Marketing News Archives 2009

September  8, 2009 Different Email Accounts have different open rates A survey from Mail Chimp, the email distribution service used in the US, reports different opening rates between differnt email provider accounts. For example, Gmail accounts were more likely to be clicked on and opened by users than other popular accounts. Gmail is also one of the fastest growing services in the US - even though Yahoo! mail and Windows Hotmail service had significantly greater visitors to their webmail service, the Gmail service is growing faster and unique visitors grew by 47% between July 2009 and July 2008. G mail also had the lowest hard bounce rate although  it may be that Gmail's stringent spam protection may result in emails disappearing without producing a bounce. Source: eMarketer.com August 28, 2009 Who uses Twitter? Analysis of Twitter usage in a report by Sysomos shows that Twitter is dominated slightly by women (53% users) and the majority are young (81% are 29 years and below). Only a small proportion send tweets frequently (update 10 times daily) compared with 85.4% who teet less than once a day. A very concentrated few twitter uses are responsible for the large number. The more followers a person has the more they tweet however the vast majority of users (92.4%) follow less than 100 microbloggers. Source: eMarketer.com August 28, 2009 Buyers want human touch even online In a US survey reported in the online news service Biz Report, 52% of adult consumers said their decision to not purchase was influenced by the lack of a human contact point in the purchase cycle they experienced. Reasons stated for this included the inability to get a question answered about their purchase through the e-commerce website they were using (58%). A staggering 93% were reported as having a question about purchase. Commentators in the market recommend that website operators make sure that product descriptions, delivery details and payment functions are clear to reduce consumer confusion, anxiety and lack of trust. Source: Biz Report.com.au August 27, 2009 Google still dominates Recent Australian Nielsen data measuring site visits has confiirmed that Google still dominates with the highest number of visits in July 2009, up 22% on the previous month. NineMSN came in second place, Microsoft in third place and Facebook came in fourth place, with an astounding 51% increase in unique visitors. Source: B&T.com.au August 27, 2009 Older adult use of Facebook on the increase Recent research from Forrester in the US shows that participation by older adult groups in social networks is on the rise and likely to continue. The report showed that usuage by 35-54 year olds had increased significantly in the last year by 60%. Even the over 55 year old group showed increasing participation and the 35-54 year olds are moving towards creating content rather than just spectating, which these older participants have done more traditionally with social networks such as Facebook in the past. The Forrester researchresults reported in Biz Report suggested that 'marketing campaigns aimed at older audiences were safely able to include a significant social media element and assume there would be 'a substantial, engaged audience to address'. Source: Biz Report.com August 25, 2009 Small businesses are turning to online for sales Now even small business are using online more to promote their business than traditional media such as television, radio and newspapers. A report from the Kelsey Group claims that online/digital ad penetration increased to 77% while traditional ad penetration decreased to 69% amongst small amd medium sized enterprises in the U.S. This is a milestone in digital and online adoption, indicating the broad shift overall to online platforms. Source: Biz Report.com August 14, 2009 Consumers share 1/3 of online videos US research shows that on-third of all online videos are shared by consumers and are more likely to engage with online video than television ads.The research from Yahoo, Warner Bros and other high profile companies, reported that 70% of consumers report watching some videos at home and work. Also, 28% of consumers are more likely to pay attention to online videos than TV ads. Source: eMarketer.com August 14, 2009 Australians Plan to Spend as Confidence Rises Research from well-known research company The Leading Edge has measured a rise in Australian consumer confidence accompanied by a more relaxed attitude to spending with key desires mentioned as holidays, clothes, restaurants, and electronic goods. A stronger preparedness to spend was seen in consumers aged 24 years and under.The report suggests that consumers are more likely to splash out on brands that provide good value, rather than more luxurious brands. Source: B&T.com.au

June 4, 2009 Small Business is getting Social   According to a study done by Sage Software and AMI-partners published by E-Marketer, small businesses in the US and Canada are picking up social networking, with over 260,000 businesses using this tactic. Most of them use professional sites such as LinkedIn but Facebook and MySpace were also widely used. The main uses were for responding to customer questions (64%), networking (57%), while only 33% used them for advertising and promotion of their businesses. Few used the sites for influencing purchases which according to E-marketer may be a strategic mistake. One business reported in the article gaining 15% of his day's takings through a Twitter specific promotion, showing there were indeed ways to make sales out of social media. Source: E-Marketer.com   June,3, 2009 US DTC advertising looks like further falls in 2009   In a recent study done by Cegedim Dendrite in the US, DTC spending was forecast to fall for the second year in a row, with reductions made this year 10% larger than the previous year. Almost half of marketers surveyed stated the decrease was due to budget cuts (48%). Other key reasons mentioned include shifts to other promotional approaches such as a move from DTC to targeted direct-to-patient promotion (16%); to direct-to-health professional promotion (15%) or to persistence or adherence programs (9%). US drug marketers also appear to be less supportive of DTC as a medium with 55% rating DTC advertising less effective. The research highlighted a move to more experimentation in 2009 with Below-The-Line tactics such as cards, rebates and coupons. Email, websites and search were listed as areas where marketers would be focusing more investment. Source: E-marketer June 3, 2009 Mobile marketing budgets Grow despite difficult times   Mobile Marketing has always been the great opportunity that never took off until now! Expenditure is relatively low in this rather small category of marketing investment. For instance, in the US, Mobile marketing remains one of the lowest categories capturing just 1.8% of total expenditure.   While it may be one of the lowest areas for marketing investment, mobile marketing is capturing attention due to an average increase of 26% in mobile marketing budgets. This is even more impressive when you realise that US marketers are seeing an average drop of 7% in their overall budgets.   Source: DM News May 29, 2009 Well Bing me! Microsoft to launch new competitor to Google   The much waited launch of Microsoft's alternative to Google, has finally been announced. Bing is the name of the new search engine, although it is believed that Microsoft has been testing the search engine internally under the name Kumo for several months. The new search engine will be launched over the next few days with a full launch next Wednesday. Google is reported to currently have 64% of all internet searches in the US.   Source: Business Spectator

May 27, 2009 Online advertising growth slowing in 2009   The Frost and Sullivan 2009 report on online advertising for the March quarter shows that growth in this sector is slowing. After a healthy 26% increase in 2008 over the previous year, online advertising has been hit like many others by the recession. Despite this slowing, online advertising appears more resilient than other media such as print or television.   Source: Marketing Magazine