Engagement may be the ultimate marketing goal, but understanding how to engage with your target consumer is not straightforward.
Getting insights into what does and doesn’t work can be tricky, but marketing automation expert Oracle Eloqua has created some interesting charts, which help shed light on some common dilemmas, starting with…
How influential are influencers?
Very! As influencers are held in high regard by their peers in the social media world, they are a valuable asset to any marketing campaign.
According to the research, when influencers share a brand’s content on social media, they trigger six times more traffic to that brand’s website.
Companies need to provide something to encourage these influential customers though – 50% of advocates recommend a brand solely because they’ve had a good experience with a product or service.
Can offline sponsorship increase online engagement?
Sponsoring an event in the ‘real world’ is often seen as an exercise in brand awareness or PR but the benefits don’t stop there. In fact, event sponsorship can have a direct correlation on the digital aspect of your business.
The evidence? Brands who invested in sponsorship opportunities during Dreamforce 2011 enjoyed a lift of 25% in website traffic during the event.
Measuring the success of event sponsorship can be tricky but there are methods – 70% of marketers measure the ROI by the amount of media exposure generated, while 70% monitor the social media buzz around an event.
How can I improve email open rates?
The secret to improving open rates lies in the subject line. Getting it right is crucial, as it’s the first indication of what your message is about.
It’s estimated that British workers send and receive 10,000 emails a year, so you can understand why people merely scan their inbox. If your subject line doesn’t jump out at them, they won’t open the email.
So what makes an effective subject line?
Personalisation. Using the recipient’s name with an additional data point, such as a location, increases the open rate.
Using effective keywords – a report by Adestra found that content words such as ‘news’, ’bulletin’ and ‘video’ work well.
Keeping it short and sweet. Most email providers only display 50 characters for subject lines, so keep this in mind when writing.
And what should you never do?
Don’t use exclamation marks – it can make emails look like spam.
Don’t include your company name.
Don’t be too creative – choosing clarity over creativity has been shown to increase the response rate by a whopping 541%.
Is my company too small to be using social media?
Definitely not – 57% of small businesses in the UK currently use social media as part of their marketing strategy.
Size is irrelevant when it comes to getting results – in fact, Eloqua has found that companies with revenue under $150million are driving significantly more traffic via social media than larger companies.
Adding a social media element to your marketing strategy is resource heavy though, so where should you invest your time?
Even though Facebook and Twitter have more users, Pinterest is number one for increasing referrals, especially as image-based content continues to drive engagement – images receive 50% more interaction than text posts on Facebook.
Points to remember:
Influencers have major impact on views and conversions.
Offline event sponsorship can raise website traffic by 25%.
With email subject lines, remember that names are good, but exclamation marks are bad.
- Small businesses get the most social media traffic.
To find out more about how to shift your marketing up a gear, download our free eGuide: Defining the Modern Marketer: from real to ideal
