer at Bloomingdale's or the quality guys at Fisher Price, the urge to compromise/shorten/cheapen/overpromise/dumb down is almost overwhelming.

It's already happening to TV and music. (The label doesn't have to please the music-loving program director. It has to please the YouTube clicking teen.) It's likely to happen to your industry soon as well.

People who have never sold advertising sometimes point out that a new form of advertising is better because it's more measurable, because it provides exact data instead of clumsy diary systems. Do you see that most advertisers don't actually want better data? If you're not sure what's working, you can't get blamed. And since you can't get blamed, you get to decide, to be creative, to create stories and fables, instead of merely being Mr. Ronco selling the bassomatic, at the mercy of anyone with a telephone.

Measurable isn't always the only thing that matters.