Don’t delay – review your marketing straight away

As the end of the year approaches, businesses need to take the time to look at how they are going to improve their marketing’s effectiveness and grow their business in the coming year.
What tools are you currently using for business growth? Are you reviewing their success? Are your campaigns actually generating your organisation new business?

No matter how brilliant, creative and unique a marketing strategy may seem to be, if it doesn’t generate results and return on investment, something needs to change.  Now is the time to go back to basics and simply look at what worked and what didn’t in 2012.

So where do you start? How do you review your marketing and what should you be looking for?

For any marketing campaign you undertake, analysis should be a vital part of your plan. If you have missed this step, or you are unsure what you should be reviewing, take a look at our 3 top tips for reviewing marketing effectiveness.

 

Email marketing – don’t ignore the data:

Many businesses understand the importance of sending out emails to their database, whether it be a monthly e-newsletter, or the occasional special offer.  A company invests time and resources into creating campaigns, but few measure the end result effectively.

There are many email software packages available to businesses, two of the biggest are Mail Chimp and Campaign Monitor. They allow you to review in-depth results generated from your emails, including open and click-through rates. The results are key to determining if your campaigns are effectively engaging with your database. An open rate indicates the percentage of people who opened your email, whilst a click through rate measures how many people actively clicked on a link and engaged with your communication.

The subject line and email address will influence the open rate most significantly.

The click through data reflects the level of engagement in your email. It shows exactly what information people are interested in. If you’re writing about multiple topics in a newsletter, click-through information can be used to determine which topics are of most interest to readers. Are the same people reading your emails each week, if so, are you following up the email with a telephone call?

Use you results to establish trends. Look at what time of day your emails are sent and what subject lines you include. Does your email include a hook?

 

Social media isn’t just for show – measure your engagement 

Like any marketing activity, in order for your social media activities and goals to be achieved, you need to put together your company’s social media strategy. Your strategy is just like your business plan; it enables you to define your social media goals and future objectives.

It is important to review the social media channels you currently use. What platforms are popular amongst your target audience and what content is worth ‘tweeting’?   In the past, a measurement of social media success was determined by the number of followers or ‘Likes’ generated through Facebook and Twitter. Google Analytics have taken their social analytics tools a step further, enabling you to drill down and measure the full value of traffic to your website coming from social networking sites. Follower engagement is also an import metric. How engaged are you with your social network? Is your content being retweeted? Are you interacting with your network?

The world of social media is constantly changing, what was popular last year isn’t necessarily relevant this year , stay on top of the trends and engage with your target audience effectively. There are many social media analytic tools out there. Some are free; take a look at Hootsuite’s free in-built analytics function or Topsy for instant social media insights.

 

Website – analyse your traffic

We can’t stress enough the importance of reviewing your website analytics. Google Analytics is one of the most powerful tools out there for businesses, providing a wealth of insight and data into the performance of your website and marketing overall. It is invaluable for monitoring and analysing traffic, allowing you to evaluate both on and offline marketing campaigns. Simply installing analytics won’t give you the results you need; value is only gained when that data is used to drive action to improve your site.

The volume of results available can be daunting; however, if you break down the data into more manageable chunks, like: traffic, bounce rate, visitor flow and keywords, you can start measuring your performance more effectively.

For more guidance on what you should be measuring with your Google Analytics, click here.

 

No matter what marketing activity you undertake, return on investment is vital.  When reviewing your marketing you need to consider every element of your campaign, from data and content through to execution and evaluation.  Reviewing your marketing each year can be the difference between having an ok year and a great one. If you have failed to generate enquiries from an advert, email or campaign, something needs to change. Start reviewing today and make use of your findings….don’t ignore the data.

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In case you missed it – Key ‘B2B Buying Behaviour’ Survey Findings

Each year, BaseOne commission a ‘B2B Buyers Behaviour’ Survey exploring key themes and channels used by B2B organisation buyers to purchase services and products. Here is a quick summary of the key findings in 2012’s report. Enjoy!
What are the top 5 channels used by buyers to get information when purchasing a product or service?

  1. Web searches – 71%
  2. Word of mouth – 56%
  3. Online community sites – 12%
  4. LinkedIn – 10%
  5. Facebook – 5%

Clearly have a user-friendly and highly visible website is key when marketing to the B2B sector but one should not underestimate the growing influence of social media, so often presented as a more B2B-friendly medium.

Which information channels were deemed to be most useful when making a purchasing decision?

  1. Word of mouth
  2. Web searches
  3. Online community sites

As you might expect, word-of-mouth is the most useful means of getting meaningful information, helpful to the decision making process.

What type of information do buyers regard as helpful when making a purchasing decision?

  1. Visited supplier websites – 73%
  2. Articles and info found in industry press – 47%
  3. Relevant supplier emails – 39%
  4. Relevant press advertising – 20%
  5. Direct mail – 19%

How do buyers here about information sources?

  • Most whitepapers and webinars / videos are found through web searches
  • Most seminars are found out about through supplier emails
  • Most blogs are found via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

Key changes in channel usage since 2011

  • The usage and importance of supplier websites, word of mouth, web searches and industry press has all increased in the last 12 months.
  • The usage and importance of press advertising, direct mail, online events / webinars, blogs, Facebook and Twitter have all decreased in the last 12 months.
  • The sharpest decline has been in press advertising, direct mail and Facebook.
  • The biggest increase in importance has been around word of mouth.

Social media usage by age

  • 49% of buyers under 30 years of age use social media for information and advice
  • 26% of buyers between 31 and 40 years of age use social media for advice and information.
  • 23% of buyers between 41 and 50 years of age use social media for information and advice.
  • 13% of buyers beween 51 and 60 years of age use social media for advice and information.

What age are the buyers in your target segments? Having this knowledge could be the difference between an effective social media marketing campaign and a costly one.

Which channel / source is most useful at each stage of the buying process?

  1. Identifying the problem and need – Whitepapers
  2. Identifying potential suppliers – Web searches and LinkedIn, with supplier websites and word of mouth just behind
  3. Supplier selection – Twitter and supplier emails

Hope this has given you some food for thought and will prove helpful in your marketing planning for 2013!

To download the full report click ‘Buyersphere 2012 Report‘.

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Marketing Titbits – Top campaigns, youtube videos and marketing infographics of 2012

Take a look at the ‘Marketing Titbits’ we’ve found for you this month. There are sources of inspiration in there for everyone:1. Top 10 Campaigns of 2012

Take a look at Marketing Week’s top 10 pick of this year’s marketing campaigns. Red Bull’s sponsorship of Felix Baumgartner’s 24-mile drop from space, Channel 4’s Paralympic TV ads and Southern Comfort’s latest offering are our favourites.

Top 10 Marketing Campaign’s of 2012

2. Top 10 YouTube Videos of 2012

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 3 months, you will have come across South Korea’s answer to Michael Jackson – PSY. His Gangnam Style video is far and away the most popular video of the year, nearly clocking up 1 billion views. But there are some other notable inclusion. Take a look at the run down below.

Top 10 YouTube Videos of 2012

3. Top 14 Marketing Infographics of 2012

We see a lot of infographics now but the kind people at eConsultancy have put together there list of the top 12 they have seen this year. We think the Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet has to be one of the handiest! See all of them below.

Top 14 Marketing Infographics of 2012

 

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Marketing Titbits – SlideShare, changes to Twitter and Google +

Following on from the launch of our ‘Marketing Titbits’ at the end of last year, here are 3 ‘titbits’ we think you need to know about this week:

  • In 2013, SlideShare is predicted to be the fastest-growing social network site, alongsideFacebook and LinkedIn. 2013 is the year content is predicted to become the new advertising. With this in mind, SlideShare provides businesses with a dedicated platform to showcase and share your own content. If you want to know more about SlideShare click here.
  • Twitter have announced that in 2013 your Twitter feed will be personalised to your interests and “TweetRank”. It also measures the popularity of various tweets e.g. how many retweets and favourites various tweets get and promotes more popular content. Expect some changes in your Twitter feed as a result.
  • Despite failing to attract headlines Facebook and Twitter do, Google’s social media offering is going about its business quietly but effectively and is now estimated to have in excess of 135 million active users. Not exactly a failure and currently growing as fast as Facebook. As each week passes, it becomes clearer that Google + is not just another social media site to rival Facebook or Twitter. Instead it is becoming the glue that holds Google’s diverse range of services together. As Mike Elgan puts it, think of all the other services Google offers (email, docs, search etc.) as ‘features’ of Google +. We are convinced Google + will become an increasingly important component of your businesses online strategy in 2013.
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Marketing Titbits – free social media monitoring tool, Google URL builder & Huggies!

  1. ‘Mention’ is a comprehensive online monitoring tool, which covers both web and social media. Businesses can use ‘Mention’ to monitor their brand, company, keyword, competitor and more ‘mentions’ online, in real time. Unlike some monitoring services, ‘Mention’s’ pricing offers something for everyone, including those that want something for free! For more information and to sign up click here.
  2. Google Analytics URL builder. We’ve referenced it before but it is so useful we’ll mention it again. If you are keen to monitor more effectively your online campaigns, Google Analytics URL builder is a fabulously effective tool (and its free!) for generating trackable URLs for your custom campaigns. Review your Google Analytics and see what the impact is of each campaign on your website.
  3. And finally, here’s a little bit of positive inspiration for you, from a Huggies advert of all things. You can’t always control what happens to you but you can control how you respond to it. Enjoy! Always look on the bright side of life.

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What can SMEs learn from HMV?

Major record labels, including Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony, have agreed to reduce the prices of CDs and DVDs, in a strategic attempt to rescue HMV.The high street retailer has looked vulnerable for some time, particularly since announcing a 10.2% decline in sales at the end of last year.

This decline in sales is representative of a shift occurring in how the public consumes media. With the rise of tablets, smartphones and live streaming, is the end nigh for CDs and DVDs?

We suspect yes, but what remains puzzling is why HMV executives were so slow to respond to a changing consumer trend that the average person on the street has seen coming for some time.

The lesson that all businesses, let along SMEs, can learn from HMV is that you have to keep monitoring your customer’s purchasing habits and be alive to changing behaviour and needs.

Having identified a change is occurring, it is crucial that you alter your offering to respond to these changing needs and demands. HMV executives seem to have been content relying on the strength of their brand, rather than the relevance of their offering.

It is difficult to predict whether HMV will recover long-term or whether this late rally from the labels merely provides a brief reprieve from the inevitable.

Either way, the demises of HMV, Jessops, Blockbuster and more are not just down to a difficult economy, all represent text book examples of businesses failing to respond to changing consumer behaviour and demands.

Make sure your business is alive to these types of changes in your sector!

 

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Marketing Titbits – Graph Search from Facebook, Twitter’s new video sharing app, the latest social media site

1. If your business doesn’t have a Facebook presence yet, there’s another reason you might want to get started. Facebook has recently launched its much-hyped new functional calledGraph Search. More than a new “search tool”, Graph Search lets you find people and businesses by interests, location or industry.  For example, Graph Search allows you to search “best restaurants in Winchester”, Facebook will then show you recommendations based on what your friends feel is the best place to eat, based on their likes and reviews. Just make sure that your location details on your business Facebook page are up to date.
2. Although Thumb has been around since 2010, it has only recently started to become popular around the world. Thumb is a picture based social media site that helps to engage consumers and get their gut reactions to your business ideas, images, and messages. Want feedback for your new website design, or need help choosing a business card design? Upload a picture and let your fellow Thumbers instantly share their opinions.

 

3. Twitter has recently unleashed their very own video sharing app called Vine. Vine allows users to upload very short 6 second videos to their Twitter account and has already become Twitter’s most downloaded app.  So why only 6 seconds? Similar to your short snappy tweets, posts on Vine are about abbreviation, providing little snippets of people’s lives, businesses and ideas.  At present, the only platform that the Vine app is available on is the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

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Marketing Titbits – Picture Monkey, Meetup & the latest update from Google Adwords

1. Want to quickly edit a picture, but don’t have Photoshop? Picture Monkey could be the answer. This online photo editing tool provides you with the opportunity to edit your images quickly from any computer, whether you are at home or in the office. Picture monkey has various templates, frames or colour effects that you can apply to your chosen image for free. For more advanced features, including a ‘spray tan’ or ‘wrinkle remover’, you will need to sign up to the website and upgrade.
2. Are you new to the area? Want to organise a networking event with like-minded people?Meetup is slightly different from other social media websites, the sole purpose is to organise real life meetings, whether you want to start a group for Southampton Web Developers or SMEs in Winchester, Meetup can help make this happen. According to Meetup, more than 9,000 groups get together in local communities each day. It is free to sign up and you can choose specific locations and interests.

3. Google have launched a new style of campaign in AdWords, called Enhanced Campaigns. The latest update has been designed to simplify campaign management across multiple devices and encourage more SMEs to adopt mobile advertising. The focus of the change is to enable advertisers to target people at the right time, in the right place, with the right advert and call-to-action.  Essentially, the biggest and most relevant change is that Google are growing more contextually aware. If a user is on a mobile device they will see ads that you have marked as “mobile preferred”.

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Fine-tune your email marketing

Email-marketingModern marketing requires the use of a balanced blend of marketing channels, all working in harmony for the common good – to grow your business.
One channel that many small businesses mistakenly overlook is email, assuming customers view email marketing as spam or that it’s too easy for customers to unsubscribe or simply delete messages.

However, email is alive, kicking and effective. Thanks to the rise in technology and smart phones, consumers are connected to their inbox 24/7, reading emails with the same immediacy as they do text messages.  Businesses are keen to get more bang for their buck and email marketing is certainly a platform more businesses should be considering when engaging with potential customers. Not only is it relatively low cost compared to comparable channels, but it is also incredibly generous about giving your business a wealth of marketing information off the back of a campaign, vital for giving you insights into your target audience and the ROI of campaigns.

Like any marketing activity, a business should plan their approach; simply pressing ‘send’ in Outlook isn’t enough.  To get more mileage from your marketing campaigns, adopt these strategies to fine-tune the effectiveness of your emails:


Look beyond Outlook:

There are various tools and software out there that can help you create effective and engaging emails, test and send them, then manage and track the responses without any technical skills needed. Mail Chimp is one of a number of easy to use email marketing systems out there for businesses. Others include:

Virtually all will allow you to import your own HTML design or edit one of their existing templates to reflect your brand.  Mail Chimp has the advantage that it is free if you have fewer than 2000 email subscribers and send emails no more than one a month.  The software also helps you manage your subscriber lists, track campaign performance and sync your email marketing across social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

 

Before you send your emails think about the following:

 

1. Segment your database into groups, for example, prospects, clients, past clients etc. Email software allows you to send personalised messages with custom offers. You could even send an email to one segment of your list by sorting on gender, role, post code or industry.

2.  If you’re sending a newsletter, think about incorporating links that drive back readers to your website, where they can access the article in full. Not only does this get recipients on your website, where they can learn more about your business, but by reviewing your email statistics, it also provides you with vital information about specific areas of interest for database member. This information can be used to target marketing campaigns more accurately.

3. Make sure you test your emails. HTML designs can appear differently in different email clients. Likewise, something you may consider as eye catching, could be difficult for contacts to actually read. Most email systems will allow split testing, which is a great tool to use to identify the most effective subject line or content. If you want to increase open rates, test your subject lines. If it is your click-throughs you are looking to boost, then test design and content variations.

 

Your campaign doesn’t stop there – Review your performance:

After sending out your email messages, your next task is to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. Measuring the response rates will help you determine the kind of articles and services  your readers want.

How do you know if your campaign is effective? The first indicator is your open rate, the number of people who actually opened your email. If you use an email marketing function like Mail Chimp, you will be able to access the full list of contacts who engaged with your campaign.

Your click-through rate is the other important indicator. Click-through rates measures the percentage of people who were sent the email that actively clicked on a link with the text. The more clicks the better.

You will also need to keep track of your unsubscribe rate. If the number of contacts requesting to be removed from your list increases, you need to re-evaluate your email campaigns. Are people unsubscribing because you are bombarding them with emails too frequently? Is the email message simply too long, or are your offerings lacking in appeal?
If planned and implemented properly, email marketing provides businesses with the opportunity to engage with a large audience in a short space of time. Not only does it offer your business a cost-effective marketing tool, it also provides you with vital information to help you integrate other forms of marketing into your mix……How about using telemarketing to follow up the contacts who clicked on a link within your email?

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Marketing Titbits – Tumblr, Facebook’s conversion measurement tool & Robert Cialdini’s book ‘Influence’

1.Influence
Robert Cialdini’s book ‘Influence’, is a must read for anyone involved in marketing a business. The book explores the 6 central pillars of Influence: reciprocity, consistency and commitment, liking, social proof, authority and scarcity and outlines, through real world examples and scientific studies, how and why they work. We’ve just read it and can thoroughly recommend it. For more information click here.

2.Tumblr

Tumblr has been around for a while now; however, it’s popularity has been on the increase of late. This free online tool straddles the boundary between blogging platform and social networking website. It allows you or your business to post text, images, video and other media to your own short-form blog, which fellow users can follow. You can use it to share anything that you or your business find interesting and want to share directly with your followers. The opportunities are endless and it is another great tool for helping build your online brand.

3.Facebook conversion measurement

Facebook’s update spree continues. Last month, Facebook launched their new conversion measurement and optimisation system that allows you to measure the ROI of your Facebook ads. It enables users to identify key online conversions, such as registrations or shopping cart checkouts, which have derived from their Facebook ads. Another feature allows you to optimise your ads based on consumer popularity.  Overall, the new features are designed to help you increase the ROI of your Facebook ads, which has got to be a good thing!

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