Slow-mo
While mobile has increased its importance, desktop still remains a considerable part of email marketing strategy. Return Path’s belief is that consumers’ shift towards mobile communication with retailers hasn’t been as rapid as we perhaps thought.
In November 2014, less than half of the emails examined were opened on a mobile device, which marks a decrease from last year, when mobile open rates eclipsed 50%.
To back this up. Return Path has published a gigantic infographic that is far too bring to reprint here, so click on the image below for the full version.
Are you being served?
Retailers risk missing out on sales this Christmas due to poor online service, according to new research by Eptica.
55% of consumers say they cannot find basic information (such delivery dates) on half of the retailers’ websites they visit, according to the survey of 1,000 UK consumers.
Also according to the research:
- 39% said they’d spend just five minutes looking for information on a website before giving up.
- 60% will hold for five minutes on the phone before hanging up.
- 56% expect an email to be answered within four hours.
- 44% want a response to their tweets within an hour.
And just to slip in a bonus Black Friday stat, by 5 December (one week after Black Friday), 52% of consumers had done over half their shopping and 16% had completed it.
Baby Come Back
Barilliance report that online retailers who retargeted Black Monday cart abandoners with retargeted emails, managed to retrieve 15% of lost sales.
Turn and Facebook the strange
Facebook released its Year in Review data, taking a look back at the moments, places and people most important to 2014.
In the UK, the Scottish Referendum was the most talked about topic on Facebook this year, with 3.3m UK interactions (comments, posts and likes) on Facebook on polling day, with 10m interactions in the five weeks prior to the event.
Ice Bucket Challenge was the UK’s second largest topic, with 17m videos shared globally. Football also dominated the list, with the World Cup,Premier League title race and the Champions League Final all in the top 10.
When it comes to the most check-in Facebook locations, Warner Brothers Studio Tour came out top as people shared their experiences from ‘The Making of Harry Potter’ tour, while tourist destinations Madame Tussauds, London Eye and Chester Zoo also featured in the top 10.
Here are the top 10 rundowns:
UK topics
- Scottish Referendum
- Ice Bucket Challenge
- World Cup
- Premier League title race
- Conflict in Gaza
- Robin Williams
- Louis van Gaal takes over at Manchester United
- Ebola virus outbreak
- Champions League Final
- First World War Centenary
UK places
- Warner Bros. Studio Tour London
- Madame Tussauds (London)
- Tower of London
- The London Eye
- Old Trafford
- Chester Zoo
- ZSL London Zoo
- Alton Towers
- LEGOLAND Windsor
- Wembley Stadium
Global topics
- World Cup
- Ebola Virus Outbreak
- Brazilian Elections
- Robin Williams
- Ice Bucket Challenge
- Conflict in Gaza
- Malaysia Airlines
- Super Bowl
- Michael Brown/Ferguson
- Sochi Winter Olympics
Non-marketing stat of the week
Christopher Columbus’s fee for ‘discovering’ America was about $300.
Don’t be a PLA hater
Retail paid search advertisers in the U.S. nearly doubled daily spend on Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) across the week of Thanksgiving this year compared with 2013, with peak spend shifting this year from Cyber Monday to Black Friday.
On the biggest shopping days, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, the overall conversion rate for Google PLAs was considerably higher than the surrounding days, peaking at nearly 6% on Cyber Monday.
The biggest year-over-year spend growth for PLA/Shopping campaigns among the key dates was on Thanksgiving (+143%), followed by Black Friday (+113%), and finally Cyber Monday (+59%).
Let them eat CRO
Econsultancy partnered with RedEye for the 2014 Conversion Rate Optimisation Report, revealing that 55% consider CRO to be a crucial part of a digital marketing strategy, with 40% of agencies seeing CRO as important to their clients’ overall digital marketing strategy. Not only that, but internal focus for CRO has increased for 1 in 5 companies, and 67% most commonly using A/B testing to improve their conversion rates.
Jingle all the way
Greenlight has analysed recent search volumes for children’s toys and found that, unsurprisingly ‘Frozen’ tops the list of most searched for children’s toy keyword, with ‘Nerf’ coming in at second place.
Here’s the top 10:
- Frozen
- Nerf
- Peppa Pig
- Minecraft
- Fireman Sam
- Toy Story
- My Little Pony
- Star Wars
- Transformers
- Batman
For more insight check out How retailers handle site search for the most popular Christmas gifts and Christmas toys: from PPC results to landing pages.
The not-quite-so Full Monty
Unruly has revealed the most shared Christmas ads of 2014, and the top spot isn’t occupied by who you expect.
Click above for the entire ‘live’ top 20.
Content marketing with confidence
The Content Marketing Institute and Axonn Media have published the following research on the confidence of content marketers, revealing the pressures and opportunities the industry faces.
- Only 42% of marketers feel they are effective or very effective at content marketing
- Only 36% of marketers have a written-down strategy that they work to
- UK marketers target on average four different audiences and use an average of eight different tactics to reach these audiences
- Social media, blogs and website articles are very popular tactics to reach target audiences, whereas mobile apps, podcasts and webinars are less popular
- The majority of marketers are not happy with the effectiveness of the way they monitor and evaluate results
- The majority of marketers expect budgets to increase next year
Three things you hate about mobile email
While apparel advertisers are spending more on advertising in Q4 2014 compared to the same time last year, competition in the apparel sector is lower than last year
Research by Liveclicker and The Relevancy Group reveals that 73% are using mobile phones to access email, and nearly one-third use it as their primary device. Further, almost half (42%) use their phones to ‘triage’ their inbox, deciding what to read or not read later.
To make matters more difficult for marketers, 44% respondents feel they receive too many emails, too often, 37% say the messages are irrelevant, and 32% say the messages are too small to interact with on mobile.
Race for the prize
Turn has revealed some data on advertiser competition for Christmas shopper attention in 2014.
Advertising for the gift sector is significantly more competitive than last year with competition increasing by 27% in Q4 2014 compared to Q3 2014
Jewellery is much more competitive in the lead up to Christmas this year than in 2013, seeing consolidation last year over Q4
Non-marketing infographic of the week
Hey fans of wine who don’t actually know anything about wine, here’s a handy visual reference from Wine Investment as to which wine glass to use for your Chablis (anything not a mug) and what temperature to best serve your Shiraz (whatever temperature the toilet is).
Authors: The Pixel Works