Marketing Wrap-up: Week of February 3, 2012

Welcome to the first week in February! Did you see your shadow yesterday? Let's get into the top stories this week. 

 

Of course, everyone is talking about Facebook filing for their IPO on Wednesday, seeking to raise $5 billion. Speculation is rampant about what this will mean for the company, for Mark Zuckerberg, for social media in general, for Facebook employees, etc. Mashable has thoughtfully pulled it all together for you on one handy page. Definitely worth a read.  

 

In email-related news this week, we saw the announcement of the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance group, or DMARC. DMARC is made up of representatives from email service providers, financial services companies, social media companies, and email security firms, with the purpose of developing standards to reduce the threat of deceptive emails. You can read more at www.DMARC.org.

 

On the social media front, a company that is getting a lot of attention suddely is Pinterest. I've been using it for a little while, and as more brands get on board, it will be very interesting to see how it evolves. The infographic below shows how much traffic Pinterest is already driving for retailers. Some users are already saying allowing commercial entities to be on Pinterest ruins the site for them. We'll see how Pinterest manages the site in the future. 

 

 

Well, that's it for this week. As always, I'd love to hear your feedback on my picks and any stories you think are making waves in digital marketing.

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications specialist,
e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz 

 

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of January 23, 2012

Social and email seem to be the topics of the week. Here are some of our top links we have been reading and sharing.

Make sure you find out who Google thinks you are with link number 1 and share with us in the comments or in an @eDialogEurope tweet!

 

1. Who does Google think you are? Does Google accurately guess your age and gender? Slate Blog

2. Ever wondered how people target you on Twitter? This should explain ->The anatomy of a tweet The Economist

3. That’s a lot of ‘things’… 25 things email marketers must avoid in 2012 ClickZ

4. The latest in EU Data Protection Legislation: Marketing industry warns EU lawmakers to avoid making Data Protection Regulation ‘anti-business’ DMA

5. Some good reminders: Nine ways to dramatically reduce email unsubscribe rates HubSpot

6. The battle of the sexes continues: The mobile male ClickZ

7. A cool Infographic to show social business and the growth of shared value #eBay MyCustomer

8. Gmail closes in on Hotmail with 350M active users TNW

9. Email subscription patterns for fashion retailers [Infographic] The Email Guide

10. Newsflash: You don’t want to turn your business into a social business The Social Customer

The bonus link: What the future of architecture looks like -> Turkey, plays with sound, music, light, video, mathematics, visual arts and architecture for a new type of building and streetscape experience PSFK

What were your top links of the week? We'd love to hear from you.

 

Millie Bartlett, Marketing Co-ordinator, e-Dialog UK

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of January 20, 2012

Wow-a big week for online marketers! Let's get right into it.

 

The big (BIG!) story this week is of course SOPA. SOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act. This act was proposed as a way to protect copyright holders from online piracy, however, as written, it could change the way the Internet functions, by shutting down, and banning companies from doing business with, sites that have been flagged as hosting copyrighted material. This would mean sites which allowed user-generated content, including comments, would need to monitor that content to be sure it was not copyrighted. The fear is this would be overwhelming, and sites would simply stop allowing user-generated content. This week, numerous web sites went dark in protest of SOPA,  and encouraged users to contact their government representatives. It seems to have worked, since the sponsor of the bill has withdrawn support and it looks the bill will be revised to address some of the issues. Check out this article for a good overview. Also, you may want to take a look at Mashable's round up of their coverage. 

 

In Facebook news, they announced this week that sixty apps are now integrated with Timeline, including Pinterest, the new darling everyone is talking about, plus eBay, TripAdvisor, Zynga, and others. These apps use Facebook's OpenGraph for what they call "frictionless sharing" which is similar to the way apps like Spotify share what music you're listening to. Fab.com will apparently reward you for enabling Timeline posting and doing some social shopping. If you enable friends to see when you make a Fab.com purchase, you get a $5 monthly credit. If you also reveal your Fab.com username, another $5 credit, for a possible $10 per month. This looks like it is going to be valid through May 2012, so it looks like you could possibly get $40 total in credits to spend on the site. The email below was sent to customers. It's a little light on details, IMO. 

For retailers, this week was the National Retail Federation's Big Show in NYC. e-Dialog was there along with GSI Commerce, PayPal and Milo. You can take a look at NRF's blog posts from the show here and be sure to check out eBay Ink as well.

 

Well, that's it. Another busy week gone by. Until next time!

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate

e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of January 9th 2012

 

Thirteen days in to the new year and already we have seen and heard some big developments coming from the marketing, tech and media world. So, to make your life easier, here are some of the top news and blog articles we have found most interesting.

 

Top links of the week:

 

1. An interview with Phil Simon: Business lessons from Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google MyCustomer.com

 

2. Ten social media strategies to define a successful 2012 Brian Solis

 

3. Help customers reach content and products more easily: How to streamline site navigation to attract and retain customers Marketing Profs

 

4. Apps to become universal - HTML 5: The future of AT&T’s mobile store Mashable

 

5. Real-life examples of how Google’s ‘Search Plus’ pushes Google+ over relevancy  Search Engine Land

 

6. Mercedes and Facebook? Who predicted that one? PSFK

 

7. Here to stay or marketing fad? 86% of marketers to use 2D barcodes in near future Econsultancy

 

8. The most downloaded social apps - Mobile social media: top apps, deal sites and more Marketing Profs

 

9. YouTube and Twitter are growing while Facebook stays static: Facebook loses share of social network visits as YouTube grows Brand Republic

 

10. Consumers seem to be more likely to click on an ad than on other devices: Mobile drives more search ad clicks ClickZ

 

11. Four timeless email copywriting commandments Marketing Profs

 

12. Mobile payments insight: How PayPal plans to scale its in-store payment system Gigaom

 

Be sure to drop us a comment below and tell us your favorite industry developments of the new year so far.

 

Millie Bartlett, Marketing Coordinator, e-Dialog UK

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of December 23, 2011

Before you all rush home to your friends and family, here is one last post to sum up the week in links. Keeping it short and sweet; Merry Christmas and to all, a happy new year.

 

1. Yule want to try this – Xmas tips for marketers by our very own Senior Creative Designer Elliot Ross. The Drum

2. 11 things Santa won’t bring you this year … You won’t be too disappointed. Econsultancy

3. If you’re like me, this might come in handy: 22+ last-minute gifts you can send via email Mashable

4. 5 ways to generate sales leads with mobile Mashable

5. ICO updated guidance on cookies: DMA, ICO, Smart Insights

6. 6 E-CRM trends to consider for 2012 planning Smart Insights

7. It takes more than a loyalty scheme to keep hold of your consumers: Loyalty schemes don’t create loyal consumers, says Ipsos MORI Econsultancy

8. Infographic -> The anatomy of a perfect landing page Formstack

9. Email is more popular than beer... and other fun facts from Email Marketing Reports

10. Is batch and blast such a bad thing? The Future is not one to one ClickZ

 

Let us know your favorite articles from this week.

 

Millie Bartlett, Marketing Coordinator, e-Dialog UK

 

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of December 16, 2011

Only one shopping weekend until Christmas! I know we've all got a lot on our to-do list, so let's breeze through the top marketing moments of this week. 

First, Facebook is finally rolling out access to Timeline to everyone. Of course, there's been some griping about not understanding how to use it and why they changed it. I've had it for a while, so I'm used to it, and as I see it, being able to look back at your status updates and conversations does have value. I've been surprised how much I actually like it. And I love the large custom photo area at the top. I have a lot of ideas about how marketers can adapt and get consumers to use that space to share brand info, but that's a post for another day!

 

In other big news, Zynga has filed a $1 billion IPO. They are one of the most successful social gaming companies, but many have said their fortunes are too closely tied to Facebook, and while their games are played by millions, players complain new features are rolled out without fixing existing issues. Plus, working at Zynga is apparently no picnic. In early trading, the stock price rose, but then fell below the initial offering price. Time will tell if they will be a smart investment in the long term. 

 

In case you didn't know, today is Free Shipping Day, otherwise known as the last day you can use standard shipping to get your packages delivered by Christmas.  You can go to http://www.freeshippingday.com/ to see the list of more than 2,500 retailers participating. My inbox is overflowing with reminders about free shipping. I've also seen a lot of extensions, offering expedited free shipping up until December 22 in many cases. Retailers are also promoting in-store pick up for online orders as an alternative. 

 

And finally, because it's Friday and we can all use a bit of fun, check our our Build-your-own-snowman app! I'd love to see your creations-share them on our Facebook wall.

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate,

e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of December 9, 2011

One week closer to Christmas and one sentence closer to 10 links that will inspire you digitally. This week we have been gifted with reflections on the past year and predictions for the next. In the next few minutes you will see some valuable stats and interesting findings that you can take with you until next time. As always, enjoy:

 

Top 10 links of the week:

1. Who are you rooting for? The Tech Wars of 2012 Fast Company

2. ClickZ reflect on the innovations in email of 2011

3. In case you hadn’t heard - Facebook buys Gowalla Brand Republic

4. Ever wondered how to use social media for better customer acquisition? Mashable

5. Email marketing: 4 steps to manage your inactive subscribers. Inbox Group

6. Your complete guide to measuring email marketing success HubSpot

7. If you’ve got it… Data should flaunt its geek chic MarketingWeek

8. Maybe a bold statement, what do the creative folk make of this one? The only email design tips you will ever need to succeed EmailBlog.eu

9. Great stats -  Mobile and iPad email use spikes MediaPost

10. Consumer expectations are not being met - Consumers are now less forgiving of a poor mobile experience UTalkMarketing

10.5 One to see you well in to the Christmas season – If Santa was an email marketer…  Email Marketing Reports

 

Have any views on this week's links? What was your favourite article of the week? We would love to hear from you so be sure to drop a comment below.

 

See you next time.

 

Millie Bartlett, Marketing Coordinator, e-Dialog UK, @eDialogEurope

Marketing Wrap-Up: Week of December 2, 2011

Wow-here it is, December. We made it through Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Congrats all! However, we can't claim success yet. We've still got three more weeks until Christmas. Here are my top stories to keep you going this week.

 

First, the good news: email isn't dead! Of course, we knew it wasn't but here's a handy infographic you can produce whenever someone tries to tell you email will be extinct by 2015.

 

In social media news, this week Facebook reached an agreement with the FTC regarding privacy policy changes and how they are implemented. So now when they change something on Facebook, you'll have to opt-in, rather than scramble to figure out the new settings after they've been applied to your account. I think it's a good thing, since giving people more control will help people feel more comfortable sharing their online info, which benefits all of us. I think this Mashable article says it all with this quote "While that sounds like a chilling message, it’s really just a long-overdue standardizing of the practice of opt-in. The smarter companies already know this: that customers who opt-in are more engaged and ultimately more valuable than customers who simply don’t opt-out. Besides, when given the option, users tend to share whatever information they’re asked to share, so, even putting the ethics aside, there’s little need for deception."

 

On the mobile front, news came this week of an app called CarrierIQ that is installed on many phones, and it was alleged that it has the ability to track not only location, but also activity, including keystrokes. That information could then be shared with carriers without the user's knowledge. It's meant as a diagnostic tool for carriers, but the possibility of misuse creeped a lot of people out. The company has issued statements clarifying that while information is tracked, it is not stored or transmitted, and most of the carriers that use it are only seeing aggregated data. Another example of how not being transparent about privacy and personal information can backfire. 

 

I hope you've enjoyed my picks for this week. As always, I would love your feedback and what you think the top story was this week.

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate,

e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz

Marketing Wrap-Up: Week of November 25, 2011

eBay acquires Hunch, read emails through your contact lenses and why you really aren't as cool as you think you are; this week's top links, all in one place:

1. The top 10 marketing infographics of 2011 according to HubSpot.

2. Clash of the titans: Email v social media, from the BBC Business site, explores the truth behind the social/email love hate relationship and what can be expected in the future. And once more it can be confirmed: Email Is Not Dead!

3. With Facebook being one of the most visited sites in the world, it is important for marketers to understand how the average consumer uses it day-to-day – Retailers: your customers are logged into Facebook, now what? Econsultancy

4. Key statistics from an earlier study in 2011 are explored further: How consumers interact with brands via email and social media. DMA Email Marketing Blog

5. An ‘unscientific’ experiment about how people are utilizing their Smartphone and what it means for the desktop: Think beyond the desktop – Social is going mobile. ClickZ

6.  Nick Fuller, our stategy guru over here at e-Dialog London, was featured on The Wall this week with this valuable read: Facebook – The marketer’s conundrum.

6. Terminator-style contact lenses: Read texts and emails in front of your eyes – Now that had to have got your attention; straight out of the Metro.

7. According to research by Adestra, 52% of publishers surveyed had not altered their email marketing approach to target mobile users. For more information, read on at The Drum.

8. A quick how-to guide from Search Engine Watch: How to use QR codes for better conversion rates.

9. Lost in the Social Stratosphere? These 10 trends from The Wall could help you plan a winning strategy.

10. What is on your Christmas wish list? An email/mobile article? I’ll see what I can do… - Mobile email: Six tips for building a campaign that works from Econsultancy (Santa).

Bonus links:

1. How social are you?: Online app analyzes your offline social life using photos & check-ins PSFK

2. eBay has a Hunch - articles on the acquisition of Hunch Inc. are here: NASDAQ, WSJ, Business Week, Reuters

Hope you have enjoyed these articles and let us know your thoughts, we'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for tuning in.

Millie Bartlett, Marketing Coordinator, e-Dialog UK, @eDialogEurope

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of November 18, 2011

As we end the last full week of work before Thanksgiving, here are a few newsworthy developments to keep the marketing juices flowing. 

 

From the UK DMA's blog comes an interesting post on the difference between frequency and cadence in email marketing. The two terms are often used to mean the same thing, but they are different. I haven't heard the concepts outlined this way before, so I'd be interested to hear if you think this is the right way to define the terms.

 

Maybe I'm a little biased, but I'm really excited about the new Facebook app PayPal has developed to let friends send money via Facebook. It's simply called Send Money, and that's exactly what you can do with it. You can send an eCard with the money, if it's a friend's birthday, for example, or just send money without an eCard. I think it will be interesting to see how this takes off over time. 

 

Over at ClickZ, Jeanne Jennings says blacklisting and filtering are legitimate marketers' best friends, even though they often complain about being blocked improperly. Symantec reports that 74% of email sent in September and October was spam, so imagine if that mail all got through to the inboxes of your subscribers. Talk about clutter! Are you thankful for the spam cops? 

 

Well, those are my top reads for this week. As always, let me know what you're reading and what you think of my picks. 

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate

e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of November 11, 2011

This week we have a mixture of links for your digital discovery. Technology is forever developing and yet email is still a top dog amongst the online marketing channels. These are a few articles and videos we have found interesting over at e-Dialog.

Ten links of insight, worth sharing:

1. Email marketing is getting bigger and better: Email click-through rates are on the rise, DMA research discovers - The Drum

2. Carphone Warehouse, Thorntons and Goldsmiths are a few to adopt in-store mobile payment. Mobile shopping service Simply Tap goes live - Marketing Magazine

3.Where will email be in 20 years? 14 predictions for email marketing in 2031- Email Marketing Reports

4.Didn’t get it before? This holds some useful insight on QR codes. When to use mobile tags including QR codes in your marketing [video] from the PSFK Conference NYC 2011.

5. Did Monty Python write your unsubscribe page? 9 tips to make it better  - Email Marketing Report

6. Creepy or not, 5 things you should know about the future of retargeting - ClickZ

7. Making social circles smarter: Google+ acquires Katango, the automatic friend sorter - Tech Crunch

8. An insult to say that email is valuable because it’s cheap? Email is much more than a cheap marketing channel - Econsultancy

9.Toys’R’Us now offers a child-friendly Nabi Tablet which will be selling in-store and now available for pre-order – Specs and prices are better than you think - Phandroid

10. Microsoft research creates AR spaces using handheld projectors (video) - PSFK 

Do you have any thoughts on these links? Let us know; we would love to hear from you.

Thank you and see you soon!

 

Millie Bartlett, Marketing Intern, e-Dialog UK

Marketing Wrap-Up: Week of November 4, 2011

It's been another hectic week! More news, more articles, more blogs. Here are my top items impacting marketers this week.

 

A few weeks ago, Gmail's new look "leaked" but now it's official and available to all. On Tuesday Google announced the new look on their blog, and noted some new features. The first is threaded conversations, which looks a lot like Facebook messages. They also give users control over what they call the "density" of the app, so you can choose how much space is between messages as you see them on screen. They've also improved search and navigation. Personally, I don't love the new look, especially the transparency of the inbox so you can see the theme image beneath it. I find it distracting. What do you think?

 

 

 

Groupon went public this week, and was the biggest IPO since Google, raising $700 million, giving it a valuation of more than $12 billion. Many are saying the price of shares was so high because Groupon is releasing only a small fraction for sale. Analysts have doubts about future value for investors due to Groupon's high marketing spend and highly-competitive market. What do you think? Would you invest? 

 

Klout has been on my mind lately, as I updated my profile and tried to figure out how Klout is using my social media activity to calculate my score and how I compared to others. Today a study was released showing that Twitter users with higher Klout scores had tweets with longer lives. Tweets lasted 67 times longer for users with Klout scores abover 86, with tweets living an average of five hours and 35 minutes, as compared to just 5 minutes for users with Klout scores between 40 and 70.

 

 

Those are my top three for this week. As always, let me know what you read this week and what you think I missed!

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate, e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz

Marketing Wrap-Up: Week of October 28, 2011

Wow, another week has flown by! It gets harder and harder to keep up with all the news from the worlds of marketing, technology, e-commerce, mobile, social, etc. Here are my top stories of the week to help you out. 

In today's Email Insider column, Kara Trivunovic writes about how most email marketers don't encourage replies to their promotional emails. In fact, they actively discourage replies by including phrases like "This is an unmonitored email address" or "Replies will not be read." She acknowledges that replying to these emails is difficult, and not quite the same as replying to tweets or Facebook posts. Here at e-Dialog, we have a department called Response Management, which has live people who respond to consumers who hit "reply" to those promotional emails. It's really handy for situations where your standard contact form may not answer someone's question or need.  One time we sent an email for a client that was "from" a well-known football star, and he got tons of replies, including being asked to attend a fan's wedding! We had to politely decline. 

Over on Mashable, they have a great piece on social media for customer service, with some real-life examples. I have heard some debate about whether or not companies should use social for this purpose, or instead push customers to their call centers. I don't think social is always best, but you do need to be listening and acknowledging issues as they are posted. That's what consumers expect. Once you make a connection, then direct them to a live person to resolve the issue. 

 

For B-to-B folks, MarketingSherpa shares a case study on how a WOM/referral email program resulted in an ROI increase of over 100%. The company, SendGrid, realized sales were coming from referrals, even though they didn't have a formal referral program. So they wondered what would happen if they implemented one. They came up with a plan that rewarded referrers and the new accounts that came from referrals. They also promoted the referral program in the "account approval" message, since that message is highly anticipated and read. 

 

I don't need to tell you that marketers today are often outpaced by consumers, who have access to more information than ever, thanks in a big part to social media. MarketingProfs has a great article on how to deal with this new reality via new technologies and creating a great customer experience. 

 

Well, those are my must-reads this week. Please let me know what you think and what you would add! 

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate, e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz

 

Marketing Wrap-Up: Week of October 21, 2011

Welcome to this week's serving of need-to-know marketing news!

 

On the email front, a new blog has launched, called MainSleaze. It aims to call out mainstream ESPs who have clients sending spam. It's gotten some attention from deliverability experts at several large ESPs, who say they will investigate reports of spam coming from their servers. 

 

Today on MediaPost, there was an article with lots of stats about mobile commerce and the inevitable convergence of mobile and local. It mentions some mind-blowing info eBay released during their earnings call: "eBay Mobile GMV expects to reach nearly $5 billion in revenue for 2011, more than double from last year. The company's mobile apps have been downloaded more than 50 million times. Today, consumers make three purchases per second on eBay Mobile applications."

 

Over on ClickZ, Simms Jenkins has a thoughtful article on the recent sale of Borders' email subscriber list to Barnes and Noble, asking if permission should be able to be purchased as an asset, the way this list was. And while the purchase price puts the acquisition cost per address at just .29, is that the true cost, since many (including me) will opt-out of being transferred in the first place, and those who miss the communication telling them how to do that may mark the Barnes and Noble email as spam? What do you think?

 

Google accidentally gave a sneak preview of their updated Gmail interface by posting a video on YouTube. The company saiys the redesign will make a cleaner, more intuitive and simple interface. You can check out the video on Mashable.

 

And finally, a new study shows that consumers who follow a brand on Twitter are 50% more likely to make a purchase and 60% more likely to recommend that brand to their firends. More good news for marketers, once a person follows a brand, they are not likely to unfollow.

 

Those are my top five stories for this week. I hope you found them informative and interesting. What stories did I miss? Let me know what you really liked this week.

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate, e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz 

 

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of October 14, 2011

So, you have returned for your weekly fast-feed of industry knowledge. We are going slightly supersize this week – scratch the top 10, I have 15 links for you. Each and every one is worth a read… we promise:

1. Social and search are often thought to be the marketing BFF, but email should still be your right-hand man. The `Digital Marketing Evangelist’ for Google, Avinash Kaushik, shares his views on Email Marketing: Campaign Analysis, Metris and Best Practices.

2. What is the toughest thing about analytics? Do you know what good looks like? ClickZ

3. Need some inspiration for multichannel innovation? No problem. Econsultancy showcases 15 brilliant examples from 2011

4.Ebay backs social commerce with Facebook integration Brand Republic

5. Have you thought about how Facebook’s recent changes will affect marketing strategy? It’s looking like there will be lots of opportunities to make this a positive experience for consumers. From Mashable Business: How Facebook’s New Features Will Affect Digital Marketers.

6. Posh and Becks, Beyonce and Jay-Z, Will and Jada. Here is another power couple for you: Search and Email Marketing: Why these channels dominate Sherpa Blog

7. What will we be saying about email in 20 years? Back to the Future – Email Marketing iMedia connection

8. With 50% of the average inbox consisting of unwanted Newsletters and Deals, is it any wonder why hotmail has declared war on graymail? Econsultancy

9.Multichannel attribution helps determine which mediums influence sales Chief Marketer

10. It seems to be that interest in email from brands has surged: Email marketing sees surge in consumer approval ratings Fourth Source

 

Bonus Links

1.Women more likely to respond to online customer reviews, research finds The Drum

2. Ecommerce is continually expanding  so it is important to make sure consumers can engage just as easily online as offline: Why online customer service is important [Infographic] Econsultancy

3. Halloween is almost here but the real thing that has me quaking in my boots is… email deliverability? What haunts email marketers? ClickZ

4. Location-based marketing has been around for a little while, but is it here to stay or just another trend to fizzle out? Location-based marketing – fad or the future?

5.Brit marketers failing to get the message to customers via email My Customer

Do you have any thoughts on these links? Let us know; we would love to hear from you.

 

Thank you and see you soon!

 

Millie Bartlett, Marketing Intern, e-Dialog UK