Best Internet Marketing Channel

The first thing most aspiring marketers learn is the importance of identifying and subsequently engaging those beautiful people called “the audience” no matter where they live online. This lesson gains wholehearted acceptance from everyone in the marketing world. However, the execution becomes complicated, and soon we all learn that feeding something like a blog everyday just simply isn’t enough.

We must put ourselves on the customer's online path.

Think goals first, campaigns second and tactics third.

What’s the goal? Always start there. That’s what the university lecturer taught you a long time...

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It’s amazing to think that just a little over two decades ago, consumers had only two options to communicate across long distances: telephone and mail. In today’s mobile, post-PC world, consumers have countless ways to communicate with each other.

They have similar options when it comes to communicating with brands. The question is, how do consumers determine the proper channel for their communication needs? The decision appears to boil down to six factors:

CONTENT: Is this a marketing message?
As we document throughout the Channel Preference Survey, consumers are much more selective about the...

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Whether you're an email, mobile, or social media marketer, there's a new piece of research from Motorola that you'll want to get your hands on ASAP. Their 4th Annual Media Engagement Barometer is billed as "a snapshot of the way that people around the world are interacting with media," and whether viewed on its own or in combination with another longitudinal survey like The Future of the Internet from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the breadth of results are pretty impressive.

Upon perusing the report however, my attention immediately focused on page 49 in which Motorola shared...

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In the fast-moving world of cross-channel marketing, it’s almost impossible to keep up with the news as it happens. Luckily, the Content Marketing team here at ExactTarget is here to help! We’re always on the lookout for fresh, interesting content, to help you stay up-to-date with the latest news and trends.

Here are a few of the top stories, posts, and other content that caught our eye this week:

World Internet Stats: Websites, Email, Social Media, and More (Marketing Profs)

Case Study: Where's the Best Place to Put Your CTA? (Unbounce)

10 Tools for Creating Infographics and Visualizations (SEOmoz)

9...

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The margin for error in Marketing has become razor thin. Here are five "MegaTrends" that underscore why marketing professionals need to be at the top of their game in 2013.    

MegaTrend #1: Customers are More Informed, More Influential, and Less Patient

Today’s customers are better connected, more informed, and more technically savvy than even 3-5 years ago. They have considerably more access to information to make smarter purchase decisions. They are much less patient with brands that do not deliver the information and offers they want. And they are much more vocal in expressing satisfaction –...

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Over the next several weeks, we will be sharing predictions on the future of marketing from 25 industry thought leaders. These predictions have been compiled in our new whitepaper, Inspired Marketing Predictions for 2013. Today, Ashraf Montaser of AdInfinity shares his thoughts.

True Cross-Channel Marketing Arrives

How many times have you heard the term “cross-channel” bandied about? As a marketer, the answer is probably more times than your average political candidate has been pictured kissing babies—constantly.

What is usually meant is that you can do web and social and email and offline and...

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Marketing has become a data-driven science requiring insight and execution. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2017, CMOs will spend more on IT than their counterpart CIOs.¹

According to Gartner’s Adam Sarner, “digital marketing represents a shift in strategy and approach, not just in channels. Although traditional campaign management thinking involves executing campaigns directly to the customer, successful digital marketing must act more as a mutually beneficial journey aimed at satisfying customers’ wants and needs. This is a customer-focused strategy approach that will profoundly shift...

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When taking time to evaluate your consumer interactions, it is important not to overlook the impact of an individual’s personality. Personalities, tendencies and preferences are major factors to consider when determining how to communicate with your customers.

Marketers must first know who they’re talking to. Only then can they determine the “right” and “wrong” marketing strategies for that audience. This is why we’ve identified 13 distinct social profiles or personas, to help describe UK consumers and their motives for being online.

1. Family & Friends - Focused on family and close friend...

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The customer experience. Mere invocation of the words makes seasoned retail marketers misty for the days when they controlled every aspect of the customer’s journey from parking lot to purchase. Today, however, the customer experience that retailer’s work so hard to create is under siege, thanks to internet-enabled smartphones, barcode scanning apps, and comparison shopping tools. Indeed, the balance of informational power has shifted to consumers, and retailers are scrambling to fend off competition in every aisle of their own stores.

For those retailers hoping to avoid a fate similar to that...

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The acquisition of customer information, fans, subscribers, and followers is fundamental to the success of any digital marketing strategy. However, if you’re like most businesses, you’re probably missing valuable opportunities to acquire new email subscribers, mobile subscribers, and social advocates. And, each missed opportunity can lead to one less conversation and one less purchase.

In analyzing research gathered during Retail Touchpoints Exposed, we found most retailers are lacking in their ability to use all forms of communication from the Internet to in-store to acquire new subscribers...

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It’s amazing to think that just a little over two decades ago, consumers had only two options to communicate across long distances—telephone and mail. In today’s mobile, post-PC world, consumers have countless ways to communicate with each other—and they have similar options when it comes to communication with brands. The question is how do consumers determine the proper channel for their communication needs. The decision appears to boil down to six factors:

1. CONTENT

Is this a marketing message?

Consumers are much more selective about the channels through which they will allow marketing...

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From the smart phone to the tablet, the digital revolution is effecting every corner of the globe. With the revolution happening NOW, it is important to understand how individuals in the UK are using social media, email, mobile, and the Internet. We spent time sifting through various research sites to compile the most recent and best data available for digital communication in the . Here's what we found :

Important Stats of UK Online Consumers

• 27% increase in mobile usage between 16-24 year olds between 2010 - 2011
• 82% check email at least once a day
• 44% use email as a means of connecting with...

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Digital media has forever transformed how brands and consumers interact with each other. Online marketing has become a 24x7 multi-channel symphony designed to engage and inspire today’s hyper-connected consumer. And hopefully compel them to buy the brand’s product.

To visualize the “avalanche of digital activity” that is taking place between brands and consumers, business intelligence company DOMO paired up with Column Five Media to create this infographic to show what’s happening online every minute of every day,.  

The sheer volume of online activity is staggering. Especially if you’re a...

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Welcome to my first research report surrounding the customer experience in retail environments.  Retail Touchpoints Exposed! is the 16th research report in ExactTarget’s SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, & FOLLOWERS research series. In the following pages, we share with you the findings of our in-depth study of the 100 fastest growing retail chains in the United States. Our objective is to document how and whether these retailers are seeking to build and engage proprietary consumer audiences in ongoing email, mobile, and social communications.

The Customer Experience. Mere invocation of the words...

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Each Thursday at 11am EDT, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget Nexus partner ecosystem on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry.  We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.

Our guest for a recent #NexusCafe chat was Jeremy Mayes, account executive at PPC Associates. Jeremy has over 15 years of direct marketing experience with a passion for search engine marketing. We discussed fundamentals and insights for maximizing your pay-per-click campaigns. Here's a summary of our discussion:

@ETNexus Q1: What are some...

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The ExactTarget Nexus team invites you to participate in our #NexusCafe Twitter chat tomorrow and every Thursday from 11am-12pm ET, where we discuss emerging topics and trends from across the interactive marketing world. The virtual coffee chat is hosted directly on Twitter, hosted by @ETNexus. Follow the #NexusCafe hashtag and be sure and add the hashtag to your tweet to participate. The person with the best tweets wins a Starbucks gift card!

Our guest for this week's #NexusCafe chat is Jeremy Mayes, account executive at PPC Associates. Jeremy has over 15 years of direct marketing experience...Read More »

Each Thursday at 11am EDT, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget Nexus  partner ecosystem on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry.  We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.

Our guest for the #NexusCafe Twitter chat was Jeff Rohrs, VP of Marketing at ExactTarget and the coauthor of the ExactTarget Subscribers, Fans, and Followers research series. He joined us to share how digital marketers can leverage mobile in their overall campaign mix. Participants shared their insights and experiences with mobile as a...Read More »

We’re all trying to “figure it out” i.e., create a competitive advantage and valuable customer experience via the mobile channel.  Naturally we turn to 19th century philosopher George Santanaya, best known for the quote, "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

While we have seen the pitfalls of applying too literally the principles of one medium to another – brochure-ware web sites, DM-based email programs – there are lessons to port over.

Direct Marketing teaches us that it’s all about the offer.  I recently saw results for an email challenger that failed...Read More »