Companies will spend more than ever on social media marketing in 2011, but some businesses are boosting budgets for entirely the wrong reasons. A new report “Social Media in the Marketing Mix: Budgeting for 2011,” demonstrates that companies are planning budget increases next year, as they move from cautious experimentation to full implementation. That sounds great, and […]
Email marketers have been warming up to social media for the past year, using social elements like “share with your network” and buttons to connect with brands on Twitter and Facebook in email campaigns. Email and social media also go together in another way: They are the top tactics marketers worldwide expect to increase budgets […]
I’m often asked by entrepreneurs and business owners whether it is worth blogging, and if so, what they should blog about. On the first question, the answer is obvious to me — you must blog as an entrepreneur. In this post I’ll cover why you need to blog, how to determine what to blog about, […]
There has been explosive growth in loyalty programs in recent years. The 2009 Colloquy “Loyalty Marketing Census” reported that from 2006 to 2008, US loyalty program membership grew from about 1.3 billion to 1.8 billion, which is a compound annual growth rate of almost 18%. This equals approximately 14.1 loyalty program memberships per household. But […]
Home furnishings giant Ikea named the finalists in its “Life Improvement Sabbatical Contest” on December 13. The company is using the program, part of a larger initiative including in-store seminars, an employee challenge and advertising, to drive opt-ins for e-mail and catalog requests. The retailer is encouraging consumers to vote on the winner. Ikea is […]
Three-quarters will market on social sites this holiday season Holiday advertising budgets are shifting as marketers increase their reliance on online channels, according to research from BDO USA. While print advertising remains on top for holiday spending, nearly 27% of retailers reported they would spend most of their budget for the period online, including on […]
Achieving social media marketing goals, whatever your level of participation Brands and marketers have different levels of participation in the social media space, but many have similar goals and strategies. The “2010 Social Media Benchmarking Study” from Ketchum and FedEx found when looking at 62 study participants from a variety of industries that 100% had […]
Word-of-mouth, often shared online, is most trusted source Modern moms are older, more confident and more connected than ever before, according to the WhatToExpect.com report “Delivering a Mom: How today’s New Moms Learn, Decide & Buy.” The technologies moms find most useful for parenting information are those that put them in touch with other moms. […]
eMarketer estimates that 127 million people in the US, or 57.5% of internet users, will use social networks at least monthly this year. Facebook alone has over half a billion active users worldwide. Still, many of the smallest businesses don’t believe their customers can be marketed to on such sites, according to an August […]
Several studies have shown that a majority of email marketers are making use of social media tactics, both to boost their social media efforts as well as to improve email campaigns. A June 2010 survey of North American email and online marketers by email marketing firm Lyris found that most of them were seeing positive […]