Rileybiz

From e-Marketer

More than a quarter of web users 65 and up now visiting social networks
Older web users are flocking to social networks, according to a May 2010 Pew Internet & American Life Project survey. Usage among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled during the past year, from 22% to 42%.

More specifically, 47% of 50-to-64-year-old internet users and 26% of seniors ages 65 and up indicate that they now use these sites, with Facebook and LinkedIn being the main beneficiaries of the more mature traffic.

These rates are fairly close to eMarketer predictions from April 2010, which estimated the largest jumps in social networking site usage would occur among the oldest users.

With even seniors catching the wave of social networking, the phenomenon’s mass appeal is undeniable for marketers. Facebook announced its 500 millionth user in June, and marketers have begun to pour real dollars into the channel. eMarketer estimates US ad spending on Facebook will rise to $1.1 billion next year, up from $835 million in 2010.

Pew offered three reasons for social networking’s appeal to older adults:

They want to reconnect with people from their past. As a gathering place for multiple generations, social networks are useful to parents for learning about the lives of their children and grandchildren.

People with chronic diseases are more likely to reach out to others online, and older people are more likely to have a chronic disease.

But those first two reasons are also a good indication of why young people may begin shying away from Facebook and having conversations elsewhere, if they haven’t already. Already hyper-vigilant about their privacy and what they share, young users may stop considering social networks cool when their parents join—let alone their grandparents.

Meanwhile, as teens and millennials grow up and enter the work force, instead of reconnecting, they may actually want to disassociate themselves from past immaturities and prying eyes in what is an increasingly public setting.

The mass appeal of Facebook is a boon in the short term for marketers looking for reach in an age of media fragmentation. But as the site tries to be everything to everyone, marketers included, that may prove to be too much for some, just as it was for MySpace.

For complete data charts and story, go to eMarketer.com

From World Advertising Research Center

Brand owners must face up to the “daunting task” of creating marketing systems reflecting the demands of the digital age, according to a new study.

As consumers gravitate towards social networks, search engines, blogs and the mobile web, advertisers are “abandoning traditional media at a shocking rate,” the Booz & Co report suggested. Such a trend has been demonstrated by the comparative resilience of online – and to a lesser extent mobile – adspend during the recession.

This is partly because both channels allow for precise targeting at low cost.

“The many virtues of digital marketing – its speed, flexibility, interactivity, and accountability – require a whole new set of marketing strategies and skills to make it work,” Booz said.

“In a Web 2.0 world, however, taking part in that market isn’t simply a matter of throwing some banner ads against a few likely websites and seeing what sticks.”

Exploit the vast amount of data available

Any adequate response to the evolving preferences of shoppers should be premised on exploiting the vast amount of data now available, the Booz report added.
“It demands a close collaboration between CMOs and CIOs to build technology to automate new marketing processes and provide real-time decision support.”

Firstly, this encompasses establishing methods to track the behaviour of consumers, including their communications and media usage habits.

Delivering programmes enabling executives to “target customers 24/7 via the right channel, at the right time, and with the right message” is also assuming centre stage. More broadly, corporate leadership, skill sets and incentives ought to be “geared towards the digital world” rather than reinforcing outdated models.

Develop a single view of shoppers

Achieving this goal ultimately means brand managers need to gain a “single view” of shoppers drawing on the mass of facts and figures hosted online and offline.
“They must use that information to make specific offers to individual customers based on their value to the company – both in the past and in the future,” Booz said.

“They must build a marketing platform that can help automate the process of publishing a consistent set of marketing messages and content … from classic TV spot to Facebook app to YouTube video to Google AdWords to blog entry.”

A novel solution may be necessary

Given the complexity of handling these tasks, and the challenges of coordinating technology vendors, advertising agencies, media owners and publishers, a novel solution may be necessary.As such, advertisers should establish a dedicated digital unit to act as an intermediary between management, IT and marketing departments, as well as running campaigns and dealing with corporate partners.

Google has recently released details about its real-time search engine, which trawls the web to provide all the latest results, and can be refined by location.
“We’ve added a conversations view, making it easy to follow a discussion on the real-time web,” said Dylan Casey, a product manager at Google.

A full conversation view is the objective

“Often a single tweet sparks a larger conversation of re-tweets and other replies … With the new ‘full conversation’ feature, you can browse the entire conversation in a single glance.”

Procter & Gamble, the FMCG giant, is one firm planning a major investment in this kind of approach at a corporate level, according to its ceo, Bob McDonald. “With digitisation, our goal is to standardise, automate and integrate systems and data so we can create a real-time operating and decision-making environment,” he said.

“By getting the right data to the right decision makers at the right time, we can become increasingly efficient and productive.”

Coca-Cola Enterprises, which distributes goods from Coca-Cola’s portfolio, has also leveraged software called SugarCRM to integrate various elements of its operations.

The main goal is a global solution

“The main goal was to get a global solution that combined e-commerce, CRM, and logistics into one package that everybody could standardize on,” said Pierre Fredet, group director for dry outlets, Coca-Cola Enterprises.

Data sourced from Booz & Co/Procter & Gamble/Google; additional content by Warc staff, 02 September 2010

From World Advertising Research Center

Traditional forms of communications like word of mouth, direct mail and newspapers enjoy higher levels of trust among US consumers than social media and other online services.

ICOM, part of Epsilon Targeting, argued in a study that social networks, internet forums, blogs and similar tools have added considerable complexity to the world occupied by more established channels.

Based on a survey of 2,569 adults, it reported 57% of people regarded friends and family as a reliable source of information, falling to 26% for newspapers and 22% for corporate websites.

Television posted a score of 20%, with brochures and flyers on 18%, radio on 16%, email on 12%, third-party internet sites on 11% and mobile phones on 9%.

Web 2.0 portals generated relatively modest figures, coming in at 8% for blogs, forums and Facebook, and just 7% for YouTube and Twitter.

When asked to name preferred providers of news and updates relating to personal care, food and cleaning products, 36% of the panel chose direct mail, with newspaper inserts on 29%, the net on 12% and email on 10%.

“The coveted 18-34 year olds prefer, by a wide margin, to learn about marketing offers via postal mail and newspapers rather than online sources such as social media platforms,” the study said.

It added: “The preference among 18–34 year-olds for receiving marketing information from offline sources led by mail and newspapers is two to three times greater than online sources such as social media.”

Elsewhere, 40% of contributors selected DM in the financial sector, as did 38% for insurance, 35% for charity campaigns and 28% concerning travel.

The last of these markets was the only one to see another type of media assume the lead, as the web registered a rating of 19%.

Taking credit cards as an example, 70% of participants agreed branded email had an influence on purchase decisions, a perception that stood at 60% for mail shots, 41% for internet display and 19% for TV spots.

In terms of recall for these financial products, however, 33% mentioned television commercials, with DM on 27%, email on 22% and web banners, pop-ups and equivalent formats on 19%.

“The upshot is that regardless of the demographic, marketers need to deploy a multichannel campaign for topmost customer engagement,” ICOM argued.

“Social media, like many forms of communication, should be incorporated as one component of a broader strategy.”

Equally, while emerging mediums like Foursquare, GoogleBuzz, Loopt, Blippy and Groupons deserve attention, brands must ensure they have a presence in all of the areas frequented by their target audience.

“The proliferation of channels presents marketers more opportunity than ever to engage customers, understand their desires and meet their evolving needs,” the report concluded.

“At the same time, it challenges marketers to abide ever more fervently by the first commandment of marketing: know thy customer.”

Data sourced from ICOM; additional content by World Advertising Research Centre  staff, 27 August 2010

From e-marketer.com

Word-of-mouth may not translate to loyalty.

Social media is a hot topic in marketing circles, but many consumers are also discussing the trend, which accounts for nearly 23% of time spent online in the US, according to Nielsen.

An April 2010 survey conducted by Harris Interactive for the Online Publishers Association (OPA) found that social media sites were the most talked-about on the web, ahead of portals and top media sites that are members of the OPA in discussions on a wide variety of channels.

All those conversations, whether in person, via email, on the phone or elsewhere on the web, however, don’t make social site visitors loyal—internet users expressed the least loyalty for such properties, compared with portals or OPA member sites. They were also most likely to say social sites were not a very good fit for their information and entertainment needs.

The OPA’s findings are in line with the annual customer satisfaction report from ForeSee Results that found Facebook among the most disliked sites on the web after its many disagreements with its own user community and several privacy debacles.

According to the OPA, negative feelings about social sites may also apply to the brands that advertise there. Only 8% of internet users felt social media site advertisers were reputable, compared with a 21% average for content sites. They also felt advertising on social sites was less relevant and the companies that did so were less respected.

The answer for brands is to continue a greater focus on non-advertising marketing activities, engaging on the social media user’s terms. And marketers should remember that while loyalty to individual social properties may be low and site users dissatisfied, the activities that have come to define social media— connecting with friends and family and sharing information and content with a trusted group—will remain important in the lives of millions of internet users and continue to provide avenues for brand engagement.

For compete data charts and story, go to e-marketer.com

Consumers’ increasing appetite for mobile applications is driving online retailers to speed up their mobile marketing initiatives. According to a Forrester Research, Inc. study produced in partnership with Shop.org, the National Retail Federation’s digital division, nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of online retailers either already have or are developing a mobile strategy. One in five boasts having a fully implemented mobile strategy in place already. The survey of 109 companies is part of The State of Retailing Online research series, which provides eBusiness professionals with an annual industry benchmark for marketing and business investment and activities.

Mobile Commerce has tremendous potential

“It’s imperative for online retailers to stay on top of what their customers want, and these days it’s all mobile all the time,” said Scott Silverman, executive director, Shop.org. “Mobile commerce has tremendous potential and will no doubt grow to become a significant part of overall sales volume in years to come. Whether to increase customer satisfaction, grow their brand, or drive traffic and sales, online retailers are in this game to stay.”

“Mobile investment is modest now, but we see that it will pick up in the future, especially among the biggest brands that have already invested significant amounts in their mobile operations,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president, principal analyst, Forrester Research, and lead author of the report.

Earlier this year, Forrester forecast US online retail sales to total $173 billion in 2010. According to “The State Of Retailing Online: Marketing, Social Commerce and Mobile Report,” Web retailers with mobile strategies:

•Are investing in features that support the cross-channel experience. Product and price information, store information, and coupons to support the in-store experience are among the most popular features that retailers are offering consumers.
•Have varied levels of investment. On average, respondents anticipated spending $170,000 on their mobile sites this year, large multichannel retailers are spending several times that amount, while smaller online pure plays on average are investing much less.
•Are experiencing modest gains. Retailers reported that their mobile browsers at this juncture are generating a little less than 3 percent of overall site traffic and just 2 percent of revenue.

Retailers are spending nearly 40% of their budget on paid searchTried and true marketing tactics such as paid search, email, and affiliate marketing command the biggest percentage of an online retailers’ marketing budget. According to the report, retailers are spending nearly 40 percent of their marketing budget on paid search.

Retailers are finding value in social media marketing, but the ROI for driving online sales remains murky. Listening to customers is the most significant objective for social tools according to respondents, with 80 percent of retailers reporting that they are pursuing social strategies to experiment and learn. And while 28 percent noted that social marketing has helped grow their business, direct sales from social tactics are not widely measured.

36% of small businesses look to step up with Twitter and Facebook.

Small businesses are confident about their ability to weather the recession, with more than one-half saying they have either fully recovered or will do so by the end of 2010, and nearly three-quarters claiming they will drive recovery in the overall economy, according to the “Third Annual FedEx Office Signs of the Times Small Business Survey” from FedEx Office and Ketchum.

To that end, almost two in five small-business owners reported they would be growing their businesses with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. That was up from less than one-quarter who planned to up their game with social in 2009 and made social media the only tactic to increase in importance since last year.

About 42% of small-business owners said they would increase spending on advertising and marketing this year overall.

“Small businesses are definitely getting it right when it comes to identifying and investing in the tools that will help them bounce back from a difficult period,” said Randy Scarborough, vice president of marketing for FedEx Office, in a statement.

E-mail marketing solutions firm Constant Contact likewise found small businesses optimistic about their economic prospects in 2010, with 70% expecting to grow this year. Website and e-mail marketing were a bigger priority than social media, but Facebook was considered important by more than one-half of respondents.

More than one-quarter said blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter were other key tools for marketing their business.

For complete data charts and story, go to e-marketer.com

One-half use the site more than they did a year ago

Business-to-business (B2B) sales cycles are longer than a year ago, but pipelines are growing, according to the “B2B SalesPulse Survey” from business information company OneSource.

Traditional outbound prospecting still produces the most qualified leads for US B2B sales representatives, but companies are relying more on their corporate Website to help bring in customers. Social networking sites were rated toward the low end of the scale, though they were as helpful in lead generation as direct mail.

The most effective social network for prospecting was LinkedIn, by a wide margin. The business-oriented site was rated 3.1 out of 5, compared with ratings of 2 for blogs, 1.9 for Facebook and 1.8 for Twitter.

LinkedIn’s effectiveness in this area has translated into significant increases in usage. Nearly one-half of respondents said they were using the site more for prospecting and research than a year before. Around one-fifth of those polled were also upping their prospecting efforts on blogs, Facebook and Twitter, but majorities of B2B sales professionals did not use those sites for research at all.

January 2010 data from HubSpot showed 45% of North American B2B companies using LinkedIn for marketing had acquired a customer through the site. Company blogs were effective for 43% of respondents, while 38% and 33%, respectively, got customers from Twitter and Facebook.

In contrast, research firm Outsell found that US B2B marketers considered Facebook the most effective social media site, at 51%, followed by LinkedIn (45%) and Twitter (35%). That poll focused on effectiveness in general, not necessarily lead generation.

For complete story and data charts go to eMarketer.com

Share / Save E-mail Add to Favorites   Amazon Wish List   n     Send from any other e-mail address or e-mail program: Any e-mail Powered by AddToAny

Four in five have no mobile presence

Website redesigns are in the cards for about two-thirds of multichannel retailers, according to the “Outlook 2010: E-Commerce” survey from Multichannel Merchant. Online retailers are looking to refresh their look and improve search engine optimization, navigation and conversion rates.

Thy are also looking to add more advanced features, such as social media tools, video, forums and personalized recommendations. Mobile, though, is barely on the horizon for most survey respondents.

Four in five US multichannel retailers polled said they were not using any mobile commerce functionality in February 2010. The most common m-commerce application in use was mobile advertising, and just 6.5% of respondents had a mobile site. Slightly fewer had an iPhone app.

The report suggested that retailers could be put off investing in mobile by carriers’ failure to keep up with consumer demand for mobile data service.

Consumers, though they are avid cross-channel shoppers, have only embraced mobile browsing and purchasing on a small scale. Three-quarters of respondents to ATG’s “Cross-Channel Commerce: The Consumer View” survey said they never researched products on their handsets in Q4 2009.

According to Forrester Research, 25% of US online retailers are planning at least some mobile features for 2010, compared with just 4% in 2009. North American retail executives told RIS in January 2010 that they hoped to increase customer engagement through m-commerce by serving consumers the way they want to be served.

Printed with permission of E-marketer. For full story and data charts go to e-marketer.com.

The Path to Growth Comes From Leveraging your Assets

By John Riley

 In the rush to get on the social media bandwagon, it appears a number of companies have been satisfied to simply post a note inviting visitors coming from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to follow their company or brand. With that non-engaging message, the result is a lost opportunity and the likelihood the visitor won’t return. 

 The benefit of social media is to build relationships and that means there needs to be a dialog between the visitor and the website host. Because of the immediacy of these social media tools, it’s essential the website has a mechanism in place to respond in kind so the dialog can be initiated. When that happens, the response is an opportunity to influence visitors to later communicate their endorsement of the company or product to their friends and associates directly or through social channels.

 For the website host, a ‘what is’ analysis of the state of the company’s current website capabilities accompanied by a projection of ‘what the capabilities should be’, that is based on the company’s vision, needs to be prepared. Also prepare a clear and concise brand positioning statement designed to attract the maximum  number of your target audience. Then, implement the steps necessary to make it all happen.  Recognize that as the level of sophistication increases, so will the need for resources and management support.

 You have to start with a strategy

 Start with a social media strategy that takes into account all of the company’s assets that can be leveraged to help build the brand. Study the website and either incorporate with or link to a company blog. While the website provides company and product information that can be assimilated and digested, the blog is ideally suited for interaction with visitors on any number of issues important to the host or visitors.  

 Access to the blog can be handled in two ways. First, allow visitors to use their existing login.  The disadvantage of this option is the inability to capture the visitor’s e-mail. Second, use a sign-in process to capture the visitors’ information. This option usually provides more complete and accurate information, but its’ the less desirable choice because of the inconvenience.

 Keeping the visitor on site once he’s there requires an attractive website/blog with compelling content. The challenge is to know who the target audience is so the content can be designed to satisfy their curiosity and stimulate interest. Most important is the need to refresh the blog content at least once or twice a week to sustain visitor interest. This is where a social experience needs to occur so the visitor can interact with the brand or socialize with the host, both of which will keep the visitor on site longer. When the experience is positive, that person becomes an ambassador for the company or brand within the social network fraternity/sorority.

 Participate in conversations anywhere

 When the coordination between website, blog and social media is functioning, customers, employees and prospects can interact as a community. However, that will take more time.

But don’t overlook the importance to the brand of taking part in conversations wherever they take place, i.e. blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or forums.

 An essential element in strategy is brand tracking. That requires tracking the brand’s progress continually. The obvious reason is to detect any negative results so corrective action can be taken promptly and avoid any long term damage to the brand. If progress is positive, further upgrading of the social structure can take place to accelerate the progress. Listening to customers and prospects is the most important part of this process and the social interface should take precedence over the automated data collection systems although ideally, both should be used.

 Social media can be an important asset for any company, but like any tool, it needs to be used properly. To do that requires a strategy that links all the resources to a common goal or vision. Otherwise, the time and money spent on these tools won’t help drive your marketing plan.