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mercoledì 6 maggio 2015

Using the 70:20:10 rule in Marketing

How to use the power of the 70:20:10 model work to prioritise your digital marketing

70-20-10-Rule-MarketingWith new marketing tools and techniques available to us almost daily, it can be difficult to know where to prioritise your marketing activities to get the most 'bang for buck'.

As marketers we need to be agile through   reacting to new developments in order to gain an upper hand on competitors, but at the same time, we need to avoid being 'technology magpies' following seductive, shiny new tools which may distract us from working on optimising the most effective channels.

This is where the 70:20:10 rule can really help, since it's a simple device which helps us think through how we prioritise the time and budget we put into different marketing activities. By splitting your spending or output into three differently sized areas, it helps you to identify priority areas, and allocate campaign budget as necessary.

The 70:20:10 rule is flexible, and can be applied to a number of different areas of digital marketing. It's traditionally been applied in media or campaign budgets, but there are several interpretations of how businesses can use the rule in their own marketing strategies including content and social media marketing. Here are three key areas of resourcing digital marketing, along with suggestions on how the 70:20:10 rule can be utilised. Finally, we take a look at how it applies in learning and personal development.

The 70:20:10 rule in Digital media investment

It can be tempting to stick to the tried-and-tested marketing methods that have worked so well in the past. For example, if AdWords drives sales at an acceptable CPA, then there will be a tendency to focus here. However, lack of agility, or 'putting all your eggs in one basket' has proved to be the downfall of many an established company, who have been unable to adapt to a rapidly-changing consumer or marketing technology landscape.

In digital media investment, Ashley Friedlein has suggested that 70% of your marketing should be 'marketing as usual'. This entails focusing on the marketing activities that have driven sales volume in the last couple of years, for example Search and affiliate marketing for a retailer. This should already be successful, and, of course, you will have built up an in-depth knowledge of how to go about things, so this 70% will be your bread and butter campaigns. He suggested that 20% of your marketing should also be 'programmatic', which is more rules-driven and automated in response to various stimuli; so it is not planned, but it is responsive, and, typically, machine-driven and executed. Finally, 10% of your marketing should be purely responsive - this is Oreo-style Real-time marketing.

Mark Renshaw of agency Leo Burnett/ Arc Worldwide, writing in Ad Age also suggests dividing spending into 70%, 20% and 10% 'buckets'. Again the 70%  bucket is all about 'refining your record of success' of tried and tested media. He recommends applying the next 20% to media that have just gone mainstream or are on the verge of doing so, while the 10% are the opportunities that pop up frequently and quickly attract media attention.

The remaining 10% of your marketing should be responsive or 'agile', reacting to current events or news stories in a way in which customers can relate to. This approach isn't easy thought it requires the right creative people and process to be in place at your company. Specific examples include Oreo's often-quoted 2013 Superbowl blackout tweet  and Newcastle Brown Ale's no-nonsense response to a rival brewer's campaign.

The Content Distribution Matrix that we have created follows similar thinking, here the 70% is the high volume, high ROI activities in the bottom right quadrant. The 20% and 10% are in the top left low volume, low ROI category when media are first tested with a view to moving them into the bottom right if they're effective.

Content Distribution Matrix large

The 70:20:10 rule in content marketing

According to several creative and content blogs, the 70:20:10 rule when applied to content marketing should be broken down by volume of different types of content as follows:

  • 70% of content should be proven content that supports building your brand or attracting visitors to your site
  • 20% of content should be premier content which may be more costly or risky but has a bigger potential new audience, for example 'viral videos' or infographics
  • 10% of content should be more experimental

For example, Patricia Travaline writing in Social Media Today suggests that 70% of content should be proven – in much the same way as 'marketing as usual', this is the content that you know users are going to flock to, allowing you to build up a reputation as a reputable source. She believes that 20% of content should be 'premier' – i.e. more engaging and in-depth – and 10% should be experimental. This is similar to the suggestion by Michael Stelzner in his interesting book Launch where he has the nice simple suggestion that a content schedule should blend regular 'primary' fuel and exceptional, more risky 'nuclear fuel'. Many don't invest in the 'Nuclear option'.

Both of these interpretations of the 70:20:10 rule allow for a marketer to build a solid, reputable knowledge base for customers, provide content that is interesting and unusual and, when needed, self-promote in fun and unorthodox ways.

The 70:20:10 rule in social media marketing

In terms of social media, the eternal question is what types of content should a brand post? The 70:20:10 rule allows you to structure your updates, allowing your company to appear reputable, whilst simultaneously engaging the reader.

Crystal Vilkaitis has this 'Facebook Posting Rule', suggesting that...

  • 70% of Facebook posts should add value and build the brand
  • 20% should share ideas or content from other sources
  • 10% should be promotional, with offers and discounts offered to followers

This is the type of posting mix that we look to apply across different social networks - it's not just Facebook. Some might argue that you should share more than 20% of content from others, but many social feeds are too promotional.

You can see that the 70:20:10 rule in marketing is itself adaptable. That's its beauty - it can be applied to different aspects of budgeting time and resource. It's not a hard and fast rule - more the basis for discussion. In summary, if marketers focus the majority of their efforts on maintaining their brand (or indeed, building it), then they can allocate the rest of their marketing efforts on ensuring they resonate with consumers in an emotional way. By focusing a large percentage of your marketing budget on proven success, you are able to risk some of the remainder on areas of potential, which may prove highly profitable in years to come.

The 70:20:10 rule in learning

70:20:10 Learning model

Although we have seen that the 70:20:10 rule has been applied in lots of different ways within marketing, it's perhaps most commonly known as the 70:20:10 learning model which is useful for marketers to consider too.

The modern thinking is that the majority of learning is through doing and we should think about how we can extract and share learnings from this. With the Smart Insights resources we look to encourage that through offering Expert members the option to create a plan using our Digital Marketing workbook as they complete our online courses.  Learning from trusted colleagues or mentors is the 20% while more formal classroom courses (we offer webinars to support this) and classroom reading provides a foundation and give qualifications to prove your level of knowledge through formal assessments.



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martedì 5 maggio 2015

New: Google+ Collections to categorise your content [@SmartInsights Alert]

Google+ follows Pinterest with a new 'Collections' feature'collections'

Google+ Collection Example

Rating: ★★

Recommended Link: Google Official announcement - Introducing Google+ Collections

With this new feature Google+ seems to be following the popular model of Pinterest boards, where posts can be categorised into topics and interests, to share with family and friends on the same basis as the posts.

You can see the example at the head of this post where we grouped some of our infographics and they appear as 'cards' similar to Pinterest. Google explains 'Collections' this way:

 

"Every collection is a focused set of posts on a particular topic, providing an easy way for you to organize all the things you’re into. Each collection can be shared publicly, privately, or with a custom set of people. Once you create your first collection, your profile will display a new tab where other people can find and follow your collections".

Google's apparent reason for this new feature comes from behavioural research which identified that connections were taking place around 'interests'. Although there are sceptics which reveal that take up could be low, as activity is not around public posts.

They are clearly treating it as a major feature since when you add collections the link/tab to them is in middle of the main page navigation.

How does the new collection feature work?

You can use this page to create your first collection collection, and a new page will then be created to allow others you follow and share your collections.

To 'road-test' the feature we created a collection featuring our Digital Marketing infographics - view example.

This new feature is available this week. It can be accessed via Android and the web, with iOS is to follow.

What  are the implications for marketers?

Well, this depends how important Google+ is important to your business now and how you see this changing in the future. We have seen the number of shares of our content via G+ decrease steadily over the last 18 months while Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn shares have continued to grow. For this reason we have rate this as ★★. It is a major feature in the sense that it is shown in the main menu of the header. But we don't see it as significant enough to increase adoption or engagement of Google+ by businesses or consumers. Or to look at it another way, the grouped content is not as clear as Pinterest (from the home page of the brand), so it's unlikely to attract Pinterest fans.

Given this, our advice would be not to bother about Collections unless you already have an active Google+ business page with thousands of followers.

What do you think of the Collections feature - Game Changer to revive Google+ engagement or a minor feature update?



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What is the impact of Adwords PPC advertising on brand awareness?

Research study tests show brand awareness lift in 12 different sectors

Simulated search experiment research from Google and IposMediaCT reminds us that search ads are not only about driving direct response for lead generation, but that they can also develop brand awareness. By measuring brand metrics and reviewing test Search Results (SERPs) with control groups, the study showed the impact of search ads across 800 consumers.

Brand awareness adwords search test

Ads across 12 vertical sectors were tested and proved that 'search ads' placed their brand at the forefront of a consumer's mind, lifting awareness by an average of 6.6 points.

Search ads uplift brand awareness

How search ads lifted awareness

Respondents were asked which brand first came to mind when thinking about a specific category keyword. An average of 14.8% in the Test group named the test brand, while just 8.2% of the Control group named the same brand. That’s a 6.6 percentage point increase or an average 80% lift in top-of-mind awareness.

Across verticals, the research showed higher than average points for brand awareness in the automotive industry, Consumer Packaged Goods and B2B companies.

This infographic summarises the research.

Search Ads USA research

Source: Source: Google/Ipsos MediaCT, Search for Brands Industry Research.



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Case Study – How The Sun hurdled the paywall using Live Chat

An example implementation showing the popularity of Live Chat

Sun+

The Sun newspaper took a step into uncharted territory in August 2013 when it moved its content behind a paywall for the first time.

For Britain's biggest selling daily, it was a hugely important development. In common with newspapers all over the world, the Sun has witnessed a sea change in consumption habits as increasing numbers of readers opt to access content online rather than buying printed editions.

By setting up a paywall and thus requiring readers to pay a subscription, the Sun was securing an important revenue stream for its online version while also emphasising that its journalism has a value.  

But if it was a big step for the newspaper itself, it was also a major change for online readers, who were being asked to pay for content that had previously been free to view. Once the paywall was put in place, readers were presented not only with an unfamiliar subscription model but also a revamped digital product, branded as Sun Plus. This created a communications challenge. Not only was it important to explain the change it was also vital to provide advice and support for readers as they assessed the subscription packages and explored the functions and features of the new site.

So as the paywall was implemented, the Sun put customer support at the heart of a multi-channel communications strategy. The guiding principle was simple. The launch team were aware that readers would have a great many questions. Each and every query would receive an instant answer.

If the principle was simple, the execution of the strategy was painstakingly prepared. A team of 20 was assembled to handle customer engagement and each member was trained to answer any question that might arise. There was a lot of ground to cover in the training. Readers were certainly expected to ask about the subscription packages but equally there could be questions about downloading apps or setting up a fantasy football team.

Using Livechat for customer support

Customer support was lead not by a traditional phone line or email, but via a live chat platform (Live Engage), supplied by LivePerson. This provided the newspaper's online readers with the means to click through to a chat agent from links on the Sun Plus site itself or from the @SunplusCS twitter feed.

The positioning of live chat as the primary customer support channel perfectly suits the medium. Sun Plus readers are an 'online' audience and they expect to do things in the digital space.  Rather than, say, ringing a telephone hotline or e-mailing for support, they can get instant advice simply by clicking through to talk to an agent. There is no need to leave the Sun Plus environment. 

How popular is Live chat?

Live chat has proved popular with readers. Since the launch of Sun Plus there have been approximately 250,000 interactions with visitors to the site and, to date, 80% of queries have been addressed through the chat channel.

And for the Sun, it has proved a highly effective means to reach answer the maximum number of enquiries with the resources available. It's estimated that if the enquiries had been handled by telephone, the existing team could only have dealt with about half that number of engagements.

The reason is simple. One key feature of live chat is that an agent can handle several engagements simultaneously.  In contrast, each telephone enquiry locks agents into a single conversation for the duration of the call.  

But the advantages of live chat extend beyond the increased numbers of inquiries that the team can deal with on any given day. The resolution rate is also much higher. Indeed, the Sun Plus team estimate that chat performs four times better than voice calls in terms of the time it takes to resolve questions and problems.     

Keeping customers satisfied

Any major change to the commercial relationship between a business and its customers – in this case the readers – has to be handled carefully. Indeed, it's often during times of change that the ability of contact centres to deal with customer concerns is really tested. Poor support can generate a negative reaction.  So it's gratifying that Sun Plus is achieving customer satisfaction ratings of 85% plus.

The platform The Sun use - LivePerson's LiveEngage  is also winning favour, with surveys turning up a 95% of customers are satisfaction rate.

Good communication is the key to implementing change and in the digital era live engagement is proving to be a hugely effective tool in addressing the questions and concerns of customers.  And as the experience of Sun Plus illustrates, its an ideal channel for digital businesses. 



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lunedì 4 maggio 2015

Which words in Email Subject lines drive the best response?

What data science taught us about 211 email subject line phrases

Once you click the send button, your email subject line is the most important part of your campaign. This is a fact.

Think about your own experience in the inbox. Mine is something like this:

  1. Look at inbox
  2. Look at sender name
  3. Look at subject line
  4. Make a decision whether or not to open it and read the content

Your sender name is important as it conveys your brand value. But it’s not something you can change easily.

Your subject line is important because testing and optimising them drives response rates like nothing else.

But, there’s a common problem with subject lines.

Dotmailer research reveals 26% of email marketer’s time is spent on email creative, 21% on deployment, and only 8% on testing. And, over 70% of email marketers don't split test their subject lines very often.

Here’s the thing: if people don’t open your email, there’s a 0% chance they’ll see your creative.

It’s clear that more attention needs to be paid to subject lines. However, subject lines as a discipline lacks rigorous scientific and statistical investigation.

Research to reveal the importance of  'subject lines' in emails

I believe that there is a science to subject lines. So I did the research to prove it.

Methodology

I took a random, anonymised sample of 700 million emails from phrasee.co, the subject line tester and generator. The data is from a collection of online retailers spanning numerous industries. It is mostly from the UK and the USA, with small amounts of data from other Anglophonic countries.

Simply looking at past data is myopic and risky. It assumes that tomorrow will be the same as yesterday. This is where most subject line analysis falls short.

I then applied some advanced statistics. I’ll spare you the gory details but, in a nutshell, I created a time-decayed Bayesian probability model. Then, I ran billions of Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations to generate a huge amount predictive data. This allowed me to take a data set and extrapolate it to a much larger sample of outcomes. It also controlled for random variance, which makes the end results more robust. It also takes into account interdependence of phrases, not just binary outcomes.

From here, I normalised the results and calculated a quality score for individual phrases. The quality score is derived from a combination of response metrics, time-decayed results, and external factors. It’s called the Phrasee Score™.

What is a Phrasee Score™?

Phrasee Scores™ are statistics that tell you how well (or poorly) a given phrase will perform in an email subject line. They are based upon our training data and predictive algorithms.

Scores range from 1 to 100. The higher the score the more reliably a phrase drives response.

Bear this in mind though: a high Phrasee Score™ doesn’t tell you that the given phrase will always deliver solid results for you. What it does tell you is that a phrase has above-average results with low variability. A low score may have good results at times, but the variability is higher. It’s therefore less likely to be the causal variable of increased response.

Phrasee Scores™ are an indication of quality. They will help you decide what to use in your subject lines. But they’re not silver bullets – there’s a lot more to subject line science than that. To understand more about how Phrasee uses this score to generate subject lines, then read on.

Results of the analysis

I tested out 211 common phrases used in email subject lines that are focused on selling.

For the sake of keeping this blog post under a million words, I’ll abridge the results. You can download the email subject lines report.

Key findings from the subject line analysis report

I’ll break it up into a few subsections to aide readability and comprehension. I’ll show the top 5 and bottom 5 from a selection of the categories I analysed.

  • Action words

These are call-to-action phrases that are intended to elicit a specific behaviour.

cta words

  • Questions

These are subject lines formed as a question, checking specific inquisitive structures.

Subject lines as question - scored research

  • Sale phrases

These are phrases that relate to a specific offer, discount or sale.

sales phrase - scored research

  • Superlatives

These are noun or verb modifiers that elicit emotional response from email recipients

superlatives words scored research

  • Urgency

These are phrases that use time or stock defined scarcity as an action driver. Clearly, anything to do with Midnight isn’t working too well.

urgency words - scored research

I analysed much more as well: In total I analysed 211 phrases. Beyond the Phrasee Score™  and also calculated open, click and click-to-open means and quartile metrics. You can download the full email subject line report

Key email marketing takeaways

From doing this analysis, I learned the following things:

  1. There is a science to subject lines
  2. Testing subject lines is key to learning what works
  3. Advanced statistics can teach you a lot about subject lines
  4. Don’t use the word 'midnight'

What are your experiences?

Phrasee uses machine learning to optimise your email subject lines. free trial of phrasee.co and benefit from subject line science in action.



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How to use outreach in social media to grow your personal blog

Examples of using social media to promote your personal blog

Blogging without social media is now the digital equivalent of stranding yourself on a desert island. To promote yourself effectively and get the results you want, you need to find and connect with people who share similar interests and goals. The best social media strategy entices people to follow the link back to your main blog and check out your main content posted there.

Developing a personal brand using a blog together with social media has a slightly different approach depending on your niche and subject matter. Researching some basics about your target audience is an essential early step, and thankfully each of these social platforms has user-friendly search tools to help you. The essentials to note are average age groups and interests among the followers you want to target as potential blog readers.

Starting up a Personal Blog

The definition of 'personal' has become rather broad for a blog because it can be anything from a personal online journal about your life to a blog about a specific subject that carries a great deal of meaning for you. Don't rush the process of fleshing out your blog topic. It should strike a good balance between what appeals to your target audience and what you also find meaningful.

Should you use your name?

Some experts recommend using your first and last name as your blog name, though you should follow this advice based on a few specifics. Consider your short list of subject matter possibilities, and think about how much certain individuals may find your topics controversial or otherwise counter to their cherished beliefs. This factor often comes into play if future employers may look up your name online. If your blog theme is very mainstream and common, it's usually just fine to use your first and last name. In this case, it can be more challenging to follow the first cardinal rule of blogging. If you want to blog about a topic that may well shake some people up, it's often best to use a pseudonym or a combination of your first name and a key word that tells people right away about your topic.

Case studies on personal blogs

Here are some examples of personal branding across a variety of marketing channels.

Laurelpapworth blog

No better way to brand yourself then by inserting a headshot of yourself in the header of your website. That way, people looking for you by name can confirm that’ve come to the right place. More than that, people who didn’t have a face to match to the name can now do so.

You can’t go past this custom social media link square. It invites the user to continue the journey with the author off-site and in the social sphere.

 

Leaving already - social icons

 

Facebook Alexandra Porter coronis realty

As you can see in Alexandra’s timeline and display picture, she has made it obvious that she sells houses, and that she enjoys her job. Their confident Facebook page informs fans of their success  in selling houses and in some cases, within days.

alexandra porter-coronis_reality social media post

The first cardinal rule I've discovered about Blogging is don't be boring. The Internet is an enormous source of user-generated content, and it has become a very competitive arena for readers' and social followers' lasting interest. To cut through the masses, you need to stand out in people's minds and give them reasons to follow your blog. This cardinal rule applies to your social media posts as well.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but unless you're a celebrity or other public figure, few people are going to care about the details of your personal day-to-day life. The exceptions are usually your family and closest friends. It is good to sometimes throw in a short anecdote from your personal life if it ties directly into your core subject matter, but keep those minimal and relevant.

If you want to reach a larger and dedicated audience, a niche topic that matters to you is best for a blog. Be sure it's a topic you won't get bored with, because you'll always need to write new posts and create other types of content surrounding it. There are some reasons why your small business blog is failing as Jakk Ogden highlights in his blog.

Promoting yourself with Facebook

Once your blog is published with a good number of posts, it's time to set up a Facebook page for it. The specific number of posts you should publish before promoting your blog is usually a matter of opinion, but 15-20 published posts is a good goal. As a professional, a Facebook page allows you to post links to each of your blog posts, along with relevant photos, videos and related news items on other sites.

Facebook posts with photos and a link back to one of your posts tend to get more views than links without a photo. Last year, according to research from eMarketer, content posted with photos accounted for 75% of content and photo posts received the highest engagement on Facebook.

Once your Facebook page is live, find and like other pages on similar topics. Also invite your existing Facebook friends to like your new page. Using Video also increases engagement.

Using Twitter for driving blog traffic

Many bloggers have had great success with growing the biggest following in the shortest amount of time with Twitter. The microblogging site has a huge user base from every niche area imaginable, and new members join on a frequent basis. The basic rules for Twitter success are as follows:

Be sure to tweet links to your new posts as soon as you publish them. Also keep your Twitter followers updated on future topics and content you're working on for your blog. If anyone tweets you good feedback, always take the time to reply and thank them.

For more advanced Tweeters, read SmartInsights hub on Twitter Marketing. 

Building Circles with Google+

Google+ is a relatively new addition to the most popular set of social media platforms, but it's already gained a solid user base. It provides a great platform for connecting with people who have the same interests and who could turn into loyal blog readers. Google+ gives you the option to join public or private discussions about relevant niche topics, and these are excellent ways for you to weigh in on the same topics covered in your recent blog posts. As example you can check out this case study to learn how H&M uses Google+ to engage their audience through an inspirational strategy, sharing a mix of media including photos and videos to promote fashion

Making the Tumblr connection

Many blogging platforms have available add-ins that allow you to automatically cross-publish each of your blog posts to a Tumblr blog, which is a great way to increase your main site's visibility. You have the option to publish the full texts of your posts to your Tumblr blog, or to publish only excerpts with a link back to the full text.

Tumblr is a very visual-heavy site, so adding images and animated GIF files is highly recommended. As with other social sites, following, commenting and reblogging are all the most effective ways to build an audience over time with Tumblr.  

Find out if your profiles fits the growing Tumblr audience.

Managing multiple social sites can be a challenge, but you do have some tools at your disposal to help you. Applications such as Buffer and Hootsuite allow you to write and schedule posts to Facebook, Twitter and Google+ in advance, which can be a life-saver when you're juggling a blog with a busy schedule. Don't completely set it and forget it with the social scheduling. A mix of scheduled and real-time posting works the best, and for either case make sure your social posts are engaging.

Although it takes more time and planning, mix up the content you post to each of your blogs social accounts to keep things interesting. Seeing the same image and link on three different accounts will cause some of your readers to get bored after a while, and they'll be less inclined to read your newest content. At least once or twice a week, create a different post or tweet for each of your social accounts. You don't even need to add your blog link to all of them. Add something new to each of them that your readers wouldn't have learned just from reading your blog.

Social media's core idea is to create online communities around a specific niche, so interaction is also vital. Make some time to reply, share, retweet and comment on some of your followers posts as well. This step is essential for building trust and sending the message that you're not just out to get page views and traffic to your blog.

Branding yourself with a personal blog and social media takes some time, thought and planning. It also requires commitment, patience and dedication to building up a substantial following. Becoming a blogger people want to follow takes a certain level of chutzpah because you need to stick out from the massive online crowd. Doing so involves creating material that grabs others' attention, and not everyone is going to share your exact point of view. Don't let the possibility of less-than-polite feedback discourage you, and don't waste your mental energy worrying what others think. This approach will come through in the content you create, and it will help you gain the admiration of your social followers.

Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Tumblr are the most established and recommended sites to join for promoting your blog. New social media sites are also launched on a frequent basis, and those are usually worth investigating to see if they're worth adding to your blog promotion strategy. Don't expect immediate results overnight when it comes to building a substantial following, and take note of which types of posts and tweets get the most attention from your followers. As trends change in your niche topic area, use these changes to make adjustments to your blog and social content as well.



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9 Powerful promotional tactics for your blog [Infographic]

It's about content, style and value more than SEO

We like this infographic which has been created with newcomers to blogging in mind. It practices what it preaches by using an interesting visual style with useful recommendations rather than less useful 'facts and figures' about how to promote your blog. It recommends how to develop the right types of content and style within your blog post rather than providing SEO techniques or basic social media promotion.

It can be a learning curve and take time to build up your followers, so why not learn from existing bloggers to speed up your success rate by reading further.

9 ways to promote your blog posts

 



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