E-MARKETING: How Do Your Clicks Add Up?

Saturday, August 28th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

While there’s growing evidence that the effectiveness of e-marketing is somewhat giving way to other means of interactive consumer dialogue — specifically social media and mobile marketing — the well-targeted, spot-on-messaged e-campaign remains a powerful, efficient, effective marketing and sales tactic.

And while studying open rates is all well and good, it’s clickthroughs to your websites, micosites or special offers that count. So how do your clickthroughs add up against national averages?

While there are statistics and sources aplenty, one e-marketing performance resource NOISE looks to is Bronto. Delivering approximately one billion targeted emails each day for its clients (utilizing in-house lists), Bronto data on deliveries, opens and clicks should by sheer size be considered “benchmark.” And bonus for marketers, Bronto breaks its data down into 15 major industries.

Here’s a snapshot from today:

• Travel & Hospitality: Open 25.4%, Clickthrough 3.7%
• HealthCare: Open 38.0%, Clickthrough 3.7%
• Real Estate: Open 17.4%, Clickthrough 5.0%
• Entertainment: Open 36.6%, Clickthrough 30.5%
• Retail: Open 19.8%, Clickthrough 3.9%

At NOISE, we’re proud to report that among more than one million e-mail messages we authored for our clients last year, our opens kept pace with national average — while our clickthroughs delivered 450% greater return than the national average. That’s good for us. But outstanding for our clients.

How do your clicks add up?

SOURCE: NOISE, Bronto

Tags: ADVERTISING, agency, best, brand, BRANDING, design, emarketing email, fort myers, interactive, milwaukee wisconsin, naples, noise, sanibel florida, SOCIAL MEDIA, top, web

SOCIAL MEDIA: 136.38 Reasons To Love Your Likes.

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Smart marketers invest in social media — specifically, the development of communities of passionate followers — for a lot of reasons intrinsic to the success of their brands. Engagement. Involvement. Reward. Satisfaction. Loyalty. Referral. And while there’s obviously great value in this type of customer relationship, putting a price tag on a social media “fan” has proven donkey-tail elusive. Until now.

According to an extensive study by the research firm Syncapse of more than 4,000 Facebook followers of 20 national brands — including Coca-Cola, Nike, Blackberry, Nokia, Victoria’s Secret, Starbucks and McDonald’s — the average “fan” is worth $136.38 to its brand. How so? Let us count the ways:

1. Brand followers will on average spend 33% to 250% more annually than non-fans.

2. Brand followers are 28% more loyal than non-fans.

3. Brand followers are 41% more likely to recommend and refer than non-fans.

NOISE has championed social media since almost day one — and embraced its potential with the development of Vwallah! Social Media and QwickClick Online Videos. And while each brand’s fan value may of course vary, knowing you can always default to research and multiply your legions by $136.38 per person should be welcome news to innovative marketing directors — as well as nay-saying bean counters.

SOURCE: NOISE, Syncapse, Gigaom

Tags: ADVERTISING, agency, best, fort myers, milwaukee, naples, noise, qwickclick online video, sanibel, sem, SEO, SOCIAL MEDIA, southwest florida, vwallah!, wisconsin

MARKETING: Experience and Satisfaction vs. Nickels and Dimes — What Would You Choose?

Sunday, July 25th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Great brands rock because they succeed at providing exceptional customer experiences and satisfaction. Great brands also rock because they succeed at convincing customers that the value provided is greater than the price charged. But what happens to that brand when it “nickels and dimes” its satisfied customers to almost laughable extremes? And what would you choose to do — abandon the brand, or accept the pocket-change-mentality surcharging?

Case in point: AirTran Airways.

You may disagree with me (and you probably will), but I love AirTran. They satisfy my business travel schedule with more non-stop flights. Their fares are low. Their online reservations process is a breeze. Their online ticketing process the same. Their fleets are new and clean. Their flight attendants are generally very positive. And heck (depending on whether you think it’s a plus or a minus), they were the first to market with in-flight internet.

But here’s the nickel and dime rub, and it’s moved beyond luggage. In my experience, there exists not one seat on any AirTran flight that doesn’t come with a surcharge. Front, rear, aisle, window, middle, exit row, within sniffing distance of the lavatories, it doesn’t matter — now that you’ve booked your flight, you get to pay again to sit down. And last I checked, sitting down is mandatory on U.S. air travel.

I applaud AirTran’s ability to get away with this and still not really irritate me. It speaks volumes for their brand’s overall positive experience, satisfaction and price-value relationship. That’s a goal every brand should strive to achieve regardless of pricing structure. But what would you choose — to reward the exceptional brand that is all about money (so to speak), or abandon ship?

SOURCE: NOISE, John Sprecher

Tags: ADVERTISING, agency, airtran, best, brand, brand development, customer satisfaction, experience, florida, fort myers, interactive, marketing, milwaukee, naples, noise, sanibel, SOCIAL MEDIA, web, wisconsin

CREATIVE: Whatever It’s Worth.

Monday, May 17th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

As we’ve written here before, NOISE North hosts a garbage can in our conference room, a shiny receptacle that stands as our symbol of the value of award-winning advertising, interactive, social media, public relations or any other brand communications — without results.

So last week, when NOISE South had the great pleasure to share with a number of our outstanding clients the exciting news that four of our creative efforts this past year were judged worthy of “Regional” Addy Awards — three more than any other agency in Southwest Florida, and hot on the heels of our local 19-Addy-awards 2010 performance, which included two Best of Show Awards and a Judges Choice Award thrown in for good measure — we announced the news with a low-key memo simply entitled: “For whatever it’s worth.”

For the most part, the reactions of our clients were what you might expect. Excitement. Praise. Hearty congratulations. Then, we received a note from a client leader whom we’d describe as the “toughest sell” of this award-winning group. To paraphrase his message: “What’s it worth? I believe it translated into positive sales for us.”

We wrote the words “for whatever it’s worth” because even today, given the delicate state of the economy and the incredibly high value of every marketing dollar that you will spend, there are still many marketers who fail to understand that the better the message in, the better the reaction out — unlike the all-too-common very opposite of this that we see all too often in advertising today, which is: garbage in, garbage out.

So to our clients, congratulations on your award-winning work. We’re extremely pleased you see the value in them, in the truest business sense of the word.

SOURCE: NOISE

Tags: ADVERTISING, agency, award winning, awards, best, creative, florida, fort myers, milwaukee, noise, public relations, sanibel, southwest florida, top, wisconsin

MOBILE: Where the Web Is Headed.

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Four years from now, where will the majority of us hop online?

If Morgan Stanley analysts are correct, more users will access the Internet in 2015 via mobile devices than our computers.

Impossible, you say? Or at the very least, hard to imagine? Not really, when you consider the widespread acceptance and exponential growth of smart phones; the proliferation of faster 3G mobile service, combined with affordable pricing; and the rapid rollout of innovative and exciting new mobile applications, technologies and uses.

From its introduction in June, 2007 via the iPhone and iTouch, mobile web in less than three years has become the standard for anywhere and anytime access to friends, games, video, entertainment, shopping, sharing, mapping, research, wireless home appliances and much more tomorrow. In fact, the average iPhone user today spends less than half of his or her on-device time making phone calls!

As the landscape changes for web marketers, the challenges will be many. But so are the opportunities. So charge up your smart phone now.

SOURCE: Morgan Stanley, Mashable, NOISE

Tags: ad agency, award winning, best, fort myers florida, internet marketing, milwaukee wisconsin, naples florida, noise, sanibel florida, SOCIAL MEDIA, southwest florida, top, web