Mobile Email Open Rates Up to 41% – Is all as it seems?
Well, mobile marketing, the hot topic of the past few years is entering a new chapter of interest. Knotice have released data covering over 500 million emails in 11 sectors that shows email open rates up to 41% from 27% a year before. This has been done through data mining from huge datasets over extended periods of time to reveal some pretty compelling resuts.
This sounds amazing, it would indicate that the focus for email marketers that mobile is the optimisation platform of choice. Although, let’s think about this in a little more detail and with a critical eye.
Why would this happen? Do we all sit there for hours on end looking into the mass of emails Amazon send us? I doubt it, but what would account for the high opening rates?
Well, basically it’s might be a matter of necessity/being a slight neat freak. As mobile users, most of us hate notifications sitting there. We don’t want to think we have unread email that might be important just sitting there, so we check it, realise it’s from YouTube or something equally pointless.
So basically, we look at the title, open and instantly close just to get rid of the notifications. Let’s be honest, we all like a tidy home screen. This is true of my iPhone (yes I have an iPhone, burn me at the stake) is it true for Andriod as well?
Big data is great, it can give us a real insight into the facts and figures of an ever increasing number of industries but it’s always vital to look into the meaning behind this data. Although the open rate is high, what’s the click through, where’s the conversion? These are things we just can’t ignore. Don’t be fooled by great numbers, data is meaningless without analysis!
The missing link!
So we have all been told time and time again how important social media is and how it is becoming the be-all and end-all of the digital marketing world. That’s great but there’s one thing that most companies and small businesses are missing and that’s a strategy, now I’m sure you have heard that plenty of times before, but what actually is a strategy?
S.M.A.R.T Targets
In simple terms, a strategy is basically a target, what you want to achieve with social media? That may seem like an obvious question, but think small, pick S.M.A.R.T targets. What the hell is a S.M.A.R.T target you ask? It’s a simple way of making sure what you’re trying to achieve is going to happen.
It’s Specific
You need to ensure your targets are completely clear, there is no way of achieving something without knowing what that something is! These targets can be anything that you think you can affect by using social media. It is however important to really think about what it is that you want to get out of your social media investment. Some examples of specific social media targets are:
- An increase in footfall of 5%
- An 8% increase in social media conversation share
- A 12% increase in Twitter followers
Setting specific targets allows for your strategy to be focused, knowing what you’re trying to achieve helps to create a purpose.
It’s Measurable
How will you know if you have been successful if you have no way of measuring the outcomes of the work that you do? It’s not possible, so once you have your specific target, you need to make sure that you can measure the outcome. If it’s your online profile and presence that you’re aiming to improve, make sure that you know where you are at the beginning, number of followers, percentage of conversation, number of interactions or sentiment measurement it’s all possible to measure. Check out this article to see the top 20 Twitter toolsto use.
It’s Achievable
This one is an obvious one. Make sure that what you have set out to achieve is actually possible, don’t overshoot and then feel let down when it doesn’t happen. It’s easy to say you want to see a 100% increase in sales, but is it something that you really think is going to happen? If it was that easy then we would all be millionaires!
It’s Relevant
This one may seem simple, but it’s easy to fall into the trappings of social media, too many of us worry about the number of followers that we have, the number of mentions that we get in a day or even our Klout scores. These are all great, but what do they actually mean? Nothing much, what’s the point in having 2000 American followers when you have a local café in the UK? Exactly, none. So make sure that the target you have is one that is actually going to help you and push your business forward.
It’s Timely
Ensure that you set a timescale for your targets, the timescale needs to be realistic. You can have major and minor points on your scale, for example you may have a strategy that you want to last 3 months. Within that you may want to set smaller targets that have smaller timescales, this way you won’t get to the end of the 3 months without reaching your goal when you were expecting to. It will keep you on track and make you far more likely to achieve your overall target. So there you have it, it’s easy when you know how right? This is the complete barebones of strategy and I will make sure that I cover some of the more in depth and detailed areas in the next few posts that I do.
Google vs. Facebook
Giants Colide
The Google and Facebook debate has been raging on for a long time, we’re standing on the sidelines goading two global powerhouses in what is shaping up to be the fight of the decade.
We’re in a real life Rocky situation and each and every acquisition that each company makes is a jab. It was only at the start 2011 this year that things got serious.
We had been speaking comparatively about each platform when really there was nothing to compare, social and search were a world apart, until Google dropped Google+ in which was an out and out attack on Facebook’s core business. Now the comparisons are real and little by little Google is gaining traction.
Facebook made the shock acquisition of Instagram for $1bn, it seemed like a lot of money but could they afford to leave it exposed for Twitter or Google to sweep it up? I don’t think so but it makes them even more of a force in social.
Google are having a hard time moving customers away from Facebook, it’s like trying to get people to move house, it’s a big commitment and most people don’t want to leave their friends.
Moving away from social
Now the rumours have been flying around about a possible Bing buyout by Facebook, can you imagine that? Facebook would destroy Google without a doubt, rather than the task of trying to get people to move home, Facebook’s task is like getting people to change brands of toilet paper, we don’t care what brand it is as long as it does the job.
So I don’t blame Google for what may look like a rash and expensive move, it would cost them so much more to sit back and wait for the inevitable Facebook move of entering the search market.
Why would it be so easy for Facebook to take market share from Google? Well, it’s all about simplicity and trust, there is a generation that don’t know how to use anything other than email and Facebook, they have been brainwashed into thinking their card details are going to be stolen if they tell anyone their pet’s name. Facebook is a haven of virus free simplicity for them and they like that.
Is Google really unstoppable?
I know that we think Google is unstoppable but that is only because they’re the search engine we know gives us what we want. For a lot of people, that means navigating away from Facebook, if you take the need to leave Facebook away, do you think most people will bother? I don’t.
I think Google knows it and I think that’s why at every opportunity they try and diversify but all in all, they just aren’t good at it. Search and Mobile have been a triumph but for how much longer can they rely on that?
What is stifling creativity?
The problem
The Internet, we all use it, we all think we understand it, but is that really the case? Likelihood is, if you’re one of the people reading this that you have a pretty good idea of what it is all about. But another likely scenario is that you’re not part of the management team, and why is that? Because the management team are still largely made up of boomers, the age 50+ executives that made their name in an analogue era.
There is a whole generation that has no idea what the hell they’re doing on here, but the biggest issue is they don’t care at all. They are busy ignoring the power that the consumer has and underestimating their missed opportunity. This is not something that can be ignored for long and this is not something that you can understand without a substantial amount of time spent. The 20 somethings of today are digital natives, they grew up with the internet and are the lead behind its continual development.
Who holds the buying power?
As a 20 something who has been obsessed with the internet throughout my entire life even when we had 1 computer with a dial-up connection that I could only use after 6pm, it was a magical portal to the rest of the world. Kids were connecting online in the 90s and their parents had no idea what to think of it. They still don’t. But those kids are increasingly the ones with buying power, they are the ones that are making the brand decisions in their households and that is where the issue lies.
Without their peers in control of non-traditional marketing avenues companies and consumers are missing out. The generation divide is stopping the world become what it should be, we’re a customer service, experience driven generation and until we take control and play to our strengths our industries and businesses will be stifled.
Unfortunately, we are a way off that yet, with retirement ages extending all the time and boomers refusing to step aside even if it is for the good of the company. But do I blame them? No way, I will be doing the same thing they are when I am in that position, won’t you?
By no means do I think that nobody over the age of 50 has anything to offer in a digital world, I just know they have a much harder time adjusting. Those that do are a rare and formidable breed, experience, expertise and understanding are a potent combination and I have nothing but respect for them.
What can we do?
Think how much the young people of today have managed to do, the Arab Spring, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, the list is endless. You may think that is great, and to be honest, it’s pretty damn good but that is such a small amount of what we have to offer. All of that was achieved with no help and no input from the boomers and not many boomers are involved in any of those businesses. But the businesses where they are involved are being stifled by a lack of creativity and a lack of vision.
It is naive of me to think that they should “get it” because it’s just not the world they grew up in and it’s not the world they spend their time in.
There is no advice for you other than keep trying to make your mark, push social, push the blog, push the listening and monitoring tools so that the day the management realise that they are missing out, you have everything they need at the tip of your fingers.
Take a look at this picture, that is where we will be in the next decade. We will be growing through the restraints and making our own mark.
What could be damaging your social media?
David and Goliath
You will without a doubt have seen post after post on various blogs saying “Master these points for social media success” now although some of them can be useful, I have always thought that they are missing out on one of the key points. As a small business, it’s your biggest advantage over the Goliath competitors that you’re likely facing if only you could see it.
So what is this “magical” tactic?
Basically, your small size makes you extremely nimble and adaptable. If something is not working out as you expected, you can switch it up and try something new within a few hours rather than the weeks or months that it will take the larger companies. They have a lot of hoops to jump through, countless meetings and sign offs to make sure that everyone agrees what should be done.
This is completely true if you are within a small agency as well, make the call, don’t sit there and try and make something work that you can tell isn’t. Your clients will far prefer a proactive change in direction than poor results.
Now that doesn’t mean that you should consistently change what you’re doing because that will become impractical and inconsistency is not a trait that fans like. However, it does mean that you can make the big call far quicker and despite the size difference, you can still come out on top.
Make sure that you pay attention to what is happening around your brand, keep track of everything:
- Number of times you tweet
- How many retweets
- How many replies
- What did you share
- What worked
- What didn’t
- What times did you tweet
- How many brand mentions
If you know everything that you do and everything that your customers do then you can hone your skills and become a proactive brand. You might be small but you can still be strong.
