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The importance of creating insightful content for social media, how to do it effectively and going viral

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Social media is undoubtedly an important and growing tool in the digital marketing framework, but it can be super tricky for businesses to use effectively. First we start with what it is.

Social media consists of websites and applications that create highly interactive platforms, enabling users to share, co-create, participate in or discuss user-generated content (Kietzmann et al., 2011). One of the defining elements of social media is the central role that consumers and users take, moving from passive receivers of traditional marketing to engaged, collaborative and expressive. Consumers no longer want to be talked at, but listened to by firms (Kietzmann et al., 2011 and Fisher, 2015).

Therefore it is not the place for your standard marketing messages. We’ve all seen so many businesses use social media to purely push sales messages and advertise their latest product and it just doesn’t work. Successful marketing via social media demands a different type of content, and businesses need to be subtle yet creative (Bîja & Balaş, 2014).

twitter-win2

A great way to engage your audience is through a competition, be that getting followers to retweet a message on Twitter or share a post on Facebook.

According to Emery (2012) creating a photo competition is a really effective way of creating content that is both engaging and relevant for consumers without appearing too corporate. However there are some dos and don’ts to make it effective:

  • It must tie in with the brand somehow – for example, a fashion shop could get their followers to take photos of themselves in their favourite outfits from that shop
  • It must be simple and easy enough for the audience to do/produce – this will insure increased participation
  • Giving a decent prize will encourage participation and create a call to action
  • Content gained must be utilized across all social media and email campaigns, to make customers feel they are really part of your business
  • Be active throughout the competition in commenting on or sharing the best entrants to encourage participants to keep entering and engaging

Photo comp

The example above from New York City FC twitter demonstrates some of these qualities; it gives a good prize, is easy for their audience to do and ties in with their brand incorporating their football colours.

The photo competition also ties in well with what is important to New York City FC’s audience, which Kuenn (2013) states as the most important part of creating effective social media content. Most people are unlikely to be passionate about a product or service being sold as such, however they may be passionate about the results it gives them or how it affects them. Most football fans are passionate about their team’s colours, so are likely to be eager to show their support and enter the competition.

One unique factor of social media is the capability of content to go viral. Whilst working for Disney on my placement year, out of the blue a video of the Australian cast of The Lion King (Full video can be viewed here) singing on a plane went viral – it has had over 22.8 million hits to date.

TLK

However, the key thing here was that the video was not created with the purpose of ‘going viral’. Many businesses try to create viral content but the unique aspect of it is that viral content cannot be simply created. Ultimately nobody really knows how and why content goes viral until it happens, it has to be organic and occur naturally (Kuenn, 2013 and Bîja & Balaş, 2014).

It is likely that The Lion King video went viral because it resonated with its target audience – they love musicals – and it appealed to a wider audience because it was in an unusual public space and gave a feel good factor which people wanted to share. The fact that it was filmed on a smartphone also added to its authenticity – viewers believed it was a genuinely impromptu moment and not pre-orchestrated by Disney.

Another key aspect of the video was that it was easy to share. Social media content should be just that – social – yet so many businesses create content that is difficult for its audience to quickly share. The share button should be easy to find and involve just one click, and companies should also ensure that Meta data is correct, as it provides the preview description that will appear alongside the link (Keunn, 2013 & Bîja & Balaş, 2014).

Social media icons

So we’ve established how to make the most effective content for your social media channels, but is social media really worth it? Bîja & Balaş (2014) discuss how one of the biggest disadvantages of social media marketing is the time and resources (mainly people) that it consumes. Whilst social media is generally viewed as a cost effective communication channel, ultimately content has to be created by an employee, therefore because it is difficult to gauge the monetary value in social media against the time and human resources it takes up, its usefulness is somewhat questionable. Bolotaeva (2011) also discusses the ethical considerations that can occur around the morality of whether marketing to customers through their personal social media accounts is an invasion of privacy. Whilst it can be argued that most businesses do so, and therefore it is socially acceptable, consideration must still be given as to what is a respectable level of invasion.

Ultimately, creating content that is tailored to your audiences interests and is engaging and easy to share is the key to hitting the social media nail on the head. Digital and the growth of social media means that businesses cannot simply ignore it as a channel, however it must have different yet clear goals set in order to truly measure its effectiveness (Bîja & Balaş, 2014). These goals are likely to be different to traditional marketing or even digital marketing aims, such as how quickly the company responds to customers or how many times a week they want to post.

For more great examples of effective social media content, check out this article – https://econsultancy.com/blog/62047-five-examples-of-social-media-marketing-excellence/

Or looking at the bigger picture, for more insight into effective content creation across multiple channels, read this useful article – http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-content/the-right-content-for-the-right-channel/1863

 

REFERENCES

Bîja, R. & Balaş, R. (2014) Social Media Marketing to Increase Brand Awareness, Journal of Economics and Business Research. Vol 20, Issue 2, Page 155-164

[Available here: http://www.uav.ro/jour/index.php/jebr/article/view/381]

Bolotaeva, V. & Cata, T. (2011) Marketing Opportunities with Social Networks, Journal of Internet Social Networking and Virtual Communities. 2011.

[Available here: http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/JISNVC/2011/409860/409860.pdf]

Emery, M. (2012) How to Run a Successful Photo Contest on Social Media. Social Media Today, 13th September 2012 [Online] <http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-run-successful-photo-contest-social-media> [Accessed 23rd April 2015]

Fisher, E. (2015) ‘You Media’: audiencing as marketing in social media, Media, Culture & Society. Vol 37, Issue 1, Pages 50-67

[Available here: http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/37/1/50.short]

Kietzmann, J.H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I.P. & Silvestre, B.S. (2011) Social Media? Get Serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media, Business Horizons. Vol 54, Issue 3, Pages 241-251

[Available here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681311000061]

Kuenn, A. (2013) 4 Ways To Create Successful Social Media Content. Marketing Land, 29th July 2013 [Online] < http://marketingland.com/4-ways-to-create-successful-social-media-content-52176> [Accessed 23rd April 2015]

‘Hi there valued customer no. 1756….’ – A look at email personalisation: its benefits, when it goes wrong and how to avoid it.

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With an ever increasing number of emails hitting our inboxes every day, customers’ expectations of email campaigns are higher than ever, and with more competition to get their emails noticed, businesses need to ensure their email are targeted, creative and personal (The Marketer, 2012 and Smith, 2014).

According to Smith (2014) 64% of people prefer emails that are personal, and one study found that personalised promotional emails are 6 times more likely to increase transaction rates than non-personalised. In addition, personalised emails are 29% more likely to be opened, however a massive 70% of brands still fail to utilise their customer data and personalise their emails (Durkin, 2014 and Gesenhues, 2014).

So with so much to gain from it, what’s putting them off?

If done well, personalisation can help to build a trusted relationship between your company and your customers, improving general satisfaction and enabling customer retention (Smith, 2011, Durkin, 2014 and The Marketer, 2015).

Arguably the simplest way to personalise an email is to include the receivers name in the subject line, which increases the open rate as users believe it has come from a trusted source (Durkin, 2014).

I recently received an email from CMI (shown below) which I think did this well, including my (correct) first name in both the subject line and introduction of the email.

CMI

Notice I emphasize the ‘correct’ name, having the right data is crucial to successful personalisation (Durkin, 2014) but so many companies have sent emails with either the wrong or a missing name, such as ‘Dear INSERT NAME HERE’, making them look super unprofessional!

But is using a customer’s first name really going to impress? Contradicting Durkin’s idea, Moth (2013) discussed a study that found a mega 63% of people said that they received so many marketing emails with their name in it that it no longer made a difference, and 42% of customers were neutral about the value of personalised product and service. It’s clear that limiting personalisation to just a name is not enough.

Research agrees that customers do respond to email personalisation, but it is about successful segmentation, knowing who and what you should leave out of your email, and with focus on making the consumer feel special and individual rather than just another ordinary customer (Smith, 2011, The Marketer, 2012, Eridon, 2013 and Durkin, 2014).

Personalised email content is a much more effective and subtle way of attracting customers, ensuring they pay more attention and engage with your brand, therefore ensuring relevant content should be a priority for all businesses using personalisation (Durkin, 2014). For example, Dropbox have set up a workflow that recognises when a user has logged into their account from multiple devices, and then emails them reminding them about a service they provide that helps multi device users (see below).

Eridon, 2013

Eridon, 2013

By using technology cleverly, Dropbox have tailored their content to very specific customers, which according to The Marketer (2012) can generate an increase in sales and open rates.

Another way of personalising email content is via purchase reminders and recommendations. Moth (2013) stated that 48% of people like to receive product recommendations based on their interests. I recently purchased a new railcard. I created an account but because I didn’t have the right photo to upload stopped half way through. Railcard saved all my information and application up to that point, and sent me the below email the next day reminding me about my purchase.

Railcard

This is also similar to recommendation emails based on previous behaviour or purchases, such as those that Amazon regularly send out or like this one I received from Twitter, helping to personalise the customer-business relationship further (Smith, 2011).

Twitter

Ultimately these emails should include a call to action that drives consumers to either make or resume their purchase, a tactic that is particularly useful when a product is running out of stock, creating a sense of urgency (Smith, 2014).

Another great piece of data businesses can utilize is customer’s date of birth. Restaurants such as Cafe Rouge regularly send their customers a birthday email wishing them happy birthday and a special voucher for them to use. This tactic is easy to do providing you have the data, and including a voucher makes the customer feel special whilst still driving sales (Smith, 2014 and Durkin, 2014).

However, a massive limitation in email personalisation that must be considered is the issue of privacy. Past research has found that consumers have developed negative attitudes towards the brands whose marketing they have considered intrusive and too personal (Smith, 2011). This concern is supported by Moth (2013) who asked people whether they agreed with the below statements.

Moth, 2013

Moth, 2013

As seen, 84% of people felt too many technologies were tracking and analysing their behaviour, whilst worryingly 63% said they found targeted advertising creepy! Therefore, before engaging in any sort of personalisation it is both good practice and a moral responsibility that companies must ensure they have the customers permission to contact them (The Marketer, 2015).

Ultimately, used in the right way there are still massive benefits to be had from utilizing email personalisation, but growth in other digital channels means that personalisation cannot be isolated to use in emails alone (The Marketer, 2015). For more insight into creating a totally personalised customer experience, check out these two articles:

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/jul/23/personalisation-marketing-online-brands

http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/customer-experience/retail-gets-personal-why-personalising-the-customer-experience-should-be-your-1-priority/1730

 

REFERENCES

Durkin, R. (2014) The importance of data personalisation and localisation. Econsultancy, 4th March 2014 [Online] <https://econsultancy.com/blog/64438-the-importance-of-data-personalisation-and-localisation/> [Accessed 22nd April 2015]

Eridon, C. (2013) 7 Excellent Examples of Email Personalization in Action. Hubspot, 6th February 2013 [Online] <http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34146/7-Excellent-Examples-of-Email-Personalization-in-Action.aspx> [Accessed 17th April 2015]

Gesenhues, A. (2014) Study: Personalised Emails Deliver 6X Higher Transaction Rates, But 70% of Brands Fail To Use Them. Marketing Land, 6th February 2014 [Online] <http://marketingland.com/study-70-brands-personalizing-emails-missing-higher-transaction-rates-revenue-73241> [Accessed 20th April 2015]

Moth, D. (2013) Consumers doubt the value of online personalisation: study. Econsultancy, 13th June 2013 [Online] <https://econsultancy.com/blog/62905-consumers-doubt-the-value-of-online-personalisation-study> [Accessed 20th April 2015]

Smith, D. (2014) Five Examples of Successful Personalised Email Marketing. Performance In, July 2014 [Online] <http://performancein.com/news/2014/07/16/five-examples-successful-personalised-email-marketing/> [Accessed 19th April 2015]

Smith, K.T. (2011) Digital marketing strategies that Millennials find appealing, motivating, or just annoying, Journal of Strategic Marketing. Vol 19, Issue 6, Pages 489-499

The Marketer (2012) The personal touch: why personalised marketing matters. The Marketer, 22nd August 2012 [Online] <http://www.themarketer.co.uk/archives/trends/personalised-marketing/> [Accessed 22nd April 2015]

The Marketer (2015) How to personalise your customer’s experience [Online] <http://www.themarketer.co.uk/how-to/masterclass/how-to-personalise-your-customers-experience/> [Accessed 22nd April 2015]

Facebook business pages – Are they really worth it, and should every business have one?

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Facebook-logo-PSD

There’s no getting away from it, as the biggest social media network and with a monthly active user base of 1.43 billion, Facebook is booming (Kim, 2015). As the graph below shows, its miles ahead of other social networks and messenger apps, but with so many users and potential customers, how essential is it really for your business?

(Source: Kim, 2015)

(Source: Kim, 2015)

According to Facebook (2015), its business pages can help to drive online sales, increase local sales and raise brand awareness, also enabling you to spread your message to a potentially new audience, make contact with customers and build relationships (Hansson et al., 2013).

The way businesses utilize Facebook can be split into two main areas – business pages and paid for banners and adverts – however this blog post focuses on business pages.

According to Hansson et al. (2013), one of the major benefits of utilizing Facebook is the relatively low cost, enabling companies of all sizes to use the site to achieve their branding and marketing goals, whilst potentially reaching millions of customers. However, whether this is actually feasible surely depends on the amount of people who ‘like’ your page, as the content created is only really seen by those who do so.

facebook-logo

Creating product pages allows for customers to give their own feedback, and therefore knowledge sharing, increasing product awareness and enabling word of mouth (WOM) marketing. This is also useful as customers generally prefer reviews from customers who have already used the product rather than professional critics (Seung-A, 2012). Although, in the same way this can be beneficial, it can also be detrimental as customers could leave negative reviews and comments for your audience to see, potentially damaging your businesses reputation. As such, proper page management is needed, including dealing with negative responses correctly rather than ignoring or deleting (Palmer and Koenig-Lewis, 2009 and Champoux et al., 2012).

Then there is the question of whether marketing to customers on a ‘personal’ network is the right way to do business? There are great considerations to be made regarding the ethics of advertising and marketing to your customers through a ‘personal’ social network, some people may believe it is unethical and an invasion of their privacy, however many people believe that a marketing message is best hidden within social media as opposed to direct marketing, so maybe Facebook is the better option (Palmer & Koening-Lewis, 2009).

So with such a large user base, how can you be sure your target audience is on Facebook? Well if your business is aimed at young people then using the social network may be a waste of time. It was widely reported that it lost 11million of its users aged 13-17 between 2011 and 2014, thought mainly to be because of the trend in their older relatives joining the site (Olson, 2013 and Matthews, 2014). However Griffin (2015) says that 71% of teens aged 13-17 say they continue to use the site, so perhaps it’s not all bad.

So should your business be on it?

I actually have some experience of using Facebook business pages myself, having created one for an amateur theatre group during my time as publicity manager, as seen below.

Players FB

For us it worked well as a source of free advertising, but with virtually no marketing budget, we were restricted in terms of promoting the page. Even today it has a relatively poor 133 likes, and run by volunteers, the group struggle to post relevant, engaging content on a regular basis.

But should that really be a barrier? One of the most successful brands using Facebook is McDonalds, but they use it in a different way to some of the advice offered here.

McDonalds

The brand has over 56million likes on its site, yet despite this blog and most agreeing that frequent, engaging content is key to engaging customers; McDonald’s seemingly posts very little yet still has high customer engagement with several thousand likes when they do post (Moth, 2013). However, this is likely because of the strong global brand that already exists, whereas smaller businesses (such as my amateur theatre group) are likely to struggle.

McDonald’s clearly sees the value in sticking to product focused sales messages and wants to increase this, looking to roll out 14,500 Facebook pages by 2015 for each of its US outlets, with the goal of being able to connect to its customers in real time and deliver relevant, local content for them (Ghosh, 2014).

So how do you get it right? Hansson et al. (2013) found that generally the best way to utilize Facebook for your business is to have an active profile that is in keeping with your company and brand overall and that provides users with up-to-date content and information with a clear purpose.

Still unsure? For more on the benefits and drawbacks of using Facebook for your business, check out this article.


REFERENCES

Champoux, V., Durgee, J. & McGlynn, L. (2012) Corporate Facebook pages: when ‘fans’ attack, Journal of Business Strategy. Vol 33, Issue 2, Pages 22-30

Facebook (2015) Facebook for business [Online] <https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/> [Accessed 14th April 2015]

Ghosh, S. (2014) McDonald’s to roll out 14,500 Facebook pages by 2015. Marketing Magazine, 16th October 2014 [Online] <http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1317413/mcdonalds-roll-14500-facebook-pages-2015> [Accessed 15th April 2015]

Griffin, A. (2015) Teen social media use: death of Facebook and Google Plus greatly exaggerated. The Independent, 10th April 2015 [Online] <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/teen-social-media-use-death-of-facebook-and-google-plus-greatly-exaggerated-10168248.html> [Accessed 14th April 2015]

Hansson, L., Wrangmo, A. & Solberg Søilen, K. (2013) Optimal ways for companies to use Facebook as a marketing channel, Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society. Vol 11, Issue 2, Pages 112-126

Kim, E. (2015) This one chart shows how Facebook dominates online communication. Business Insider, 13th April 2015 [Online] <http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-dominates-online-communication-2015-4?r=US> [Accessed 14th April 2015]

Matthews, C. (2014) More than 11 million young people have fled Facebook since 2011. Time, 15th January 2014 [Online]<http://business.time.com/2014/01/15/more-than-11-million-young-people-have-fled-facebook-since-2011/> [Accessed 14th April 2015]

Moth, D. (2013) How McDonald’s uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. Econsultancy, 13th March 2013 [Online] <https://econsultancy.com/blog/62329-how-mcdonald-s-uses-facebook-twitter-pinterest-and-google/> [Accessed 15th April 2015]

Olson, P. (2013) Teenagers say goodbye to Facebook and hello to messenger apps. The Guardian, 10th November 2013 [Online] <http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/10/teenagers-messenger-apps-facebook-exodus> [Accessed 14th April 2015]

Palmer, A. & Koenig-Lewis, N. (2009) An experimental, social network-based approach to direct marketing, Direct Marketing: An International Journal. Vol 3, Issue 3, Pages 162-176

Seung-A, A.J. (2012) The potential of social media for luxury brand management, Marketing Intelligence & Planning. Vol 30, Issue 7, Pages 687-699

Mobile Apps – Do they really give you bang for your buck?

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Arguably one of the biggest trends in Digital Marketing currently is the rise and rise of mobile (Rowntree, 2015), and in particular mobile applications. Now I own a smartphone (iPhone 5 – bit behind now, I know!) and I’ve never been a massive techy, but recently I have been increasing the number of apps I’m not only downloading, but using!

But what exactly are the point of apps? I regularly use social media and newspaper apps, but aside from those, are they really necessary?

According to Rowntree (2015) mobile apps provide scope for huge amounts of customisation and a service that is fully built around the mobile experience, giving deeper, more tailored engagement for mobile users. Some argue a mobile site will do the job just as well and cheaper too (more on this later) but Haselmayr (2014) argues that apps are not just for big businesses, more and more small to medium sized firms are following the mobile trend and understanding that an effective mobile strategy means more than just a mobile-friendly site.

A great app that I think really works for its company is Brighton and Hove Buses (shown below).

Brighton & Hove Bus App

Brighton & Hove Bus App

Brighton & Hove Bus App

Brighton & Hove Bus App

Essentially it allows users to purchase their bus ticket through the app, and then use their phone as a ticket, benefiting both the company and the customer. For customers, it’s free to download, offers price savings and stores user information to make purchasing tickets easier. For the company, it generates revenue through ticket sales, whilst saving them expenses on both printing costs and buying change. Win win for both parties.

So does your business need one?

It seems the most important question here is does your customers behaviour demand one? Many companies are so eager to offer their customers some kind of mobile functionality that they fail to plan and implement the best strategy for them. First and foremost it’s about considering the needs of your consumer (Martin, 2015 and Andrew, 2014). What devices are they using and on what platforms? What are they using their devices for? Analysing this data can give some indication as to what type of interaction your customer is comfortable with, and therefore directs what you should be doing with mobile. Designing and creating effective mobile software is not easy – it requires advanced software development and design skills, not to mention thorough testing – therefore fail to do fundamental research and you run the risk of creating a mobile service that doesn’t match your customers behaviour, wasting both time and money (Andrew, 2014, Forbes, 2014 and Rowntree, 2015).

This brings us onto one of the major drawbacks of creating a mobile app over a mobile site.

Cost.

Creating an app is an expensive business. According to Forbes (2014) a high-quality app can cost in the region of hundreds of thousands of pounds, therefore with such a big investment you want to make sure you get it right. However, Andrew (2014) argues that there are also a growing number of basic and DIY websites enabling small businesses and those with a smaller budget to develop an app for their business more cheaply, so cost doesn’t necessarily have to be an issue. Although be warned, Forbes (2014) warns us that, like with most things, you get what you pay for.

So what about the argument that the long term benefits of apps mean lifetime costs are reduced (Andrew, 2014).

The truth is most apps struggle, according to Fox Rubin (2013) the odds of success are low, with only 80 of the more than 800,000 mobile apps available in Apple’s App Store generating more than $1million in revenue, so good return on investment is unlikely. However, his research was done in 2013, so maybe things are changing.

As well as high development costs there are also high costs involved in marketing. With so many apps to compete with, you need to consider how do you as a business get people to download your app (Andrew, 2014)? And with so many free apps, where is the money made?

Well in app purchases and advertising is one option, but how does this interfere with the customer experience?

Smartphone with cloud of application icons

One important consideration is usability and accessibility. Apps are limited to those with smartphones (Martin, 2015) and even those using smartphones are on multiple platforms and operating systems. Last year viewers of Celebrity Big Brother were left annoyed as the production company only made their app available to those with iPhones or iPads using iOS7, alienating vast sections of their audience who use Android, Windows or with older Apple devices. Obviously this could have major repercussions on your customer engagement and value, therefore it is essential that any mobile service is multi-platformed, and supported on any device (Andrew, 2014 and Cottle, 2015), which again increases cost.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom! Many businesses have great success running their apps and find they create a direct marketing channel with the consumer. Haselmayr (2014) points out that one of the biggest benefits to creating an app is the ease with which firms can communicate their information, such as booking details prices, search features, user accounts and much more, all at the click of a button.

In doing this apps have the ability to cultivate customer loyalty and increase consumer engagement. Haselmayr (2014) argues that apps allow businesses to go back to making a personal connection with the consumer, difficult in a world now saturated with advertising messages everywhere you look. This is further cemented by how accessible they make your business. In a 24/7 world apps are available to the customer anytime, anywhere and usually on any device they want (Andrew, 2014). However, the same can also be true for online and mobile sites in general.

So with all this in mind, is it really worth it?

Ultimately I think it goes back to the very first question we asked ourselves. Does your customer’s behaviour demand it?

Answer that question properly, and you could be well on your way to mobile app success.

For more inspiration, check out this TED Talk from an upcoming app developer … who’s just 12 years old! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkd9TWUtFm0

REFERENCES

Andrew, A. (2014) Should you go mobile-first to grow your business? How to build an app and ensure it’s a hit with your customers. This Is Money, 26th June 2014 [Online] <http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/smallbusiness/article-2634998/Should-build-app-grow-business.html> [Accessed 10th April 2015]

Cottle, L. (2015) Does your Second Screen Proposition have the X Factor? Digital Marketing Magazine, 7th April 2015 [Online] <http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/mobile-digital-marketing/does-your-second-screen-proposition-have-the-x-factor/1778> [Accessed 10th April 2015]

Forbes (2014) The True Cost Of Building A Mobile App. Forbes, 11th November 2014 [Online] <http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2014/11/11/the-true-cost-of-building-a-mobile-app/> [Accessed 10th April 2015]

Fox Rubin, B. (2013) The Dirty Secret of Apps: Many Go Bust. The Wall Street Journal, 7th March 2013 [Online] <http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324582804578346221047028366> [Accessed 10th April 2015]

Haselmayr, M. (2014) Here’s Why Your Business Needs Its Own Mobile App. Forbes, 17th November 2014 [Online] <http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2014/11/17/heres-why-your-business-needs-its-own-mobile-app/> [Accessed 10th April 2015]

Martin, C. (2015) Want to Get Into Mobile Marketing? Know Your Customer. Digital Marketing Magazine, 8th April 2015 [Online] <http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/mobile-digital-marketing/mobile-business-goal-alignment/1787> [Accessed 9th April 2015]

Rowntree, J. (2015) Mobile Marketing for Online Retailers in 2015. Digital Marketing Magazine, 3rd February 2015 [Online] <http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/mobile-digital-marketing/mobile-marketing-for-online-retailers-in-2015/1481> [Accessed 9th April 2015]

Email marketing frequency: Striking the right balance.

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In my last blog I had recently signed up to email marketing from fashion company Dorothy Perkins, and enjoyed the perk of a one off free delivery for doing so. But now, a few weeks later, I’m reaching for the unsubscribe button. So what went wrong?

Lets take a look at my inbox.

Inbox

In just one week they have sent me 9 emails. Frankly, I’m getting irritated everytime I see yet another email pop into my inbox with their name on it.

Dorothy Perkins has made what is arguably one of the most rooky mistakes when it comes to email marketing management. Email overkill.

Email marketing is an important marketing tool for companies to create and maintain effective relationships with customers (McCloskey, 2006, cited in Ellis-Chadwick & Doherty, 2011) therefore it is imperative that firms get it right. According to Ellis-Chadwick & Doherty (2011), the frequency of sending emails is an important part of building customer relationships and finding a happy medium is difficult – too few could lose customers interest, whereas too many could irritate.

According to a survey by BlueHornet, 35.4% of people said they had unsubscribed at some point because of the frequency of emails received, compared to just under a third unsubscribing because of irrelevant content (Moth, 2014).

So just how do you strike the right balance?

There are many arguments for and against. Some, such as a study by Foreman (2013), believe that the more you email the customer, the more their level of engagement will decrease. Foreman’s study looked at how frequency of emails sent impacted on open rates, with a company example shown in the graph below.

Foreman (2013)

Foreman (2013)

Foreman found that frequency and engagement are negatively correlated, meaning that the more mail sent the less customers engage with each campaign (Foreman, 2013).

However not everyone agrees with this. Campanelli (2013) argues that in fact the more emails you send the more engaged people become. Sending emails frequently ensures your brand remains at the forefront of customer’s minds, and shows that your company cares about them. The idea is that the more you email your customers, the more sales and money you will make (Roe, 2013 and Reeves, 2013).

But is this really true? Frequent emailing may ensure your company is remembered by the customer, but Campanelli doesn’t discuss whether that association is a positive or negative one. In the case of Dorothy Perkins, they have become an irritant in my mind, certainly not the result that they were trying to achieve I’m sure!

So how do you know when enough is enough?

Campanelli (2013) argues that it’s simple, if you send too much email you can always rein it back in if it doesn’t work. However, to me this seems like a dangerous approach. Customers can be stubborn creatures, and once a negative experience has occurred it can be difficult to win them back. A survey by Zendesk (2013) found that over half of respondents stopped buying from a company after a negative experience, and nearly 40% continued to avoid a company for two or more years after that bad experience. Some companies think that losing a few customers along the way is not an issue, as they can simply attract others, but according to Marketing Metrics (cited in Shaw, 2013) the probability of making a sale to an existing customer is between 60 to 70%, whereas the probability of attracting a new customer is just 5-20%. It can also take up to 12 positive experiences to make up for one negative experience (Newell-Legner, cited in Shaw, 2013), therefore keeping your current customers happy is much more important and an effective use of time than you may think. Clearly, a haphazard approach to your email marketing strategy can have longlasting negative effects.

To get the right balance, experts argue that businesses need to understand that frequency isn’t about sending more or less emails to everybody, but sending the right amount of emails to the right people (Roe, 2013). Reeves (2013) adds that there is a fine line between communicating frequently and adding value, and once you’re no longer adding value the customer becomes unengaged.

This is where the importance of targeting and segmentation come into play. According to Moth (2014), email frequency should be influenced by targeting and segmentation, and with consideration for the industry, overall business strategy and seasonal factors. You can segment your email database in a number of ways, but a good way to start is to look at the number of purchases they’ve made or their individual open rate. When looking to increase your email frequency, Roe (2013) suggests targeting your most responsive customers first, i.e. ones that opened an email from you in the past week, as targeting these customers is more likely to return a good response rate as they appear open to engagement.

It is also agreed that tailoring content to your email marketing segments is the way to go, as different segments have different needs and therefore require different content (Roe, 2013 and Moth, 2014).

Finally, if you do want to experiment with increasing your email marketing, there are steps you can take to limit the risk of that customer unsubscribing if you get the balance wrong. The BlueHornet survey (Moth, 2014) discovered that given the opportunity to opt down on the number of emails received rather than unsubscribe altogether, nearly half of those asked would take that option, therefore it is definitely recommended to make this option available to your email database.

To find out more about getting the right frequency for your email marketing campaigns, check out this BlueHornet webinar – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X12JL7D9HZw

 

REFERENCES

Campanelli, M. (2013) Dela Quist on Increasing Email List Size and Frequency. Emarketing and Commerce, 20th March 2013 [Online] <http://www.emarketingandcommerce.com/article/dela-quist-increasing-email-list-size-frequency/1#> [Accessed 3rd April]

Ellis-Chadwick, F. & Doherty, N.F. (2011) Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing, Journal of Business Research. Vol 65, Issue 6, Pages 843-848

Foreman, J. (2013) Sending Frequency: More Is Not Always Better! Mailchimp, 23rd April 2013 [Online] <http://blog.mailchimp.com/sending-frequency-more-is-not-always-better/> [Accessed 3rd April 2015]

Moth, D. (2014) Email frequency: how much is too much? Econsultancy, 20th January 2014 [Online] <https://econsultancy.com/blog/64165-email-frequency-how-much-is-too-much/> [Accessed 3rd April 2015]

Reeves, J. (2013) Email Marketing: The Cold Hard Truth About Frequency. The Daily Egg, 13th March 2013 [Online] <http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/03/13/email-marketing-frequency/> [Accessed 8th April 2015]

Roe, T. (2013) Send more email, make more money? Econsultancy, 4th July 2013 [Online] <https://econsultancy.com/blog/62997-send-more-email-make-more-money> [Accessed 3rd April]

Shaw, C. (2013) 15 Statistics That Should Change The Business World – But Haven’t [Online] <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20130604134550-284615-15-statistics-that-should-change-the-business-world-but-haven-t> [Accessed 8th April 2015]

Zendesk (2013) The impact of customer service on customer lifetime value [Online] <https://www.zendesk.com/resources/customer-service-and-lifetime-customer-value/> [Accessed 8th April 2015]

 

 

The importance of email subject lines – Is it make or break for your email marketing campaign?

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Whilst shopping online for a new bag this month I signed up to email marketing from Dorothy Perkins – lured in by the offer of free delivery if I did so – and their subsequent marketing emails have got me thinking. They wasted no time in utilising my data, sending me no less than 6 emails in the last 2 weeks, but what really got me fascinated was the attention grabbing subject lines they used.

The importance of an effective subject line in email marketing is believed to potentially make or break a campaign, but the question of just how you achieve it has been pondered by marketing managers since the introduction of email, and with an increasingly crowded inbox, a great subject line has never been so important (Gardner, 2013, Popick, 2014, Marr, 2014 and Ratcliff, 2014).

So just how do you ensure your customers open your email?

Well first lets take a look at a selection of the marketing emails I’ve received in the past week, including some of the ones from Dorothy Perkins.

Inbox

There are a few different opinions on what creates the best subject line out there, but below is summary of the fundementals of attracting that all important open:

  • CAPITILISATION! – not neccessarily for the whole subject line, but can help the important words stand out in the right way! And whilst we’re at it, a good use of exclamation points can help!! (Gardner, 2013). Dorothy Perkins email subjects use capitalization strategically to create urgency (Popick, 2014), increasing the chance the receiver will open the email.
  •  Include a call-to-action (CTA) – CTAs encourage the reader to do something, therefore inticing them to open the email (Popick, 2014 and Marr, 2014)
  • Personalisation – As seen above in the emails from Amazon and CMI, use of the recipients name in the subject line can grab attention, however Popick (2014) and Ratcliff (2014) also suggest using personalisation within the email body too so that it feels more natural to the reader. Likewise its a must to make sure your data is right! Getting an email to Rachel when your name is Jane is going to be mighty irritating (Ratcliff, 2014)
  • Pay attention to the types of words you use, terms such as ‘sale’ or ‘free’ can be great for attracting the bargain hunters out there, but can also trigger SPAM filters, so a balance is needed (Clapham, 2011). You also want to try mixing it up with different email subjects, content and offers to stop your customer becoming bored (Ratcliff, 2014) – Dorothy Perkins need to be careful they don’t over do the ‘reminders’ for the same offer as this could get annoying very quickly!
  • Think about length. There’s inconclusive opinions on whether the amount of characters in a subject line affects the open rates, Ratcliff (2014) recommends keeping it down to 50 characters or less, whereas Alchemy (2013) says that’s a myth, and that using over 70 characters actually increases click through rates. So don’t be tied to keeping your subject lines within character limits, keep a balance, and maybe experiment to see what works best for your customers

Finally, I spotted another interesting tactic from Brighton and Hove Buses in my inbox, with the email headed ‘Win 2 tickets to the opening night of Saturday Night Fever’. The email was their newsletter, containing the usual information and updates about their services, but the competition was also part of that newsletter. Email subject lines should be honest in telling the reader what the email contains (Gardner, 2013) but in this case the company wasn’t lying, and it worked! I opened the email, entered the competition, and had a quick scan of the rest of the content. Clever little tactic there!

If you want more on ways to improve your subject lines, then check out 45 words to avoid in your email marketing subject lines

References

Alchemy Worx (2013) Debunking the 7 myths of email marketing – infographic. Alchemy Worx, 24th October 2013 [Online] <http://www.alchemyworx.com/emailworx/2013/strategy/subject-lines/debunking-the-7-myths-of-email-marketing-%E2%80%93-infographic> [Accessed 28th February 2015]

Clapham, P. (2011) Email Marketing, The Optician. Vol. 241, p32

Gardner, O. (2013) How to write the perfect email subject line. Unbounce, 23rd January 2013 [Online] <http://unbounce.com/email-marketing/perfect-subject-line/> [Accessed 26th February 2015]

Marr, M. (2014) The 9 Best Email Subject Line Styles to Increase Your Open Rates. WordStream, 31st March 2014 [Online] <http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/03/31/email-subject-lines>[Accessed 28th February 2015]

Popick, J. (2014) 6 Subject Line Essentials for Your Next Email Campaign. Inc, 26th February 2015 [Online]<http://www.inc.com/john-brandon/women-tech-leaders-share-their-monday-morning-ritual.html> [Accessed 27th February 2015]

Ratcliff, C. (2014) Email marketing subject lines: why best practice matters. Econsultancy, 10th March 2014 [Online] <https://econsultancy.com/blog/64476-email-marketing-subject-lines-why-best-practice-matters/> [Accessed 28th February 2015]

Thoughts On Big Data

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This week I read an interesting article from Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson about how big data is influencing businesses and causing a ‘management revolution’. In short, the article discusses the differences between standard analytics and big data, the effect on performance in data-driven companies, the impact of data on decision making and the challenges managers face in using data in decision making when it potentially goes against gut instinct.

Key Learnings:

The 3 V’s – Volume, Velocity and Variety: McAfee and Brynjolfsson say that data differs from analytics in the sheer numbers of data now available, the speed with which that data is updated and published, and the amount of different types of data now accessible.

Effect of data on data-driven companies: The article lead a study that found that the more companies charactarized themselves as using data-driven decision making, the better they performed.

Five Management Challenges: Leadership, Talent Management, Technology, Decision Making and Company Culture

To Be Continued…

McAfee, A., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2012). Big data: the management revolution. Harvard business review, 90(10), 60-66.

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