Complete Notes from Bronto Email Marketing Summit Day One.
DAY TWO BRONTO EMAIL SUMMIT NOTES
Pictures from Summit on Flickr
Live blogging from Bronto Email Marketing Summit Day 2
COOL, today's keynote is Lauren Freedman. Lauren is one of my early influences. After reading her book I knew Internet marketing and ecommerce was where I wanted to go/be. Just introduced myself and discussed my admiration. "Be careful you are dating yourself," she said when I shared loving It's Just Shopping.
Lauren's ability to cut through the clutter then, the book was published in 2001, was impressive. Looking forward to her Keynote at Bronto Email Marketing Summit this morning.
I still use It's Just Shopping sometimes. Highly recommend it if you are starting in Internet marketing or ecommerce. The E-tailing Grop.
My plan for Bronto Summit Day two:
- Keynote
- 11:30 Video For Ecommerce
- 2:00 Social Media Contests Made Easy
- 3:15 Integrating SMS Into Cross Channel Marketing
Lauren Freedman Bronto Email Marketing Summit Keynote
Benchmarking To Bolster Bottom LineIt all about more devices, touch points, more access now. Much different time than 1994 when I started. Lauren will share results from annual merchant survey of 147 etailers.
Internet revenues continue to meet and exceed expectations and goal. Internet is where growth is.
Customer acquisition and experience are top two box on Laurne's annual survey consistently. You also have to be profitable, minor detail.
Mind of the Retailers
I've interviewed over 100 retailers since the beginning of the year. Ask merchants to rank 50 features based on ROI. All we care about at E-Tailing Group is making money. Key ideas:
- Search (Lauren is astounded by how many sites have bad internal search)
- 40 - 50% of traffic hitting intenral search
- Everyday is a holiday in reatail
- New, new, new
- Upsales and crosssales are in top 10 (hard to beat wisdom of crowd, don't like the way it looks but outsells merchandising without math)
- UGC (user generated content) is also interesting
Rich Information - need to give customer the confidence to buy. Product images, related products and comprehensive information helps customers make a buying decision (product page from FinishLine.com as an example of a 360 view of a product).
Video - people watch these. 36% have watched 5 or more product videos (e-tailing group has a video study). You would think video would only impact a handful of categories. In fact video is going across all categories.
Peer To Peer Communication - Lauren is using American Doll as good example of peer to peer sharing. GanderMtn also used as a "passion" example.
Facebook - Crutchfield encouraging creating a tribe. Maybe it is not delivering from a revenue standpoint but how will you handle social engagement going forward.
MOBILE - mobile is happening so quickly, merchants were almost blindsided by the mobile volue. How are you going to accommodate customers where they are. Using Nieman Markcus and Nook B&N as good mobile example.
Connecting Via Chat - trending up in usage, a preferred choice since customer service reps can multitask as can people on the other end. Lauren is working on a "chat with the chatter" video to find out why shoppers like chat, are passionate about chat.
Going International - International is where growth is coming from with 1 in 2 looking to extend internationally.
KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMERS
How can we get information that is taken as a whole. Loyalty program helps you know customers in an intimate way. Nordstrom is someone Lauren admires for the way they take care of the customer despite starting her career with Marshal Fields. REI is another company Lauren likes from a cross channel perspective.
#1 = analytics because people realize they need this information
#1 = FREE SHIPPING and difficult to back off of now
KPIs saw an important increase. Every KPI is up from revenue (+86%) to items per order.
Conversion
Many factors altering meaning of "conversion". Number is tough to have a lot of meaning due to multitouch. "At the end of the day as long as you get the order you are in good shape." Conversion numbers are declining due to multitouch and that is an attribution problem we are not going to solve. Conversion remains in the 1 - 3% range and Lauren sees these going down not up again due to multitouch.
"Information is not in a ready state," no one has the data in the state they want it in. You don't have to panic since most retailers feel they don't have information in easy to act on ways. Data takes a little right brain and left brain so you can figure out what action to take.
Information is being captured, but people feel that finding actionable data is needle in a haystack.
SEO = very much on the minds of people Lauren talks to. SEGMENTATION is another key trend. Streamlined checkout especially with mobile. If you can't buy (mobile) more than 50% go to competition.
We want everything NOW and I don't think it is going to get better - Lauren.
#1 = more targeted email programs comes up large with etailers. Onsite search, site redsign,
I don't really understand how people can accomplish all of this and the customer doesn't cut any slack so I a always amazed at how much simultaneous stuff is going on.
"Email has always been a great liquidator of product," Lauren.
FREQUENCY
Email frequency is not going down. Daily 10%, 2 - 6 times a week is 41% and Lauren is not seeing the frequency of emailing going down. Time is shifting to somewhat later. Because of mobile people are glancing and email is not having as much impact, so merchants are moving email to later. B2B email marketing is tough. Lauren has seen a lot of changes in e-tailing group's email and she anticipates a lot more change as mobile continues to change the world.
Cart Abandonment
Almost half the people hold "constant carts" for from 1 week to 3 months. What are policies to keep constant card data. What can cart abandonment mean to you.
Mystery Shopping Survey
Lauren only saw 1/3 of the 100 merchants doing abandoned cart offers. Lauren sees a lot of remarketing. Remarketing transcends all categories.
Promise of Personalization
1 to group mentality. Merchants don't want to annoy and "we are not there yet" as Lauren feels we haven't figured out personalization. Shopping cart abandonment emails seem to be top "personalization" efforts. Personalized product recommendations in cart at 40% is also high. AOV (average order value) does seem to be positively impacted.
Mobile, Social and Cross Channel
CONSISTENCY is core to branding. "Sometimes it is good to won real estate sometimes it is not."
Many saying they are spending more than $100K on mobile.
43% merchants said mobile is already 5% or greater. Mobile is growing and growing. Lauren will not be surprised if mobile traffic doubles this year.
People (E-tailers) are excited about mobile because they see the traffic and they see the sale. Not as excited about social because sale isn't as clear, ROI isn't as clear.
Tablets are powerful in conversion. Retailers were shocked. They didn't expect such high conversion rates. Retailers really want to understand the tablet customer. Tablets are almost like TV in how they are being used. Go home and get on your tablet.M-Commerce Top Customer wants
1. Keyword search
2. Customer Service
3. Ratings
4. Refine Search
Social
Question is how do we get social to deliver ROI. Are you making any money? 84% say engagement meaning "no we are not making money". We know social is something but how do we marry to retail is still largely unknown. Another interesting thing about tablet older population is adapting tablets fast. At the end of the day boomers buy more than 18 year olds.
Facebook - how measure success typically by fans and followers. More detailed metrics or ROI based metrics are less well defined.
CONSISTENCY - seen as #1 opportunity and "non sexy things" like product locator are core because so much research online. Online needs to be FAST or researching customers DON'T head to the store.
Coordinating efforts across all initiatives and channels and brands is TOUGH.
Q&A
Social is another area where there is a company a minute.
Industry Panel: Cross Channel Marketing - Real World Strategy
Joe Colopy (CEO Bronto), Gavin Jocius (LuLu Press), Chris Reighley (totesIsotoner.com), Alessandra Souers (One Click Ventures), Greg Hyer (Delta Appeal), Zachary Ciperski (Coffee For Less)Coffee For Less - Loyalty is the biggest challenge we face. We are doing social, email, paid search. Biggest challenge is not acquisition it is loyalty. All about testing.
One Click Ventures - market fashion brands with email, PPC, SEO, affiliate, social and our business has boomed with recession because we are discounters
LuLu - email is key for beginning authors. Use email to sell to readers via coupons. Coaching authors in how to sell their books. Readers need to do because you like x you will like y emails.
Isotoner - acquired 3 new brands in last 12 months. Spent last 12 months trying to integrate new brands. We struggle with consistent communication and how to tie everything together. Like everyone else we are doing everything we can to make a buck.
What is new and cool in your email programs?
Create a wish list and email to gift givers prior to birthday. Share what you got for your birthday on Facebook. Trying to get people to understand how to share email on social. Putting social buttons near offer helps, bottom location for social share does not work.
Multi-part welcome series and multi-part cart abandonment. Follow up emails based on reviews. 5 Star prompts to share on social. 1 star permission to have customer service call.
Used weather to help sell umbrellas. Send an email out the day it is raining and people buy umbrellas. Trying to automate our email based on "rain, cold and not". Get to the people at the right time with the right message. Raining or cold mobile becomes big. Weather driven marketing since Isotoner's key is weather and relevancy is very important.
LuLu is using Bronto API to create dynamic messages. Once implement the API nightly scrips run and build automated message rules around "author life cycle" campaigns. LuLu notices when you've started a project but haven't published yet. They ask if coaching is needed and offer help to coach through the publication process. Want to increase publishing rates.
Coffee - Bronto won A/B test on deliverability with ExactTarget. It is possible to segment too much. May need to back off and offer more seemingly non-segmented offers since to be too narrow can lower sales. Tried subtle shares and weren't getting anything. Then got blunt and aggressive LIKE US get 10% off and LIKES went up. Popups for automatic coupon for +. We remind our customers with things like widgets to help reinforce the key brand benefit- saving money on coffee. I know the cycle now, so I always email Tuesday morning because it won my tests. Another user of the Bronto API.
RATINGS AND REVIEWS very powerful now that Google values organic content not over optimized. Also helps because how customers speak, their keywords, are important variables to know.
Coffee For Less (Zach) making a great point about getting G+ and how everything you do is interconnect and how attribution is impossible. Zach learned the hard lesson of the Google float after thinking he was an amazing SEO before understanding he was logged in. His NYU students wised him up to the Google float.
Gavin is seeing a "ton of referral traffic" from Pinterest. Concerned about copy right, but getting a lot of juice from Pinterest already. Discoverablity is key so when someone pins a book cover it helps sell books. Gavin is careful about what kinds of things LuLu is pinning.
Actor Will Wheaton is a big LuLu author with titles such as "Memories Of The Future"
Use specific mobile coupon codes so it can be tracked as results come in.
*** Zach - Mobile sites can cost up to $200K. The other problem is you have to make complicated choices. Our competitors had apps, so that added another curve ball. We decided HTML5 best way to go because you are not developing a new platform. Don't see mobile revenue yet. Zach is on his iPhone all the time but has only made one purchase. May start shopping cart on phone but finish on computer or iPad. After making the first purchase Zach isn't comfortable making purchase on phone yet.
Alessandra created mobile in a week with internal resources so her mobile site didn't cost $200K. Developers are tough to find Alessandra added. Chris doesn't look at his traffic as a source. He looks at it as a "source". Building mobile to be part of entire digital experience. 15% of isotoner came from "mobile devices" with tablets leading the way.
Video For eCommerce Forest Bronzan, Video Aptitude
Why VideoVideo is not new. Been around for years, yet ecommerce is still struggling. Want to increase site conversion:
* Zappos 30% more sales with video
* 2.7 increase in conversion from Buy.com
SEARCH - easier to get ranked for video assets. Every competitor has optimized pages, few have optimized videos.
Consumers want video.
* More interesting.
* More engaging product pages
* More effective way to communicate features / benefits
33% of top retailers have fewer than 10 videos on site.
only 6% have 500+ videos on their sites
Zappos is on a different planet with over 50,000 videos on their site. 50+ full time video production employees. Zappos is a "machine" with product video rollout. Customers thrive on it. Zappos on video boat for awhile.
Content Being Producing in Video
Quality is becoming important. Quality can lead to long term savings due to longer shelf life. Creating video 2x means expensive. Quality becomes a way to differentiate from competitors. Quality dimensions: content strategy, delivery, who is on camera, adding value with useful content, solid technical details (sound, lightening).
Product Videos #1, Category Videos, Lifestyle Videos (educational), UGC (controversial due to control of distribution and message as some brands have learned the hard way)
Viral Video (not going to address today), B-roll out to ad networks (not going to cover)
Watching Zappos Video for Detroit Low (authentic, employees, real, casual)
Watching LDproducts ink cartridge video (more scripted and structured)
Multi-Channel Uses For Video
Product pages are perfect fit for product videos.
Zappos Detroit Low
Golfsmith
Dedicated Video Section - BeautyBridge, Victorias Secrets (has some video with over 2,000 shares) Buy.com has BuyTV, a dedicated video section or microsite to house all videos.
Videos help with social, make content interesting. Good content is more sharable and engaging.
YouTube
Don't create a channel unless you have a good library and have a commitment to add consistently. Cost Per Click are very low on YouTube.
Don't serve or play video in email. Too inconsistent, so leverage video assets via screen grabs and links. Competitive inbox space VIDEO as a tag can help. BonoBos "oh snap" animated gif looked good on some and not on others.
FullTiltPoker - video poker tips via email.
Brickhouse Security - video hero with 3 products below with buy buttons. How To Choose GPS Tracker in 90 seconds from CEO. Links to landing page.
Video products 50% or greater clickthrough rates when included in emails.
Bronto & Video
Creating "manual" type video tutorials for recent purchases and then trigger on time from purchase. Tags are great unused secret to video. Content tags (Bronto) very efficient way to create multiple email looks.
Getting Started With Video Marketing
- Strategy before tactics (think it through since there are many moving pieces)
- In-House vs. Outsourced - outsourcing can help with speed, in-house slight cost savings
- Strategic Planning - know your audience, what content for whom, delivery style (casual or more professional and structured approach), content structure (scripted, extemporaneous, length)
- Who will be on camera? resonant with customer? Industry expert? Actors? No silver bullet, no right or wrong answer.
- Location/set (greenscreen), location, other setting
- Hardware and studio design (lighting, microphone)
- Pre-production Planning (who will edit and what type of slate notes they want and every editor is different in how they want slate notes)
Platform Vendors (these blow YouTube away on many dimension)
Brightcove
Wistia (value and used by SEOmoz)
LiveClicker
Vzaar
Kaltura
Video length < 60 seconds on product page.
Video SEO - it is complicated and a tapestry like normal SEO. Video sitemaps = key SEO tactic. Google is going to start to use engagement so quality is really going to be important.
Interactive videos with overlays, product recommendations and dynamic stuff such as a 30 second delay with a coupon overlay. LiveClicker does a lot of advanced things with overlays.
Social Media Contests Made Easy (and cheap)
Telleen Anderson, Renee Spurlin from Communication21The Object of the Game
* Build followers (Chik-filet does a good job asking for feedback)
* Good way to award customers
* Cold Stone got 66,000 fans from in their create a new flavor contest
* Crate and Barrel Ultimate Wedding earned 2,000 per 17,000 entry
Facebook - by far the most rules and regulations (frequently violated)
NOT do on Facebook - no LIKE to enter, or post comment to enter, no FB action can be used to leverage any FB action.
If Facebook is the only way for you to notify a winner then you can't do the contest.
Have to use a third party platform, tab, app, canvas page (Bronto can be used for these) AND you have to release Facebook from all liability. You can require someone to like your page as part of an entry routine, but you can't just award a prize to your LIKE group. You must have a form to gather emails since must be able to be contacted OUTSIDE of Facebook. Avoid spam phrases like "like us and win" since FB algorithm will catch those and they may delete your Facebook page.
Twitter is more wild, wild west than FB.
- Don't encourage people to create new handles
- Don't encourage posting same tweet repeatedly
YouTube
- Must be a YouTube partner or advertiser
- Takes a lot of money (at least $50K to run a contest on YouTube)
- Even if approved many rules to follow (so YouTube is OUT)
- Changing terms of use (foggy and fuzzy)
- Pin it to win it are still going, best pin board (not sure what is legitimate)
- Can only use Pinterest for non-commercial purpose and can't use their logo to promote
Google Plus
- Nothing to do on G+
- You can promote other contest but can't ask for Google Plus actions for anything
Setting Up A Game Board
Sweepstakes
- Complete a webform to be entered to win (use a third party such as Bronto)
- Fangate - You can't land on any page besides your timeline, but you can still have a LIKE to earn a Facebook presentation of a contest **** THIS WAS WRONG YESTERDAY WHEN SAID TIMELINE KILLED IT *****
- Trivia is a great Facebook contest type
- Bronto Webforms for voting and nominations (great way to increase fans and increases Facebook engagement) is a good use of Facebook
- To post video or photo gain link from customer and then you post to wall (you just can't ask for people to do things directly to wall)
- Can use RT to promote on Twitter just not tweet this XXXX over and over
- Doesn't have to be a HUGE prize, social media is a good platform to experiment
- Content - asking people to post x, y or z such as name the shake or some other contest of skill or random draw
- Take a picture, tweet it, use this hashtag and entered into win X (book people taking a picture of their Kindle Fire or Nook and entered to win another one of X for their friends)
- Bronto can help automate campaigns and voting reminders **** Make sure post contest info everywhere ****
- Inexpensive platforms want the email addresses so be sure to read fine print before running a contest on another platform
- Bronto webforms can handle the entry process
- No purchase necessary and be sure to comply with local laws
Someone uses Wildfire Interactive to manage their games. How can you avoid the pro-contest class. Suggestion to change up the creative and make it more about
ShortStack and find other tools on Quora
2 comments:
Great recap Marty! Hope you had a great time at the Summit.
Wow!
Your post is the complete guideline of email marketing.
Excellent post.
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