INSIGHT blogArchive: February 2008

Archive for February, 2008

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TopTenReviews.com Announces Top Email Marketing Service Provider For 2008

27
February
2008

iContact wins the gold medial and takes homes title as top email marketing service provider.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

Every company strives to be the best, but only one can win the gold medal from TopTenReviews.com given to the top email marketing service provider. iContact, who won the silver medal last year, improved its’ product enough to win the gold medal this year. Constant Contact won the silver medal and last years winner Benchmark finished with the bronze medal.

TopTenReviews.com used a very detailed criteria to evaluate the different providers. This included a focus on feature set offered, ease of use, email campaign creation, campaign reporting and help/support.

Last summer, while interning at a Venture Capital and Investment Banking firm, I evaluated several email marketing service providers and recommended that the firm switch to iContact. I liked everything about iContact especially how easy it is to use and the great customer support. Therefore, it really wasn’t a surprise that iContact won the gold medal as they offer such a great service.

As mentioned in a previous blog posting, it is important to do your OWN homework before making a decision on a vendor. Just because TopTenReviews.com says iContact is the best vendor, doesn’t mean it is necessarily the one that best fits your needs. So do your homework and find the one that offers everything you are looking.

 

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Internet Product Research Increasing In-Store Sales

27
February
2008

Consumers are using the Internet to research products, but still prefer making the actual purchase offline in stores.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

The amount of consumers using the Internet as a tool to research products continues to increase, but the amount of e-commerce sales isn’t increasing as much as one would expect. Instead, consumers are simply using the Internet to research products and then are going offline to stores to make their purchases. During 2007, eMarketer estimated that web-influenced store sales totaled about $471 billion, while total retail e-commerce sales were only $136 billion. This means that for every $1 in online sales, the Internet influenced $3.45 worth of store sales.

Furthermore, web-influenced retail store sales and retail e-commerce sales made up 15% of total retail sales during 2007 according to eMarkter estimates. (Forrester Research estimated 27%) As seen in the chart below, eMarketer predicts that this percentage will steadily increase to the point where by 2012 the two will combine to make up 28% of the whole retail sales industry.

Retail firms need to make sure they are prepared for this on going trend. This includes having online catalogs, store and product locators and offering product comparisons.

US Web Influenced Retail Stores Sales and Retail E-Commerce Sales- eMarketer

 

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Traditional TV Ads On The Decline

24
February
2008

According to a new study, traditional TV advertisements have become less effective in the past two years causing marketers to explore new advertising options.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

The Association of National Advertisers and Forrester research recently released part of a survey that shows that the effectiveness of television ads is decreasing, among other findings. The complete survey will be released during the ANA’s TV and Everything Video Forum on February 28 in New York.

The released results show that:

  • 62% of marketers think that traditional television advertising has become less effective in the past two years
  • 50% of television advertisers have already began experimenting with new ad types that work with digital video recorders and video-on demand programs
  • 87% of advertisers think branded entertainment will play a larger role in TV advertising during the next  year
  • 87% of those who responded said they plan on increasing Internet advertising spending

For more results see the link below and check of the complete survey on February 28.

 

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How To Start Building Your E-mail Marketing Contact List

24
February
2008

After finding the right e-mail marketing vendor, the next step is to focus on building your contact list, but don’t forget to include opt-in and opt-out options.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

So you did all of your homework and decided on the vendor that best suits your needs. Now it is time to build your contact list, otherwise known as the people who will be receiving your e-mail campaigns. There are many places to start including your own personal contacts, however, it is important to make sure you have opt-in and/or opt-out features. Opt-out features are a requirement so you are CAN-SPAM compliant, but opt-in features are also a great way to ensure that the only people receiving your emails are those who really are interested.

There are tons of ways to make contacts that can be added to your list. This includes meeting people at networking meetings, trade shows, seminars, retail locations and other events. You can also encourage people to sign up for your e-mail marketing campaigns through the use of direct mail/postcards, phone calls or having a sign-up box on your website.

Building a list is easy, but it takes hard work to build a great list that only targets people who want to be marketed to. If you build your list properly you should be able to reap the tremendous benefits of email marketing.

 

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Partnering E-mail Marketing and The Environment

20
February
2008

E-mail marketing service provider will plant five trees for every new customer.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

Emma, an e-mail marketing and communications service provider, launched a new campaign focusing on helping to improve the environment. After partnering with Plant-It 2020, a non-profit reforestation agency, Emma announced it would plant five trees for every new customer it gets. In the first month alone about 1,000 trees were donated and planted in Oregon.

Emma’s executives said its’ customers are already helping the environment by sending out campaigns and newsletters electronically instead of printing them and this is another way to help out.

This initiative is certainly a very interesting and creative one. It should attract a lot of positive attention for Emma and generate brand loyalty. It will be interesting to see if other companies adopt similar initiatives and follow Emma’s trend of helping the environment.

 

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Search Engine Advertising On The Rise

17
February
2008

Study expects the amount of money spent on search engine advertising to steadily increase during the next three years.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

A study released by eMarkter predicts that spending on online advertising will continue to increase in the next three years. Furthermore, the amount of money spent on search engine advertising is expected to almost double from 2007 to 2011, increasing the amount from over $8.6 billion to about $16.6 billion.

While there are many companies out there that offer search engine marketing, Google has the largest piece of the pie. According to eMarkter, Google increased its’ share of the market from 60% in 2006 to 75% in 2007. Yahoo was second with 9%, while the remaining 16% was spread among several other companies.

The chart below shows the expected online advertising spending broken down by different format. Large increases in spending are also expected in the rich media/video advertising and lead generation categories.

Online Advertising Spending

 

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Viral Marketing’s Effect On The Music Industry

13
February
2008

Study shows that viral marketing can greatly help increase album sales.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

In a recently released research paper, entitled "Does Chatter Matter," conclusions were made regarding the effects of viral marketing on album sales. The study looked at 108 albums that were released during the first two months of 2007.

The results showed that if there were over 40 legitimate blog posts before the album was released, sales were on average three times higher than normal. Additionally, if those same albums were associated with a major record label, sales were five times larger. Furthermore, the artist’s number of MySpace friends helped increase future sales, but did not have nearly as much impact on sales as the blog postings did.

The benefits of viral marketing are clear in the music industry and there is no reason why viral marketing, if used correctly, cannot be similar effective in other industries as well.

 

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Web 2.0 Coming To A Website Near You

12
February
2008

Study shows that website operators plan to incorporate more Web 2.0 features into their website sooner rather than later.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

Web 2.0 is taking over the Internet and causing website operators to redesign their sites in hopes of attracting more traffic. According to Scene7’s "Web 2.0 Experience 2008 and Beyond" study, over 90% of website operators surveyed are planning to add Web 2.0 features within the next year. The most popular planned enhancements are alternate views (37%), user ratings and reviews (36%), video (35%), blogs (34%) and 360-degree spin (34%).

As far as measuring the success of these additions, different operators use different tactics. 60% of those surveyed use the number of clicks and the conversion rate as key determinants. Other operators focus on things such as a revenue increase, a decrease in the abandonment rate, an increase in repeat purchases and larger then average order size.

Web 2.0 is coming whether you’re ready or not. If you have not already upgraded your website you should as you don’t want to be left in the dust and be seen as a "dinosaur" website.

 

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The Best Time of Day To Send An E-mail Marketing Campaign

11
February
2008

Study finds e-mails sent in the morning have the highest open and click-through rates.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

There is a great debate as to what time of day is best to send out an e-mail marketing campaign. Recently, MarketingSherpa released a report that seems to have answered the question. According to the report, mornings are the best times of the day to send out an e-mail marketing campaign. Tests were conducted in which messages were sent out in the morning (9 A.M.), at lunch time (Noon), and in the late afternoon (4 P.M.). The results were analyzed and it was found that e-mails sent in the morning were opened nearly 10% more then e-mails sent later during the day.

Additionally, the report conducted the same study while focusing on click-through rates. The morning messages received 10% more click-throughs than the messages sent at lunch time and 15% better then the messages sent in the late afternoon. The message sent around lunch time performed only 6% better than the messages sent in the late afternoon.

Now that the best time of the day has been found, the next step is establishing the best day of the week to send out e-mail campaigns.

 

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Choosing The Right E-mail Marketing Vendor

6
February
2008

Don’t underestimate the importance of doing your homework before selecting an e-mail marketing vendor.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

E-mail marketing can be a very beneficial tool if used properly. However, prior to jumping into your first email marketing campaign, an emphasis needs to be placed on finding the vendor that suits your needs the best. Every company has unique needs and desires, so it is important to do your homework.

It is recommended to first put together a list of objectives you hope to accomplish through the use of e-mail marketing. Make sure to note special features such as surveys, online customer support, etc. Once you have a working list, there are several websites out there that have already evaluated e-mail marketing vendors (see links below). But, don’t forget that just because one website says a vendor is the best, it may not be the best vendor for you. You should use these websites as a starting point to evaluate vendors based on your needs. Finding the right e-mail marketing vendor make take time, but in the long run it certainly will be worth it.

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