Local Business… getting noticed.
As a local business owner you have worked hard to provide excellent service to your customers, years of managing your business to be the best it can be. Once upon a time you probably had a yellow pages ad, a local print flier, and a listing in your local Chamber of Commerce business listing. Why, then are you not realizing more new customers, why is the phone not ringing as much or more than it once did? I will try to answer that question for you in the form of a few different business solutions.
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Cart Abandonment Pattern-
Social network usage grows in emerging markets; users there more open to brands.
In September 2011, eMarketer estimated worldwide social network ad revenues would surpass $8 billion by the end of 2012, with the US accounting for just under half of the total. Non-US revenues were expected to grow faster, as marketers attempt to increase brand awareness, market share, and profits in fast-growth countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) and beyond.
Social Networks More Influential in Emerging Markets
Why did I lose so many purchases to cart abandonment last quarter? Is there anything I can learn from this? Most of us would immediately formulate a solution to keeping the buyer engaged thru check-out. How many of us would begin re-marketing that same buyer?
48% of “serial abandoners,” online shoppers who abandoned more than one purchase in the previous 28 days, will buy when remarketed, making this group 2.6 times more likely to buy than one-time abandoners, according to a December 2011 e-book from SeeWhy. “Recent goal abandoners,” defined as shoppers who have made one or more purchases followed by an abandon in the past 28 days, have the highest recovery rate, at 57%. Overall, 43% of the sample studied were one-time abandoners, while 42% were serial abandoners, and 15% were recent goal abandoners.
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B2B Marketers Still Unsure about
Social Media Strategies
NOVEMBER 11, 2011, produced by eMarketer
Firms need more tools and technology to measure success
Although they have been slower than their business-to-consumer counterparts to adopt social media strategies, business-to-business marketers are increasingly acknowledging the value of social media.
According to research from a leading global consulting firm, nearly two-thirds of B2B marketing executives view social media as extremely important or a very important channel to interact with customers, partners and stakeholders. However, only 7% of the survey group felt that their organization was leveraging social media very heavily.
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Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
Every website should have a Unique Value Proposition (UVP), that is, the unique value that you promise to deliver to your customer that separates you from your competitors.
The UVP is like a song refrain
Where should the Unique Value Proposition go on a website? Let me reply with a question of my own: Where does the chorus or refrain go in a song? This may seem as a bit of a non-sequitur, but think about it.
- The refrain carries the theme of the song. Even when you can’t remember the name of the song, you’ll usually recall the refrain, because that’s the heart of the song
- The rest of the song fleshes out, substantiates, and supports the refrain. The stanzas and the refrain are intimately connected.
- The refrain is repeated over and over, and in the best songs, each repetition gains meaning and emotional weight from the stanzas that preceded it.
The vital role of the UVP
To see how this works online, simply substitute “Unique Value Proposition” for “refrain” and “website” for “song” and here’s what you get:
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7 in 10 CMOs Feel Unprepared for Data
Seven in 10 (71%) global chief marketing officers (CMOs) feel unprepared for the explosion of data that is occurring in the marketplace, according to a study released by IBM in October 2011. Data in “From Stretched to Strengthened” indicates that a similar percentage (68%) feel unprepared for social media.
Other developing business and trends a large portion of CMOs feel unprepared for include growth of channel and device choices (65%), shifting consumer demographics (63%) and financial constraints (59%). Out of 13 trends covered by the study, only corporate transparency (47%) makes less than half of CMOs feel unprepared.
Banks Using Social Media to Track, Engage Anxious Customers
47% of bank marketers responding to a survey from the CMO Council say they are using social media network pages and postings to deliver branded marketing content to their key customer, prospect, and partner audiences, according to a December 2011 report from the Council. This ranks as the second-leading marketing channel behind internet websites (76%), and is followed relatively closely by online or mobile video segments (41%). Roughly 2 in 5 bank marketers are using social media analytics and conversation monitoring to track the level of their customer anxiety, which the vast majority (89%) rate as moderate to very high. Digital Channels Effective for Costs, Turnaround
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Community Newspaper Values
Yellow Pages are a thing of the past. Social Media Marketing has replaced what we once understood as advertising. Or has it? 69% of residents in areas served by a local newspaper with circulation of under 15,000 say that their local paper provides valuable local shopping and advertising information, while 81% rely on the paper for local news and information, according to a survey released in December 2011 conducted by the National Newspaper Association (NNA) and the research arm of the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. 86% of respondents say their local newspaper is informative, and 3 in 4 look forward to reading it.
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