Jennifer Blackburn says, “Faster than marketing teams can keep up, today’s marketing content is often shared across social channels, in email campaigns, and on third-party sites. It’s a good problem to have…Why? Because with the abundance of the resulting digital insights available, modern marketers have become better equipped at proving campaign ROI to their bosses, clients, and stakeholders.The data from Google Analytics alone, such as clicks and conversions, is enough metrics to fill an Olympic-sized pool—and they’re easy to snag and display in a pretty graph.The... [...]

Vahe Habeshian says, “The holiday season is here, and so is the busiest time of year for retailers, including online merchants, and that means maximizing e-commerce conversions and sales during the yearend holidays.This week, the first major shopping event, Black Friday (Nov. 25), followed by Cyber Monday (Nov. 28) together mark “the beginning of the period with heightened promotional offer,” writes Ainsley Smith for Nextopia, a provider of site search, navigation, and merchandising solutions for Internet retailers.“Retailers should be mindful of the other upcoming shopping... [...]

Jignesh Shah says, “Your customers want to feel appreciated. What better time to say “thank you” than the holiday season? And what a great opportunity to build a holiday marketing campaign around the relationships you want to nurture, build, and strengthen.So, whom should you target?Don’t make the mistake of spamming your contacts database with generic holiday email greetings. The emails will be ignored, your time will have been wasted, and your brand will lose credibility.Make your efforts count by sending personalized, thoughtful messages and gifts to your customers.... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Retail sales are expected to increase year over year this holiday season, according to recent research from the National Retail Federation (NRF).The report was based on retailer data collected by NRF as well as data from a survey conducted in October 2016 of consumers in the United States.Total retail sales for November and December are expected to increase 3.6% year over year in 2016.That forecast is above the average of 3.4% over the seven years since the US economic recovery began in 2009“.Holiday Shopping Season 2016: Spend Forecast and Gift TrendsMarketingProfs [...]

Jon Miller says, “Account-based marketing (ABM) addresses the biggest problem faced by B2B marketers in the last decade: Traditional strategies focus on high-velocity, low-value deals, and not enough on the major accounts.ABM is built on six processes that flip the focus from generating leads to courting the companies you want to do business with.ABM isn’t a quick fix: It takes patience and a long-term commitment. But you can drive real results by effectively using the six processes:Selecting accountsDiscovering contactsDeveloping insightsGenerating account-relevant contentDelivering... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Most consumers say they prefer to receive brand communications from retailers via email, according torecent research from Bluecore.The report was based on data from a survey conducted in July 2016 of 1,174 consumers in the United States. All respondents have made an online purchase within the past three months.Some 68% of the consumers surveyed say they want to receive brand communications from retailers (sales offers, news, information about new products, etc.) via email; 6.9% prefer to receive communications while shopping in-store and 5.6% prefer text messages.Email... [...]

Vahe Habeshian says, “An infographic from Marketo and Column Five spells out five tips and propositions to help you now to reap the benefits of your holiday campaign well beyond the New Year. Among those tips…—Respond to customer feedback on social media.—The more you engage with your customers, the more they’ll spend with you in the long run.—A solid retargeting strategy can keep revenue coming in.—Provide an unforgettable customer experience every time a customer makes a purchase.For more information, including a host of relevant stats, tap or click on the infographic,... [...]

Chris Teso says, “Brands send 23 promotional messages on social mediafor every one response they give to their audience. Yet, consumers often want to have a dialog on social; and when that doesn’t happen, customer spending and loyalty decline.Clearly, spray-and-pray messaging is a failing strategy for customer satisfaction and retention. There is a superior approach that brings the best of traditional loyalty programs to social media, and vice versa.Read on to learn how to apply loyalty best-practices to your social media marketing to grow customer retention and long-term loyalty.1.... [...]

Assaf Dudai says, “Digital publishers (and in the age of online content, marketers are exactly that) have found themselves in the middle of the most crowded market imaginable—online content.The proliferation of online content has been overwhelming for publishers and readers alike: For publishers, it presents the daunting task of breaking through the noise; for readers, the no-less-daunting task is self-curation of content.The very best shot that marketers have at attracting audiences and maintaining them is to be champions of relevancy. And the foundation of relevancy is personalization.You... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “The top reason consumers abandon shopping carts on e-commerce sites is that they’re just browsing and researching, which is followed by issues with shipping as a reason, according to recent research from Salecycle.The report was based on 3Q16 data from the websites of 500 leading brands. It was also based on data from cart abandonment survey emails sent to consumers who did not complete purchases on these sites.Some 34% of respondents say they abandoned a recent e-commerce shopping cart because they were just looking/researching.Next, 23% cite an issue with shipping... [...]