Best Online Marketing Channel

A few weeks ago, my friend Eric Smith from online retailer One Click Ventures asked me who “owns” conversion. At the time, I thought he wanted to know who I believed was responsible for establishing conversion rate objectives and measuring against them, so I replied, “Marketing.” Upon further thought, I think he was ultimately getting at who – in any given company – is “accountable” for conversion. And to that I have a very different answer.

I began my career in 1994 buying media for a large fast-food retailer we’ll call “Softee’s.” Mine was a five-state territory with a multimillion dollar...

Using video is nothing new. YouTube reports that they have 72 hours of content uploaded every minute, demonstrating just how crowded and noisy the video content area is. 

When you start creating videos, you’ve got to understand that once your video is out there, you don’t have full control over it any more. Sometimes a spoof of a video can take off and can really positively aid brand awareness. Then there are the other occasions where it can do enormous damage – is all publicity really good publicity? (Let’s leave that for another day!)

If your content is good, then it’s more than likely someone...

This week, ExactTarget launched the 21st research report in our SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, & FOLLOWERS series: The Digital North. This cross-channel report covers the online habits and preferences of online Canadian consumers, through detailed analyses of the channels they check daily and the communication methods they respond to best.

If Canadian consumers are part of the target audience for your digital marketing campaigns, you'll want to download this free report to power those campaigns with critical statistics and numbers. But even if Canadians aren't a primary audience for your brand, the...

Marketers have no shortage of inspiration. We are lucky enough to be surrounded by (and the target of) the work of our peers every day, and we appreciate a great campaign when we see one.

It can also be extremely helpful to take a look back at a successful campaign and identify areas of improvement--or new strategies for our own campaigns. That is exactly what most marketers should be doing with the recently completed Arrested Development campaign from Netflix.

Packed full of the snark and quirkiness Arrested Development fans have come to adore, Netflix’s cross-channel campaign leading up to...

At ExactTarget, we’re passionate about our clients—they’re some of the best brands we know, and we’re often inspired by their dedication to the work they do. And Von Maur is an excellent example! From the company’s start in the late 1800s until now, Von Maur has always put their customers first.

If you’ve visited one of the retail chain’s stores, you know what I mean—impeccable service, inviting décor, musical ambiance, and top-notch products. And while the company’s perfected their signature “above and beyond” service in stores, Von Maur wants customers to experience the same great service...

It should come as no surprise that traditional advertising is no longer as trusted by consumers as it was in the Mad Men era. Today’s consumers are more skeptical than ever. Less than 50% of consumers worldwide trust TV advertising. So what do people trust? 92% of consumers around the world say they trust word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family over all other forms of advertising.

Brands are embracing new strategies and technologies, which allow them to connect and engage with customers in social channels. The most innovative brands are shifting their strategies from traditional...

Marketing automation is the intersection of many useful features and functions. It's a proven fact that marketing automation software gives marketers full visibility into aspects of the sales cycle that were previously a mystery. But the sheer number of buttons and tools can seem daunting if they're not old-hat to you just yet.

As you begin to build an effective marketing automation program, you can begin to gain a holistic view of your marketing activities. From there, you can streamline traditionally manual processes (like customer segmentation, email marketing, and campaign management).

Start ...

Join us in San Francisco on May 9^th and Seattle on May 10^th for the launch of the Digital Mornings Breakfast Seminar Series. In this monthly six-part series we’ll gather together to discuss some of the latest research, updates and trends in cross-channel marketing over coffee and breakfast.

In the first session we’ll dig into an overview of the Cross-Channel Marketing Challenge, taking a look at how effective cross-channel campaigns can support the customer lifecycle: acquire, on-board, engage and retain. We will share best practices and case studies on cross-channel programs that incorporate...

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...

There’s no doubt that today’s consumers are mobile. They’re constantly on-the-go, sending and receiving communications of all types, and they’ve come to expect that information be (literally) in-hand at all times. Consumers are no longer sitting at their computers searching for information—instead, they expect information to be available all around them. At the same time, they expect that information to be relevant to their lives.

It was no suprise to us that Australians are leading the world in their adoption of technology and in partiular how they connect with brands on mobile devices. The...

March 27 is observed as the festival of colour, Holi, by a large number of Indians across the world. This holiday is a particuarly interesting social experiment, and one I've grown up observing since early childhood.

It’s a day celebrated not just with friends and family, but with pretty much anyone you can get your hands on--neighbour, neighbour's dog, et al. The key is dousing your victim in either coloured water or colourful powder dyes. In fact, it's not unusual for prim and proper suited office workers refusing to get into the spirit of things to be hit with water balloons thrown by school...

Permission-based email has become the foundation of successful direct marketing. From e-newsletters and travel alerts to promotional messages and purchase receipts, email is viewed as the most appropriate direct channel for brands to communicate with consumers.  Today, 93% of US online consumers are email subscribers and receive at least one permission-based email message each day.

As the ExactTarget 2012 Channel Preference Survey revealed, 66% of US online consumers report making at least one purchase that was triggered by an offer received via email. And for B2B marketing, nothing tops email...

Permission-based email has become the foundation of successful one-to-one marketing, and a company's database of email subscribers is one of its most valuable assets.

And with good reason! As our 2012 Channel Preference Survey revealed, 66% of US online consumers report making at least one purchase that was triggered by an offer received via email. And for BtoB marketing, nothing tops email for aiding the customer’s buying decision. In a 2012 article, BtoB Magazine reported that 59% of BtoB marketers say email is their most effective channel for generating revenue.

At the recent 2013 MarketingShe...

As a follow-up to the article I wrote for ClickZ the other day, I wanted to talk a bit more about the use of technology and the adoption of best practices in large B2B organizations.

My research for the ClickZ article looked at B2B companies on the Fortune 500* and their adoption of modern marketing tools. But when you look at the raw data, it becomes clear that there are three easy lessons for any B2B marketer.

Lesson 1: Technology is only the beginning

When adopting radical new technologies, the technology itself is often only part of the story. The other part is a shift in thinking or action....

For the past three years, ExactTarget's SUBSCRIBERS, FANS & FOLLOWERS research series has taken an in-depth look at consumer preferences and behaviors as they relate to email, mobile, and social channels. In Marketers From Mars, the 20th report in that series, we turn the tables and look at ourselves: marketers.

As marketers, it’s our job to be on the cutting edge. We were most likely the first among our friends to have smartphones. We were the first to tweet, pin, like, follow, and have a business page on Facebook. We Skype, not Keek. We Google Hangout, not FaceTime. We are the early adopters...

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

You already know that email marketing is a powerful conversion tool and perhaps the most critical source of traffic for online purchases. But did you know that it takes up to five or more customer interactions before a purchase takes place? Exhausting! In fact, some studies show that only .25% of NEW site visitors will convert to a customer. That’s a lot of work for little return.

So, take a breath and nurture those new visitors with series of meaningful and personal interactions before asking for the sale. There are many ways to do this within the ExactTarget platform--and SocialPages and...