Social Email Marketing: Why are you uniquely prepared for the social onslaught? The Lohan Effect #SMMSF
This presentation took place at the Social Email Marketing event, put on by Influence People with lead sponsor Constant Contact. The conference took place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA. Tyler looked at the similarities and differences between email marketing and social marketing – explaining the lessons you can apply today to translate your email marketing experience into social marketing success.
I really enjoyed the presentation, but unfortunately Tyler spoke a bit fast for me to catch more, so hopefully the presentation is clear enough! The speaker was:
- Tyler Willis, Head of Brand Management, Involver (@TylerWillis)
Bullet Point Review!
- We always focus on ‘what’s changed’ but really successful marketers ask ‘what’s remained consistent’?
- Framework is the same.
- Subscribe -> engage -> convert.
- The key to making great art is all in composition.
- What’s changed?
- Social proof influences your outcomes.
- Mistakes are now public.
- Targets talk back.
- You have to pay attention to a lot more locations.
- You have less space & more options.
- Your messages don’t always get delivered.
- The KPIs are different.
Here’s Tyler’s’ slide presentation:
CJU Course: At Your Service
Unleashing the power of web services can literally change your program. Getting the data you need faster and then customizing it to suit the exact needs of your program or web site—that’s what web services are all about and Commission Junction is the industry leader. Hear real-world examples of clients using the CJ Web Services APIs in all kinds of creative ways to help them run their businesses more efficiently than ever
before. The panel consisted of:
- Bram Roukema, Director, Product Management, Commission Junction (Moderator)
- Adam Viener, imwave
- Michael Khodos, Simply Best Coupons
Bullet Point Review!
- Most APIs in CJ are done in ReST & SOAP (which will be phased out eventually).
- 6 APIs are offered:
- Publishers: Commission details.
- Publishers: Advanced look up
- Publishers: Product search.
- Publishers: Link search.
- Advertisers: Commission details.
- Advertisers: Publisher look up.
- Before APIs, people used feeds. Those took 1 day+, APIs are real-time.
- How to get started:
- Talk to your developers.
- Go to Webservices.cj.com.
- Review the APIs documentation.
- Register for a developer’s key.
- Remember to use ReST, not SOAP.
Points brought up during the Q&A
All APIs are pull; they’re considering using push APIs too so publishers can apply to the programs, etc.- When a link expires, they still track – they’re just not promoted anymore.
Social Email Marketing: Small Tweaks, Big Impact! The Power of A/B Testing #SMMSF
This presentation took place at the Social Email Marketing event, put on by Influence People with lead sponsor Constant Contact. The conference took place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA. In this session, Shelley discussed how even the most simple tweaks and A/B testing techniques in email can improve KPIs and significantly impact traffic to your site.
I felt bad for Shelley, as earlier in the day some folks had bagged on MySpace. But Shelley recovered nicely and the testing data she presented was informative and sometimes surprising! The speaker was:
- Shelley Beaumonte, Online Marketing Manager, MySpace
Bullet Point Review!
- Almost any email variable can be tested.
- Determine your success criteria before sending email.
-
Variable Open Rate CTR CTO Subject X Design X X Frequency X X - Lessons learned:
- Test 1 variable at a time, or else you won’t know what factor actually affected the data.
- Don’t abandon the losing variable completely, you can still tweak it.
- Know the objective of your email.
- Never assume a small change = small results.
- There’s no standard minimum sample size. No one number but you want it to be statistically significant.
Here’s Shelley’s’ slide presentation:
CJU Course: Joel Comm – Top 11 Social Media Mistakes
There’s a basic misunderstanding about “advanced social media”. It really doesn’t exist. Social media is just basic human interaction and common sense. However, there is such a thing as a social media fail, and mistakes one can make when entering into the world of social media from a professional standpoint. Joel Comm, best selling author and CJ Performer (@JoelComm), came to CJU on September 22, 2010 to impart to us the top 11 social media mistakes.
To be completely honest, this was nothing new to me. However, Joel is a good presenter and it was very entertaining and still worth my time to attend and take copious notes to pass on to you!
Bullet Point Review!
- Mistake #1: Believing the world of social media isn’t real life.
- State your opinion.
- Be polite.
- Don’t libel.
- Avoid flame wars.
- Mistake #2: Regarding social media as a marketing tool.
- Put your relationship with followers first.
- Train employees or interns on proper use of Twitter.
- Make it up to your fans with special offers if you make a mistake.
- Like me, know me, trust me, pay me.
- Mistake #3: Forcing audiences to follow your marketing instead of following you.
- Reward loyalty.
- Know your audience.
- Accept criticism, even if it’s over the top.
- Answer positive posts publicly.
- Mistake #4: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
- Keep control of your sites – inmates should never run the asylum!
- Guide the conversation.
- Mistake #5: Spamming sites (or asking others to do it for you).
- Don’t bribe. Don’t subterfuge.
- Pay for honest, sponsored mentions.
- Become influential legitimately.
- Mistake #6: Not being authentic.
- Write your own Tweets (remember it’s a personal thing, so your logo might not actually be the best user icon to use).
- Focus on the relationships.
- Mistake #7: Silencing critics instead of listening.
- Moderate but allow dissent.
- Make mistakes right quickly.
- Mistake #8: Not being professional.
- Be professional!
- Know your audience – this will help you to be personal, but also not too personal where you cross a line that might hurt your brand.
- Mistake #9: Loose lips sink ships.
- Watch what you say.
- Apologize quickly if you offend or cross a line.
- Engage the community.
- Mistake #10: Stopping your campaign – and your relationship.
- Build campaigns for the long term.
- Don’t cast aside engaged customers.
- Remember real people build real relationships.
- Treat your audience with respect – they know where you “live” online.
- Mistake #11: Not realizing that the world is watching.
- Engage your brain before Tweeting.
- Make it right when you make a mistake.
- Don’t become a negative example in Joel’s presentation.
Social Email Marketing: Finding Influencers in Your CRM & Making Advocates #SMMSF
This presentation took place at the Social Email Marketing event, put on by Influence People with lead sponsor Constant Contact. The conference took place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA. In this interactive session, Chase explored how to go from boring CRM to Social CRM discussing the importance of knowing your customer, segmenting out advocates and understanding who and why they are following or “Liking” you.
I felt like this was mostly a pitch for the company, which was a little discouraging. But some of the info was useful, hence the notes I took. The speaker was:
- Chase McMichael, Co-Founder and CEO, InfiniGraph (@chasemcmichael)
Bullet Point Review!
- There are 4.6 billion cell phones.
- 500 million users on Facebook.
- Facebook Connect – you don’t even need email anymore.
- If you integrate that, you might just have given up control.
- An affinity map provides insight for co-marketing.
- InfiniGraph ranks shared content based on people, context, influence, and brand affinity.
- Your “stream” must induce clicks (Facebook, Twitter).
- If a consumer is active around your brand, they’re sharing details with friends.
Here’s Chase’s’ slide presentation:
CJU Course: Kerri Pollard – It’s All About Growth
Of course, at every CJU the general manager of the company has to give an encouraging “state of the company” type speech. This year it was all about growth.
- Kerri Pollard, General Manage, Commission Junction (@kerripollard)
I really enjoyed the statistics Kerri shared, despite her saying she wasn’t a numbers person. Neither am I, but these were very “feel good” numbers for current CJ publishers and advertisers.
Bullet Point Review!
- Unless you were a coupon publisher, growth was hard in 2009.
- $1.9 billion spent on affiliate marketing in 2009 – it’s estimated to be $4 billion in 2014.
- Online advertising has tripled.
- Affiliate marketing is growing faster than other advertising types.
- 28% of consumers’ time is spent online, but online advertising is typically only 13% of a company’s marketing budget.
- E-commerce sales are still only 3.8% of total retail sales.
- 62% of adults shopping online seek out a coupon before purchasing.
- Old Spice was the most viral campaign in 2010.
- Twitter is seeing 90 million tweets per day.
- 63% of online retailers that use a 3rd party advertising tracking solution, use CJ.
- Bed, Bath, & Beyond is the newest big-box retailer to come to CJ.
- CJ has seen a 40% increase in advertisers over the last 12 months.
- Publishers need to generate $10k/month in commissions for 3 straight months to qualify for CJ Performer status.
- Monthly income doubled on average after publishers become a CJP.
- There’s a new “Get Links” area, in beta right now.
- Advertisers supporting direct linking are clearer.
- There’s additional filtering options.
- Everyone at CJU now has access to the new “Get Links” area.
- CJ has seen a 24% increase in publisher relationships over the last 12 months.
- Affiliate marketing is now retailer’s first stop instead of their last stop.
- CJ feeds product helps advertisers fix data feeds and also works with 200+ comparison shopping engines.
- CJx beta takes care of finding advertisers, getting approved, finding products, and managing links for the publisher (name is temporary).
- CJ media is more short term campaigns (like an internal CPA network).
- 10 largest publishers on CJ experienced 50% year-over-year growth in Q2.
- 20 largest advertisers on CJ experienced 26% year-over-year growth in Q2.
