Email Marketing

5 Facts that Impact Holiday Shopping Advertising

September 29, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

The impending Holiday season is upon us. Is your business ready to compete for your consumers attention? A recent article from Google noted that Holiday shopping, advertising research, and purchasing begins to see more and more upwards momentum beginning in August. Mothers, Fathers, and Brother-in-Laws all alike are searching for “Christmas ideas” and “meaningful gifts.” With this ever changing and growing capitalistic world at our fingertips, how can your business hold your customer’s attention and gain sales?

1. Including Local information in Search can drive Store Visits

Whether your business is a Mom-and-Pop shop or a chain store of equally desired products/services, your store information and details regarding those products and services are crucial. A recent Google Study found that 75% of customers are searching for the prices of your products, 66% are searching for the location of the closest store carrying their item of interest, and 63% are searching for your hours of operation, phone number, etc. These critical elements are high priority to Holiday shopping advertising, and all play a role in a consumer’s readiness to buy and likeliness to choose your company.

2. Over 50% of Shoppers will go to a Brand’s website to look for Coupons

“Best Price Guaranteed”, “Lowest Price around”, “Competitor Coupons Accepted” – all phrases your customers are hearing from your competitors. Keeping up to date coupons readily available for your buyer can change their “I want” ’s to “I need” ’s. This recent infographic by Adweek details more of shopper’s wants. Offering exclusive or custom coupons is also a habit that leaves your shopper feeling special and more likely to come again. These coupons, coupon codes, and premium offers can be advertised around the globe easily by Television, Email, Newspaper(s), Print Mail, on your Website, and more. Don’t let your customer find a better deal while shopping during this holiday season.

3. 90% of users use Screens simultaneously to Accomplish a Task

Your next customer can be on their phone, tablet, desktop, or laptop, searching for your products and services. Can they find you? Can your website fit a tablet, cell phone, or desktop screen quickly and seamlessly? When April’s Mobilegeddon was fast approaching, Mobile-Friendliness was top of mind and high priority. A user’s experience across all devices should be top of mind and crucial to your website’s design. Advertising your products and services within an environment that can be easily compressed and expanded to become compatible with your customer’s screen is highly beneficial when optimizing for the upcoming Holiday shopping advertising season. This Mobile Search study, The New Multi-screen World, details more pertinent facts such as 67% of users use multiple screens for their online shopping needs.

4. Last Year, 40% of Holiday Shopping Occurred Online

Google’s Recent Study “5 Holiday Shopping Trends to Watch in 2015” detailed the differences we’ve seen with shopper’s online presence and intent to stay there. 41% of shoppers purchased from a new retailer, which is a significant jump from 2013. Your company’s online presence should be relevant and engaging to appeal to all shoppers. Creating a marketing strategy to outline your company’s “plan of attack” to grab your future customer’s attention is key.

5. 22% of consumers feel most influenced by Emails sent directly from a Brand

Email marketing has become second nature for advertising and marketing initiatives. Simple online Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools such as MyEmma.com and SalesForce.com allow businesses to not only create email marketing initiatives, but also connect to and keep track of prospects and important customer relationships that may otherwise be left behind. Emails sent to customers may detail upcoming events, sales, coupons, etc. that your retail business may be offering. Holiday themed emails, company “Christmas Cards”, and special Holiday savings are key holiday email marketing strategies to plan for.

Holiday Shopping Advertising Recap

In conclusion, digital marketing efforts during the holiday season are essential for Ecommerce/Retail businesses. Assuring that your company’s local information is up-to-date will lead to more in-store purchases. Offering coupons to within your company’s website will in turn create a unique user experience for your customers. Guaranteeing that your business’ website is easily adjustable for various screen resolutions and devices sizes will lead to a better user experience, and in turn, higher ROI. Your company’s plan of attack should address your business’ online presence and how to engage more frequently with consumers. Email marketing utilizing CRM’s allow customers to gain a feel for your brand and offerings with personalized messages that may lead to more inquiries and more purchases. Creating a sound strategy to encompass these Holiday shopping advertising thought-provoking statistics and facts, may lead to a better brand and better customer experience alike.

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Leveraging Attribution Modeling to Measure ROI & ROAS

August 11, 2015 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

According to 2015 CMO.com Stats about Marketing ROI, 93% of CMOs say that they are under more pressure to deliver measurable return-on-investment (ROI). Google Analytic defines “attribution modeling” as “the rule or set of rules that determines how credit for sales and conversions is assigned to touch-points or any point of contact between a buyer and a seller in conversion paths” (i.e. lead generation or sales process). Are you using attribution modeling to measure ROI or return on advertising spend (ROAS)?

Measure Marketing ROI and ROAS with Attribution Modeling

In general, most web analytics tools (Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, comScore, WebTrends, etc.) associate the last point of contact, whether it be search, email marketing, social media, or ad that referred the customer with all the credit for the lead or sale. If paid advertising was the initial marketing channel in the lead generation process, but the potential customer didn’t fill out the online form until later via non-paid search (SEO), shouldn’t this count for something?

Understand Metrics, Act on Insights and Make Recommendations with Attribution

Can marketing executives really make better decisions without understanding the metrics that are associated with reporting? Attribution modeling provides marketing executives with a tool to compare different attribution models, understand their impact on lead/sales and the cost per lead/sale, and identify marketing channels that lead to higher ROI/ROAS. For example, take a look at the ROAS for last interaction vs. position based attribution modeling with Google Analytics:

Why Should Marketing Executives care about Attribution Modeling?

As marketers, we know that a lead or sale is based upon multiple points of contact with a brand. So, why should we continue to only allocate credit to the last interaction? Let’s take the Google Analytics scenario above for example. Take a look at the image above, the ROAS for paid search was 232% for the last point of contact (last interaction). If you use the position based model, this would have been an ROAS of 314.77% which is 82.47% than the last point of contact. This could be the difference between continuously running paid search and reallocating your budget elsewhere. By doing this more than once, it can create the perception of paid search marketing as an expense versus revenue generator.

Take Action with Multi-channel Attribution Modeling

The pressure is on marketers to measure ROI and to tell the story through data so here are our recommendations to get you started. First, identify the value of a lead or a sale and get confirmation from the executive team. Without a value, it’s going to be impossible to calculate ROI or ROAS. Then, identify an attribution model that best fits your business, test it and compare the metrics to put it into context. Finally, align your chosen attribution modeling with your insights, recommendations, and actions. Remember, attribution model isn’t perfect and technology continues to evolve, so continuously evaluate your chosen attribution model with the actual leads and sales your business is getting.

Leave us a comment below to share your thoughts or your experience with attribution modeling.

Expand Your Home and Garden Business With Digital Marketing

July 29, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Digital Marketing comes in all shapes and sizes. For those with businesses in the home and garden field, there lies a recognizable opportunity for your business to grow and bloom with digital marketing. Email marketing, Pay per Click (PPC) advertising, and social media can all positively impact your business if you develop the right niche and utilize the right tools to do so.

How Can Email Marketing Help with Sales?

According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing yields an average 4,300% return on investment for businesses in the United States. By implementing email marketing, you can reach all of your current and potential customers while sharing the latest and greatest news and promotions your company is offering. Say you’re a lawn care business and your company is promoting a seasonal special, “20% off Lawn Care Services.” By adequately utilizing email marketing, your current and potential customers will be able to access your promotion all within the click of a button. Along with sharing promotions, emails marketing allows you to successfully measure your campaign and the performance on lead generations or sales.

Are you taking advantage of all Social Media has to offer?

If you are not taking advantage of social media, then you need to get into the game! Social media is the quickest and most cost effective way to share new products and showcase projects or work that you have just completed. Social media allows your business to directly interact and engage with customers, which now goes both ways as well. Your customers are able to reach you with any of their questions in a timely fashion. The personal touch you include in your social media pages will help humanize your brand and allow you to reach a whole new audience.

Can PPC help attract the right audience?

Email marketing and social media are great for showcasing your promotions or new products, but if you want to attract customers searching online for specific products or services you offer, then Pay per Click (PPC) is the way to go. Pay per Click (PPC) allows you to connect with the right customers across all platforms and devices, makes sure your ads are shown in the right place at the right time, and easily tracks and measures how your campaign is performing.

Whether you want to promote a special offer or showcase a finished renovation, having an effective digital marketing strategy can help your business blossom into a marketing producing machine!

Contact us and learn how DaBrian Marketing can help your business flourish.

7 Design Elements for Email Marketing Campaigns

August 28, 2014 by Mark Mapp 4 Comments

Check out the 7 design elements every email marketing campaign should have for maximum compatibility, compliance, and success.

A One-Two Punch Approach to Email Analytics

July 17, 2014 by Dabrian Marketing Group 4 Comments

You might think that video, animated gifs, or infographics are email marketing’s best friends. Let’s face it, email campaigns with all that rich content are bound to get you heaps and heaps of…results.

Okay, let’s stop there for a second.

The thing is, email is caught between two really important areas of marketing—technology and audience. On one hand, technology allows marketers to increase the functionality of an email, bringing it to life with animation and beautiful, cutting-edge designs. On the other, email is the marketing medium most susceptible to spam (and has the most universal consumer protection laws associated with it).

Today, many marketers are stuck with what is arguably a necessary marketing tool and the challenge of proving its effectiveness. I’m here to tell you that the amount of opens a campaign receives or the number of people who click through are no longer enough. These are metrics that you cannot directly tie to sales, goal achievement, or anything else that matters to you.

By the end of this post, though, you’ll have a much better idea of what to look for in the way of email analytics. For the purposes of this post, we’ll define analytics as the strategic use of data and measurement to make a certain marketing channel better. Consider what follows a checklist of the most important considerations when proving your email marketing’s worth.

Integration

As far as email marketing platforms go, you’ll be conducting your search among a sea of proprietary platforms. This definitely isn’t a bad thing, as custom solutions give you access to great support and consistent improvements and enhancements over time. The minor downside is these solutions’ inability to “play nice” with other platforms. In order to unlock the true potential of analytics, you’ll need to start by tying your sources of data together. Here’s an example:

Let’s say a mail-order, vegan pastry company decides to begin running email marketing campaigns to support their digital marketing, which predominantly takes place on social media. This company has a website which offers the ability for customers to place orders and process payments. In this case, we have separate sets of data in play:

Analytics data from website sessions (pageviews, bounce rate, etc.)
eCommerce data from the order system (transaction information, popular products, etc.)
Social media data (follower interactions, engagement, etc.)
Email campaign data (opens, bounces, click throughs, etc.)

As far as these platforms go, integrations are the only way to connect them to one another. Integrations most often take place natively or at the API level. With integrations between platforms, the vegan bakery in our example can differentiate email traffic to its website from social media traffic, understand how well a promotion targeted to its social media following performs in comparison to an email blast, or cater offers to past customers via subscription options during the checkout process. And that’s just with a few basic integrations.

With various platforms “playing nice” with one another, data will be more comprehensive, insights will be much more granular, and a clearer picture of your target audience will begin to develop. Once the data begins filtering in, you’ll need to be sure it’s leading you toward better decisions. That’s why the second step is…

Customization

Having readily-available, integrated data is one thing, but actually making it understandable is another entirely. Whether you’re showing progress to your internal team, your manager, or your client, raw numbers will get you nowhere fast. The task of turning numbers and graphs into insights and action can be an imposing one, but here are some quick tips to make the process easier:

Add context to your reporting

With your reports (in PDF format or otherwise), add text that ties the information back to a goal or objective.

Filter and segment data

Grab information that’s specific to a campaign or a particular audience segment. Be as granular as your solutions allow.

Strive for automation

Rather than repeat the same reporting process month after month, look to automate the process. Some solutions provide scheduled reports, shared assets, widget-based analytics, or some other way to access information in a streamlined way.

When in doubt, test and compare

This goes for subject-lines, template designs, and messaging. Once you find what works, do that consistently.

As you consider the email analytics options available to you, there are a few big factors to keep in mind. The first is limitation. No matter your final platform choice, regulations will always dictate the types of information that are accessible to you. But this doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to gather actionable insights into the return of email marketing as an investment.

Another item to keep in mind is that successful email marketing is about more than the platform you choose. You could pay hundreds per month, but without a strategy or an ongoing optimization process, it’s likely that you won’t be able to justify the cost. Understanding the “big picture” is vitally important with any digital marketing channel, particularly one as ubiquitous as email. You’d be doing your organization a great injustice if you didn’t decide to take advantage of the latest advancements in marketing tech. You just need the right data to back it up.

What’s your solution to the email ROI puzzle? Shout it out in the comments below!

How Email Marketing Can Generate Sales

March 20, 2013 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Email marketing plays a major role in any digital marketing strategy. According to a Forrester report, repeat customers tend to be more heavily influenced by email. Email allows you to reach out to customers, gain increased visibility with prospects, or share your latest news and promotions. When done correctly, email marketing platforms bring together a host of tools that drive more leads, sales, & revenue.

Build Awareness

Email marketing is more than just sending out a generic email and hoping that prospects read it and respond. In order to build awareness through email marketing, it is crucial that you send out email communications with your customized brand, look, and feel. Including your colors, logo, contact information, and social networks will help entice prospects to not only read but also click within your email communications. The integration of social media within your email communications will help you build awareness as well. Integrating social media will allow you to publish emails straight to your social networks after you send. It will also give your readers the option to share with their friends and followers which will expand your reach and visibility.

Increase Engagement

One of the best ways to increase engagement through email marketing is to segment your lists to target prospects with tailored content. Segmenting your lists will allow you to create the perfect message for your group of customers. Email testing, optimization, and response tracking will also help to increase the engagement of your email campaigns. There are several different components that you can test within your emails. These include: subject line, day of the week, time of day, layout of the email, etc. Testing, optimizing, and tracking will help you to identify and analyze what works best so that you can make improvements which will help increase engagement.

Automate Email Campaigns

Auto-responders are a great way to automate your email campaigns. Automation helps businesses drive revenue by converting more leads into customers. It will allow you to follow up and reach out automatically based on your readers’ actions or important dates, and gives you the ability to send more personalized messages with less time and hassle.

Summary

Email marketing can be a great way to reach out to customers and gain increased visibility with prospects. Following best practices and using everything at your disposal are crucial to a successful email marketing campaign. Using the tools explained above to build awareness, increase engagement, and automate your email campaigns will help you generate leads and gain more sales opportunities.