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Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius

The Growing Importance of Online Brand Ambassadors

online brand ambassadors“The reach of Facebook paid brand posts is dropping.” That quote comes from Michael Fisher, president of Yes Lifecycle Marketing, whose company just released the results of a survey of more than 500 active social media users. According to the data, getting Facebook users to share information and deals about your products and services is far more important than you might realize.

In total, 34% of active social media users have shared some kind of product offering with their followers and 94% of them have shared offers through Facebook (significantly higher than offer-sharing on Twitter and Pinterest, which had been done by 15% and 10% of the respondent audience, respectively).

For marketers, the gold in the data is how people react to seeing brand information and offers on social media sites. According to this survey, consumers are 23% more likely to make a purchase after seeing an offer that was shared by a friend or family member on a social media site than if they saw that offer as a sponsored post published by the brand on a social media site. Furthermore, they’re 55% more likely to make a purchase after seeing an offer shared by a friend or family member via social media than they would if they saw a display ad for the same brand on a social media site.

Brand Ambassadors vs. Affiliate Marketers

Before you run out and try to get more people to talk about your brand and share your brand offers on Facebook and other social media sites, you need to understand that developing brand ambassadors is very different from recruiting affiliate marketers.

While 40% of all social media users who responded to this survey indicated that they would be more likely to share brand offers and deals if they received some kind of incentive to do so, that incentive doesn’t have to be cash. To retain some level of authenticity among your online brand ambassadors, their followers shouldn’t view them as salespeople who are pushing your products and services in an effort to receive monetary compensation. Eventually, their followers will get tired of seeing repeated promotional posts and will stop paying attention to them.

Instead, consider incentives that reward their loyalty. Respondents to the survey said they would be most likely to share brand offers and promotional deals if they received a percent off of their own purchase (36%), money off of their own purchase (26%), or a buy-one-get-one free offer on their own purchase (17%). By rewarding loyalty rather than handing over cash, the brand ambassador’s evangelizing retains more of its authenticity.

Keep in mind, some brand ambassador programs are more successful than others simply because of the type of products or services being offered by the brand. The study found that social media users are most likely to share offers for:

  • Restaurants: 58%
  • Entertainment: 42%
  • Electronics: 31%
  • Clothing and Accessories: 31%
  • Groceries: 31%
  • Travel and Hospitality: 24%
  • Pet Supplies: 16%
  • Household Goods: 15%
  • Professional Services: 13%
  • Daily Deals: 13%
  • Other: 12%
  • Children’s Toys and Supplies: 10%
  • Furniture: 4%

Bottom-line, give your loyal customers a reason to be even more loyal and give them offers that they’re confident to share with their followers (because those offers are relevant and attractive). As a result, your brand’s organic social media reach and sales will increase.

Image: Svilen Milev

The Gap Between Most Effective and Easiest to Execute Digital Marketing

digital mapNew research from Ascend2 identifies just how big the gap is between the most effective digital marketing initiatives and the digital marketing initiatives that are easiest to execute.

A total of 333 marketing, sales, and business professionals from around the world were interviewed for the Digital Marketing Strategy study, and an overwhelming majority (89%) reported that their digital marketing was very successful or successful to some extent.  More than one out of two respondents (51%) indicated that their biggest challenge to digital marketing success was a lack of an effective strategy.

However, the most interesting data in the report focuses on what respondents identified as the most effective digital marketing initiatives vs. the easiest to implement. In fact, there was an obvious correlation between the two. The easier the digital marketing initiative is to implement, the more likely respondents were to cite it as being effective.

Let’s take a closer look at the data.

When respondents were asked to identify the most effective types of digital marketing that they have used, the following results were recorded:

  • Email: 54%
  • Website and blogs: 48%
  • Search engine optimization: 47%
  • Social media: 43%
  • Content: 38%
  • Paid search and PPC: 24%
  • Mobile and SMS: 9%
  • Ecommerce: 8%

When respondents were asked to identify the most difficult types of digital marketing to execute, the following results were recorded:

  • Social media: 49%
  • Content: 42%
  • Search engine optimization: 39%
  • Mobile and SMS: 34%
  • Paid search and PPC: 23%
  • Website and blogs: 23%
  • Ecommerce: 19%
  • Email: 11%

Notice that email was ranked as the most effective type of digital marketing by 54% of respondents, and it was only ranked as the most difficult form of digital marketing by 11% of respondents. That’s a gap of 43 percentage points! Similarly, 48% of respondents said websites and blogs were most effective while 23% said it was the most difficult to execute. That’s a 25 percentage point difference.

Next, notice that only 8% of respondents ranked ecommerce as the most effective form of digital marketing while 19% ranked it as the most difficult to execute. That’s a gap of 11 percentage points. There is an even bigger gap for mobile and SMS. While 9% believe it’s most effective, 34% believe it’s the most difficult to execute. That’s a 25 percentage point difference!

Marketers and business executives should be trying to close these gaps by finding the right talent and investing in both human capital and resource capital (e.g., technology). If the right talent is on hand and that talent has the right tools and resources to effectively execute the digital marketing initiatives that are perceived to be the most difficult (and therefore, the least effective), it is very likely that the results to surveys like this one will change significantly.

Marketing is only as effective as the people developing the strategy and implementing the plan. All the tools and tactics in the world are useless if no one knows why they’re using those tools and resources or how to effectively use them.

Image: Elementa1

The Rise of Social Logins in the US and UK

social login lockSocial logins have become the norm and consumers not only look for a social login option on brand sites and mobile apps, they also expect a social login option.

Gigya’s 2014 State of Consumer Privacy and Personalization study recently surveyed 2,000 people between the ages of 18 and 55 in the United States and the United Kingdom. The results showed that 77% of U.S. consumers and 60% of U.K. consumers have logged into a brand website or mobile account using a social network account.

This is a huge jump (45% increase) from 2012 when just 53% of U.S. consumers used social logins.

The rise of social logins is happening for three very specific reasons according to the Gigya report:

  1. Convenience: Fewer passwords to remember
  2. Ease: Particularly on mobile devices where filling out registration forms is difficult
  3. Relevance: By using a social login, consumers believe they get more personalized, relevant content and offers

In addition to convenience, ease, and relevance, consumers also believe that social logins offer greater transparency. The Gigya report explains:

Social login gives consumers the power to permit brands access to the data points housed within their social profiles needed to provide them with more relevant and timely user experiences, effectively striking a balance between two traditionally competing goals: privacy and personalization.

In other words, consumers feel like they have more control over their privacy and data sharing when they use a social login to access a brand site or application. With that said, it’s important to note that far more respondents to this survey used social logins because they’re convenient and easier than respondents who used social logins for greater transparency, relevance, and personalization.

Here’s the breakdown of why U.S. and U.K. consumers use social logins:

  • I don’t want to spend time filling in registration forms = 53% U.S. and 60% U.K.
  • I don’t want to create and remember another username and password = 47% U.S. and 46% U.K.
  • I feel that my personal data is better protected when I use social login = 21% U.S. and 15% U.K.
  • I want to share articles, products, or other content with my social network friends = 26% U.S. and 12% U.K.
  • Other = 3% U.S. and 4% U.K.

What Should Brands Do?

First, it makes sense to provide an option for consumers to use social login on your website and in your mobile apps. Make sure that you clearly communicated how and why their information is used.

Furthermore, don’t ask for information beyond what you need to give the user what they’re looking for. The Gigya survey found that 84% of U.S. consumers and 81% of U.K. consumers have abandoned an online registration form because they weren’t happy with the amount or type of information that was requested. It’s nice to get extra information that you can use for targeting in the future, but you need to weigh the worth of that data with the possibility of not getting any data at all when users abandon your form. This is a time when split-testing will be extremely helpful in creating the highest performing forms possible.

Does your brand use social logins on its sites yet? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Camilla Ahrensball

Excellent Company Blogs to Benchmark for Brand Marketing

blog with mouseWhat makes a company blog stand out from the crowd?

Whether it’s a corporate blog that reflects the company brand or its a blog that focuses on a single product or service brand, there are several elements that must be present in order for a company blog to be a successful.

Following are five key elements that go into developing a company blog that people will actually want to visit and read along with some examples that you can use for benchmarking.

5 Key Elements of Great Company Blogs

1. Relevant and Useful

whole foods blogIf the content of the company blog isn’t relevant to the target audience, that audience won’t visit and read it. Furthermore, if the content isn’t useful to them, they could click away with a negative perception of your brand in their minds. Bottom-line, irrelevant and useless blogs can actually damage your brand reputation, which can lead to negative word-of-mouth marketing and lost sales in the future. Instead, publish relevant and useful content that is highly shareable.

Example to Benchmark: Whole Foods

There aren’t many company blogs that get a lot of positive comments on their posts. Check out the Whole Story blog from Whole Foods and you’ll find tons of posts about recipes, food, and more. Read through the comments and you’ll see that they’re very engaging in a positive way.

2. Not Self-Promotional

oracle blogAs with all social media marketing and content marketing, your blog content cannot be overly self-promotional. That doesn’t mean you can’t publish the occasional self-promotional blog post, but 80% of that post should be useful and no more than 20% should be self-promotional. In fact, the 80-20 rule should apply to all of your blog posts. Make sure that at least 80% of the posts you publish on your company blog are not self-promotional. If your blog reads like a series of ads or press releases, no one will stick around or visit again.

Example to Benchmark: Oracle

Visit the Modern Marketing Blog and you might not even realize its from Oracle. The Oracle Marketing Cloud logo in the upper right-hand corner of the page is the only clearly visible identifier when you first land on this blog. The posts are filled with information that is helpful to marketers with very little self-promotion.

3. Content Variety

getresponse blogAvoid publishing the same type of blog post again and again. For example, if your brand is in the travel industry, avoid publishing post after post about the same travel destination. If your brand is in the email marketing industry, avoid publishing posts that are only about email marketing. Instead, go beyond the obvious content topics and look for indirectly related topics that can add variety and interest to your blog.

Example to Benchmark: GetResponse

GetResponse is an email marketing tool, but its blog isn’t entirely focused on email marketing. Visit this blog and you’ll get lots of useful information about email marketing, but also, you’ll find posts about social media, blogging, and much more. Nearly everything directly or indirectly relates to email marketing in some way, but the blog isn’t just a series of posts about that one topic. The variety of content makes it much more interesting to read on an ongoing basis.

4. Personality

eat24 blogWhat is your brand personality? It should be reflected in your blog content. Your company blog should not read like a corporate document or an advertisement. It should read in a voice that will resonate with the audience and accurately reflects your brand personality. Of course, keep it professional!

Example to Benchmark: Eat24

The Eat24 blog is a bit controversial, but that is exactly why it’s so great. Posts are snarky and often politically incorrect, but they fit the brand personality and the target audience. You don’t need to drop f-bombs in your company blog posts like Eat24 does, but do inject the personalities of the brand and the writers into every post to make them your brand seem human and more engaging.

5. User Experience

buffer blogThe user experience on your company blog must be reflective of your brand promise. For example, your company blog should be visually appealing and match your brand image. It should load quickly and be updated often to keep visitors coming back and to motivate them to tell their friends about it.

Example to Benchmark:  Buffer

Buffer is a social media application that enables users to schedule social media updates to publish on multiple social media accounts using a single tool. The blog is filled with a variety of useful information that is not entirely self-promotional and accurately reflects the brand personality. The user experience is highly streamlined. There are no sidebars. There is no distracting clutter. Visitors only see the blog posts so they can focus entirely on the useful information contained within each post.

What are your favorite company blogs? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Svilen Milev

The Growing Impact of Mobile on Purchase Decisions

shopping bag iconThis year, nearly 146 million people in the United States will shop using mobile devices. They’ll be “window” shopping as well as researching and comparing different types of products and specific brands. Over 102 million of them will actually make a purchase using a mobile device this year.

Those statistics come from eMarketer and put the importance of mobile marketing into perspective. However, the mobile marketing funnel is longer than you might think.

According to research from Ninth Decimal, consumers start browsing, researching, and comparing products long before they make a purchase online or in a brick-and-mortar retail store. The study found that 81% of U.S. mobile users browse, research, and compare products, brands, and stores well before they ever visit a brick-and-mortar store to buy.

As you might expect, the more expensive the product, the longer the mobile marketing funnel is. The research found that consumers started their mobile research 45 days before making a purchase for products with price tags at or above $1,000. That doesn’t mean low-priced products get little mobile “shopping” time. The research found that consumers started researching items from $1-$49 using their mobile devices 10 days before buying.

This mobile shopping research doesn’t stop when consumers get into a brick-and-mortar store either. Nearly one in five U.S. mobile users (19%) continue their research using their mobile devices while they’re in stores making their final purchase decisions.

For marketers, this growing reliance on mobile “pre”-shopping is extremely important. The Ninth Decimal study revealed that mobile users are more likely to engage with mobile retail ads before they visit a store and make a purchase decision. In fact, nearly three in four (73%) of mobile users claim that they actively engage with mobile ads before they hit the stores while 27% claim that they engage with mobile ads while they’re shopping.

What do consumers want brands to offer in their mobile ads? Discounts and sales won by a landslide among respondents to the Ninth Decimal survey. In total, 60% of U.S. mobile users who responded to this survey claimed that they would respond to mobile ads that included discounts or sales. That’s nearly double the number of people who said they’d engage with mobile ads that offered product reviews (36%) or product information (35%). Faring even worse for marketers in this survey were giveaways (25% of respondents would engage), directions to the nearest store location (21%), offers or information about other products the consumer might like (13%), and style tips (7%).

How is your brand engaging with mobile consumers early in the marketing funnel? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Morgan Akens

Instagram Tips for Brand Marketers

selfie smartphone instagramDo you use Instagram for brand marketing? While it’s not the top social media tool used for marketing, it can be very effective in building brand awareness, communicating brand experiences, and developing brand perceptions among consumers.

Recently, Dan Zarrella of Hubspot conducted a study to try to determine how to get more followers and likes on Instagram. Brand marketers, listen up. There is some really useful information in the data.

Zarrella studied nearly 1.5 million images from more than 500,000 Instagram users to come up with his conclusions. You can see the details in the infographic at the end of this article. Here are the highlights that should help you improve your brand marketing results on Instagram:

1. More Hashtags Lead to More Engagement

The study found that as the number of hashtags used in an Instagram photo posting went up, so did the number of likes and comments. The lesson for brand marketers is to use more hashtags on Instagram.

2. Fewer Filters Lead to More Engagement

The data showed that photos on Instagram that use no filter effects get the most likes, follows, and comments. The lesson for brand marketers is to stop using filters on Instagram.

3. Stronger Calls to Action Lead to More Engagement

Here the data gets really compelling. Instagram photos with the word “like” in the caption got 89% more likes. Photos with the word “comment” in the caption got 2,194% more comments. The lesson for marketers is simple. Remind your audience to like and comment on your Instagram photos within every caption.

4. Colors Lead to More Engagement

The research found that photos which are desaturated (meaning the colors are very dull and washed out) get fewer comments and likes. In fact, highly saturated photos got 598% more likes than desaturated photos. Furthermore, photos that have higher levels of luminance (meaning they’re brighter), get 592% more likes than dark photos. That’s not all. The data also revealed that photos dominated by cool colors like blue, green, and gray got more likes than those dominated by warm colors like yellow, orange, and red. The lesson to brand marketers is to embrace bright colors on Instagram but stay cool.

5. Faces and “Busy-ness” Lead to More Engagement

The research corroborates what most other marketing research has found for decades. Images with people’s faces in them lead to higher levels of engagement. In this study, Zarrella found that the number of likes increases by 35% when faces are included in images. In addition, busy photos got higher levels of engagement than stark photos. Zarrella analyzed the number of edges in photos and found that images with more edges (i.e., more stuff in the photo that makes it busier) got 125% more likes than very simple and stark photos. The lesson for marketers is to avoid going minimalist on Instagram, and be sure to takes lots of pictures of people. Instagram is the one place where selfies are not only accepted, but they’re also expected.

instagram likes and followers infographic

Image: Rob Owen-Wahl