Marketscan Latest News

Ad industry on track for recovery

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

A new study shows that the advertising industry is well on the road to recovery and will experience growth this year.

The report, by the Advertising Association and Warc, predicts that after a modest growth level during the first quarter this year, the second quarter will experience a year-on-year growth level of 3.6 per cent.

The figures show that total UK ad spend fell by 12 per cent in 2009, while online advertising experienced an increase of six per cent during the same period.

Eva Berg-Winters, senior manager and new media specialist at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: "Showing growth from quite a low level is not as big an achievement as showing growth show in say 2007, but I think we have seen the low point now and while recovery is still very shaky this year it will be easier than last year."

According to the latest IPA/BDO Bellwether survey, marketing budgets were revised up in the first quarter this year, with 21 per cent of companies reporting a rise.

Posted by Daryl Jay, Business Development Director – Sales, Industry News, General Marketing

Email and social media have 'symbiotic relationship'

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Email marketing stands to benefit from the rising popularity of social media platforms, an expert has said.

According to Jon Maddison, UK country director at Epsilon, marketers are increasingly looking at email as a way to devise more coherent campaigns and social media is increasingly playing a part in this.

"Email is right at the heart of social media and email also benefits to a great extent from social media as well – the two coexist pretty happily; it's a nice symbiotic relationship," he said.

Mr Maddison pointed out that email marketing is a cheap platform from the client's perspective and it is getting even more cost-effective by the year.

Email marketing also offers an excellent return on investment as costs associated with the channel have gone down significantly over the past few years.

Epsilon recently announced that its open and click rates for the fourth quarter of 2009 showed an increase on the fourth quarter of 2008.

Posted by Suzanne Stock – Communications Director, HR, Online Advertising, General Marketing

Marketers turn to digital platforms to measure ROI

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Marketers are expected to increasingly turn to digital platforms this year as they try to measure their return on investment (ROI), an expert has said.

Darren Dutton, business director at Marketing.co.uk, said marketers will be receiving a greater amount of pressure from their business leaders to demonstrate how their campaigns are performing.

In order to gain this crucial information about ROI, marketers will turn to technology to provide them with more effective ways of tracking how campaigns are doing.

Speaking at the Technology for Marketing and Advertising conference, Mr Dutton said: "Marketers are out here now seeking the next big thing and they can go back and improve their marketing campaigns and performance."

According to the recent State of Marketing report by the Chief Marketing Officer Council, 38 per cent of industry professionals say they are exploring alternative media and new routes to the market, while 62 per cent plan to crunch customer data to improve segmentation and targeting.

Posted by Daryl Jay, Business Development Director – Sales, Industry News, General Marketing

'Email leads need more control over the content they receive'

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Email marketers should give their clients and email leads a greater level of control over the content they receive, an expert has advised.

Luke Griffiths, of e-Dialog International, pointed out that the rise of web 2.0 and user-centred social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter has resulted in a steady power shift to consumers and marketers would do well to take this into account.

Writing on Netimperative, he stressed that industry research shows that companies risk isolating clients if they send out generic one-size-fits-all messages that are not tailored to specific individual needs.

"Giving the consumer control of e-mail frequency and content guarantees that they are receiving something they genuinely need and want," Mr Griffiths advised.

"Customer preference can be easily collected through an online preference centre or customer outreach."

A recent report by SocialMediaExaminer found that 91 per cent of marketers are currently using social media platforms as part of their campaign strategies.

Posted by Julie Knight, Managing Director – General Marketing, Industry News

Email marketers urged to have disaster plan in place

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Email marketers have been warned to make sure they have contingency plans in place in case they experience unforeseen situations.

Loren McDonald, vice-president of industry relations at Silverpop, said mistakes and mishaps in email marketing messages are unavoidable for the most part, so marketers should have a "disaster plan" in place to guide them when things go awry.

Writing in Media Post, he advised marketers to make sure they always monitor reply-to addresses and key metrics such as registrations and conversions so they spot mistakes as and when they arise.

"Knowing what steps to take when a mistake happens will help you minimise the damage from being caught off-guard and avoid future mistakes," Mr McDonald commented.

He advised marketers to promptly apologise to clients on their mailing lists if they discover a mistake after content has been emailed.

"Your apology should reflect your company or corporate personality," Mr McDonald advised. "Be humble - especially if the mistake could jeopardise your subscribers' faith and trust in your brand."

Posted by Suzanne Stock – Communications Director, HR, Online Advertising, General Marketing

Marketers use social media to attract email leads

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Marketers are increasingly using social media platforms to attract email leads, a new survey shows.

According to a report conducted by SocialMediaExaminer, nine in ten (91 per cent of) marketers are currently using social media platforms as part of their campaign strategies, with small businesses more likely to capitalise on the medium.

The 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report found that around two-thirds (65 per cent) of marketers have only just jumped on the social media bandwagon, while one third (31 per cent) have been using the medium for a few years.

Over three-quarters (79 per cent) of B2B companies said they have been using social media for a period of months or more, compared to 68.7 per cent of B2C firms.

Over half (56 per cent) of marketers said they use social media for six hours or more a week, while 30 per cent use it for 11 hours or more on a weekly basis.

Posted by Daryl Jay, Business Development Director – Sales, Industry News, General Marketing

Marketers urged to listen to their email leads

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Marketers should make sure they pay close attention to their consumers and email leads, an expert has advised.

Will Schnabel, vice-president and general manager of international markets at Silverpop, urged marketers that customers and prospects increasingly expect to be treated as partners, so their needs have to be taken into account.

Writing in the 60 Second Marketer, he explained that B2B engagement marketing is the logical extension of a “listen first philosophy” and focuses on developing a two-way dialogue between organisations and their markets.

"Rather than looking at customers and prospects as passive receivers of messages, B2B engagement marketers believe that both the marketplace and the brand are best served when communication and understanding flow freely from one to the other," Mr Schnabel commented.

He added that marketers should also strive to adopt lead-scoring in order to manage and analyse customer and prospect data more effectively.

A recent Unica study found that three-quarters of marketers plan to use data about consumers' interests and habits as part of their marketing offers.

Posted by Daryl Jay, Business Development Director – Sales, Industry News, General Marketing

Email marketing 'an effective tool'

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Email marketing can be an effective tool for creating new business leads, it has been claimed.

In an article for the Chronicle Herald, Pat D'Entremont wrote that email marking can be effective as it allows for specifically targeted campaigns and easy results measurement.

"If a person gets an email introducing an interesting topic on a website and that person goes to that link, that action can be tracked," the writer said.

He added that should that person want more information and opts to fill out a form on the website, a very good business prospect has presented itself.

The marketing professional added, however, that such a project should not be confused with spamming, noting that internet marketing requires the time to build relationships online, communicating with those who give you permission to do so.

Recently it was claimed by Simon Robinson, the marketing and alliances director for EMEA at Responsys, that email marketing should be used in conjunction with more traditional platforms.

Posted by Daryl Jay, Business Development Director – Sales, Industry News, General Marketing

Marketers 'will use digital campaigns to gauge success'

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Marketers are likely to increasingly turn to digital methods to gauge the success of email marketing and other campaigns.

Business director at Marketing.co.uk Darren Dutton argued that company leaders are likely to increase the pressure on marketers to show how their campaigns are performing.

He noted that marketing professional are likely to be looking for new methods to gauge the success of email leads and other campaigns as they seek to make a quick recovery from the recession.

"They are probably looking for better systems or solutions, to give them a better return on investment or a better way of actually tracking what campaigns are doing," Mr Dutton, who was speaking at this year's Technology for Marketing & Advertising event, said.

A recent report from the Chief Marketing Officer Council revealed that investing in digital demand generation is one of the key initiatives being taken this year to boost the value of marketing projects.

Posted by Matthew Collins, Technical Director – IT Data Cleaning, Hygiene, Analytics, Databases

Quality of data lists 'important for recovery'

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The quality of business data lists will be increasingly important for businesses as they look to recover from the recession, it has been claimed.

A spokesperson for the International Association for Information and Data Quality (IAIDQ), Daragh O Brien, said that firms will begin to focus more on information quality as they look to grow their businesses in the coming months.

"There will be an increased focus on information quality and data consistency as we begin the upswing from the recession," he said.

He added that aside from data quality, businesses are likely to look at streamlining and improving information management as they try to grow their business assets.

However, such changes are not just simple changes to technical infrastructure, he said, noting that challenges relating to process and culture will have to be addressed.

His comments follow research conducted by Lepus and published by Thomson Reuters earlier this year, which showed that more than three-quarters of top financial services businesses intend to boost spending on projects addressing data quality.

Posted by Matthew Collins, Technical Director – IT Data Cleaning, Hygiene, Analytics, Databases