Trained as a journalist from the age of 18 and enjoying a long career in regional newspaper reporting and editing, Sally Hooton joined DMI (Direct Marketing International) magazine as editor in 2001. DMI then morphed into The GMA, taking her with it!
At a recent conference in Amsterdam on branding, Magda Grama heard that it is people, not machines, who have undergone a ‘digital transformation’. The event explored how marketers should act accordingly.
The world of science fiction is now a reality for marketers looking to make a big noise and advertisers wondering where to apportion their budget. Plus, bots are hot for generating insight and video games are leading the field for consumer engagement.
Take three marketing channels: email; mobile apps; social media. The greatest of these is email, with 96 per cent usage, says The Digital Customer Engagement Index from Mapp Digital.
One of the largest independent digital marketing technology companies in the world, Mapp Digital analysed the digital marketing methods of the top 50 ecommerce brands in the UK in 2016. And despite the large uptake of email communication, the study found that relatively few companies are truly harnessing user preferences, personalisation and optimisation across devices.
The analysis revealed that only 26% personalise emails, 60% personalise the web experience, and a mere two per cent use a personal approach in their mobile apps – despite most brands asking for customer names and other identifiable information.
Rolf Anweiler (pictured), senior vice-president marketing, Mapp, said: “All data no action summarises the broad approach we’re seeing from the UK’s top ecommerce brands.”
He continued: “But broad is no good when it comes to marketing in a digital revolution, when customers’ relationships with brands are changing to an ‘always on’ culture and you explicitly ask for information about them.
“Many brands are still more 9 to 5 than 24/7 when it comes to marketing. With the proliferation of channels, devices and technologies comes a great opportunity for marketers. At the moment, though, most are being bland, formulaic and not quite delivering.”
In mobile app marketing, where 92% of brands have a mobile app, most seek permission to send notifications. Despite this, only 17% actually delivered a message across the duration of Mapp’s study – which ran for a month in spring 2016.
The study also looks at how brands are orchestrating cross-channel engagement, noting that only 25% of the top brands with bricks-and-mortar stores are using technology to drive engagement when potential customers might be passing by. This indicates that most are wasting a huge opportunity to grow the mobile channel and engage with customers, especially mobile-savvy millennials.
Key findings:
Anweiler added: “In an era when brands are pushing for more personalised, individualised marketing, some of the largest ecommerce brands in the UK are still failing to create meaningful engagements due to inconsistent use of digital channels.
“Never has having a consistent strategy been more important, nor has combining the data from the multitude of digital channels to create a holistic view of the customer. It is – or should be – simple to deliver highly bespoke messages. Marketers today have all the tools to achieve this.”
There are a number of steps which can be taken by brands to mediate the risk of online fraud.
Over the course of the next decade, it will probably not be enough to just engage with digital; organisations will have to become digital enterprises.
Augmented reality, virtual reality, gamification – the modern ad world is reaching beyond the limits of reality. What should digital marketers be looking for to spark exciting ideas? And can you really make a success of marketing in a lavatory?
A UK survey showed that 82% of marketers believe email personalisation results in an increase in open rates, 75% believe it produces higher click-through rates and 56% see a positive impact on sales. So yes, artificial intelligence might be all the rage right now, but marketers should not forget that assets they have already in their marketing arsenal (such as the data in their CMS and marketing platforms) can really help their ROI.
As today’s marketers are under increasing pressure to capture the attention of an ever more demanding audience, researchers have focused a study speci fically into the use and effects of personalisation in email and across the marketing mix.
It is forecast that 5.4 billion people will have mobile phones worldwide by 2020, so brands need to understand what applications users in different regions are most likely to be using and how to provide a high-quality user experience.
There was a day when brands controlled their marketing messages. Not any more. Your marketing is being done for you, even while you sleep. That makes for a very exciting world, a new world and from a marketing perspective. How will you make it work for you?