I found this great resource that will help you optimize one aspect of your social media courtesy of LunaMetrics and want to share it with you. Hope it helps you with your Social Marketing.
Brought to you by the LunaMetrics blog.
Email Generates More Conversions Than Social
Email Delivers Results
In less than two months I found two different articles that presented research findings on the topic of online influence results of email and social channels. Given the amount of buzz that sites like Twitter and Facebook receive, combined with the amount of users they have, I imagine they would be the conduits for most online influence when it comes down to new business sources.
Well, the results are in and for second time in less than 60 days, email provides the best bottom line results. According to research from SocialTwist, email provided the best conversion among leads generated from social and email channels. In their findings, email far excelled at conversion: from the 300,000 conversions to new customers, 50.8% were reached via email, compared to 26.8% for Twitter and 22% for Facebook. Read the entire article http://bit.ly/12tOAlY
Digital Highlights – July 2013
July highlights in the digital space include the power of email when it comes to sales, the fact that Millennials still relay on search to discover things online, and the continued growth of video.
Marketing company Custora’s findings bring into perspective the effectiveness of one particular channel when it comes down to sales. According to their report, in the last 4 years, online retailers have quadrupled the rate of customers acquired through email to nearly 7 percent. That beats the results on social platforms. Product sales on Facebook have been flat for the last year.
The same report found that clients that came via organic and paid search were more than 50 percent more valuable than average, they were more likely to shop more and spend more.
A recent survey of Telefonica that researched 1000 Millennials found that in the social media age, this segment of the population still uses old fashion online search. More than half used a search engine to find information on restaurants, nightlife, entertainment and services.
According to the same report, Millennials use the internet as the preferred source of information versus social media. On the commerce side, 24% of Millennials have used a web site with a daily deal in the last six months.
Ooyala’s latest report indicates that TV audiences are getting a fix of their favorite shows via their tablets and smart phones. This audience rose 19% over last quarter and now accounts for 10% of all views. Further, tablets are the dominant players of long form contact.
The consumption of video on portals like Youtube is also on the rise. This opens the doors for more companies that use content marketing via video and can integrate on screen e-commerce to leverage and monetize this trend. Several vendors have e commerce services that allow you to transact while watching a video that features the product. And according to a Youtube spokesperson 40% of Youtube videos are coming from mobile devices.
The Power of Mobile Among Hispanics
A picture is worth ten thousand words and this picture can be worth millions of dollars for those companies that take the lead and address this trend head on. Marketing and Advertising was dramatically changed by the Web and now the Web has gone mobile. This is more visible and predominant among Hispanics and African-Americans as per the above graph.
Innovation doesn’t stop there. Several marketing tools and mediums have been touched by the digital hand. Take a look at the current state of media: magazines, newspapers radio and even TV have seen declines in readership and audiences in the last few years. Those audiences have moved online.
The commonly used TV spot has also been threaten. First attack came in the form of Digital Video Recorders (DVR) that allowed users to skip over commercials and more recently via branded content as brands develop new methods of engagement on the new social media platforms.
Technology will continue to improve and with that we will have smart phones that take more and more of the computer usage from home to the streets and wherever we go. That opens a world of opportunity for those marketers and entrepreneurs that are able to bring solutions to the challenges and opportunities presented by the mobile consumer.
Take a look at this article from the Pew Research Center on mobile and Hispanics. http://bit.ly/10ufLw0
Hispanic Entrepeneur on Ivan Cevallos
Ivan Cevallos, CEO & Founder, ethosGROUP Inc.
What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
One of the core qualities of an entrepreneur is the gift of a vision and the ability to execute on it every day. When you run a business, you are exposed to many distractions that can take you on different directions. When you stay on track you are closer to success.
What did inspire you to start your business?
Before starting my business, I was running all kinds of business for other people, from restaurants to film production and distribution companies. I had none or very little supervision and was able to build up from zero to several millions in sales. One day I asked to become a partner and was told no. I thought about it, analyzed the situation and after a couple of days decided to go on my own.
Read More Hispanic Entrepreneur: Ivan Cevallos > www.ethosagency.com
News From the 2013 Online Marketing Summit
Heidi Melin at the Online Marketing Summit
Several topics surfaced from the keynotes at the Online Marketing Summit (#omsummit)
Heidi Melin, CMO of Eloqua said that engagement is a key tool. We know much more via digital channels and need to use digital body language to create engagement with prospects and customers. Heidi uses a dash-board with 5 key metrics for 3 key strategies. There she sees what works and moves dials to improve. That helps simplify work with large amounts of data. You should use data to determine what to eliminate in the process of making decisions so that you monitor what you keep.
According to Heidi, technology will not take over creative. We need balance between those two. Nothing compares to the power of a clever idea.
About ROI, she believes there are many ways to measure it. Most CEO’s want marketing to be measured on revenue and ROI but only 1 out of 3 is equipped to measure it. Eloqua’s process to measure and qualify sales opportunity is done via a number. They monitor information on social networks and use the digital body language to make decisions and create a more personalized offer.
It is important that you understand how much of the pipe line comes from marketing and how much from sales to develop a partnership that impacts revenue and use shared goals. Eloqua uses top-level metrics for entire team but each department has its own metrics, some of which may not be in the top-level.
Aleks Reljic, Vice President, eCommerce, Sony Electronics indicated that Sony uses about 14 media channels including affiliates, SEO, retargeting and other. Marketing technology has gotten complicated. Ad serving has changed roles and companies need to make decisions on how to deal with those changes. To build the ecosystem, you need to decide what data you want to own. For this to take place, the account needs to be on your name. You need to have a conversation with vendors when you build the ecosystem.
Start with a tag management system to work with retargeting, this will provide you with revenue attribution tools and the ability to react to marketing changes quickly as long as your budget is fluid. For Sony the window of the online sales process is about 10 days. What is the best time to re-target and with what media? You need to learn about this.
Using too many tracking systems may slow your page. You have to understand whose pixels go on your site so that you maintain a good experience for users of your site. Sony prefers to be in control and manage the data. I-frame pixels are not a good sign, a single pixel is good and server originated is better.
E commerce platforms are difficult to change. When building them, consider a modular approach because change is here to stay. Use segmentation and keep it at a manageable scale. With regards to media, do direct buys if you know the clients are there. Develop a 52 weeks calendar for your buys and adjust for season, special events, launches (CES) and look at best day of the week. It is important to test. Sony looks at the data they have before making decisions on new technology and work with partners that are reliable.
Given the ecosystem you need many partners and need to determine what you keep in-house. Simple is not a key selling proposition. Sony asks a lot of questions and you need to be clear and up-front on your capabilities.
John Boris, Senior Vice President and CMO Shutterfly Said that most of their spend goes online. They have real-time information. New ideas are welcome at Shutterfly, they invest 17% on new ideas and use offline to bend the curve online by getting better customers.
According to John, mobile is pervasive. Most studies have 30% of traffic coming from mobile. However no company is spending 30% of their budget on this platform. The metrics are not quite there since you can’t prove that discovery comes from a mobile device. Quantifiable metrics are important and need to be used when looking at different channels. You also need to layer offline components and factor them in even when you can’t put a number to it.
Smarter analytics are a good tradeoff for dollars. Revenue metrics used at Shutterfly include CPA, ROI, LTV among others.
Social is big media for Shutterfly, it’s good for awareness and engagement. Content on social needs to be relevant, timely, and thoughtful. Social allows you to do fun things.
They look at customer engagement model and work with the CRM team to determine distribution of messages based on mindset at that time.
DSPs Stole Ad Networks’ Thunder In Q4, At Least On Retail Sites
Highly recommend this reading that highlights the importance of marketing technologies and ROI improvements.
“It’s a golden opportunity for retailers, as in theory and in practice, marketing technologies help drive conversion which drive sales, which is what retail is all about,” Herman said. “The benefit is better consumer experiences, better conversion rates, and a more modern retail construct.”
The Future of the Media Industry
The theory of evolution doesn’t only apply to live species like humans, animals and plants. Industries are also touched by evolution and need to adapt to the changing environment. The media and advertising industries are not immune. I have been following media and advertising for over 10 years and have seen them go though many changes. Those changes were usually the result of a new technology. Perhaps, one the most sweeping change is taking place now and it’s the result of the fast evolving internet related innovations.
Five years ago, the term RTB (Real Time Buy) was not part of the media and advertising lingo. Today, it’s a reality and the way many agencies are buying their online media and in the near future all media. Just as the name of this blog, RTB stands at the intersection of technology, media and advertising. This is a reminder that more changes will take place and new technologies will become part of the day-to-day business in media and advertising. The changes will require a new set of skills and knowledge and a new generation will take over the positions that individuals from legacy media will vacate.
There is more to come and at a faster pace. The innovation on technology brings us new media formats and with that native advertising. Not all media formats will survive but the ones that make it will become significant parts of our lives just like Facebook has done it. The current trends tell us a bit of what is to come that that is just a small part. This report from e-Marketer tells us about the use of online video by top advertisers and it’s an indicator of a shifting tide and with it budgets from traditional media to digital. http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Advertisers-Deploy-Optimize-Video-Content/1009651
Mobile, online video and social are the top contenders. What do you think are other media and technology plays that will affect media and advertising in the future?
Stores Seeking Shoppers Find E-Mail Outdraws Facebook – Bloomberg
Retailers as disparate as Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSM) and Home Depot Inc. (HD) have become much better at tailoring e-mails to specific customers rather than the one-size-fits-all blasts that once dominated this type of marketing. Measured by sales per dollar spent, e-mail outperforms social-media advertising three to one, according to the Direct Marketing Association, a trade group founded to provide accurate marketing data. That explains why retailers will send 19 percent more e-mails this year.
Read more http://bloom.bg/Zmohms
Mobile Helps Cyber Monday Sales Grow 17%
I believe this is a sign of things to come as smart phones continue to gain market share and consumers are less afraid of conducting financial transactions online.
Mobile Helps Cyber Monday Sales Grow 17%; Facebook and Twitter Have Little Impact | Adweek http://ow.ly/fCAcF
Ivan Cevallos' Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.