Brands aren’t easing up on their email activity, with average volume across industries increasing by 16.1% year-over-year in Q2, per Experian Marketing Services’ latest quarterly benchmark report [download page]. That marks the 11th quarter of increases and the 10th consecutive quarter of double-digit volume increases. In this latest quarter, consumer products and services (+20.7%) and multi-channel retailers (19%) led in year-over-year volume growth, followed by business products and services (15.6%).
For a more thorough examination of email trends in B2B marketing, along with the most effective email features and campaigns, see MarketingCharts’ latest study, the 2015 B2B Digital Marketing Insights Report.
The following is a brief list of other intriguing data points culled from recently-released research.
- American internet users (aged 15 and older) are twice as likely to agree (30%) than disagree (14%) that the look and style of a technology product is very important in deciding which one to buy, per results from a GfK study. Notably, older Americans (50-59 and 60-69) were more likely to disagree than agree that tech look and style influences their decisions.
- Only a tiny fraction of households make or break the success of a new CPG product, declares Catalina in a recent study, noting that just 0.7% of shoppers accounted for 80% of sales volume on average for the 50 food and beverage products analyzed. A similar study conducted by Catalina 3 years ago found that 1.5% of shoppers (or twice as many as in this recent report) accounted for 80% of sales. Customer retention is also a challenge for new product launches, per the most recent report: just 23% of customers who try a new product within the first 6 months of its launch will buy it again in the first 6 months; and only 11% will make a repeat purchase in the following 6 months. See here for research about how consumers discover new products.
- Across genders and age groups, mobile phone owners are more likely to text and email than to use their device for phone calls, reports RealityMine, using passively collected data from 3,179 US panelists. SMS, in fact, is used far more often than OTT messaging apps, even among youth.
- Salesforce reigns as the most popular CRM product this year, says Software Advice, with Microsoft Dynamics and HubSpot next in line. The rankings are based on a weighted average combining user adoption level, search traffic (brand authority) and social media presence.
- The Internet of Things is more likely to “very significantly” impact customer engagement than the API Economy or the digital enterprise, according to “Leaders” identified in a recent CMO Council and IBM Digital Experience study [download page]. Leaders were defined as the 5% of marketing respondents who rated their ability to digitally captivate and engage customers, partners and employees as extremely good. For “Laggards” (those falling behind in the ability to digitally captivate and engage customers), though, the digital enterprise remains the tech transformation most likely to impact customer engagement.
- What are local advertisers’ biggest obstacles to participating in a co-op program? Red tape, detail Borrell Associates and Netsertive in a recent white paper [download page]. Too many rules/restrictions (38%) and too much paperwork (38%) were the most oft-cited challenges by the 100 local advertisers surveyed. The study finds a disconnect between what is offered by local advertisers and what is purchased by brand managers, with the gap narrowest for digital marketing and largest for Yellow Pages. One of the highlights of the study is that at least 40% of budgets earmarked by brand managers for co-op programs is going unused, which Borrell equates to $14 billion in co-op marketing funds being left on the table each year.
- Bilingual Hispanics spend a higher share of their dollars (20%) online than do non-Hispanics (16%) and Americans in general (17%), according to a study from The NPD Group and Univision Communications. The report also notes that Spanish-language dominant Hispanics spend more per buying visit ($61) than non-Hispanics ($53).
- Almost half (45%) of marketers either don’t formally evaluate their marketing analytics for accuracy or quality (29%) or don’t know if they do or not (16%), finds VB Insight in a survey. That’s actually a better result than seen in The CMO Survey: an edition released earlier this year noted that 7 in 10 CMOs do not formally evaluate the quality of marketing analytics.
- Facebook relevance score (FBRS) is the most valuable metric to use when evaluating Facebook ad performance, argues aimClear, based on anonymized data mined from thousands of ads created by the company between February and June. The research found a strong correlation between FBRS and click-through rates and an inverse relationship between FBRS and cost-per-click.
- Omni-channel customer service isn’t getting any better, details eGain in a survey of 10,000 consumers. In fact, a majority of respondents rated customer service as “about the same” or “worse” in all modes of customer service, ranging from omni-channel service (65% same or worse when multiple channels used in the same interaction) to call center (68%), IVR (67%), web self-service (63%) and agent-assisted web customer service (61%). A list of consumers’ most irritating customer service pain points can be found here.
Have a great weekend!
