Yes, it has begun.

It’s November 1, which we all know means the beginning of holiday marketing. With Halloween over, retailers are starting to step up their game for holiday shopping (since for some reason we skip Thanksgiving around here). While many brands are going to stick to the tried and true, I think more brands will be reaching out to alternate methods of engaging consumers to purchase. Here are just a few things I think we’re going to see a lot more of starting now.

1. Geotargeting

Retailers know that if a consumer is nearby, they’re more likely to come in. Now with geotargeting available on websites, emails, push notifications or SMS activity, brands can reach consumers when they’re most likely to purchase. Brands can automate a process to send consumers push notifications from apps if they’re within a radius, or even send a personalized text offering a coupon or promotion. Instead of sending it to the masses, sending it to specific consumers at times when they’re more likely to engage is going to lead to more foot traffic.

2. Animation in emails

I’ve already begun seeing a lot of this from some big name brands. Instead of a static image it’s animated to either show a coupon, more products, or just to add fun to what is sometimes a mundane task (checking email). You can see some examples here.

3. More website based triggered emails

Almost everyone expects an email if they add items to a cart and then don’t purchase – but I’m expecting brands to do even more triggered emails based on website activity related to ecommerce. If I’m browsing a specific category and leave the website, I wouldn’t be surprised if I get an email later showing me other related products. Since triggered emails are driven by subscriber behavior, they come at a time that’s most relevant to the consumer. So instead of getting a product list on a random Tuesday, I get a related product list right after I visit the website.

4. Increased use of preheaders

With mobile opens now more than 50% for retailers, preheaders are becoming a very important element of the email set up. Brands are most likely to offer a promotion using the preheader so on my phone I can see who is sending it, what the subject is, and what the promotion is quickly. Brands are going to be competing against hundreds of others for a very small space, and just a subject line isn’t going to cut it. I expect to see brands implementing more than just “To view as a webpage” over the next few months. Also, preheaders are very easy to test leading marketers to truly see what works.

As a marketer myself, I’m very excited to see what everyone has up their sleeves for such an important time of the year. I think the four things I mentioned are going to play a huge part. What strategies do you think you’ll see from brands for holiday marketing?

Related articles

• 4 Steps to Drive Holiday Sales with Mobile (business2community.com)
• FunMobility Offers New Location-Based Mobile Coupon Services for… (prweb.com)
• Holiday 2013: Five Trends To Watch (forbes.com)

Two of my top ten favorite things joined forces Monday – Starbucks and Twitter. For those of you who know me personally, this was probably the most exciting thing to happen to me in 2013. With so many brands jumping on new up and coming platforms like Vine or Pinterest for branding purposes, it was refreshing to see Starbucks use Twitter in a new way for consumers.

I’m a Starbucks addict. I’ve been a gold card member since the program started, I pay with my mobile app, and I follow them on every social platform they’re on.  I used to be a Quad Iced Venti Vanilla Latte kind of gal, but now I’m a plain grande Pike Place, no room person.

Monday, Starbucks announced that customers could now buy another person a cup of joe (as long as it’s $5 or under) through tweeting. It’s been possible to buy people Starbucks gift cards on Facebook (where they have over 35 million fans)  – usually prompted on someone’s birthday. They’re sent an email with a code they can scan at the register or add to their account.

With the announcement of the beta program, it’s now even easier.  The only set up required is syncing your Twitter account to your Starbucks account here along with adding a credit card. Then it’s a simple as tweeting to @tweetacoffee along with the twitter handle of your giftee. I went through the steps and it was pretty seamless.Right after syncing my account and card it allowed me to send to a twitter user. Note: they don’t have to be a follower or someone you’re following; it can be someone you’ve never interacted with. Today I saw someone tweet a coffee to Kanye West.  I went ahead and added my friend Drew.

It sent out on twitter from me directly to @tweetacoffee and mentioning Drew’s handle with my message. (You can also do this directly through Twitter, you don’t have to use the Starbucks link.)

Immediately after, @tweetacoffee tweeted out to Drew and myself with a link to Drew’s coffee. Once Drew opened up the link, I received an email confirming he got the gift – which itself is genius because I often wonder how many gift cards I give away that actually get used. 

With Starbucks having significantly less followers on Twitter, this could be a way to ramp up those followers on a new(er) platform. However, the effect for the consumer can’t be measured. Starbucks found a way to be where their customers are whether it’s on mobile devices or social media, and made something easily shareable. Starbucks Chief Digital Officer, Adam Brotman, envisions this feeding into “those physical offline/online moments of serendipity.”

The only thing so far I’d like to see added is the ability to alter amounts of money. Other than that, I really love the ability to quickly say thanks, congrats, or what have you to some of my internet friends that I don’t get to see as often in real life for a cup of joe.  And for those of you that really want to make my day, my Twitter handle is @kelly_virginia.

Related articles

• Starbucks Just Figured Out How To Take Your Money Over Twitter (huffingtonpost.com)
• Starbucks, Twitter Launch Gifting Platform Via Tweets (fastcompany.com)

Twitter has always allowed for direct messaging. So instead of tweeting publicly, I could specifically message someone privately. However there was one caveat – we had to be following each other. So while this was perfectly fine and well with personal connections, there were a few times it didn’t work perfectly.

For instance, a lot of big companies use Twitter as a platform for customer service. And many do this very effectively. Airlines are constantly tweeting to users who are disgruntled about a late flight, missed connection, or lost baggage. I’ve personally gotten into it with an airline a few times. Most conversations go like this:

A user complains, and the brand (hopefully) tries to resolve the situation by asking for more information. Some users are completely fine tweeting back to the world their flight number, but for more sensitive information, @AmericanAir would have to say “Please DM us your information.” Then American would have to follow the user in order for them to be able to DM any information over.

Now, Twitter has solved that problem by allowing direct messages to anyone you follow without them having to follow you back. This is going to lead to two things – 1) a lot more Twitter spam and 2) easier customer service.

There is a setting to turn this new feature on, so brands can decide whether or not they want to open the flood gates, however personally I think brands would do better to turn it on. While there may be more junk to sift through, it’s a possibility that huge complaints won’t go public and brands can move conversations offline more easily.

For more about what else this feature could provide, watch this video with Jay Baer and Kyle Lacy.

In Arizona, it was even harder. You usually had to call a taxi company and wait (sometimes up to 2 hours) before one showed up. You never knew if they were en route or how long it’d be, making your commute home on a Saturday night a huge headache.

And then once you get IN the cab? You’re in for a surprise. Taxi cabs don’t drive around with stars lit up to let you know if they’re a good or bad driver. One time I sat in a taxi cab listening to my driver tell me about how his brother killed someone downtown. Then offered to sell me his taxi cab.

Until last weekend, I never loved the taxi system. I had heard about Uber before, a car service that allows you to hail a taxi right from your phone. Until Google invested in it earlier this year I had only thought of it as a way to get a nice luxury vehicle. My friends had used it to show up at parties or other events. But now, Uber is allowing you to choose what type of vehicle you’d like, whether that be a luxury SUV or a taxi cab.

Last weekend I was on a time crunch. My family was staying downtown and we had plans to grab lunch around noon. I live on the north side, and while it’s relatively easy to catch a cab in my neighborhood, it’s not always reliable. I wanted to make sure I could get a cab as soon as I walked out my front door.

I downloaded the Uber app, set up my profile, added in my credit card, and as I was walking out my door I clicked submit. I immediately saw a time estimate and what my taxi number would be.

I had the perfect amount of time to run into Starbucks, grab an iced coffee, and right as I was walking out I received a phone call from my driver saying he was pulling up.  I knew it was my taxi because I had the taxi number on the app and I got in.  It even showed me in the app where my taxi was shown in the picture to the right.

Since I had already entered my credit card information when I registered my profile in the app, I didn’t need to give any payment after the ride or work out a tip.

Uber doesn’t stop there, though. A receipt was immediately emailed to me, and in the app I was able to rate my experience and leave any comments. These rates are shown when you’re reserving a cab which keeps taxi drivers accountable (so they’re less likely to tell you about their murderer brother).

To help the business even further along, I was given a promo code I could share out via social media so that any my friends or followers could get a discount on their first ride. With consumers more likely to purchase because of a referral from a friend, it’s an easy way to get the word around and more people in Uber cars.

Here’s my promo code to get $10 off your first ride.

Instead of thinking about a taxi ride as a commodity, Uber is creating an experience that hands more power over to the consumers. Instead of hopelessly flailing your arm and fighting that guy who is 10 feet further up the sidewalk than you are, you can simply open up the app and hail a cab. You know when it will arrive, you can see reviews and even cancel the car if you need to.

Uber is taking a world that was first-come first-serve and making it more about the experience for the consumer. Even in a city where taxi cabs are easy to come by, Uber is changing the way the world thinks about the transportation model. For those of you in cities where it may not be as easy as a wave of the hand, I highly suggest seeing if Uber is available in your area yet.

Related articles

• VIDEO: Catching a taxi will never be the same (bbc.co.uk)

I sat with a few publishers at lunch today, and one was discussing how she hasn’t quite understood the benefit of Twitter yet. Her confusion lies in the fact that most of the tweets she sees are just retweets. Since Twitter is such an easy platform for the dissemination of information, many users simply retweet great articles or ideas that they see. If I come across a chronic retweeter, I unfollow pretty quickly. I’ve probably already seen the WSJ or HBR article they’re retweeting about.

The key is adding to the conversation. Twitter is such a great tool for adding your own two cents, and also for increasing web site traffic to your own site. The key? Put your own spin on it.

Sure, you can keep referencing articles that has already been pushed out to the Twitterverse, but most likely you’ll get overlooked unless you’re adding something else that wasn’t previously seen.

I saw a great example of this during the event this week. The twitter hashtag #NicheConference was being used to organize ideas being shared during the conference. I was following the discussion and seeing many users quote or summarize snippets of session discussions. One user, though, took the conversation and kept moving with it.

User @SCareyonline was in a different session than mine, and posting a lot of great points she heard throughout the session. In the picture above, you can see her tweet out to @ryandohrn about his session on 3rd party Facebook apps. She continues the conversation with a link to her own company’s website about 5 more reasons you want to use a 3rd party Facebook app.

Instead of just saying “Really valuable ways to use a 3rd party Facebook app from @ryandohrn”, she provides MORE information and actually drives website traffic to her company.

It may seem like a no brainer, but more and more I’m seeing companies with an abundance of their own content not adding to the conversation. They’re quoting, they’re retweeting, they’re linking to articles that have already been promoted. They’re acting as cheerleaders for other companies, when instead they could be using the already existing conversation to add their own spin or content.

Don’t get me wrong – you can’t be the creator of all content everywhere. Sometimes you want to curate content from other blogs or websites. Curating content about a topic can be very helpful to many followers so that they don’t need to go do the searching themselves. But most of the time, you’re retweeting because you found it informative.

When you find something so great that you want to retweet it, the first thing you should do is ask “why?”

Then take your answer and write a short blog post. It most likely will resonate with those people who chose to follow you in the first place, and end up driving traffic to your site rather than to someone else’s.

I apologize for not writing last week. I attended ExactTarget’s Connections conference – and obviously had such a great time that I didn’t write a Wednesday’s What Worked. However – if you want to see what really works, check out this prize I won from Windsor Circle.

Now – back to work. This week as I was catching up on my emails I really noticed the impact of a preheader.

Let’s start off with what a preheader is. On mobile devices your inbox shows the from name, then the subject line, and then a line of text below the subject line. Normally this says things like “Can’t view this email? Click here” or “View email as webpage”. This is because the preheader (what shows below the subject line) is pulling the first line of HTML, and without a preheader, the view email as webpage is usually the first line.

With emails being read more and more on a mobile device, preheaders are becoming as important as the subject line to drive opens.

I’m always on my phone, which means I’m always checking my email on my phone. You can see to the right my email inbox from this morning. The first email in my inbox is from a LinkedIn group. It’s from eMarketing Association, and the subject line is how many discussions. Right below that, the preheader says “eMarketing Association Network September 25, 2013”. I know what day it is! That line gives me no extra information or reason to open this email. The same is of the next email for a meet up group.

However US Airways has used the space below their subject line of “This week’s hottest deals” to give me a specific deal. Save up to $150! In this instance, US Airways is using the preheader to give a specific offer to give the subscriber a reason to open. Instead of guessing what this week’s hottest deal is, I know it right at the overview in my inbox – and that gives me even more reason to open it.

Preheaders can also be used to:

1. Be a continuation of the subject line

2. Summarize the email message

3. Thank the customer

Don’t care about your mobile subscribers? You should, but Gmail on desktop is also starting to show preheaders.

US Airways gave me another reason to open the email other than the subject line – the preheader was a continuation of the subject line as well as a specific offer. With so many subscribers on their phone, any way to grab your subscriber’s attention is important. Also consider testing your preheader – what works best? An offer, a continuation, a summarization? See how your opens change with each type, and then optimize.

Throwing a conference is very similar to throwing a party in high school. Conferences are getting bigger and bigger – Salesforce had 90,000 attendees at Dreamforce last year. Getting registrants is great, but unless they’re excited about it, wanting to talk about it, and looking to share their experiences with others, it won’t help much the next time you want to have one.

I’m attending ExactTarget’s Connections conference next week in Indianapolis, IN. I registered a couple months ago, received my confirmation email, and everything was great. Some conferences leave it at that, and you don’t talk to them again until you’re there. ExactTarget seems to know better. Here are three things they’re doing to build hype that are driving engagement before registrants even land in Indy.

1. Secure a hashtag

Why are hashtags important? Attendees can talk about your event using your hashtag that can then be searched on. If I wanted to read more about Litmus’ conference I could search twitter for #TEDC knowing that TEDC stands for The Email Design Conference. This may seem really simple, but it could not be. Hashtags can be tricky – what one brand thinks would be their hashtag, consumers may completely disagree on. So the big thing is getting it out to your attendees what you want them to use. ExactTarget does a great job of including the hashtag in any tweets that discuss the conference, as well as in email promotions.

I can click the #ET13 hashtag and see anyone on Twitter talking about the events. I can reply to them, retweet, or even discuss how excited I am for the event myself. It’s building buzz – and a lot of it.  Now that Facebook also has hashtags ExactTarget can now build consistency in hashtags on two platforms.  This helps users know which hashtag to use – instead of wondering “Should it be #Connections #Connections13 #ETConnections?” And it allows for very easy shareability (that may be a made up word).

2. Sneak Peeks

Sneak peeks are a great way to get anyone excited. ExactTarget is using Instagram to take pictures of swag that attendees will receive at the conference. It builds anticipation to get to the event because who doesn’t like free stuff?  They also posted a picture of some cake pops that were branded. You can also give sneak peeks of speakers and entertainment – videos of performers, or noteworthy quotes from speakers that will be attending.  It doesn’t need to be huge, but anything that can get users excited about what they’re about to experience works.

3. Blog About It

Nothing is going to hype someone up about your conference more than you. You’ve worked so hard to plan it and bring it to fruition, so you’re most likely the most passionate. You probably have a lot you want to talk about. Break your ideas up into small blog posts. ExactTarget has a whole category on their blog just about Connections. They talk about tips for the Conference, FAQs, and events after sessions. It’s not just about getting more people to register – it’s about making the experience valuable for the people who have decided to attend. When attendees feel like they got a lot out of their investment, they’re likely to return.

The reason I think ExactTarget has already thrown one heck of a party (before it’s even begun) is because the excitement is palpable. They have done an extraordinary job getting attendees and employees to talk about what they’re looking forward to – in an easily searchable and shareable way.

I’m ready to head out on Monday for Connections 2013 and can’t wait to post more about how they keep the party rolling once I’m there.  Also, if you’re headed there, let me know!

Luckily enough, I stopped by B&N last night after work to grab a book I’ve been meaning to read. While waiting to check out, I saw the cover of a Real Simple magazine.  It was talking about women finding mentors for their careers, and since that’s a topic I’ve been very interested in lately, I decided to grab a copy.

That last paragraph might seem crazy to you. I went to a physical bookstore to buy a physical book? I bought a print magazine? It’s all true. I’m a print person through and through. I don’t own an e-reader, and I don’t really use my iPad.  I take notes in a notebook with a pen, and still dog-ear pages of books to keep my place. It’s not that I hate digital anything, I just prefer physical objects. I get the ease of use of an e-reader though, and understand why more and more media is moving toward the digital space. There are many debates about where print will be in the next few years. Some say it will completely die out, others believe it will evolve into some new form.

The experience I had with the Real Simple magazine I read last night was a wonderful blend of print and digital. I was browsing through the table of contents and the image to the right was at the bottom of a page.  “Make this magazine come to life.” Real Simple has incorporated digital media into their print edition. With the downloading of an app, readers can scan an image and be brought to additional content including videos, blog posts, presentations, etc.

What I like the most about this implementation is that it was obviously something that Real Simple thought about. Instead of a QR code here or there for an article, they were placed strategically throughout the magazine for an almost two-screen experience.

To the left you’ll see an article that was about social media do’s and don’ts. Users can easily scan an image in the article and then be brought to more social media mishaps. It’s almost used as a way to gated content.

This could easily be used by Real Simple to analyze engagement from a viewer. Depending on how the app is set up to see who is doing what, Real Simple could better analyze which posts are driving more traffic to the website.

Real Simple isn’t just using this to drive traffic to their website. They’re also incorporating social media. At the bottom of an article discussing fashion trends, there’s a QR code to allow readers to pin the items mentioned to their own Pinterest board. It’s a digital version of my grandmother’s magazine clippings.

Instead of cutting out each sweater or shoe or bracelet I like and pinning it on a bulletin board, I can pin them. Real Simple is taking those innate behaviors we have as readers of a magazine and adapting them to a digital world.

It really was a great experience reading a magazine that was a) print but b) adapted to handle all the behaviors I have as a consumer that’s constantly online. It felt seamless (which is something I find hard when mixing the two medias). I appreciated that it felt purposeful. Again, there weren’t digital call to actions that didn’t make sense. I think Real Simple has found a wonderful balance between their print and online presence and are an example of what print publishers can do without throwing out the towel on the whole thing.

With more and more consumers doing their shopping via web, the user review has become something that consumers look to. We can see what other people have thought about it before even going into a store or adding it to a cart. And we’re highly influenced by these reviews.

So what are smart brands doing? Asking for them.

Remember JustFab? I talked about how their entire experience was about the user. It didn’t stop after the purchase. I bought a bag (because their site was just so awesome). Know what happened two weeks after I got my bag? That email over there to the left.

First of all, I like this because I know that I didn’t just fall off a brand’s radar because I bought something. I don’t feel like I was hoodwinked to the shopping cart.

Secondly, this is wonderful timing. I’ve had the bag a couple weeks. If there was something wrong, I’d want to talk about it. Thankfully, there’s not. If there’s something great, I want to help other users.

Well, maybe I’m not a helpful kind of person. I don’t want to help hundreds out there with a purchasing decision. I’m just in it for me. JustFab understands that as well. My user review isn’t only going to help others, it’s going to help me. Since JustFab selects which items to suggest for me, my reviews help them focus on products I may like.

So that’s all fine and good – what does this mean for you?

70% of consumers rely on the opinions of strangers as a basis for purchasing decisions.

(Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey)

If that wasn’t big enough to grab your attention, I don’t know what will. Your own consumers are selling for you.

Those user reviews generate a lot of revenue on their own. Are you using them to their full potential? JustFab understands this potential, and displays user reviews in a dominant location.

If your consumers are reselling your product for you, give them as much opportunity as you can. Send a specific email asking for a review a week or two later. Display those reviews in a dominant place on your website next to the product. Consumers aren’t going into stores to try on or test out anymore. They’re reading what other people have to say.

I grew up with puzzles. My great grandmother used to do puzzles and then glue the pieces together and frame them. I’ve come to think that this is a normal thing that all puzzle lovers do.

When I was young, I helped my grandmother with her puzzles. My job was to find the edges. I sifted through thousands of pieces finding the edges for her. This is the same approach I take 20 years later.

This “find the edges” works incredibly well in the marketing space. Developing a strategy can be tough, but there are frameworks that you can work inside of. You have to set the basis, the platform, the building block. With a puzzle, that framework is the border. Everything else lives inside of that. In marketing, you find a base and build off or up from that.  What are you strategic goals? Your goals are like your edges.

Now, once you have the edges all found, you don’t just start seeing which pieces fit together anywhere you can. Usually (if you’re a strategic puzzle person) you find similar colors, shapes, recognizable features. In this awesome dinotopia puzzle, it was a dinosaur. Didn’t see that coming did you?

In your strategy, these recognizable features are big chunks that you can think about. Email marketing campaigns, lead nurturing, website optimization, landing pages, mobile marketing, list growth, social media – these are all sections of your puzzle. You don’t want to find a piece in a landing page and try to match that with mobile marketing. You want to build your landing pages up, test, optimize, retest.

Why do puzzle lovers section it off like this? Because it’s easier to manage. I know what I’m working toward – I’m working toward this cool brontosaurus. If I didn’t have an end goal, or a vision of what these pieces were all trying to do, I would never finish this puzzle. Because I know that I’m trying to make a dinosaur out of these pieces, I can narrow my focus.

See those little two pieces in the dinosaur section that are missing? Those are going to be the hardest to find. Those pieces represent the opportunity we have as marketers for optimization. Maybe it’s a different color call to action, or a font, or a placement of text. You probably have to test 100 pieces for something to fall into place and be perfect.

Once you’re “done” (are we ever really done?) with one section, you move on to the next. Each section has pieces that fall right into place, but there are always those little holes which are going to take more time, more testing, more focus.

Now, I don’t think a complete digital marketing strategy will ever be complete, but you can create those sections that then start talking to each other. The pieces in between the sections come together. The integrations work. Your mobile subscribers aren’t siloed from your email subscribers. Your website visitor has the same experience across channels. Your demographic information from social campaigns comes through to fuel dynamic ads or content.

You can’t just throw 1000 pieces on the table and start cracking. Build the framework, then crawl before you walk before you run. Some puzzle pieces come easily, but testing will always find a fit.