With the Holiday Season approaching, our thoughts turn gratefully to our clients and those who have made our progress possible. It is in this spirit that we say thank you, and best wishes for the holidays and Happy Thanksgiving!
– The team at Onimod Global
Thanks to the holidays, there are more digital marketing stats to delve into than usual. We’ve selected 12 of the most interesting numbers from the past seven days.
1. The Exchange Lab studied digital advertising performances on Cyber Monday and found that the average conversion-to-sale rate was 0.12 percent. That’s a 184 percent increase over the previous day. Last year’s Cyber Monday conversion rate was 0.22 percent, representing a Sunday-to-Monday lift of 49 percent. More than anything, the raw conversion rates—well below even 1 percent—show how hard it is to create an online advertisement that actually gets viewers to click the buy button.
2. Yet Adobe found U.S. Cyber Monday orders totaled nearly $3.1 billion, a one-day Internet record and a 16 percent increase over the same day in 2014. The previous record was set last week on Black Friday, when $2.7 billion worth of goods was purchased.
3. Amazon scooped up 36 percent of all online sales on Cyber Monday, according to Slice Intelligence, an e-commerce data player.
4. Amazon challenger Jet.com, which launched in July, reportedly brought in $2.7 million in sales on Monday.
5. With so much noise on the Web, it’s getting more and more difficult to build social-media audiences, but at least one marketer has had a strong month when it comes to Facebook. From Nov. 9 through Dec. 1, toy brand Little Tikes grew its Facebook audience by more than 166,000 fans, according to Engagement Labs (not to be confused with the previously mentioned The Exchange Lab).
6. Pixability looked at the top 100 retailers, per the National Retailer Federation, to forecast YouTube ad spending among big merchants during the holidays. The Boston-based tech company prognosticates that YouTube’s skippable promos, called TrueView, will bring in $41 million this quarter for the Alphabet-owned video giant thanks to gift marketing.
7. Let’s move away from the holidays and into some stuff that’s not so cheery. Ad blocking is costing the digital publishing industry $781 million a year—yet it makes up only a small chunk of the $8.2 billion lost to other problems like bot traffic and content piracy, according to a report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
8. VTech’s current public-relations disaster is one of the scariest holiday marketing tales of all time. The toy seller is reeling after learning that hackers gained access to data for about 6.4 million profiles belonging to children.
9. Hey, maybe Google+ ain’t dead after all. On Nov. 26, GlobalWebIndex said one in every four Internet users utilize Google’s social platform at least once a month.
10. And, maybe Facebook ain’t dead yet with the kids. Forrester Research found that while only 65 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds think the social platform is “cool,” it surprisingly reels more of them in than Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter. Sixty-one percent of tweens and teens said Facebook is the social net they get on most often, per Forrester. Additionally, 47 percent are visiting Facebook more this year than they did in 2014.
11. Few people have been as ubiquitous in the media as Donald Trump has been in recent months, and the front–runner for the Republican presidential nomination yesterday chatted with Periscope users for about 10 minutes. In terms of viewers for his virtual Q&A, Trump’s high-water mark for the livestream was nearly 7,500.
12. Last but not least, on Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan revealed that they plan to give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares over the course of their lifetimes. Zuckerberg’s estimated net worth is about $46.8 billion. The development came in conjunction with the announcement of the birth of their daughter, Max.
‘Tis the season for digital numbers that give folks an idea of what’s about to happen during the holidays. Check out six we found particularly interesting:
1. According to Salesforce Social Studio, Black Friday social conversations—via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, etc.—are up 20 percent over last year.
2. DataRank, part of Simply Measured, pulled 77,000 #BlackFriday tweets from Nov. 1 through Nov. 22. In its study, the company examined positive sentiment versus negative sentiment around the hashtag and found the following:
3. Walmart has appeared in 38 percent of the tweets about retailers, DataRank said, which made the big-box player No. 1 in that regard. Best Buy was second, appearing in 26 percent of such Twitter messages, while Target drew 23 percent. Here’s a full look at DataRank’s merchants-based findings:
4. Millennials will spend on average $352 on holiday shopping this season, per Ypulse, which surveyed 1,000 Gen Y consumers. Their primary gift-giving recipient will be dear ole Mom (84 percent of the time).
5. According to November research from AYTM Market Research, 47 percent of U.S. Internet users said holiday promotions before Nov. 4 were effective in getting them to make purchases. Twenty-five percent “somewhat agreed” that such promos worked, while 29 percent disagreed that the ads were effective.
6. Researcher eMarketer projects a nearly 6 percent gain in retail holiday sales this year, with e-commerce continuing to grow in the double digits.
Non-holidays bonus stat: Monetate analyzed 7 billion online shopping experiences in the third quarter and found that social networks’ conversion rates came in at 1.3 percent, representing a slight lift year over year.
With the holiday season upon us with Black Friday right around the corner, it’s time to super-charge your email marketing strategy.
The holiday season represents a huge opportunity for marketers to connect with their audiences and drive sales. Holiday sales in 2015 are expected to represent approximately 19 percent of the retail industry’s annual sales of $3.2 trillion. Additionally, the National Retail Federation is forecasting online sales to increase between 6 and 8 percent to as much as $105 billion.
To help you make the most of it, here are 10 tips that will make your email marketing results merrier:
Email marketing is a highly effective method to reach people this holiday season. With 57% of email subscribers spending 10-60 minutes browsing marketing emails during the week, you’re likely to reach people no matter where they are. Here are this season’s most notable holidays to plan your email campaigns around:
Veterans Day – Wednesday, November 11
Thanksgiving – Thursday, November 26
Black Friday – Friday, November 27
Small Business Saturday – Saturday, November 28
Cyber Monday – Monday, November 30
Hanukkah – Begins Sunday, December 6
Green Monday – Monday, December 14
Free Shipping Day – Friday, December 18
Winter Solstice – Tuesday, December 22
Christmas Eve – Thursday, December 24
Christmas Day- Friday, December 25
Boxing Day – Saturday, December 26
Kwanzaa – Begins Saturday, December 26
New Year’s Eve – Thursday, December 31
New Year’s Day – Friday, January 1
Predictive intelligence and individualized recommendations are great, but during the holiday season, your subscribers’ historical data (even very recent data) may not be very helpful because they’re shopping for others more than themselves. Rather than using data to make guesses, it can be more effective to just ask your subscribers what kinds of products they’re interested in.
For instance, on Nov. 13, 2013, Zulily sent a progressive profiling email that resulted in a brand alert email being triggered on Thanksgiving Day. And on Nov. 5, 2014, Sony sent a progressive profiling email where respondents received a targeted triggered email on Black Friday.
In both cases, that’s great timing for an email that the recipient is already primed to act on.
Triggered emails are not “set it and forget it,” they are “review and renew.” That’s especially true going into the holiday season.
Make your triggered emails more relevant to holiday shoppers by adding seasonal imagery to the headers and gift services footers to the bottom of those emails, and adjust the logic and timing of your cart and browse abandonment emails. For instance, time to purchase is compressed during big shopping days like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Green Monday, so you’ll likely want to fire off your abandonment emails more quickly than usual.
This is a quick win for the holiday season. Preview or snippet text is displayed under or to the right of the subject line in the inbox view of many major email clients, including the native iPhone email app, Gmail and Yahoo Mail.
Last November, only 47 percent of B2C marketers were optimizing their preview text so that it supported their subject lines. Anecdotally, it’s only slightly higher today.
Think of preview text as a second subject line — and you wouldn’t dream of having long URLs, administrative text and other nonsense filling up your subject line. Whether you use visible or hidden preheader text to create your preview text, don’t leave it to chance.
Social media sites like Pinterest can tell you what people aspire to buy from you, and that information can be super-useful in getting your subscribers excited about the holiday season and thinking about the possibilities. That’s especially true early in the holiday season.
But what’s actually happening on your site and in your stores, regarding the products that your customers are buying or actively considering, can be much more telling and worthy of focus.
Consider using this information in your email campaigns more as we get further into the season, when the wisdom of the crowd can be a powerful tool to direct shoppers to your most popular products.
It can be oh-so-tempting to want to get a little holiday boost by emailing a bunch of your subscribers who haven’t engaged with your emails in a long time, but resist the urge. The vast, vast majority of subscribers who haven’t engaged in more than two years are likely long gone, with a good chunk of those having abandoned or changed their email address.
Email a bunch of those folks during the holiday season, and you risk getting junked or blocked — which means that you risked your ability to reach your loyal, engaged subscribers for a shot at re-engaging a tiny percentage of inactive subscribers. Not a good bet.
For a smarter, less risky bet, try to identify the seasonal shoppers among your subscribers, those who were engaged and purchased during the holiday season but then quickly became silent afterward and haven’t engaged since. Those subscribers are much better candidates for re-engagement efforts going into Thanksgiving week.
Lastly, and perhaps most important, is ensuring your emails are mobile-friendly. It’s no surprise that prior to (and during) holiday shopping trips, consumers are looking to their mobile devices for the top email offers in their inboxes. Data points in this direction, with internal analytics showing that 50-70% of merchants’ marketing emails are being read on a mobile or tablet device. Coupled with Goldman Sachs’ forecast that mobile commerce will jump to $626 billion in 2018, proves the importance of meshing mobile and email.
Note that 65 percent of all email in the US is now opened first on a mobile device. Take advantage of this device segmenting by sending email offers with key words such as “[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][INSERT HOLIDAY] SALE!” or “[INSERT HOLIDAY] – 30% Off Online Only!” Phrases such as “Early-Bird Special” or “24 Hour Sale” work well too.
Keeping mobile top of mind will improve your lead generation and customer acquisition numbers.
Because Christmas falls on a Friday this time around, express shipping is likely to play a bigger role in the final days of the holiday season. Last Sleigh Day, which is Dec. 22 this year, marks the last chance for guaranteed Christmas delivery with express shipping for most retailers.
After you wrap up your Cyber Week promotions, be sure to include your order-by deadlines for standard shipping and express shipping in a module at the bottom of your emails. And if your brand is going to offer discounted or free express shipping going into Last Sleigh Day, be sure to communicate that to your subscribers.
For more expert advice on how to captivate your customers this holiday season, contact an Onimod Global Digital Marketing expert today.
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October begins the holiday season for businesses and marketers. You should embrace the new seasons and holidays as part of your social media marketing strategy. The seasons are a perfect time to produce relevant content that revolves around current situations all your customers and prospects are currently in. Holiday shopping begins before Halloween for 20 to 40% of all consumers. The fall season is a very busy time for people to be searching the internet and browsing social media for Halloween costume ideas, fall recipes, fall decorating ideas and crafts, the list is almost endless. It’s important your business has a strong online presence during this pivotal time to take advantage of a large audience. Below are some marketing tips for your business to implement this holiday season:
1. Profile background to match the season
Consider customizing your social media profiles for the holidays. Your online presence should reflect the current season your business is experiencing. Showing an updated and current online presence will build up the credibility for your business in the eyes of the consumers. An idea could be to promote a specific product or service your business offers that would interest viewers the most during the specific holiday or season your currently in. Include an image of this on your social media background along with a theme to match the holiday or season. For instance, a jewelry store could highlight a couple seasonal jewelry pieces they sell on their social media background along with any seasonal specials.
2. Search for relevant hashtags to use during the season and implement them into your content strategy and editorial calendar
See what holiday or seasonal hashtags are being commonly used and see if your business can relate to it or if it caters to your customer’s lifestyle. Craft social media posts with the relevant hashtags a couple times a week to increase the reach of your messages. You could also make a special hashtag for your business that’s relevant each year the holiday season approaches. It will help keep the conversation going. For instance you could use your brand name followed by gift idea, like this #BrandnameHolidayGiftIdeas to showcase your products and services. Some other relevant hashtags could be #HolidaySavings and #HolidayDeals.
3. Write a blog posts that relevant to the season and your business
Look for opportunities to use seasonal topics and traditions to engage your audience in a timely and relevant way. This can humanize your business and help customers connect with you in a whole new way. For example, Napoleon Perdis, a popular makeup brand, created a series of “How To” tutorials demonstrating how a customer could apply Napoleon Perdis makeup to create classic Halloween looks.
4. Share social media posts relevant to the season
Showcasing what you have in common with your audience is a great way for your brand to humanize it’s image and strengthened your relationship with your current and future clients. Share tips relevant to the season like Gibson Air did with this tweet “Fall Energy Saving Tip: turn fans clockwise in the fall to force warm air down, improving the energy efficiency of your home” During the fall season HVAC companies should provide tips that relate to heating and preparing for the winter season. A jewelry store could highlight seasonal jewelry fashion trends in their social posts. Always keeping up with the trends will allow customers to see you as a credible information provider that’s always up-to-date and cares about delivering the freshest content to viewers. This will encourage customers to engage and search out information from your business.
5. Create a Pinterest board revolving around the holiday
Pinterest is a great source of traffic and a great way to increase the reach of your messages. During the holiday season people are searching Pinterest for specific holiday or seasonal ideas, tips and gifts. This is a great opportunity for you to develop a special holiday Pinterest board to increase your reach and visibility online. If you are an HVAC company you could create a Pinterest board titled “Fall Décor Ideas” where you would share fall décor ideas for homes. You would be providing content that’s relevant to your customer’s lifestyle, your business and the current season which is always a win-win situation.
6. Create a social contest revolving around the holiday or season
Giveaways are a great way to create exposure and a buzz around your product, service or brand. A contest that matched the season would be a strategic way to capitalize on a trending topic. For example, TomTom launched a holiday-themed sweepstakes giveaway and called it “TomTom’s 12 Days of Giveaways”. Create a special Facebook tab for your contest to further capture data to further analyze to develop social media strategy. Make a contest that requires users to enter an email, to help build up your email list so you can update subscribers on future contests, promotions and announcements. In fact 55% of brands use email as their number one holiday marketing channel (Accenture)
7. Create a special YouTube playlist revolving around a seasonal or holiday topic
You can create your specific playlists on your YouTube channel to feature videos that has information your customers may be searching online during a particular season or holiday. For example Travel Channel is featuring a “Fall in Finger Lakes” playlist on their YouTube channel during October and features the best attractions to experience during the fall in New York’s Finger Lakes region.
8. Implement event marketing and host a holiday themed event, that’s promoted on social media
Events are a great way to interact with your customers and to increase your exposure. Social media can further the experience of your events in many ways. You could create a special hashtag to create a conversation around your event and promote it on your social profiles. You should also develop photo albums on your social networks to share photos of the event. A holiday or seasonal themed event shows your customers and your community your fun and creative side.
9. Create seasonal specials and coupons
If you’re looking to boost engagement, offering coupons and discounts are one of your best options. Try developing a seasonal special that you can offer each year to keep customers coming back. Share these specials in social media posts to increase your reach.
Use these marketing tips and ideas to make the most of the spike in holiday traffic and spending, and create a positive impression of your small business that will last long into next year.
