The new Econsultancy/Adestra Email Marketing Census has revealed that more than half of UK businesses attribute as many as 10% of their sales to their email marketing campaigns. Even more impressively, 18% said that email accounted for more than 30% of sales – showing that although email is an older digital marketing method than its contemporary cousins such as social media, it still plays a significant role for many businesses when it comes to sales.

Mike Brownlow, the Email Marketing Report publisher, explained, “Email’s true role in generating sales is often underestimated, because many responses don’t involve a click (or even an open). Ignoring the positive impact of branding/awareness for the moment, we know that marketing emails can trigger, for example, a relevant Google search, a type-in visit to the sender’s website or a visit to the sender’s offline store.”

If your company isn’t yet harnessing the power of email marketing, now would be a good time to start! It’s significantly cheaper to carry out than physical counterparts like direct marketing, and 66% of the marketers surveyed agreed that email marketing delivered an ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ return on investment. Just a simple message reminding your customers that you’re still there and have some great products and services to offer can have a serious impact – why not give it a try today?

A new survey from American mobile service provider AT&T has shown that more and more small businesses in the States are focusing their budget on their digital marketing efforts. The 2013 AT&T Small Business Technology Poll revealed that 66% of small businesses plan to either maintain or increase their online marketing spend for 2013, and 71% are “somewhat” or “very likely” to raise their budgets for mobile marketing too. Nearly a third of small businesses have “mobile-friendly” websites in order to engage with their customers.

Whilst these particular statistics are relevant to the US market, they match the trends that are occurring on this side of the pond as well. Earlier this year, Econsultancy’s Digital Marketing Outlook Report 2013 revealed that 55% of UK businesses expect to increase their digital marketing budgets this year – and 39% will be doing this at the expense of their other channels. A Constant Contact survey also showed that a quarter of UK SME’s are already using digital tools like social media marketing to enhance their customer experience.

The news that more and smaller to medium businesses are taking advantage of these methods is certainly promising for the budding entrepreneur. Digital marketing gives businesses of all sizes an equal footing and enables smaller businesses to remain competitive in the fast moving world of commerce today.

Digital marketing is such a broad term. It encompasses everything from your website to your wording, your social to your SEO, and with so many different buzzwords floating around it can be difficult to identify the key components that your business needs to be getting on board with. We’re filtered out the jargon and picked out 3 essential aspects of any digital marketing strategy – if you’re not already using them, now is the time to start!

Content

Content is king, so the experts say, and for good reason – it can boost your SEO and endear your customers to you simultaneously. Whether its blogs, articles, web copy or emails, if you provide intelligent, well written content that’s genuinely useful to your audience on a regular basis, you can expect a positive response from Google and your potential client base.

Social

Social media is content’s hip younger brother, and definitely something that your business should be involved with if it’s not already. The most crucial aspect when it comes to social media is not to leave your pages static. Talk with your audience and post little and often – you’ll be surprised at your rate of engagement as a result.

Mobile

In Q1 of 2013, PC sales declined by 14%. This isn’t because people aren’t browsing the web – it’s because they’re using their mobile devices to do it instead. To perform a digital marketing campaign effectively, your business website needs to be optimised for mobile – if it isn’t, you could be alienating a significant portion of your audience.

Is there another aspect of digital strategy that you want to know more about? Leave us a comment and let us know!

New data from Econsultancy and Adestra’s Email Marketing Industry Census 2013 has shown that more than half of all marketers (61%) are lacking confidence when it comes to their email marketing campaigns – ranking them either as ‘average’ or ‘poor’. Only a rather miniscule 4% of marketers would refer to their own campaigns as ‘excellent’.

According to the report, these are the key pitfalls:

• 27% of marketers spend no time optimising their emails
• 71% have basic to non-existent email optimisation strategies for mobiles
• Only 18% spend more than eight hours planning the design and content of their campaign

It seems that of the 1,300 marketers that Econsultancy surveyed, very few have invested enough time and effort into their email campaigns to be truly proud of them.

The research considered the amount and type of marketing emails being carried out, the way that the campaign is conducted, issues affecting the industry and the popularity of email when compared with other digital marketing methods. The results show that the majority of marketers need to fine-tune their email efforts to get the results they require.

If you’re one of the 61% of marketers who would rate your campaign as ‘average’ or ‘poor’, it’s time to make some improvements.

55% of businesses plan to increase their digital marketing budgets during 2013, a new report from Econsultancy and SoDA has revealed. According to the research, 39% of companies will be increasing this spend at the expense of other channels – once again demonstrating the way that marketers are now prioritising digital marketing.

In fact, just 11% of survey participants intend to decrease the amount of money allocated to digital marketing, showing that 9 in 10 marketers believe in the discipline enough to raise their game (and their funding).

The findings reflect earlier reports from this year around the globe – in February, we reported on a similar poll of US marketers, which showed that digital marketing now outstrips traditional marketing methods in the States. However, all is not lost for print, television and other, more conventional advertising disciplines – 16% of respondents to the Econsultancy report, Digital Marketing Outlook Report 2013, said that they are planning to increase digital budgets alongside overall marketing spend.

As a business owner, this final statistic could invoke a predicament – do you only raise your digital budget, or do you allocate as many funds as possible to all marketing mediums? It’s important not to forget about conventional marketing methods completely, but if you only have enough cash for one boost, all of the signs point to digital.

If you’re plugged into social networking, you’re going to start noticing a number of changes to your Facebook and Google+ pages over the next few weeks. Facebook users will discover an entirely overhauled newsfeed, whilst Google+ aficionados will be treated to larger cover photos, an easy to use ‘About’ tab and a new user reviews section.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, described the redesign as a “personalised newspaper” that offered “a richer, simpler, more beautiful news feed … that is focused on the things that [users] care about.” The re-launched news feed will be divided into a range of new sections: All Friends, Most Recent, Close Friends, Music, Photos, Following and Games.

The ‘Following’ section is the most relevant for your business because it’s designed specifically for users who follow Facebook ‘Pages’. The new design encourages users to interact with the content posted on business pages (see these images from Search Engine Journal.) For example, if you post a link to your blog on your Facebook page, the thumbnail image will be larger than it is now, and the title will be presented in a more engaging magazine style. As a nice final touch, your logo will appear at the bottom right hand corner of the summary! All of this points to a likely increase in the number of click-throughs to your website from the content you post on your business’s Facebook page.

For Google+, the most beneficial aspect for businesses is the reviews tab, which makes it easier for users to create (hopefully) positive reviews that recommend your company to other users. Google+ may not enjoy Facebook’s level of popularity just yet (Google+ has 400 million registered users, while Facebook has more than 1 billion), but the new features are designed to attract a new batch of more engaged, interactive users.

A new Nielsen Mobile Consumer survey has shone the spotlight on the daily habits of mobile users across the globe – providing results that offer useful insights for businesses trying to develop a mobile strategy. When focusing on UK mobile users and their usage over the last 30 days, Nielsen found that:

• 98% had used their mobile devices for text messaging
• 68% had used their device to check email 
• 66% had used their device for mobile web
• 63% had used their device for social networking

According to the report, 97% of UK consumers now own a mobile phone, and 61% have a smartphone, so the research reflects the habits of more than half of the population. This means three key things for your business:

1. Every marketing email that you send must be optimised for mobile – if it’s not, you could be missing out on more than 50% of your audience.
2. Similarly, your website must be optimised for mobile users in some form – we’d recommend responsive web design, which essentially means creating one website that is viewable across a variety of platforms, but you could also consider a standalone mobile website or even an app. 
3. Social media is just as important on mobile devices as it is for desktop users, so you need to bear this in mind when creating your posts. Avoid lengthy chunks of text or complicated content – make your updates quick, engaging and easy for your customers to read on the go. 

Will you be taking Nielson’s research into account on your way to mobile marketing success?

A new poll of US marketers has shown that digital marketing now vastly outstrips traditional marketing methods. The study, which was carried out by Inavero for staffing firm Aquent and the American Marketing Association, was intended to uncover marketing trends for the next twelve months, and ultimately revealed one of the strongest correlations in results in recent years.

The key statistics showed the percentage of marketers which expected these previously popular methods to decrease in 2013:

• Direct marketing (9%)
• TV (21%)
• Radio (24%)
• Consumer magazines (28%)
• Newspapers (32%)

However, these percentages of marketers believe the following strategies will increase over the next twelve months:

• Email campaigns (56%)
• Blogging (63%)
• SEO (68%)
• Social media (76%)
• Mobile media (82%)

So what does this mean for your business? Well, whilst these are stats from the USA, the trends are reflected in current marketing strategies around the world, and although traditional marketing methods shouldn’t necessarily be forgotten completely, this is yet another survey that proves that the future of marketing is digital.

As we have discussed time and time again on the NS Design blog, mobile marketing looks to be the strongest trend of all, so first and foremost it’s essential to get your website optimised for mobile users. Then it’s time to focus on your social and SEO strategies, ensuring that everything from keyword selection to demographic research is up to date.
What do you think – will you be changing your marketing focus as a result of Inavero’s research?

In light of contemporary disciplines like social media marketing and search engine optimisation, email marketing is often seen as a somewhat outdated marketing method. However, what many businesses don’t realise is that it’s not the medium that’s outdated, but their approach towards it – too many companies are still using the same stale email tactics that have been circulating for years. If you’re stuck in a rut and want to modernise your email approach, follow these three simple steps:

1. Optimise for mobile

According to a study by Knotice, more than a quarter of all emails are now opened on a mobile device. If your email isn’t optimised to be viewed on tablets and smartphones, you could be missing out on more than 25% of your prospective audience. Make sure your emails look just as good on mobiles as they do on desktops to ensure maximum read rates and engagement.

2. Personalise

These days, sending out a mass message with the same content for every consumer just isn’t going to cut it – modern emails have to be personalised in order to remain competitive. In fact, the Adestra July 2012 report revealed that emails with personalised subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened, showing that simply including your recipients’ names increases your chances of your emails being read.

3. Keep it short and sweet

Contemporary consumers may always be switched on, thanks to their portable mobile devices, but they’re also busier than ever, and don’t have time to read a lengthy, time consuming message. The same Adestra survey showed that subject lines with 30 or fewer characters performed above average in open rate, click rates and click to opens. Tailor your text to this straightforward approach and you’ll start to see results.

New research from Econsultancy and Responsys Marketing Budgets 2013 Report has shown that almost 3 out of 4 businesses intend to increase their digital marketing budgets this year – whilst only 20% intend to increase funding for their offline marketing pursuits.

The survey, which took into account opinions from more than 800 professional marketers, also highlighted particular digital areas where the increased funding would be pinpointed. The top five results were:

• Content marketing (70%)
• Search engine optimisation (65%)
• Email marketing (65%)
• Social media investment (62%)
• Mobile marketing (61%)

It is unsurprisingly that content marketing has come out on top, particularly when a previous Econsultancy survey showed that 90% of professionals predicted that the area would become increasingly important throughout 2013. However, with more than half of all respondents planning to increase their funding to all five of these disciplines, it is fair to say that digital marketers should be focusing on all of these important aspects as part of their strategies.

However, whilst digital marketing budgets are set to increase, and marketers seem to have a good idea of the areas they will turn their attentions to, they are still finding it difficult to measure the return on their investment. Only 50% of Econsultancy’s respondents claimed that they had a ‘very good’ understanding of their digital ROI, and 18% went as far as to say that their understanding was ‘very poor’.

Digital marketing is a valuable resource for any modern company, but it’s essential that marketers try to get a grasp on the results that it produces. Do you know how to measure your company’s digital ROI?