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- 19 Jun
Three Types of Events That Will Fuel Sales for Your Brand
In a digitally driven world, the human element can get lost. However, nothing can replace face-to-face rapport. And that is why events can do wonders for your sales. However, certain types of events can be more effective than others, depending on your brand and positioning.
If you’ve never hosted an event but are considering it, the one thing that is probably holding you back is the sheer complexity. Having attended events, you know that just on that level, events are hard. And hosting one yourself can be daunting to manage all the details, schedules and logistics.
But the Effort Can be Well Worth the Reward
There are three types of events in particular that can boost your sales. And depending upon your brand and your positioning any one can help your business. To learn what they are and how they can impact your sales, read the full article at MarketingProfs.com
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- 15 Jun
How to Captivate Customers by Using Video in Digital Ads
Video dominates the web: Consumers spend an average of five to six hours watching videos each day, with 20 percent of that time devoted to digital content. Forrester Research predicts that digital video ad spend will reach $102.8 billion a year by 2023.
Video content allows companies to engage with their audience, and consumers happen to trust video ads more than static advertisements. The use of video ads helps establish a deeper relationship with consumers to progress them through the buyer’s journey.
Mobile is certainly making a difference in consumer behavior. With many consumers on mobile devices throughout the day, the number of people watching videos on mobile platforms continues to rise at a rapid rate. While individuals watching ads on TV and desktop lose interest in ads quickly, companies that adapt and optimize video ad content for mobile are more likely to keep users engaged.
As digital marketers, we have found that people prefer watching videos to reading content. Consumers expect video everywhere they go online, and companies must be ready to serve it to them.
Formatted for a Platform Near You
As long as it’s done well, every industry stands to benefit from the use of video. Explainer, or educational, videos are great tools businesses can use when they feel their product or service won’t translate well on a static or text advertisement. One study suggests that 74 percent of users who watched an explainer video proceeded to buy the product or service they learned about.
Explainer videos come in a variety of formats that encourage consumers to take action. Interactive video ads, in-stream ads, and native video ads are digital video formats that companies consider effective pieces of their digital marketing campaigns.
Interactive online video ads are usually five to 10 seconds in duration and allow users to click, view, and interact with an ad. The use of interactive video ads has increased with connected TV because it allows users to select how they consume content. Users can decide to watch a longer form of the ad before their selected content, or they can choose to see short-form versions of the ad throughout. According to Magna, interactive video ads create a 47 percent gain in the time consumers spend with the marketing message.
Pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll videos have popped up across various internet platforms, especially social media. YouTube has coined its six-second pre-roll ads as “bumper ads” that users cannot skip, so completion rates remain high and click-through rates go up. Facebook has started to allow mid-roll ads between video content on its platform, and it won’t let users finish watching their chosen content until they’ve viewed the ad. Either way, in-stream video ads yield a higher click-through rate and are more cost-effective in the long run.
Native video ads mimic the rest of the feed in which they appear and do not interrupt users as they scroll through a page. You can place the video ad in the middle of web content, whether it’s a social media feed, an article, or a webpage. Users are more likely to share native ads because they are videos that people choose to watch. An engaging autoplay feature makes these videos begin as soon as a user scrolls near them, which is part of the reason Facebook native videos received more than four times the interactions than those shared on other platforms.
Believing is Seeing
If you aren’t using video, it’s time to ask, “Why not?” The benefits of using video far outweigh the risks when it comes to targeting an audience that increasingly consumes video content online. Learning to use video to your advantage is the best way to stay relevant. Find a reputable production company to partner with, and then take these four steps:
1. Choose the right format for your intended use. First, determine where you are going to use your video. You can put the full version on your company website, create shorter clips for social media, or promote your video with email marketing. Plus, you can create videos for advertising and run them on pre-roll and post-roll via Facebook or Instagram.
2. Zoom in on production values. Create an outline, script, and storyboard, and detail any props you will need for production. Once you know what the script demands, scout the location where you’d like to film. Visit the location on the day and time of the week that you intend to shoot. Listen for traffic noise and carefully assess the lighting. Evaluating these factors will make the production of your video much smoother, and you can be sure your video will look and sound exactly as you intended.
3. Get a bird’s-eye view of your budget. A professional production can cost anywhere from $7,000 to more than $50,000. The price depends on several factors: Is it a short- or long-form video? Will there be voice-over or text? Do you want music to accompany the video? Assess these elements when determining the price of production. You’ll also want to decide how many videos you are going to edit and how long each one should be.
4. Optimize for search. Globally, YouTube has become the second-largest site on the internet. Pay attention to your titles and captions, which are great for SEO regardless of where you post your videos. Plus, Google loves video because it creates better “dwell time.” As a result, your company is more likely to show up on page one of a Google search if you embed video on your site.
The web undoubtedly is gravitating toward video, and digital marketers need to be ready to act. Implementing video in digital ads and on social media shows that a company is keeping up with the times and want to keep its users engaged, educated, and entertained at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
Kelly Bosetti is the CEO and founder of ad agency CEA Marketing Group. She can be reached at kelly@ceamarketing.com.The post How to Captivate Customers by Using Video in Digital Ads appeared first on Chief Marketer.
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- 11 Jun
Captioned Video Ads Show A Lift in Brand Linkage
from Marketing Charts
We know that advertisers are increasing their video budgets this year. But are they missing out on one key element that could make a difference to audience engagement? A new survey from Verizon Media has found that and astounding 7 in 10 US consumers watch videos without sound in public spaces. This makes captioning not only important but expected by viewers and crucial for your business.The vast majority of people who use captions are not hearing impaired. Half of the more than 5,600 US consumers surveyed report that captions are important because they usually watch videos with the sound off. Perhaps, more importantly, the majority of respondents said they are more likely to watch an entire video when captions are available.
What Does This Mean to Advertisers? Read the full article at Marketing Charts to learn more.
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- 10 Jun
How to Generate Quality Leads From Your PPC Campaigns
You’ve poured thousands of dollars into your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search campaigns. And you have managed to generate a substantial number of leads. You’re rocking your conversion rates and your cost per lead is great.
What’s the problem?
It’s only when you start analyzing your results and dig a little deeper that you realize an overwhelming majority of these leads are, in essence, “junk leads.” Very few are turning into opportunities, let alone customers. The bottom line is, you’re just not seeing a healthy ROI.
What’s the solution? And, how can you turn this around? In this post, Andy Beohar gives us 10 proven strategies that you can use to generate better quality, bottom of the funnel leads from your B2B PPC campaigns. Let’s dive in at HubSpot.com
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- 07 Jun
Is Your Content Following The Trend?
Most businesses have accepted or even embraced the idea that without creating content, your website can’t hope to compete. In fact, without it, you have no chance for search engine rankings, high visitor counts, or much engagement.When the Competition Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going
There are just too many sites out there fighting for the same eyeballs that you want. And that means that if you don’t put something appealing and fresh in front of them, you’re going to be out of luck.
So, what’s to be done? To start, BuzzSumo did a study of over 100 million posts and came up with some very revealing data. To take a look at a couple of the more interesting insights and diagnose what they might mean for how we should shape our content strategy, read the full article at the McLellan Marketing Group.
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- 29 May
New Data: Email Spam Benchmarks for 27 Industries
by Ayaz Nanji
If you are in business, you probably send out email offers and promotions. In fact, email has become a natural part of business. So much so that we all don’t really stop to think of what happens to that email very often. And we simply push-n-pray and hope for a good return rate.S0, What Happens to Your Email Once You Hit “Send”?
But, as a business, it is increasingly important to know what proportion of emails sent by marketers end up in consumers’ spam folders. And we need to know what proportion is flagged as spam. And what proportion is flagged as not spam by recipients?
To find out Return Path recently took a look at these factors for 27 industries in various verticals. And to see what they found and for an opportunity to download the original report, read the full article at MarketingProfs.com
NOTE: A Free Registration pop-up opens on this site. A Free MarkeitngProfs Registration may be required to read the full article. -
- 14 May
How to Use the Art of Storytelling in Your Blogging Strategy
by Chima Mmeje
Blogging has proven to be a great medium for a business to communicate, gain interest and to even generate leads. But it has become a crowded space. Now, we live in a world where over 4 million blog posts are published every day. And that constitutes a lot of noise you will need to break through to get your story into your market.
Bloggers, Bloggers Everywhere . . .
So, how do you stand out in a sea of bloggers? At this point in time, there are literally thousands, all of whom have probably covered all the key topics from a thousand different angles. Do you follow the trend? Or do you strike off and create a technique of your own?
To learn more, read the full article on Jeff Bullas’s Blog.
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- 11 May
How to Create UTM Codes to Track Your URLs
by Ginny Mineo
A crucial aspect of being a great marketer is being able to measure your success. No matter which metrics you use, you want to prove to your boss (and the company) that you’re worth your salt.You deserve your budget. And maybe you need more of it. And you deserve to dedicate time to the marketing activities that work. But, measuring the impact of your work can be tricky without the right tools. And that’s where UTM codes come in. Building UTM codes that track your campaigns’ success is the best way to prove your success. Or even where campaign adjustments need to be made.
But, What are UTM codes?
UTM codes are snippets of text added to the end of a URL to help you track website traffic when users click a link to that URL. Marketers can customize this text to match the webpage this URL is linked on, allowing them to attribute the success of that campaign to specific pieces of content. And to learn how to build your UTM codes, read the full article at HubSpot.com
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- 10 May
5 Strategies to Improve PPC Lead Quality
Generating leads with PPC campaigns can be challenging. But, generating high-quality leads is even harder.Lead generation is Not an Easy or Simple Matter
Lead generation, by it’s nature, leaves the door open for anyone to convert on the initial lead conversion stage, regardless of their actual ability to buy the end product. As a result, the quality of those leads can vary widely. And because of this, we need to develop strategies to target higher quality leads and deter unqualified users from filling out our forms.
Yep, you read that right. To shift your lead generaion into high gear, you may need to turn people away from your business. And, you will need to purposefully try to prevent people from filling out your form. Here are 5 strategies to try that we think will help you improve the quality of leads from your PPC campaigns at WordStream.com
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- 01 May
Report: Top Digital Channels Buyers Use for Discovering New Brands
from Marketing Charts
If you have a product that is new to market, then early brand discovery is your biggest challenge. Exactly how, and where in the great digital universe, can you can recognition? Where can you get noticed and begin to gain market traction?Well, the answer seems to be – On Social Media
According to Kantar Media, five of the top nine digital channels shoppers use to discover new brands are social media platforms. And of those, Facebook is used more than even product or brand websites for this purpose.
While social media is a key place for discovering a brand, once shoppers are further down the purchase journey, that changes. At that point social media is not as important to shoppers’ decision-making. And, it is at that point in their journey path that search is cited as chief purchase driver. And, this was borne out separately in a survey by SUMO Heavy. That report revealed that fewer than 1 in 5 (18%) adults say they have made a purchase directly through social media.
For more on these reports and additional insights into this, read the full article at MarketingCharts.com
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- 18 Apr
2018 Metrics Show Some Email Deliverability Improvement
from Marketing Charts
According to an analysis released last year by Return Path, some 15% of US marketing emails fail to reach the inbox, Now that may seem to be bad news. But, in fact, this figure is an improvement from 2017’s rate of 23%.Not Time to Relax Quite Yet
But that doesn’t mean that marketers can’t afford to rest on their laurels. After all, there are still some verticals that are still experiencing poorer performance. So, to address this, Return Path has once again benchmarked its data [download page].
This recent study provides a host of updated yardsticks across several metrics that can act as indicators for sender reputation. And to see some highlights across these indicators, read the full article at MarketingCharts.com
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- 16 Apr
8 Email List Building Tactics for Small Businesses Marketing Success
by Rukham Khan
The current competitive landscape dictates that to survive, you must keep growing. And, with that in mind, businesses of all types and sizes employ all sorts of strategies and tactics to sustain and even accelerate their growth.
Email: Still the Go-To Business Building Tool
Even after all these years, one of the most successful and proven methods for growing small businesses has been through email. But that means you need to do list building. We all know that having a quality email list offers lots of advantages. An good and receptive email list gives you direct access to the people who actually want to hear from your business.
But, that’s where the hard part comes in. Contrary to what you may think, building email lists for small businesses can be an inexpensive but effective strategy to grow your business. So, to help you get started, here are eight ways that you can build email lists to grow your small business at WordStream.com
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- 13 Apr
Five Website Conversion Principles That Will Increase Your Lead Volume
One of the most critical elements of your landing pages and conversion paths is your form. Yep, you read that right. Your lead gen form acts as the main gateway between a user and you. And it can either keep the visitor a stranger to your company or help turn that visitor into a lead for your company.A Bad Form Kills the Experience Your Landing Page Provides
And, as a result of a form that seems a chore to complete, it can kill conversions. After all, we know that buyers are becoming increasingly fussy.
Without a delightful and error-free experience with your brand or website, it’s likely you’re losing out on conversions, leads, and clients. In this article, Marcus Taylor gives us five conversion rate optimization (CRO) principles that will increase lead volume and help you surpass your lead-generation targets. So read the full article at MarketingProfs to learn them all.
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- 06 Apr
How to Measure Event Marketing Performance and ROI
by David Becker
Event marketing has consistently grown in popularity over the past few years. Why is that? Well, it’s becuase they work well for attendees, sponsors and vendors. But, for most companies, they are often one of the biggest marketing expenses they have.Why do so Few of us Actually Measure the Real Impact of Event Initiatives?
As is the case with accurately measuring any marketing program, it all begins with assigning the right metrics to your goals. But, before looking at the metrics and tools needed to measure success, you must have a clear vision on the outcome you want to achieve from your events.
In this article, David Becker from Marketo shares an ROI attribution model that will help you to more accurately measure the results from your events. So, to learn how it all works, read the full article on the Marketo Marketing Blog.
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- 28 Mar
7 Creative Hyperlocal Marketing Strategies for Growth
by Irina Weber
The world is becoming more and more mobile. In fact, according to Google, searches on mobile devices have grown. Currently they are up by 150 percent. So, with that, it makes sense for businesses to tap into this trend. It may be time for you to begin hyperlocal marketing.Great! What the Heck is Hyperlocal Marketing?
Hyperlocal marketing is an entirely new marketing approach. Designed for small, local business, it focuses on a smaller number of shoppers. And in a very defined and smaller area. So, it specifically targets people in highly localized and address-specific regions. Plus, it emphasizes people with a tendency to purchase locally.
And that means that hyperlocal marketing is a super targeted form of niche marketing. And you don’t need to spend money to generate inbound traffic to your local business. So, to get started, read the full article at Jeff Bullas’s Blog.
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- 27 Mar
The Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats for 2019
Nowadays, marketers put a lot of emphasis on chatbots, Instagram influencers, and other new opportunities to reach their customers.
But your contemporary communication methods shouldn’t distract you from one of the oldest and yet most effective messaging channels — email.
You might be wondering if email is still a worthwhile marketing strategy. In fact, email generates $38 for every $1 spent, which is an astounding 3,800% ROI, making it one of the most effective options available.
If you’re still hesitant, keep reading — we’ve cultivated a list of email marketing statistics for 2019 to demonstrate just how powerful email can be.
Email marketing stats
- 93% of B2B marketers use email to distribute content.
- Active email accounts are expected to hit 5.6 billion by 2019.
- 83 percent of B2B companies use e-newsletters as part of their content marketing program.
- 40 percent of B2B marketers say email newsletters are most critical to their content marketing success.
- It’s estimated that the U.S. will spend over 350 million dollars on email advertising in 2019.
- Mobile opens accounted for 46 percent of all email opens.
- 35% of business professionals check email on a mobile device.
- Apple iPhone is the most popular mobile client for reading emails with 29 percent of all opens occurring on this platform. Gmail is a close runner-up at 27 percent.
- 73 percent of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email.
- More than 50 percent of U.S. respondents check their personal email account more than 10 times a day, and it is by far their preferred way to receive updates from brands.
- 99% of consumers check their email every day.
- 80% of business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention.
- 59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.
- The most opened emails relate to hobbies, with an open rate of 27.35 percent.
- >59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI.
- 56% of brands using an emoji in their email subject line had a higher open rate than those that did not.
- Marketers who use segmented campaigns note as much as a 760% increase in revenue.
B2B Email Marketing Statistics
1. 93% of B2B marketers use email to distribute content. (Content Marketing Institute, 2017)
2. Active email accounts are expected to hit 5.6 billion by 2019. (Statista, 2018)
3. 83 percent of B2B companies use enewsletters as part of their content marketing program. (Imaginepub.com, 2017)
4. 40 percent of B2B marketers say email newsletters are most critical to their content marketing success. (Content Marketing Institute, 2017)
5. It’s estimated that the U.S. will spend over 350 million dollars on email advertising in 2019. (Statista, 2019)
Mobile Email Marketing Statistics
6. Mobile opens accounted for 46 percent of all email opens. (Litmus.com, 2018)
7. 35% of business professionals check email on a mobile device. (Convince & Convert, 2018)
8. Apple iPhone is the most popular mobile client for reading emails with 29 percent of all opens occurring on this platform. Gmail is a close runner-up at 27 percent (Campaign Monitor, 2018)
Demographic Email Marketing Statistics
9. 73 percent of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email. (Adestra, 2016)
10. More than 50 percent of U.S. respondents check their personal email account more than 10 times a day, and it is by far their preferred way to receive updates from brands (Campaign Monitor, 2017).
11. 99% of consumers check their email every day. (DMA Insights, 2017)
B2C Email Marketing Statistics
12. 80% of business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention. (Emarsys, 2018)
13. 59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions. (SaleCycle, 2018)
14. The most opened emails relate to hobbies, with an open rate of 27.35 percent. (MailChimp, 2018)
15. 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI. (Emma, 2018)
Email Marketing Best Practices Statistics
16. 56% of brands using an emoji in their email subject line had a higher open rate than those that did not. (Forbes, 2017)
17. Marketers who use segmented campaigns note as much as a 760% increase in revenue. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
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- 21 Mar
How to Keep Your Email Marketing Strategy Relevant to Millennials
It is important to reach your customers through more than one channel. That is an undisputed fact. But, if you market to Millennials, you probably think they are more likely to engage with an Instagram post or a Facebook ad than email.If That’s What You Think, You’re Missing Out
Don’t be fooled. Email marketing, when it’s done correctly, still holds sway for brands. And of you want to maintain customer relationships, engage audiences, or make sales, email works. This holds even in an era of the rise of social media and search engine marketing. Email is still a highly effective and popular marketing tool, even with Millennials.
In fact, according to studies, 61% of consumers overall enjoy receiving promotional emails weekly. But how can businesses use emails effectively to market to the most tech-savvy group out there. How can it reach Millennials? To find out, read the full article at MarketingProfs.com
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- 15 Mar
New Report: Impact of Original B2B Content – Builds Brand Trust
by
A newly released report from Vennli, which surveyed 100 senior-level B2B marketers on the role content strategy plays in building brand trust. And they found that, while third-party data from respected research firms have name recognition, it didn’t do much more. In fact, they found that it doesn’t do as much to create trust as first-party, original research.This is likely because so many companies have access to the same material. And so it doesn’t carry the same weight as original research. In fact, original research, quotes from customers and comments from industry experts are top performers. They found that those are the top three elements in content that help build B2B brand trust.
It seems that a whopping fifty-seven percent of respondents named branded content as the best tool to build B2B brand trust. But there’s more to the report and to see some additional data and insights, read the full article at Chief Marketer.
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- 12 Mar
Is Video Working? Video Ad Engagement Benchmarks in 2018
from Marketing Charts
We have ample evidence of the growing popularity and increasing use of video in marketing. In fact, video has found popularity and application at more than one point in the sales funnel. But, just because we create all of this video content, how do users respond? Is it really effective for them?The Dials Keeps On Moving for Video in Marketing
In order to find out how effective video ads are, Extreme Research looking at a number of metrics to gauge the effectiveness and to spot some emerging trends. Their report [see the original report] looked at video ad completion, click-through and viewability rates to compile a picture of how viewers are responding. One shift they did note was the increasing impact of connected TVs on the marketing video landscape.
To see the data, access the original report and gain additional insights, read the full article at MarketingCharts.com
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- 06 Mar
An Introduction to Persuasive Advertising vs. Informative Advertising
by Clifford Chi
As marketers, we know that if we want to persuade an audience, we need to evoke an emotional response from them. But how do you actually do that? Well, for one, we can use persuasive techniques that emphasise value. Or we can inform and educate them.But What is a Persuasive Ad? And How Do They Differ From Informative Ads?
Well, recently Clifford Chi, over at HubSpot, took a look at this dicotomy of advertising approaches. He examined six persuasive advertising techniques that you can use right now. Plus, he then looked at three informative advertisement examples. And each of those is surprisingly as compelling as the persuasive advertising examples.
So to learn all about Persuasive Advertising vs. Informative Advertsing, read the full article at HubSpot.com
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