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Center For Media Research

 

Targeting, Video and Social Networking Keys For Small Business Promotion in 2010

 

According to according to The "2010 Email Marketing Trends Study" by GetResponse. 53.8% of respondents, said they intend to focus on Email personalization and targeting in 2010. 52.4% of respondents plan to improve message titles and subject lines in 2010. Other responses included increasing customer loyalty with special offers and gifts, identifying the best time to send emails, and using split testing. Only 10% of respondents plan to take no specific Email action.

Email Activities Planned to Improve InBox Performance (% of Respondents)
Planned in 2010	Percent Implementing
Increased personalization & targeting	53.80%
Improved message titles, subject lines	52.40
Increased customer loyalty special offers	37.70
Identification of best times to send emails	23.80
Using split testing to send best content	25.90
None	10.40
Other	2.40
Source: GetResponse, March 2010

Nearly 75% of respondents think behavioral targeting of email recipients, such as sending messages based on open and click behaviors, can cause a significant or moderate increase in email marketing effectiveness.

Perception of Behaviorial Targeting on Email Marketing Effectiveness (% of Respondents)
Perception	% of Respondents
Can result in significant increase in effectiveness	44.8
Can result in moderate increase in effectiveness	31.1
Not sure	21.2
No effectiveness observed	2.8
Source: GetResponse, March 2010

The study found that consumers believe that targeting messages based on a combination of customer preferences and previous behaviors is the most powerful technique in terms of improving email relevancy. "Getting personal" based on these two factors is more effective than demographics, purchasing history, or subscription date segmentation, says the report.

Techniques Planned To Implement In Upcoming Email Marketing Campaigns? (% of Respondents)

• Interest-based preferences... 59.40%
• Recent open or click-rate activity... 34.90%
• Demographics... 32.50%
• Purchasing history... 29.70%
• Subscription date... 17.90%
• None... 8.50%
• Other... 5.70%

Exploring the trends and technologies impacting the email marketing activities of SMB marketers in 2010, most SMB marketers see the benefits of incorporating video into their email messages. Over 80% of respondents plan to use video emails in 2010, while in 2009 only 15.7% of responders used video in their email campaigns.

 

Use of Video Email Marketing in 2009; Plans For 2010 (% of Respondents):

• Didn't use it, and do not plan to use video email this year... 19.5%
• Didn't use it but plan to use video emails this year... 64.0%
• Used it and plan to decrease the number of video emails this year... 0.8%
• Used it and expect to send about the same number of video emails this year...  3.8%
• Used it and plan to increase the number of video emails... 11.9%

Over 65% of marketers believe that video email marketing can have a moderate or significant influence on conversion rates. In particular, marketers who have already used video emails recognize the benefits on overall email marketing results. Almost 64% of those marketers claim that it results in significant rate increases!

Anticipated Influence Of Video Emails On Conversion Rates (% of respondents):

• Significant increases... 45.5%
• Moderate increases... 20.4%
• No influence... 5.1%
• Not sure... 28.9%

Expected Influence Of Video Emails On Conversion Rates, Based On 2009 User Type & 2010 Plans
User Type	Significant Increase	Mod Increase	Not sure	No Influence
Didn't use and do not plan to use it in 2010	12.8%	15.4%	59.0%	12.8%
Didn't use and plan to start in 2010	50.7%	22.1%	25.7%	1.5%
Used video e-mails in 2009 and plan to use in 2010	63.9%	25.0%	5.6%	5.6%
Source: GetResponse, March 2010

Considering the different uses of video email by small businesses, 28.8% of SMB marketers consider training courses as most effective use of video email, with Product Demos, Product Offers, and Customer Testimonials taking the next 3 places respectively. Branding came in at a far away 5th position!

Considered To Be The Most Effective Uses Of Video Emails By Small Businesses:

• Training courses... 28.8%
• Product demos... 22.0%
• Product promotions... 19.1%
• Customer testimonials... 17.8%
• Brand image messages... 5.1%
• None... 4.7%
• Other... 2.5%

In 2009, the most popular social media integration tool used in email marketing was placing "follow us" links into email messages. But only one of every 4 marketers was placing links to email campaigns and newsletters on social media pages, or including a "share" option in their online communications. Over 37% of responders didn't use any social media integration tools last year. It appears that this result could change dramatically in 2010, concludes the report.

Over 90% of respondents claimed that they planned to integrate social media into their email campaigns in this year. The most popular use of social media integration tools in 2010 will be adding sign-up forms on Facebook and other social media sites. Nearly 65% of marketers surveyed hope to gain new subscribers via social media subscription forms.

For more information from GetResponse, please visit here, and access the PDF study report from Get Response through Marketing Charts here.

MediaPost News

Center For Media Research

 

Social Networking Sites Attracting Mobile Browsers

 

According to the latest comScore report, 30.8% of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010, up 8.3 points from 22.5% one year ago. Access to Facebook via mobile browser grew 112% in the past year, while Twitter experienced a 347% jump.

Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile, said "Social networking remains one of the... fastest-growing behaviors on both the PC-based Internet and the mobile Web... "

In January 2010, 11.1% of all mobile phone users accessed a social networking site via mobile browser, an increase of 4.6 percentage points from the previous year. Much of this growth has been driven by smartphone owners, 30.8% of whom accessed social networking sites on their mobile browsers, up more than 8%age points on the year. By comparison, just 6.8% of feature phone users accessed social networking sites on their mobile phones.

Mobile Browser Access to Social Networking (3-month average ending Jan. 2010 vs. Jan. 2009 Total U.S. Age 13+)
	% of Subscribers Accessing
Mobile Browser	Jan-09	Jan-10	Point Change
All Mobile Phones	6.5%	11.1%	4.6
Smartphone	22.5%	30.8%	8.3
Feature Phone	4.5%	6.8%	2.3
Source: comScore MobiLens, March 2010

In January 2010, 25.1 million mobile users accessed Facebook via their mobile browser, up 112% from the previous year. MySpace attracted approximately half that of Facebook in January. Facebook's mobile browser audience surpassed MySpace in February 2009.

Twitter, which has experienced tremendous growth in both mobile and PC-based visitation, attracted 4.7 million mobile users in January, up 347% versus year ago. These figures do not include access of the social networking services by the nearly 6 million mobile phone owners who do so exclusively through mobile applications.

Number of Mobile Subscribers Accessing Social Sites via Mobile Browser (3-month average ending Jan. 2010 vs. Jan. 2009 Total U.S. Age 13+)
	Total Audience (000)
Social Network Site	Jan-09	Jan-10	% Change
Facebook.com	11,874	25,137	112
MySpace.com	12,338	11,439	-7
Twitter.com	1,051	4,700	347
Source: comScore MobiLens, March 2010

For additional information from ComScore, please visit here.

Music Mayhem in Denton, Salsa Girl Gone Wild on Vimeo, High School Students in Space, a Myriad of Female Feelings and Insights on Womanity, and Pepsi's World Cup Invasion in South Africa.  These and other unusual states of reality induced in part by Pizza Friday.