The From Line

A recent study by Chadwick Martin Bailey that assessed “why consumers engage via email and Facebook” found that though social media has a strong following and excellent ability to increase brand recognition and loyalty, email is the preferred channel. Over 50% of email users polled said that they regularly engage with a brand via email for the purpose of receiving discounts and special offers, whereas 41% of social media users cited the same interaction.

Takeaway: Social media is a great booster, but email still remains king.

The primary difference between these two channels lies in the public aspect of the social media experience. While email subscribers remain virtually anonymous, users who “like” a Facebook page do so with full knowledge that their “friends” and “followers” will see their action. This sort of publicity is unparalleled. Even though it may have been solicited by a special offer or deal, personal recommendation of a brand shows support that email interaction cannot. However, email is and will remain to be the backing force behind any well rounded digital marketing campaign. It continues to be one of the most cost effective methods and according to Marketing Sherpa, B2C email marketers are reporting an average ROI of 256%.

If you’re not creating content, start! If you are, create more!

These days marketing success goes beyond banners, email and search engine marketing. With the proliferation of digital channels and the screens that support them, marketers need to invest more in content development that entertains, delights, educates and moves their customers to buy. In the past decade, the quants overtook marketing departments at the cost of creativity, resulting in a sea of mediocre content.

Since the demand for content is growing to a louder beat, balance is gradually being restored as companies rush to strengthen their customer bonds through videos, blogs, social media and games. Contrary to the trend, effective content development doesn’t require big budgets. In fact, small to medium sized businesses in particular can master content marketing without blowing their creative budgets and in a way that adds value to their brand.

Almost a year ago, we wrote about the value of a strong content marketing campaign in our post “Giving Content Development High Priority”. Back then we stressed its importance as a foundation for marketing automation. However, today the value of quality content goes far beyond that. Tony Quin, CEO of IQ, a full service agency said in a recent post for Marketing Daily that “compelling content is the currency that buys your customer’s attention and affection long before they reach the stage of comparing features and benefits.” Knowing this, its obvious that every business CAN and SHOULD be a publisher. There is an immense amount of marketing clutter out there for businesses to compete with. Creating content that adds value to your brand will be what separates you from the competition.

iPad passes Mac computer in sales. The tablet is the new frontier.

It’s official. Consumers are tablet crazy; so much so that they are choosing the mobile devices over computers. It’s that time again marketers, just when you’ve finally optimized for mobile…

A look into Apples record breaking year provides an impressive example of the tablets’ rapid rise in popularity. In 2011, the company sold over 156 million iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch), 55 million of which were iPads. To put this in perspective, in just one year combined sales of these mobile devices have exceeded the 122 million Mac computers ever sold. Since it was first available for pre-order in March of 2010, the sales trend of the iPad has blown all other Apple products out of the water (see figure below). CEO Tim Cook commented “This 55 is something no one would have guessed. Including us. To put it in context, it took us 22 years to sell 55 million Macs. It took us about 5 years to sell 22 million iPods, and it took us about 3 years to sell that many iPhones. And so, this thing is, as you said, it’s on a trajectory that’s off the charts.” There has been buzz for some time of the possible upcoming announcement of the iPad3, and today we have verification via Mashable that Apple has sent out invitations for an event on March 7th. The invitation states simply “We have something you really need to see. And touch” and according to Mashable is "superimposed on what is almost certainly an iPad". Knowing this, it is more crucial than ever for marketers to take to heart the magnitude of this trend. It has been rumored that the newest generation iPad will have a full operating system, providing the user with a full blown hand held computer, and conceivably further intensifying this trend. Yes, Apple is just one example, but I think it’s safe to say they are usually ahead of the trend. Assessing how we communicate via tablet will be paramount. 

Google recently introduced its newest feature upgrade, Google Search Plus Your World, or Search+ for short. Essentially this feature will draw information for search results based on social circles and interaction. (research by Nielsen suggests that 42% of people trust search results, but 90% trust recommendations from friends). So far, Search+ pulls heavily from Google+ users, but not yet from Twitter or Facebook. The feature, which aims to “improve quality of search results through increased trustworthiness and personalization”, appears to be Google’s way of gaining market share in social networking.

Takeaway: +1 will have impact on other channels besides search and social.

Of course this change in search results is only applicable to users with Google accounts and can easily be turned off by clicking an icon on the right side of the screen. So this is not a function that will immediately and permanently affect every Google user. However, it may not be a game changer (just yet) but it certainly has the capability to be one in the future. Because Search+ relies primarily on social data, relevance on social sites and quality content creation will become more and more important for SEO in the future. Marcus Taylor of SEOptimize said “If I’m right, then I can see a shift in prominence in the SERPs to content producers with an active audience, but only in niches where communities exist.”. Essentially, if your industry has a flourishing online community, it will be increasingly important to be active within it.

Yes, this is our second Google-centric post in a row, but we just can’t let this trend go unnoticed. It definitely seems as if Google is rocking the marketing world yet again. Tech authorities are even comparing the magnitude of this new feature to that of Google’s switch to Universal Search in 2007 (for those of you who don’t know, this update marked the official demise of the old 10-listing SERP. Search results were now integrated with news, video, local and other verticals).

Google places optin form directly in search ad, eliminating the need to visit advertisers’ site.
From an email marketing perspective, list growth has and always will be a top goal. We have covered numerous list growth tactics here in Trends and Takeaways, the good and the bad. Even still, it’s always exciting when something cutting edge like this surfaces. Not only is this concept extremely efficient, combining an advertisers preexisting Google ad with an optin form, it also simplifies the process for the subscriber. Users no longer have to worry about leaving their current page and visiting an advertiser’s landing page. As long as they’re logged into Gmail, the form will auto populate their basic information and with just one click, they’re signed up. It looks like quality and efficient list building practices are finally coming into the mainstream and it’s promising to see a big name like Google facilitating it.

Takeaway: It’s still early, but keep an eye out for this game changer.
Normally we stick to proven and executable trends here, but we just couldn’t help ourselves with this one. Obviously it is in its testing phases and there is little hard data to analyze, but judging by the big names who have jumped in to test, I think this format is here to stay. This trend, when and if it takes off, will inevitably change the way we look at search marketing. Where cost per click, cost per impression etc left marketers confused when calculating their ROI in the past, cost per acquisition will be the tangible game changer. Marketers will be able to quantify their results and see exactly what it costs to build their lists.