By Jamie Smith
Interested in some real-life evidence of how A/B testing can generate significant lift in profit?
A/B testing is not something you do once and then forget about; it's an ongoing process to extract the maximum conversion rate for your website. It's a process that includes testing every last detail to find the optimal layout, text, and images for your site. Sometimes, even the smallest changes can yield significant results.
Let's take a look at five A/B tests with significant results.
1. Customer Testimonials
You can write copy at length about how your product or service will benefit your customers and do wonders for them, but third-party credibility is much more influential.
With that in mind, how would customers respond to impartial reviews from actual customers? Could the positive experience of previous customers help eliminate any apprehensions from the prospect about buying the product?
These were the questions asked by ecommerce store Express Watches. In their A/B test, they added a small widget below the Add to Basket button, where genuine customer reviews were displayed.
IMG testimonials visual website optimizer.png
The results were game-changing for the business. The positive customer reviews reduced buyer objections and boosted their sales by an impressive 58 percent.
The best thing about customer testimonials is they are incredibly easy to implement – just add them to your site or install something like the Trust Pilot widget.
Takeaway:Â Always use positive customer testimonials as social proof since third-party reviews carry much more weight than what you write about yourself.
2. Higher Prices = More Revenue (Sometimes)
Not all A/B tests require you to tweak your website's design; one of the simplest things you can test is your pricing strategy.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine that when you reduce your prices, you will generally make more sales, and vice versa. However, less certain is the impact the change in price will have on your bottom line – will your monthly revenue be better or worse for the pricing change?
That's where the economic concept related to elasticity of demand comes in.
To explain this further, let's take a look at a pricing A/B test Six Pack Ab Exercises ran.
Uncertain as to whether they were leaving money on the table, owner Carl Juneau tried increasing the price of his product from $19.95 to $29.95.
Although the number of conversions fell by 9 percent, this was more than offset by the additional 50 percent revenue he was receiving per conversion. In time, this simple price change would allow him to bank 36.48 percent more revenue.
Now, increasing your price won't positively affect your bottom line in every case – in some cases alower price will yield a higher profit – but it does highlight the importance of finding your profit maximizing price.
Takeaway:Â Pricing strategy is part of A/B testing. Test higher and lower prices to see what brings in the most revenue and profit.
3. Trust Symbols Boost Conversions
With all the scam reports out there, online shoppers are understandably cautious about handing over their credit card details willy-nilly. You need to find a way to put their minds at ease. After all, would you buy something from a website you don't trust?
Credibility and trust is something that you develop over time, just like in a dating relationship. But, there are ways to increase the trust level of your website, even if you're new to the Internet.
Bag Servant identified lack of trust as a primary reason for low conversion rates and small order values on their site, and set about implementing an A/B test to improve performance.
Initially, Bag Servant was dependent on social proof, and prominently displayed a badge highlighting their 4,000+ strong Twitter following in an attempt to establish trust.
This wasn't working.
For their A/B test, they replaced the Twitter followers badge with a WOW award badge they had received.
Because this badge was a relatively well-respected symbol in the industry, this improved the site's credibility and helped removed buyer's doubt.
The result? Conversion skyrocketed more than 72 percent.
Takeaway:Â Always look for ways to increase credibility on your site. This can be with awards, social followers, testimonials, or SSL trust symbols like Verisign, Hacker Safe, or McAfee.
4. Know Your Audience
You might think you understand what your audience wants, but just how well do you really know them?
Product quality, guarantees, offers, price, and shipping fees matter to all consumers. The bigger question is what matters most to your customers.
Smiley Cookie, a niche e-store, sells fresh, customized cookies as gifts for special occasions.
On their website, they wanted to add a new value proposition to help boost sales. They ran an A/B test to help them choose from the following:
- Next-day shipping.
- Discounted price.
- Free shipping on orders above a certain value.
- Fixed rate shipping for any order value.
- High quality, handmade cookies.
Smiley Cookie had expected that customers would be most responsive to the value propositions on price (discounts) and quality (handmade cookies).
But guess what? There was a surprise winner: next-day shipping.
How did that happen?
Because most customers tend to purchase cookies as a gift (and gifts are almost always last-minute things), making sure it arrives on time is imperative. Throw in the fact that cookies are perishable and need to arrive fresh, and perhaps the results aren't so surprising after all.
That's not to say that next-day delivery is the most important factor to your audience. It does show, however, that understanding what your audience really wants is vital for getting results with your A/B tests.
Takeaway:Â You need to find out what matters most to your customers and highlight that aspect of your product on the landing page or in the offer.
5. Accepted Best Practices Don't Work Every Time
Although a bit of logical thinking can often predict the outcome of an A/B test, ignorant Internet surfers love nothing more than throwing up anomalies that defy the conventional wisdom.
Here are four testing tips used to generate more revenue.
Remember, just because something works on one site – or even the vast majority of sites – doesn't necessarily mean it will work with you.
Let's look at an example to highlight this point: the Vendio signup form.
Now, any guide to CRO will tell you that an embedded signup form on the homepage will boost conversions; after all, if it takes fewer clicks for a user to register, they ought to be more likely to do so.
Sensibly, this was the approach Vendio took when first designing their layout.
Just to ensure they were taking the right approach, though, Vendio A/B tested their embedded form against an unconventional alternative: users would have to click an extra button to reach the signup form.
Surprisingly, this worked! With one extra step added to their conversion funnel, signups per visitor increased by 60 percent.
Takeaway:Â Don't blindly accept best practices. Find out what works best for you with independent testing.
Wrapping Up
Conversion rate optimization isn't an easy technique to master, particularly when there is such a wide range of variables and factors that go into testing.
And just because you've managed to increase your conversion rate doesn't mean you get to rest, especially if there are any major aspects of your site that haven't been tested. If you only focus on one page, you will be leaving money on the table.
Most importantly, the cost-per-click (CPC) to bring a visitor to your website is increasing and if you don't improve your conversion rate, your cost to acquire a customer (CPA) will continue to rise. Therefore, never stop testing, because even the smallest lift can yield big-time changes to your bottom line.
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The World Cup an event that occurs once every four years is one of the greatest sporting competitions on earth. Large events like this are fun and entertaining but also give us a unique opportunity to study in “Real Time†how advertisers and businesses are leveraging their brands, where they are concentrating their efforts and across what medias they are having the greatest impact.Today’s technologies are playing an increasingly important role in the ratings for popular events. According to ESPN, during the World Cup's first three days, 65% of the audience viewed it via television only, while 24% of consumers combined viewing TV with other media platforms and 11% watched exclusively through a non-TV platform.Â
Popular events and campaigns give us insight into which medias are dominating and the tremendous impact that the internet has today on how information is processed and shared.
What we can learn from these popular events is how people are reacting to them via these media channels and what devices they are using which can help us in planning where and how to concentrate our own efforts in promoting our brand and content across these media channels.
According to a Crowdtap poll of more than 850 men and women in May, the poll found that the Facebook at 65% and Twitter at 17.6% are by far the preferred social channels viewers use to share ads, updates and  message about their favorite brands and teams to friends and family.
“Although different platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) work best for different activities. When it comes to fostering a community or organizing an event, Facebook is key. And nothing beats Twitter for "day of" promotion of your event.†Ritu Sharma Co-Founder and Executive Director of Social Media for Nonprofits.
Also, Social Communities are redefining the customer experience and how businesses interact with their customer base by taking rewards programs, customer service and feedback to a whole new level. Onsite Social Communities shift customer support and service to being part of the brand marketing mix.
Likewise according to Crowdtaps poll cell phones at 58.4% and computers at (58.1%) were evenly split in devices of choice with tablets coming in 3rd at (37.5%)
It becomes obvious, as events like these point out, how important digital marketing and mobile has and continues to transform media communication as a whole and what is today:
* The social channels where the most engagement is presently taking place and
*From which devices all of this communication and engagement is being received and shared.
To shed some perspective on all this sharing, according to Nielsen’s latest Global Trust in Advertising report, which surveyed more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries, 92 percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising—an increase of 18 percent since 2007.
Online consumer reviews come in second as the most trusted source of brand information and messaging, with 70 percent of global consumers surveyed online indicating they trust messages on this platform, an increase of 15 percent in four years.
Global events like these give us a unique opportunity to get a broad and current picture of where we might want to consider concentrating our marketing resources most effectively and the diverse and incredible ways all this technology is impacting our lives and the future of commerce.
By William Cosgrove
Talk about a growth market. A new survey by eMarketer indicates that smartphones are where the action is: by the end of 2014, 1.76 billion people are expected to own and use smartphones monthly. That’s growth of more than 25 percent over 2013. And that is one global Godzilla.The data indicates that by 2017, more than one-third of all people around the globe will be smartphone users. eMarketer’s estimates for smartphone users tally the number of individuals who own and use smartphones (not the number of smartphones each of those individuals might have).
In fact, smartphone usage has already saturated more than half of the population in many countries—or will in the next few years.
“By 2015, we project that 15 countries worldwide will have seen more than half their populations adopt smartphones,†said Monica Peart, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer. “The embrace of this technology among the approximately 500 million people in these countries who will be using smart devices by the end of next year will have a significant influence on media usage, ecommerce, and marketing.â€
Consumers in Asia-Pacific will account for more than half of all smartphone users this year, eMarketer estimates, totaling 951.0 million.
South Korea is the world leader in terms of smartphone penetration, where smartphones were in the hands of more than half the citizens by 2012. Australia followed closely behind, becoming the only other country in Asia-Pacific to have more than half its population using smartphones in 2013.
Japan is expected to reach the 50 percent tipping point in 2014. Though China will not reach majority-smartphone status until 2018, its smartphone user base is already the largest in the world by far—totaling 521.7 million this year.
Western Europe—the region with the second-largest number of smartphone users, with 196.6 million in 2014, eMarketer estimates—saw three Nordic countries reach 50 percent penetration last year, and this year, the Netherlands and UK will join them. In 2015, a raft of other countries, including the rest of the EU-5, will make the majority smartphone jump.
Like the UK, the US will also reach majority-smartphone penetration among its population this year, a major milestone for two of the most advanced internet markets in the world. The US remains the second-largest smartphone market worldwide, behind China, totaling 163.9 million users in 2014, eMarketer estimates. The US will retain that status until 2016, when India is projected to nab the second place spot. Canada will be soon to follow, with smartphone users surpassing 50 percent of the population in 2015.
By Michael Essany
Also read Your Mobile Solution-Don't get it wrong
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More organizations are paying attention to Hispanics and Hispanic Millennials are drawing a great deal of that attention for reasons discussed in our recently released project:
- Hispanic Millennials make up the second largest Hispanic cohort living in the U.S. – accounting for 25% of all Hispanics
- Hispanic Millennials account for a sizeable proportion – 21% – of all U.S. Millennials
- Hispanic Millennials now make up the majority of Millennials in key DMAs
Our findings, like other studies on Hispanic Millennials, are captivating marketers to focus on this key demographic today. The present focus of most companies is on how to better market to Hispanic Millennials to get them to buy their products and services. However, after having pored through the detailed data underpinning the project, I realized there is more to this research than some supporting data points on the how to better market to Hispanic Millennials today. Hidden in the data is a fascinating glimpse into a future marketplace where organizations have to fundamentally change their approach to the Hispanic market.
I introduced the concept of “futurecasting†the Hispanic market in 2011. Futurecasting is a heuristic technique that helps envision future consumers, products, industries, competitors, challenges, or marketplaces; by combining forecasting and imagination to model future states.
Using the data in the Hispanic Millennial Project Wave 1 research, we can begin to futurecast Hispanic Millennials – looking at how Hispanic Millennials will impact the marketplace in 5, 10 and 20 years. Three key insights emerged:Â
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Hispanic Millennials will be very attractive consumers – educated homeowners with children, likely to own their own business
- 46% plan on completing college (vs. 31% of non-Hispanic Millennials)
- 47% (of those without children) say having children is a future goalÂ
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Hispanic Millennials will drive business starts and entrepreneurship
- 47% of Hispanic Millennials perceive owning their own business as a strong indicator of success; 48% view it as a future goal.
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Hispanic Millennials are the ideal brand advocates of the future
- They are satisfied with their lives, optimistic about the future and have a strong belief in the American Dream
- 67% of them say they want to stand out as a Latino
Futurecasting Hispanic Millennials provides us a glimpse into a much different Hispanic marketplace than before. Historically, most organizations have focused their efforts on selling to Hispanics. However, as large, forward-thinking organizations begin to plan out their Hispanic “initiatives,†this future Hispanic marketplace necessitates a new, more holistic Hispanic approach. Specifically, moving from one dimensional marketing to what I am calling “Three Dimensional Hispanic integration.â€
Three Dimensional Hispanic Integration Model
Marketing – Marketing to Hispanics has been the dominant focus of Hispanic efforts by organizations in the U.S. the last 50 years. However, there is an opportunity to centralize these efforts. One way is by leading with Hispanic insights – something I’ve described in my posts around Total Market Approach and the emergent opportunity for cross-cultural marketing.
Procurement – Many large Fortune 500s have developed sophisticated supplier diversity efforts over the last 10-15 years to increase the number of minority-owned – particularly – Hispanic-owned businesses they do business with. But the futurecasting exercise shows us the central role Hispanic entrepreneurs will have in driving new business growth. For companies looking to continue innovating, they will need innovative, young business partners and suppliers – many which will be Hispanic-owned. This necessitates raising the bar on supplier diversity efforts.
Hispanic Products – This is the keystone of Hispanic integration. Some CPGs and movie studios have experimented with this strategy. The idea is two-fold – create products and services that connect with Hispanics at a cultural level and involve Hispanics in the creation of new products and services. The studios have been starting to do this by cultivating Hispanic talent in front of and behind the camera. CPGs have tested out new products incorporating Hispanic flavors and heritage. However, companies will have to go well beyond one-off experiments and make this a central part of their corporate strategies, to leverage the large, attractive population of future Hispanic brand advocates.
By Jose Villa
Also Read:
Engage Hispanics A Quick Review Of What You Need To Know About Marketing To Millenials
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The study found that the two main reasons people used social media as part of their marketing was to “increase awareness†and “gain followersâ€. Both of these are easy to measure in terms of “followers†or “likes†and so these targets can provide marketers with so-called “data†which can be used to prove that their work is successful.
Bottom of the list – yes BOTTOM – was using social media to generate sales. Even though the point of being in business is to generate profit from sales, it turns out that those people doing social media marketing rated sales as the least important benefit.
But turn a page or two on and you find that the report reveals a stark difference between the majority of social media marketers and those who are actually generating leads and sales using social networks. The people making real money using social media marketing are the ones putting in the most hours of work.
It turns out that 74% of those who spend more than 40 hours a week on social media are the ones making money. Yet almost two-thirds of business are spending less than 11 hours a week on social media – a quarter of what they need to do.
The figures make it clear – the more time a business spends on social media, the more likely it is to generate sales.
Most businesses are having to focus on meaningless statistics revolving around “awareness†as that provides some logic behind their investment in social media activity. But what this really reveals is that the majority of businesses are not investing anywhere near enough time and money on social media activity.
If you put more time and effort into the world of social media, you will be able to generate more sales – providing a business with a greater reason for using the social web. Rather than trying to work out how to spend less time on social media, your business ought to be considering how it can spend more time on it. The result of that, it seems, will be more sales.
By Graham Jones
Image courtesy:Â Statista
Online Social Media: Why Marketers Must Join the Conversations
Tags:Preparing for the talk got me thinking about the "paid" vs. "earned" media challenge. That is, the ongoing tension for marketers between investing in paid vs. earned media.
Paid media may produce a more rapid return than earned media. However, like Sisyphus, the Greek tragic who pushed a boulder uphill only to have it repeatedly roll back down, it also requires a continued deposit of funds to continue functioning.
On the earned side, the returns can be many multiples that of paid, but it does require more rigor than depositing coins in the AdWords or Twitter ad machine.
For many marketers this tension – do I invest in the immediate ROI paid offers or make the longer term commitment but greater return earned media offers--is both an ongoing one, and one that spans channels, vexing marketers across search and social channels alike.
In my part of the session, I explored the paid vs. earned media question as it relates to social, and I want to recap some of the findings here. But, before exploring the paid vs. earned media question, any question of which of the two to invest in on social must be preceded by a discussion of the degree to which social has impacted consumer behavior. Understanding this will inform us as to the size of the opportunity for marketers, and the degree to which they should be giving mindshare to the channel.
Social Media Adoption Exceeds the Population of Nearly Every Continent
Even accounting for the fact that Google has rolled Gmail and YouTube users into their Google+ user count, the total number of social network users is greater than the population of every individual continent but one. Facebook has become so globally pervasive that analysts talk about it approaching a saturation point for the worldwide addressable market of users with social capable phones.
Now, specific content pieces are discovered on our social networks, and this has the effect of driving visitors to specific pieces of content rather than the home page.
The data is clear about the opportunity for marketers in social: market size is calculated in the billions and at least when it comes to content consumption, it has fundamentally changed online behaviors. Conversations are happening on social networks and brands need to be a part of them.
Now that we have established the size of the opportunity, let's return to the paid vs. earned media question.
Consider the following statistics:
- Less than 1 percent of Twitter clicks go to ads
- 44 percent of Facebook users will never click on ads
- You're more likely to survive a plane crash than click on a banner ad
- Half of online users don't trust advertisements
Take Steps to Join the Conversation
The opportunity to reach your customers on social networks is enormous. What should Marketers who are overly dependent on paid media in social do to break their dependence and reach users where they are more engaged?
Start by taking the following steps.
1. Start With Content
Content and social media are intertwined. To reach consumers on social media start by reviewing your content strategy.
Ask yourself if you are developing content users would find interesting/useful/funny – in other words, engaging. If the answer is no, develop a content plan that will allow you to emphatically answer "yes!" to that question.
And, consider devoting part of your editorial calendar to content that lends itself to social sharing and engagement such as video. Your social strategy will naturally follow a sweet content plan.
2. Figure Out Which Conversations You Should Join
To start to diversify beyond paid media, you'll need to figure out what conversations your audience is having that you should be a part of organically. Keyword research you have already done for search will help, as will a careful review of question sites like Quora.
3. Get Involved in the Conversations Your Competitors Have Joined
Like competitive analysis in search, which can reveal a great deal about competitors" strategy, careful analysis of the social conversations in which competitors are involved can reveal a great deal about both the what and the how of their social strategies.
It's a simple way to see what conversations they deem important. The way they engage in these conversations (voice, tactics...) will tell you how they do so. This can spark ideas for how you can start to engage with your audience.
Summary
To be sure, paid social media has a place in the marketer's toolbox. And, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy, marketers must evaluate the right mix for themselves based on their vertical, budget, and a host of other factors.
But, given the growing consumer inattention and mistrust of paid media, you would be well served to step back from the day to day to ask yourself if you're at all uncomfortable with the degree to which you are dependent on paid media on your social networks. If the answer is "yes", consider starting with some of the strategies outlined above to join the conversations on social networks where they are happening: in organic social media.
By Nathan Safran Director of Research for Conductor, Inc.
5 Reasons to include Polling in Your Social Media Strategy
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Brands often pay a lot of money to have outside services and companies survey customers to get product feedback. Others use social listening tools to see what people are saying about their products.
Why not be more direct and just ask the customers on a social media channel?
If a person has followed your brand on a social network, there's a good chance that they think very highly of your brand. These are the people that are going to provide some of the most honest and lengthy feedback, and they will gladly do it for free.
Polling on social channels will improve your product and site by helping you identify shortcomings to fix.
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Soliciting opinions in real-time can help you better understand the community and the types of things they enjoy.
Polling provides deep insight into your readers and customers, and it can improve the development of marketing and advertising campaigns.
Are your customers fans of the World Cup? Then maybe we should run a campaign that has a soccer theme.
Do your customers like Apple more than Samsung? Then maybe we should develop our app on iOS before Android.
3. Community Building
Porter Haney, CEO of social polling company Wedgies, says that polls are a "unique way" to spark conversation and engagement. Polling shows your customers that the communication channel isn't a one-way street, and it invites them to join the fun.
Seeking input from the community also tells them that you are listening and that you want to make your products and websites better.
Broadcasting the results demonstrates that you want the world to know what your community thinks about a certain topic. Also, if the product feedback is used to build a better site/product, customers will be happy.
Doesn't everyone want happy customers to tell friends about their amazing community and product?
4. Content Generation
Another beauty of social media polling is that it creates two pieces of content. The first is the actual poll itself, and the second is when you showcase the results. Imagine if every article you wrote multiplied into two articles. That's what polls can do.
5. Traffic Lift
By having two pieces of content from one poll and encouraging users to share the poll, you might also experience an increase in traffic to your blog.
Porter Haney says that social polling is a "really good way for marketers to drive extra traffic." He mentions that "the flow (on average) is something like this: 20 percent of readers vote on the poll, 15 percent of those voters share the poll, resulting in a 2-3 percent share rate of the page."
Each of the social shares incrementally increases the traffic to the page, so you could end up with a 20 percent boost in traffic to a page with a poll.
Polling Tools
Polling is a great way to get product feedback, gain a deep understanding of customers and community in real-time, build a community, generate content, and boost traffic. Before you start implementing polling, what tools should you use?
The easiest way to do social polling is simply posting an open or closed-ended question to Facebook or Twitter. This is free to do, but it can sometimes be hard to curate a large set of responses and have users share the results.
Fortunately a number of great tools can take your social polling to the next level. I recommend looking at:
- POLL: The POLL app works well within Facebook, and it's great for sharing results. It's free to use, but the non-ad version will cost a small fee.
- Wedgies: Wedgies is a beautiful and interactive polling tool that can be embedded into a blog or Tumblr post. The poll and the results "cards" make for a fun and shareable piece of content. Wedgies works best for close-ended questions, but it also helps spark discussion within the comments section of a blog posts. It's relatively inexpensive, and it can be seen in action on sites like Engadget or Joystiq (full disclosure: I work for AOL, which owns Engadget and Joystiq).
- Poptip: Another great polling tool that's being used by E! Online and the NHL is Poptip. If you want to use open-ended questions, Poptip does a great job organizing the unstructured conversation into more formal categories. Similar to Wedgies, Poptip also has a shareable "results card."
Social Media Analytics and Strategy Specialist AOL
Whether you’re a solopreneur or a Fortune 500 company, you have the same goal for your business: getting paying clients. Lead generation is the process for gathering leads in hopes that some (or all!) become paying clients. As well as being the first stage of the sales process, lead generation is probably the most essential part. Having leads in your pipeline ensures you have potential clients – and business survival – down the road.Lead generation occurs in one of two ways:
Outbound:Â People become leads as a result of being contacted by someone from your company. Examples of outbound marketing include engaging on phone calls; appearing at events, tradeshows, or other live events; sending printed company collateral through the mail; conducting face-to-face meetings.
Inbound:Â People become leads as a result of finding your business online and indicating their interest through online means. Examples of inbound marketing include using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to optimize your website(s); creating content in the form of blogs, images, and/or web videos; building a following, then engaging them on social media; or emailing content about your company.
Your business may prefer using one or both of these lead generation methods as a way to gather quality leads. Which one is better? Only you can answer that question, and your final decision doesn’t have to be set in stone. Factors such as budget and staffing resources, as well as personal preferences, usually weigh into these decisions. And sometimes a little old-fashioned trial-and-error helps, too.
Have you hit a lull in your business or maybe just need more clients? If so, it’s time for your business to start bringing in more leads. These are 5 of the latest trends companies of all sizes are using for accomplishing successful lead generation – inbound, outbound, or both.
Inbound Lead Generation Trends1) Content creation and distribution…they’re still ruling as “kingâ€Â and “queenâ€The content marketing trend isn’t new, but content strategy changes regularly due to activities such as Google algorithmic updates.
“Content Marketing is an emerging trend that’s utilized by 78% of B2B marketers. This practice of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content such as blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, and infographics to attract, acquire, and engage new customers is seen as the future of B2B marketing.â€
http://www.mediahorizons.com/blog/item/260-b2b-lead-generation-trends-for-2014
Content creators need to generate high-quality articles and posts which make their blogs stand out from the millions already out there. To top it off, they must also create quality content that search engines love. It’s not easy, but certainly worth it when your efforts pay off in the form of lead generation.
2) Don’t rule out social media for lead generation…yet92% of marketers in a recent Social Media Examiner report think social media is important for their business. With this high of a percentage, it’s probably safe to say that most marketers want to get better at using social media.
Within the same survey, 89% of the marketers indicated they wanted to master social media skills so they can best engage with potential clients through the platforms.
3) Why Using Marketing Automation Software Isn’t a Bad IdeaMore businesses have started using marketing automation for their more mundane sales-related tasks, such as email. Once businesses begin automating, they realize how efficient – and effective – marketing automation can be for lead generation. As well, when they automate those mundane tasks, they have more time to focus on those activities which require human engagement.
The following stats, as originally listed in a recent article for the Callbox blog, show promising data for using marketing automation for lead generation:
- Companies using marketing automation source 45% more pipeline than those who don’t use marketing automation – Marketo
- 70% companies declare that marketing automation met or exceeded ROI expectations – Focus
- Full deployment of marketing automation reduces close rates from 1:221 to 1:20 – Marketo
- 350% return on investment and 100% annual revenue growth while saving $400K and generating $2MM in incremental gross revenue – Acteva
- Marketing automation provides 225% increase in prospect volume that convert to sales opportunities – ShipServ
- Using marketing automation causes 3x more leads passed to sales after one month – Marketo
- Marketing automation reduces ignored leads from 80% to 25% – Bulldog Solutions
- Companies that automate lead management see over 10% increase in revenue in 6-9 months – Gartner Research
- Marketing automation-generated personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14% and conversion rates over 10% – The Aberdeen Group
For real-world events, companies are seeing easier and faster lead generation through innovative, new technologies such as NFC (near field communication). Remember the old-fashioned fishbowl approach, where you dropped your business card into it for a chance to win a prize? On the flip side, someone had to go through each of those cards and either call or email each person in hopes of generating a lead.
NFC simplifies and speeds up the process…with the swipe of the attendee’s wrist, you gather the data they provide at registration in a matter of seconds. You know right away whether you have a quality lead and prospective client. And attendees still walk away with plenty of swag.
5) Cold calling and telemarketing are still hot ways to generate leadsNot many people enjoy making cold calls, but no one has died from it. An even better argument for picking up the phone? Results prove that phone calls and telemarketing are among the most effective means of lead generation.
Tips for cold calling include the following:
- Study and rehearse your scripts; improvise when necessary
- Know rejections aren’t personal
- When possible, research prospects before calling them
Which lead generation trends do you think are here to stay? I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions. Feel free to leave your comments below.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
BYÂ JENNIFER HANFORD
Also Read Social Networking At Its Best
Engage Hispanics:A Quick Review Of What You Need To Know About Marketing To Millennials
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As a whole, Millennials are quickly stealing the spotlight from its predecessors, Gen X and Baby Boomers. Why? Because there are over 80 million of them now coming of age and moving into the workforce. This increased buying power is influencing their purchase decisions and driving major trends within the economy.
Of all Millennials nationwide, Hispanics comprise 21%, a statistic expected to rise to 23% by 2020. And within the U.S. Hispanic community itself, Millennials represent 25% of the population and make up the majority of all Millennials in cities like Los Angeles, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale and San Antonio.
But reaching this market isn’t just about the numbers, and relying on volume and skimping on value is still the worse possible way to reach them. I’ll tell you why.
Hispanics are a unique and diverse group.
I’ll concede that trying to understanding Hispanic Millennials is tough because while they share some similarities with the rest of their generation, they are a unique group, even when compared to other Hispanic segments and sub-groups.
Let’s look at the stats. Early results from the Hispanic Millennial Project, co-sponsored by ThinkNow Research and Sensis, shows that when compared to older Hispanics (35-64 years of age):
- Hispanic Millennials are more positive in their overall outlook
- 61% of Hispanic Millennials are satisfied with where they are in life, compared to only 47% for 35-64 year olds
- “My quality of life is better than my parentsâ€â€¦ 65% vs. 55%
- On being optimistic about the future… a whopping 70% vs. 49%
- Interestingly, they are more aligned with their Hispanic heritage
- 67% of Hispanic Millennials said they want to stand out as a Latino, compared to 52% for the older group
- On “feeling closer to the Latino cultureâ€â€¦ it’s 47% vs. 30%
Hispanic Millennials also differ significantly from Non-Hispanic Millennials…
- They are more optimistic
- 63% of Hispanic Millennials said they were satisfied with the direction of the U.S., compared to just 39% for non-Hispanics.
- On being “extremely optimistic about the futureâ€â€¦ it was 70% vs. 52%
- On their belief in the “American Dreamâ€â€¦ Hispanic Millennials 71%, non-Hispanic Millennials 55%
- And as part of their “American Dreamâ€â€¦
- 48% of Hispanic Millennials have a goal of owning their own business, compared to just 29% for non-Hispanics
- Graduating from college? 46% vs. 31%
In contrast with Non-Hispanic Millennials, today’s Hispanic Millennials strive for the more traditional markers of success such as owning a home, buying a nice car and going to college.
And when U.S.-born and foreign-born Hispanic Millennials were compared, across the board, foreign-born Millennials seem to have what might be referred to as a more “traditional†or “conservativeâ€Â belief system, showing in some cases as much as a 20% variance in their opinions toward topics like same-sex marriage and religion.
Language is and will always be a factor.
Cultural relevancy and the appropriate use of language in your marketing messages to the Hispanic market can make or break your attempts to attract their attention.
And specifically, if you want to advertise to Hispanic Millennials, then you better be prepared to communicate (TV, radio, internet, magazines) in both English and Spanish because, according to our study, 35% of them consume their media mostly or exclusively in English, 25% in Spanish, and 40% claimed English and Spanish equally.
Key takeaway?Â
U.S. Hispanic Millennials have their own distinct traits. Take the time to learn what they are and get in early while everyone else is still trying to figure it out.
By Mario Carrasco
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I have a confession to make. I abandon things. Online shopping carts, brands, stores, emails, entire email addresses. In a way, I am the consumer marketer’s worst nightmare. Not only do I abandon brands and companies, I also abandon my loyalties — even when I honestly prefer one brand over another. I use Safeway.com for groceries, and Amazon Prime for pretty much anything else, but in a pinch, I’ll just as easily use Instacart or Taskrabbit or Craigslist.
Wait, what was I saying? My Droid just alerted me of a new message from Facebook, and another tone just signaled to me on my phone and laptop (simultaneously) that I had a new work email, and now I can’t remember what I was saying to you…
The World is Getting Noisier
My point is that noise – whether it’s your competitor, or one of your audience’s many devices – is louder than ever these days. Brands push tons of information across channels, without any care to making the information relevant, and the net result is predictable: people tune out.
For example, every Saturday at 9am I get a coupon from a well-known large retail everything chain, highlighting their line of children’s clothing. I have no children, and have never bought children’s clothes from them before – I’m simply being batch and blasted. When I turn on the TV, drive down the street, lift the lid of my laptop, there is noise. So I know that I’m not the only one abandoning brands left and right – consumers all over are tuning out.
Your audience is drowned by an influx of messaging every single day. The average customer is exposed to at least 2,904 media messages. They will pay attention to 52 of those messages, and will positively remember only four of them.
So how will you make the final cut?
Conversations: The Abandonment Cure
Five years ago, I read every email that I received in my personal email. Gone are those days! Here’s what I listen to now: Social (what are my friends saying, what is hot, what do I trust?); text messages from friends and family; and conversations.
Conversations, you say? Yes, conversations. Meaningful, two-way dialogue with friends, family, and yes, brands. Whether they capture my attention in email, or through text, or on social, if the message is relevant to me (based on my persona, activity, and history) I’m most likely to pay attention. Gone are the days when “batch and blast email†programs actually worked. If I don’t feel that the brands emailing me understand my interests, I’m out.
And I’m not the only one. Consider me the representative of all of your customers. Creating these kinds of conversations is the only way marketers can get my attention, and it’s the only way you’ll get the attention of yours. The consumer marketer has to pay attention to me and my attributes, or I will abandon ship. (This actually applies to B2B marketers also – after all, the decision-makers at companies are individuals, too.)
Do you, as a consumer marketer, have visibility into your consumer’s needs? If you’re looking to create relevant conversations, here are some boxes you might want to check:
- Do you offer your audience relevant content, leveraging data to make the best recommendations?
- Are you sending targeted, segmented emails based on their demographics, behaviors, and buying histories?
- Are you personalizing your website to attract their attention?
By:Â Letty Ernst
