INSIGHT blogArchive: March 2008

Archive for March, 2008

B2B Online Advertising Spending Will Continue To Increase

27
March
2008

eMarketer’s B2B Marketing Online report predicts that in 2008 US B2B online advertising spending will increase by about 19% to $5.2 billion.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

eMarketer recently released its’ B2B Marketing Online report which goes over a wide variety of topics including where marketers are spending their money, what media influences decision-makers the most and what are employees really doing online at work. The report also talks about how marketers can no longer simply target decision makers, but also need to reach out to relevant researchers, technical advisors and negotiators. Additionally, social media including blogs, wikis and social networks, now play a huge role in the research process for purchasing.

The report also offers predictions on US B2B Online Advertising Spending. As seen in the chart below, B2B spending will continue to steadily increase and as it does, will account for a larger share of the total online advertising market.

US B2B Online Advertising Spending 2006-2011 eMarketer

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Economic Struggles Won’t Stunt The Growth Of Online Advertising

26
March
2008

Despite the current state of the economy, eMarketer predicts that spending on online advertising in the U.S. will continue to grow.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

The struggling economy has been affecting many different areas in the marketing/advertising world, however online advertising is not expected to be significantly affected by the economic downturn. According to eMarketer, online advertising spending will increase by 23% during 2008. If eMarketer’s predictions are correct, online advertising will remain as the fastest-growing media in terms of ad spending. Experts attribute online advertising’s continued growth to the fact that it is very easy to measure online ad success, and to target ads to any desired market. These two qualities are what matters most to marketers.

In the online advertising industry, search is expected to account for the highest percentage of spending (40%) during 2008. However during the next four years experts believe that percentage will decrease, losing share of ad spend to rich media/video which is expected to grow significantly between now and 2012. See the chart below for a complete breakdown of U.S. online advertising spending by format.

US Online Advertising Spending By Format 2007-2012 eMarketer

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

E-mail Open Rates Not At Desired Level

25
March
2008

A recent report released by an e-mail list management company shows that open rates are on the decline, which certainly isn’t a good thing for e-mail marketers.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

After you design and send out your e-mail marketing campaign, your hands are tied and it is up to your subscribers as to whether or not they open your message. According to information released by MailerMailer, an e-mail list management company, open rates for e-mail marketing campaigns declined during the second half of 2007. Keep in mind that MailerMailer only used its’ own data and didn’t compare with other e-mail marketing companies.

The company also reported on email aspects that contributed to a positive open rate, for instance e-mails that had shorter subject lines were consistently opened more often then e-mails with longer subject lines.  Also, open rates were found to be the highest on Mondays, Tuesdays, and the weekends.

In addition to reporting on open rates, MailerMailer also released data on click-throughs. The company found that the percentage of links clicked on also decreased during the second half of 2007.  See the chart below for MailerMailer’s Open and Click Rates Worldwide By Level of Personalization for both parts of 2007.

E-Mail Marketing Open and Click Rates Worldwide by Level of Personalization 2007- eMarketer

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Explaining Viral Marketing

24
March
2008

If used properly, viral marketing can help your company generate a lot of attention towards anything you are trying to market.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

Many people talk about viral marketing, but how many of those same people fully understand everything involved with it? My guess is not many fully understand what exactly viral marketing is, why it works, how to use it, if it is worth the effort, and when to use it. Recently, iMedia Connection published a story which answered the questions listed above and explained viral marketing in detail.

Marketingterms.com defines viral marketing as "the marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message." That definition couldn’t be more accurate and according to iMedia connection, the best part "is that the promoted product, project or brand seems uninvolved in the publicity." This is the main reason why viral marketing is so effective, because "people trust the opinions of their peers." Consumers see their peers as unbiased sources of information and trust them over advertisements no matter what the medium is.

While viral marketing sounds great, don’t be fooled as it is very hard to get started and even more difficult to repeat. For those reasons it is recommended to rely on viral marketing campaigns sparingly and strategically. In order to achieve a succsessful viral marketing campaign, marketers need to make sure that their campaigns are interactive and "buzz-worthy".

For more information about Viral Marketing, read the full article from iMedia Connection, the link can be found below.

 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Media Budgets Decreasing, Online Marketing Spending Increasing

17
March
2008

Based on a recent study it is expected that direct marketers in the U.S. will decrease their media budgets and at the same time increasing spending on online marketing tactics.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

Target Marketing recently released its’ "Media Usage Forecast" Report in which nearly 25% of direct marketers from the U.S. who were surveyed said they are planning to cut their media budgets in 2008. Additionally, direct marketers said they would spend more money on customer acquisition compared to customer retention in the upcoming year. This is contrary to 2007 where there was essentially an equal amount of money spent on both areas.

Despite the expected decrease in media budgets, most respondents said they expected to increase the amount of money they spend on online marketing tactics. This trend is consistent with previous studies, which showed that marketers are more likely to reduce spending on other media before cutting online marketing spending. Marketers said they were going to focus on specific online marketing tactics such as E-mail (87%), SEO (72%), SEM (68%), Direct Mail (63%) and advertising on outside websites (62%).

Some other findings from the study include:

  • E-mail Marketing being named the best tool for customer retention
  • E-mail Marketing being selected as the second best tool in ROI for customer acquisition (Direct Mail was first)

Refer to the chart below to see which marketing tactics offer the stronger ROI for customer acquisition and customer retention.

Marketing Tactic with Strongest ROI for Customer Acquisistion vs. Retention by US Direct Marketers- eMarketer

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Don’t Ignore Email Marketing Metrics

8
March
2008

Email marketing metrics provide valuable information and if used properly can help improve your current email marketing campaigns.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

To many marketers the final step in an email marketing campaign is sending out the email. If you are one of these marketers you are ignoring a critical step that could greatly help you improve your campaigns. Nearly all email marketing service providers offer some form of metrics or analytics (statistics about your campaign) for you to view after sending your campaign. The most common statistics tracked include open rates, click-through tracking, number of forwards and number of bounced emails. All of this information is extremely valuable and can be used to better your campaigns. Here are a few examples of how this information can be helpful.

  1. Open Rates: If your campaign has a low open rate this probably means the subject of your email isn’t very good. This will cause spam blockers to block your email or people who receive your email will think it is simply junk mail and delete it. Spend some time thinking of a creative subject line for your campaigns and avoid CAPITALIZING words. Additionally, several email marketing service providers allow you to customize the name that will appear in the "from" part of people’s inbox. It is recommended to use something that people will recognize such as your company’s name instead of your own name.
  2. Click-Through: Analyzing what links people are clicking in your campaigns will show you what interests these people. From there you can use this information to further segment your contact list, recommend additional newsletters you publish or even allow you to contact them about doing business together.
  3. Number of Forwards: Often times you can see how many people one of your recipients forwarded your email campaign to. However, rarely, if ever, can you see who they actually sent the emails to. If it is one of those rare cases where you can see who the email was forwarded to, you can contact those people and allow them to opt-in to your campaigns/newsletters. If you can’t see who received the forwarded emails you can contact the person who forwarded the emails and ask them if the people he or she sent the email to would like to join your contact list.

Email marketing metrics/analytics provide very helpful information. By analyzing the data provided you could improve your own email marketing campaigns/newsletters and increase the size of your contact database.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Social Media Marketing Is Here To Stay

4
March
2008

According to a new study, senior marketing executives worldwide agree that using social media for corporate, brand and product marketing is not a fad and will continue to be an important part of marketing campaigns.

Ryan Moss
Research Analyst

TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony recently surveyed senior marketing executives worldwide and released study in with some very interesting findings with regard to social media. Below are some of the findings.

  • 49% of senior marketing executives believe that social media should be monitored at the executive level and be allocated significant resources
  • 30% of senior marketing executives agreed that social media is an unconventional new opportunity that businesses must grasp with a sense of urgency
  • 95% of senior marketing executives think that social media will grow significantly during the next five years
  • Uses of social media: 37% said to gain consumer insight, 21% said to build brand awareness, 18% said to increase customer loyalty
  • 88% of U.S. senior marketing executives (65% global) agreed that reading and analyzing social media to understand unfiltered consumer perceptions would have the most impact on the future of their businesses
  • Word-of-Mouth campaigns had second highest impact
  • 50% of senior marketing executives said creating a user community of bloggers to provide user feedback is the most effective use of social media
  • 47% of senior marketing executives said using social media vehicles to generate a viral campaign would also be very effective in a product launch
 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »