WRM-Media Email Marketing Predictions for 2011

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There are hundreds of ‘trending’ articles out there at the moment due to the long awaited end to a slow 2010 for many marketers. Fortunately for WRM-Media and others in the direct marketing industry, businesses looked to save money on their marketing strategies and as a result turned to email marketing as a more cost effective means of communicating with consumers.

Along with its cost effectiveness, another key feature of email marketing that has continued to increase in importance is the ability to target consumers based on behaviour, location, age and preferences. In 2011, every form of media has seen predictions differ in whether they will rise or fall; signifying that the uncertainty is yet to subside. However, it is a safe bet that insight in to customer requirements and desires is going to be crucial for 2011.

In order to both maintain current customers and attract the new, marketers will need to offer what others do not – a more bespoke service. Being made to feel special and individual is innate in humans and if marketers can make the consumer feel this way, half the battle is already won.
Consumers have come to expect targeted advertising and if they do receive something entirely unrelated and abstract, are likely to disregard it without consideration as the marketing homework has not been done previously.
The unabating social media train is testament to the power of engagement. 2009 saw a social media frenzy in which companies raced to be involved with the different sites; 2010 saw the trend continue in terms of marketing but 2011 is set to see businesses take social media more seriously than ever. Already this year, fashion site ASOS has launched a fully functional site through its Facebook page, combining shopping with social media.

Support of social media is telling of what email marketers have known for years; engagement is paramount to companies wanting to bridge the gap and form a relationship with their consumers. Email marketing can offer you the opportunity to target customers and, if you have an ongoing relationship with your email marketing company, monitor the results over time. This allows you to adapt every email campaign to suit the recipient and adjust to their typical behaviours.

Planned marketing budget increase

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2011 is forecast to see an increase in marketing budgets following a rise in confidence levels after the recession. Spending channels with secure ROI such as email marketing are likely to see the increase initially as firms ensure their spending increase is safe.

IPA and BDO Bellwether carried out a report recently which found that nearly a quarter of UK marketers cut their budgets in the last quarter of 2010.

With new economic policy enforcements and an uncertain future still hovering over us, the cost cutting was implemented as a safety precaution.

However, the results of 300 firms ranked among the country’s top 1,000 have been distinctly brighter for 2011. The report found that marketing budgets would see an increase, particularly in spending channels that have a proven return on investment such as online marketing, email marketing and paid search.

President of the IPA and vice-chairman of the Ogilvy Group UK, Rory Sutherland said that although the findings were a mixed bag, some comfort could be taken from the fact that “initial budget setting for 2011 is currently higher than the actual 2010 spend".

4% growth in Australian marketing budgets

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Throughout 2010, Australian marketing budgets have increased by 7%. Compare this to next year’s planned marketing budgets and the 4% increase suggests that growth has slowed. However, despite the fact that the average planned rise is lower in 2011, a survey has found that 44% of marketing companies expected a rise of 15% in their marketing budgets.

Key priorities for marketing companies remain unchanged when compared to the last survey carried out. The most important priorities include:

Focusing more on maximising the efficiency of how marketing budgets are spent.

Focusing more on improving and finding new measures to increase sales.

Maintaining brand reputation.

The channels that received the biggest growth in investment in the last year are social networks and applications. Both saw a 10% increase from 2009. Online advertising was next, then viral marketing and direct marketing.

Chief Executive of the Australian Marketing Institute, Mark Crowe said that, ‘Overall, a further increase in budgets is expected, which represents a consolidation of the strong growth that was experienced last year.’

‘Online and new media not surprisingly continue to enjoy high levels of increased usage. However, traditional media can also look forward to increased usage albeit not at the same level.’

The findings were gathered from The Second Annual Senior Marketers Monitor, which is based on 369 responses from senior marketers.

Yahoo Email Service Updates

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In line with Gmail’s new ‘Priority Inbox’ and Hotmail’s recent makeover, email service provider Yahoo has recently updated its own email system with the codename ‘Minty.’

In an attempt to attract current and new users, Yahoo has updated its portal to include social, SMS, photos and videos.  Yahoo email users will now be able to check and post to their Facebook and Twitter profiles so that they don’t even need to leave their inbox to visit different websites. As well as this, Yahoo users are able to use Flickr and Youtube within their email to view videos and photos.

Yahoo is also set to try other communication avenues by including instant messaging and SMS in its services.

The updated portal will have a system which remembers user favourites and will organise email based on what it thinks is most relevant or desirable to each individual. Using cloud based services, Yahoo has claimed the new service is twice as fast with an improved spam filter. 

To minimize the impact this will have on email marketing, marketing lists will need to be segmented based on categories like brand, message type and activity.  

It will be important to try to win back inactive consumers and also remove dead email addresses. A win-back strategy is something that too many marketing companies fail to do but it will help to ensure that emails are not wasted. 

Now that more methods of engagement are possible within email campaigns, it might be an idea to take advantage of this and try using a Youtube video in emails in order to boost response rates. 

Finally, an email marketing strategy that fulfils multichannel requirements will be crucial to user responsiveness and engagement. Providing the option of social media channels within messages by including a “Share this” button in your email campaigns can spread brand awareness and engagement. A study by ‘GetResponse’ showed that there was an increase of 30% click-throughs when these buttons were added.

Yahoo’s changes will create obstacles for email marketing specialists but these can be converted to opportunity for marketing companies who are able to adapt and provide more relevant and consistently engaging content.

105.5M Online Spend Increase in Australia

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Australia’s IAB recently reported that online advertising saw a $105.5 million spending increase in the third quarter of 2010, in comparison to the same time in 2009. 

CEO of IAB Australia, Paul Fisher said:

Feedback from media agencies and advertisers indicates a continued and growing confidence in the online channel as an effective medium to reach, engage and influence consumers, and these expenditure figures demonstrate that investment is indeed following consumer behaviour – online.

Overall, online advertising spending growth was positive with general display seeing an increase of 26%, classifieds of 30% and search and directories by 18%.

Fisher also stated that media feedback indicated that this growth is set to continue as confidence in online and digital channels to reach and influence consumers is on the incline. The spending figures are following consumer behaviour online as well as keeping up with demand.

Thanks to the latest increase in expenditure, the online advertising industry is set to spend over $2.2 billion in 2010, putting them in a better position than ever in the total Australian advertising market. 

Display advertising and classified advertising was said to account for 26.5% and 24.6% of the total advertising spending whilst other mediums made up the other 48.9%.

In general display advertising, email based made up $7.6 million of the advertising spending, which is an increase of 6% compared to the same time last year. 

Dominant industries in the display advertising market include finance, vehicles, computers and communications as they made up 44.3% of the general display expenditure. 

Motor vehicle manufacturers were the largest subcategory, although it was very marginally down in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the same time last year. 

Real estate was found to be the largest category for classified ad spending, followed by recruitment and automotive.

The report by the IAB was said to have collected its advertising data from more than 1000 websites; it was managed by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

The Pitfalls of International Marketing

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There are many intricacies within international digital marketing, which often encourages marketing companies to remain within the safety net of their own national perimeters.

However, these are exciting times for international email marketing. It has fast become the quickest, most cost-effective way of communicating with consumers. Ideal for expanding internationally, the digital avenue provides the opportunity to reach consumers all over the world, instantly. It has the best global penetration of all direct marketing services but the pitfalls can seem endless if you don’t have a good understanding of international email marketing from the outset.

Companies such as StrongMail, CheetahMail and Datran Media are all US email vendors that have expanded globally, so going global makes sense for the email marketing specialists targeting their consumers. But where do you start if you have yet to dip your toe into international waters?

Communicating internationally involves much more than simply gaining access to email addresses abroad, as so many companies fail to recognise. As the number of different targeted demographics you need to tailor towards suddenly soars, the time zones you work in clash and the behavioural and cultural expectations of your consumers differ, it’s easy to see why some marketing companies fall into the trap of sending international email campaigns using the same strategies as their own national campaigns. 

However, international expansion will be detrimental to the survival of data owners and direct marketers, which means a consideration of the different nuances across geographic location is vital.

The first difficulty in international email marketing is the difference in time zones. This can make a huge difference to the success of campaigns, as emails received at the start of the day are proved to benefit from a much better open and click rate. Not only this, but consider the difficulties encountered by seasonal campaigns when you send out an international email about bikinis – it might be summer in the US but with winter in Australia, your campaign suddenly loses all relevance.

Another, more dangerous issue is that of legislation. Many countries vary in their laws on email marketing, and an awareness of these differences is vital in maintaining good international relations. Laws on privacy regulations and use of personal details vary significantly depending on the country and you could find yourself on the wrong side of the law if you don’t take the time to investigate these differences.

Collecting data in countries that are yet to take full advantage of email marketing will enable you to build brand awareness in a developing industry. Sooner rather than later is the adage here.

For any growing database marketing business, international communication is crucial for sustained success, however, there are several pitfalls to consider before embarking on a global marketing operation. By researching individual country legislation and preference, organisations set themselves up for successful ongoing international communication in the future.

Message from Santa Claus

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WRM-Media have launched an email campaign this week advertising their latest venture; a website set up especially for Christmas offering personalised letters from Father Christmas.

www.message-from-santa-claus.com offers consumers the chance to make their child’s Christmas. By inputting details about the child, a letter can be sent out addressed to them, including personal details individual to each child, such as their hobbies and friends.

Letters are customisable, feature an authentic looking postmark from the North Pole and are guaranteed to be delivered in time for Christmas, depending on order deadlines. There are offers available for multiple orders and we are also offering commission to affiliates looking to market the website and its products.
If this is of interest to you, please get in touch with WRM-Media: 01924 229 200.