In 2013, no company can expect to be taken seriously if it’s not on Facebook or Twitter. An endless stream (no pun intended) of advice from marketing consultants warns businesses that they need to “get” social or risk becoming like companies a century ago that didn’t think they needed telephones.
Despite the hype that inevitably clings to the newfangled, however, it’s relatively antique tech that appears to be far more important for selling stuff online. A new report from marketing data outfit Custora found that over the past four years, online retailers have quadrupled the rate of customers acquired through email to nearly 7 percent.
Facebook over that same period barely registers as a way to make a sale, and the tiny percentage of people who do connect and buy over Facebook has stayed flat. Twitter, meanwhile, doesn’t register at all. By far the most popular way to get customers was “organic search,” according to the report, followed by “cost per click” ads (in both cases, read: Google).
Image: Custora
Custora came up with its figures by analyzing data from 72 million customers shopping on 86 different retailer sites. They tracked where customers were clicking from (email, Twitter, Google, etc.) and what and how much they bought, not just on that visit but for the next two years.
Over those two years, Custora found that customers who came to retailers from search were more than 50 percent more valuable than average. In other words, they were more likely to shop more and spend more. Email customers were nearly 11 percent more valuable than average. Facebook customers were just about average. Twitter customers, meanwhile, were 23 percent less valuable than average during the two years following that first click.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say Twitter is inherently a bad way to do (online marketing), but we haven’t seen a lot of good Twitter strategies right now,” says Aaron Goodman, Custora’s lead data scientist. He says Twitter marketing campaigns right now tend to rely on the chancy likelihood that someone will run across a deal when they dip into their feed. Even if they do see it, within seconds it disappears.
Image: Custora
Email, on the other hand, has a certain unfair advantage in that shoppers getting the emails have already given up their addresses to a site, suggesting they already have some prior relationship with that retailer. Still, despite the avalanche of spam we all get, it’s easy to see how the staying power and greater potential for personalization of a medium without a 140-character limit gives email distinct advantages.
Custora’s findings don’t bode especially well for social media business models, especially Twitter. Of course, ads on Facebook and Twitter don’t have to lead to immediate clicks to have an impact. They still have the potential to raise ambient awareness. Yet Custora found that Google’s ads, by contrast, do lead not only to clicks but to purchases—the holy grail of “conversion.”
To be fair, Google had a roughly 10-year head start to turn search into sales. It’s hard to imagine that in a decade that social media won’t be a more important channel for selling stuff. Already its “product cards” provide a very direct way for Twitter to act as a storefront. Businesses probably shouldn’t abandon social just yet. But if they had to pick, that old-timey mailing list may trump tweets for a long time to come.
(article by M.Wohlsen)
If one of your digital marketing tactics is email marketing then you understand that the most important aspect is actually getting your content to your subscribers. This is one of the most common questions from marketers. There are a myriad of things you can do to either help or hurt your deliverability. It’s important to understand both.
I recently discovered a simple, yet very helpful, infographic.
Improve email deliverability summary:
How to improve deliverability [Infographic]
(article by C.Ward)
Wherever you go, whatever you do, your email is there, waiting for you. Taunting you with unread emails and gnawing at your conscience with unanswered ones. Before you dive into your inbox and try to deal with it all, take a moment to think about how you’re spending your time when it comes to email. A little common sense can help you be more productive with your time and stop email from taking over your day.
Use the power of your email client to stay in control – don’t let it control you. Here’s how:
Email strategically
The first thing to realise is that email shouldn’t take up your entire day. Set aside a time to take care of email and stick to it; perhaps an hour in the morning and 15 minutes later in the day. It’ll help you stay away from compulsively checking it. You should also prioritise your email answering. Which emails are important and which ones can go unanswered. Once you’re done…
Learn when to walk away
It sounds simple, but you can do without your email for extended periods throughout your workday. By setting aside specific times when you check your email, you can free yourself from distractions and focus on more productive work. When it’s not designated email time, close your email client and get on with other, more important stuff.
At the very least, turn off pop-up notifications that warn you when you have a new email. This function seems like a helpful tool, but in reality every notification steals your attention away from more focused work.
Auto-reply, it’s more than just for out-of-office
All email clients have an auto-reply function. Mostly they’re used to notify senders that you’re out of the office. But you can use it as a way to tell people that you’re busy. Set up your auto-reply to tell people that you’re unavailable through email until your scheduled email times, if they really need to get hold of you, they can call, or even stop by your desk.
Avoid the embarrassment of “Reply all”
You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you hit “Reply all” instead of replying to one person on a large email list? Say goodbye to that feeling forever.
You can set up an alert in your email client to notify you when you’re replying to everyone, giving you a chance to reconsider your spamming everyone on a list. In Outlook 2010, it’s called “MailTips,” but other clients will have similar features.
It’s also important to use “Reply all” sparingly. Only use the function if all email recipients absolutely need to be updated. If not, you’re simply wasting their time. After all, think about all the pointless emails you could avoid having in your inbox if your contacts were more scrupulous.
When in doubt, delete and take care of your trash
Stop your inbox from becoming bloated. Delete everything that’s not crucial. It’ll will save you time and stop your inbox from becoming bloated and slow.
But deleting emails doesn’t mean they’re gone forever. You may realize that something you deleted was important, but it’s still there until you empty your trash. Set up your trash folder to empty manually, so you don’t automatically lose everything, but make sure to empty it at the end of the day.
Automate repetitive tasks
Do you do a lot of the same things over and over with emails? Like frequently move messages to a specific folder that you’ve set up? Or often forward messages to your team? New automation features in modern email clients can apply multiple actions to emails all at once. Check your specific client if it’s available for you.
Respect others
If you’ve taken control of your email, you should also respect other people’s inbox. Do you really need to send this email? Perhaps it’s better to schedule a meeting or pick up the phone? Categorise your mails with your subject lines, by stating, for example, “action required” or “for your information.” This will help your colleagues and peers make better use of their email as well.
Rule your email, don’t let it rule you
Don’t let email rule your work-life. A combination of common sense and smart use of your email client will let you decide how, when and how often you’re taking care of email. The above suggestions assume that your work is not about being constantly available and reactive, but a good portion of us can apply one or all of these tips and find that their inbox and email remain a tool to love and not to hate.
Che fine fa il tuo patrimonio digitale, te lo sei mai chiesto?
Cosa ne è “dopo” della nostra vita su Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn? La nostra musica, foto, video, film, libri, app, beni digitali di varia natura e i conti online: si possono ereditare?
La morte digitale è stata il tema del Digital Death Day (www.digitaldeathday.com) e di un convegno molto particolare che si è tenuto a Londra nell’ottobre del 2012.
Se la morte fisica è un fatto pubblico, certificato e regolato da norme precise, quella digitale è tutta un’altra storia. Paradossalmente, sembra quasi non esistere. Online infatti, possiamo continuare a vivere per anni, in teoria per sempre.
Occuparsi del proprio patrimonio, con un testamento, è un atto di buon senso. Analogamente, oggi, ci si deve interessare anche del lascito digitale
Cosa ne pensi? Come ti orienteresti? Cosa faresti?
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