Tag Archives: marketing Blog

Email Rules!

Email has often been maligned as a “has-been” technology, but the numbers prove differently.

… that clunky relic of the early days of the web is actually the most popular form of communication online and its popularity is increasing year on year. And not just amongst the more mature. One of email’s biggest user groups, according to Adobe, is millennials.

A recent Adobe study shows that email is the most preferred means of receiving communications, including promotions from brands, especially on mobile devices. It’s highly used by all age groups and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Learn more about the modern-day power of email: http://bit.ly/2wTmThr

Facebook’s Newsfeed

Businesses have gone to great lengths to set up Facebook ‘pages’ and get ‘Likes’ to expose prospects and customers to their goods and services. Such is what marketing is all about. But understanding how to use these devices to get consistent results can be daunting. In this new realm of marketing, we have little control, or so it seems. The following article from TechCrunch illuminates the workings of Facebook’s Newsfeed — the stream of posts users see when they’re on the service.

Understanding how the Facebook algorithm handles content helps us produce more valuable posts, which will then be shown to the people we want to reach. The article also references a section that will be updated whenever they change the algorithm. The last few paragraphs provide simple guidelines for creating content that performs well and gains greater reach to help achieve business goals.

The best tactics for appearing prominently in the News Feed end up being quite straight-forward: share things that are interesting, authentic, and resonate with your audience. That typically means visually compelling media, funny or emotional content, and important news that’s fascinating to a wide audience … [People] just want to be stimulated. Do that, and Facebook will share what you have to say.

Read full article: http://tcrn.ch/2cfw5B3

Dark Patterns

Have you ever been victimized by deceptive marketing? Once someone has your credit card, there are many ways you can be tricked into agreeing to unwanted auto-shipments, subscriptions, additional purchases, and many other things — all to separate you from your money. These are behavioral hacks that typically depend on users not reading terms of service, overlooking pre-checked boxes on order forms, giving up on reaching customer service, or being forced to complete ridiculously long refund processes.

This also includes burdensome privacy settings, such as social media sites with important features that are difficult to find or use. Unfortunately, these tactics, known as “Dark Patterns,” are becoming standard practice in many businesses. This article provides insight to help consumers recognize these deceitful but common tricks: http://bit.ly/2aMIwSE

More on Dark Patterns

dark patterns are short-sighted, says Hoa Loranger, vice president of the prestigious UX consulting firm Nielsen Norman Group. “Any short-term gains a company gets from a dark pattern is lost in the long term,” she says.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3060553/why-dark-patterns-wont-go-away

Dark Patterns Website

A currated collection of dark pattern techniques discovered on real websites.
http://darkpatterns.org

Some Trends to Watch in Digital Media

The twin forces of mobile and social are creating changes across the board for online businesses.  While it can appear overwhelming, there are opportunities if we grasp the trends and develop plans to position us “on the wave.” Here are five interesting trends that will continue to grow and, as a result, change things in ways that require us to adapt as the digital world speeds on further.

We are all simultaneously creating, being disrupted by and exploiting an incredible array of changes in the way our digital world works. While these shifts can sometimes seem overwhelming because they are proliferating and accelerating so fast, their broad themes can be simplified to help us understand their underlying meaning.

  1. Multi-Screen Proliferation
  2. Advertising Precision
  3. Accelerating Automation
  4. Interruptive to Native
  5. Static to Real-Time

Read full article: http://linkd.in/18e9HAo

A 2012 Business Resolution Worth Keeping

You’re in business, right? Start the new year with a business resolution to obey “The 10 Commandments of Modern Marketing.” An excellent study — if you only read the subheads you’ll learn a lot: http://bit.ly/cTbc0s

… why not start the year with ten commandments for marketing — resolutions to do marketing right; that is, marketing that takes into account how the modern landscape and modern consumers have changed.

Engaging Customers

The Web offers so many ways to engage people, as long as you’re putting the right content in front of the right people. Yet, the sheer diversity and quantity of engagement opportunities are far greater on Websites than anywhere else. Why does this matter for marketers?

Today, marketers must focus not just on reach but on engagement — high-value brand interactions — and of course, actual leads and sales. Think of it this way: there are banner impressions and then there are lasting impressions. Engagement helps brands make lasting impressions with target audiences.

Web marketers, do you have an Engagement plan? Here are 10 good ideas to help you engage customers: http://bit.ly/aZ8pzP

Email Marketing Tips

Are you using email in your marketing mix? Email may not be the darling of today’s marketers, with Facebook, Twitter, et al. getting all the buzz. But the fact is, people use email every day, and if they subscribe to receive your messages, email continues to be a very effective tool to acquire and serve customers. Of course, there are techniques and best practices that can learn to help you get max results, which is where the ClickZ article below comes in. Shape up your email efforts and you’ll start getting better results. Then we can start talking about social media again.

Check out “7 Ways to Increase and Retain Newsletter Subscribers” Very useful: http://lnkd.in/iXWbzm

Six Key Customer Characteristics

In a world where everyone is hyper-connected and hyper-committed, I thought this summary of the modern customer’s mindset hit the mark:

1. Customers only buy two things: solutions to problems and good feelings. The first step in creating value is to identify your customer’s biggest problems and then demonstrate how you can solve them.

2. Customers want things fast. Learn to compete in time. Anticipate customers’ needs and fulfill them before they know they need them. Some vendors are now linked electronically to their major customers, which allows for ‘just in time’ service.

3. Customers like convenience. There is a strategic shortage for which people will exchange money in any society. Today the strategic shortage is time. Convenience has become more important than ever. How easy is it to do business with your company? How accessible are you to those you support? Can they count on a timely response?

4. The customer defines quality. Manufacturing and marketing say the product is terrific. The customer thinks it stinks. Guess whose opinion counts? The best place to begin marketing is by asking the customer how they define quality.

5. One size doesn’t fit all. The mass market is dead. Customers are demanding more options. They perceive their needs to be specific and unique. Factor ‘uniqueness’ into your sales and marketing strategy.

6. Would you like to be one of your customers? People won’t necessarily buy from us because they like us, but they’ll refuse to buy from us if they don’t. In every interaction, treat customers with the utmost respect and courtesy.