Monkey Business

Interacting with customers has become easier than ever through various channels such as social media, text messaging, and e-mails. Customers are willing to share information with businesses in order to learn of upcoming promotions. When an email list is created, it is important to have a well-polished and informative email. Customers often have their email inbox's filled with tons of businesses trying to get their attention and inform them of upcoming promotions or changes. Smaller business often struggle with smaller budgets to create captivating emails.

There are a variety of email services that can assist businesses in creating professional looking emails often for a fee. For smaller businesses, a great option is Mail Chimp. Mail Chimp is a free service that users can subscribe to and create great looking emails using a variety of templates they have available. As a user of Mail Chimp, I have found it very user friendly and helps users easily organize your mailing list so emails can be sent out to personalized groups of customers.

Mail Chimp allows businesses to make a positive impact when connecting with customers and makes it easy to grab a customer’s attention. Outside of standard text, links to social media sites can be included to help customers easily find the business in other places and stay connected in a variety of places.

Take a look at Mail Chimp here:

www.mailchimp.com

Are there services you recommend or find useful in helping businesses stay connected with their customers?

2014 Digital Marketing Trends Report

One of the best ways to stay up to date on what is going on in any industry is to read white papers and research reports distributed by major companies in the space. For example, in the digital marketing world, Experian is one of those companies that works with both small and large advertisers to implement digital marketing campaign and strategies.

They recently released their "2014 Digital Marketer" report which is packed with information (138 pages to be exact!). (Click here to view it.) Out of this large report, one particular section I really found interesting is regarding the topic of 'Big Data'. This is a buzzword in the industry, but it doesn't have much meaning unless there is more definition and context around it. In this section, Experian explains how 'Big Data', or all of the data exhaust that exists because of consumers utilizing multiple channels and devices on a daily basis, needs to be made actionable. If it is not, then companies are losing out big on additional revenue, and I mean big revenue.

They estimate that retailers in the US alone lose nearly $100 billion each year because they haven't harnessed their data to execute intelligent cross-channel (online & offline) campaigns. I'm sure everyone can think back to a time where a brand has sent you an irrelevant message because they didn't leverage the information they had already collected about you. I don't want my insurance company showing me online ads and sending me prospecting emails that say 'Switch and Save with us!'. That's what I (and other consumers think), "Hello! Don't you know I'm already a customer?" It would be much more effective for that company to show me marketing messages that tell me how I can bundle other products with my current auto policy.

By combining the 'Big Data' that is collected across a company, whether it's from a website form, an online sale, an SMS subscriber or in-store purchases, to create a single view of the customer, advertisers can recognize significant growth in revenue from delivering personalized one-to-one content to customers and prospects.

If you take a few minutes to review the Digital Marketer report, I would love to hear what facts and trends you found valuable.

Pinning = Winning

There are all sorts of social media sites available for people all over the world to interact and share interests, but Pinterest is taking the social media world by storm and ultimately changing marketing. 

Pinterest grew from 2.5% of referral traffic in December to 3.6% of the referrals in January. Pinterest is showing other social media sites such as Google + and YouTube a run for its money and even causing them to lose referral traffic.

Source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
pinterestingly-enough-interesting-pinterest-stats/45328/

Pinterest allows for users to follow profiles, boards and even comment on pins to stay connected. The benefit to gaining followers as a company via boards or pins is the link building that is created which increases search engine optimization and increases keyword ranking.

Pinterest users who shop online follow 9.3 retailers, while Facebook users follow 6.9 retailers and Twitter users follow 8.5 retailers. Of the users on Pinterest, 80% are women, 50% have kids, and are more likely to live in the Midwest. During the average 1 hour and 17 minutes spent on there leads to 80% of pins being shared or "repinned".

Pinterest is great for companies who utilize boards and pins properly. In order to do so, there are some recommendations to take into consideration when creating a Pinterest marketing strategy which include the following:

• Profiles
• Pins
• Boards
• Research
• Images
• Collaboration
• Contests
• Copyright

Companies who understand the Pinterest user and their targeted customer can develop a marketing strategy that increases traffic and customer and brand awareness. Pinterest is a prime example of how social media is changing the way companies market to customers and the power of customer interaction.

Now Trending: Infographics

Created by Customer Magnetism.

For years E-marketers have researched and collected data via internal, primary, and secondary data in order to create marketing strategies and be more knowledgeable about their industry or competition. Once the research is completed and all the data has been collected and analyzed, how is the important information conveyed to the rest of the company or marketing team quickly? One word - Infographics.

An infographic is short for information graphic which is a visual image such as a chart or diagram used to represent information or data. According to the social network Digg, since 2007 infographics have

increased by 250 times. The popularity of infographics seems to be growing as it is a way to visually relay a lot of information that is consumed quickly by an audience. 90% of the information that comes to the brain is received and processed visually, which proves the effectiveness of infographics and why companies are turning to graphics to market and share information.

People are 44% more likely to interact with a brand who posts images on social media . Infographics allow companies to share information in ways that are:

• Easy to understand
• Grab your attention
• Easy to share
• Shows an expert understanding of a subject
• Increases traffic

It is important to make sure that when creating an infographic however, that design is key. Keeping in mind visual appeal and consistency can make an infographic more effective. As a creator of an infographic you want do keep in mind colors, fonts, and images. An infographic that is cluttered and hard to follow is ineffective and will confuse the audience.