E-Marketing in Minneapolis David Vinge, eMarketing Dashboard

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Top U.S. Smartphone Apps and Operating Systems

From videos to banking to online shopping, a lot of marketers and consumers had digital on their minds this year. To wrap up 2014, Nielsen looked at some of the top trends in digital, including the latest top U.S. smartphone apps and operating systems.

Smartphone penetration grew from 69% at the start of 2014 to 76% of U.S. mobile subscribers by October 2014, and a majority of subscribers used Android (52%) and iOS (43%) devices to access their apps. Three percent of U.S. smartphone owners used a handset that operated on a windows phone, followed by 2% on a Blackberry.

Read more, http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2014/tops-of-2014-digital.html

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Dirty Dozen Marketing Facts

Robert Fleming, CEO/Founder of the eMarketing Association provided this list of a dirty dozen fun marketing statistics compiled from sources like Hubspot, iContact, Unbounce, and Moz.
  1. 85% of people would rather provide an e-mail for an e-book over a tweet
  2. Blogs are 63% more likely to influence purchase decisions than magazines.
  3. Companies that blog more than 15 times per month get 5 times more traffic.
  4. The average content length for a page that ranks in top 10 position is 2000 words.
  5. If a post is greater than 1,500 words, it receives 68.1% more tweets and 22.6% more Facebook likes.
  6. Articles with images get 94% more views.
  7. Using videos on landing pages can increase conversions by 86%
  8. Videos get 267% more links than normal posts.
  9. 58% of your audience will stop watching video within the first 90 seconds.
  10. 20% of people will read text while 80% of people will watch a video with the same exact content.
  11. Viewers retain 58% of what they see but only 10% of what they read.
  12. Average buyer consults 11 consumer reviews on the path to purchase  
Read more here.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Quote of the Week

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
Winston Churchill

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Forget Numbers: 5 Enlightened Ways to Measure Your Brand

Yes, branding is intricate, to say the very least. It’s practical and ethereal, inexplicably tangible, and intangible alike. And so, let’s take a fresh look at how to be brand leaders, managers, and doers.

Let’s set aside our marketing funnels and budgeting spreadsheets for just a minute, and instead think of how we might approach our jobs differently if we were pursuing not year-over-year growth, but brand enlightenment.
  1. Keep first things first.
  2. Mind the shop.
  3. Be authentic.
  4. Stay open.
  5. Everything matters.
Read more at: http://www.inc.com/curt-hanke/zen-and-the-art-of-branding.html

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Six Differences Between Customer-Focused Companies and Operations-Focused Companies

Some companies really understand customer service. They know how to hire for it, train for it and deliver it. Other companies claim to give customer service, but in reality, they are grounded in an operations mentality with rules and policies that allow for little flexibility, preventing them from being anything more than just average or satisfactory.
 
Here are a few observations of the differences between customer-focused companies versus operations-focused companies:
  1. Empowerment
  2. Hiring
  3. Training
  4. Leadership
  5. People First
  6. Customer Service
Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/six-differences-customer-focused-companies-operations-focused-companies-0864688#!G49su

Friday, May 2, 2014

The Year of Fearlessness

Our lives are messy, and how we form our perceptions of brands is also messy. The sheer number of available options for brands—digital, social, content and search, along with all the more traditional brand channels—can be daunting.

As marketers, we can respond to the messiness and complexity by getting defensive and picking a few safe-and-simple marketing channels and talking points. Or we can go the other way and develop the depth of character, tensity and quick pace that will keep people interested.
Read more at: http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/the-year-of-fearlessness-brand-insights-from-sandy-thompson.html

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Quote of the Week

“Doing things better doesn’t have to cost more — all it takes is a little creativity and attention to hiring, training and management.”

Richard Branson

Monday, April 28, 2014

Oh Yes, Marketing to YUMmies is Now a Thing, Unfortunately

We’ve all heard about the marketing segments called “yuppie, metro-sexual, Millennials, etc.” but we’ve probably not heard of the segment called YUMmies. Young Urban Males, dubbed “YUMmies” by HSBC, is a segment, really.

Read more at: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140422192850-84444-oh-yes-marketing-to-yummies-is-now-a-thing-unfortunately?trk=cha-feed-art-title-204

Saturday, April 26, 2014

3 Relationship Types That Define Customer Loyalty

…get to know your customers. Stop pushing your messages in their face. Stop flooding their inbox and mailbox with direct mail. Stop putting banner ads on their aps. Start investing your marketing dollars in people who can get to know your customers and build those Die Hard relationships.

Start winning them over by being real, and giving real responses to online posts. Stop acting like a business with a customer and start acting like a person with a Die Hard friend, because they’re the ones who’ll do anything for you – even help you move.

Read more at: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140424214536-42808611-3-relationship-types-that-define-customer-loyalty?trk=cha-hero-art-title

Friday, April 25, 2014

5 Key Words of Advice from the World’s Most Famous Customer Service Representative

Dos Equis may lay claim to The Most Interesting Man in the World, but it’s another brand that boasts the world’s most interesting and famous customer service representative: Virgin Group Founder, Richard Branson.

While the billionaire son of a barrister and flight attendant could easily take a break from the business spotlight, he chooses to continually shine it toward what he believes is a key differentiator for all brands including his own, and that’s customer service.

Read more at: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140417160146-27855475-5-key-words-of-advice-from-the-world-s-most-famous-customer-service-representative?trk=cha-hero-art-title

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Quote of the Week

“Life is like a ten speed bicycle.  Most of us have gears we never  use.”

Charles M. Schulz

Saturday, April 19, 2014

The Age of the Customer Intensifies

To succeed in today's competitive marketing landscape, brands must be customer obsessed. No longer can they simply choose a message and then blast a campaign. Rather customers are choosing, and sharing, their own messages and content, and, essentially, are helping to craft campaigns—with everything from tweets to blogs to videos. “We are in the age of the customer,” said David Cooperstein , VP, research director, for Forrester Research, at the company's Forum for Marketing Leaders in San Francisco.

“And how well you serve them will determine your success.” He said it's simple: Brands that focus solely on company goals, not customers, will be left behind.  At the event, Cooperstein shared how marketers can move beyond traditional messages to customer-centric campaigns.
  1. Create content, not advertising
  2. Understand that customers call the shots
  3. Give customers an experience, not a campaign