Marketing Optimization: What your peers learned this year about Adwords, the inbox, and telling the truth
In today’s Web clinic at 4 p.m. EST – How to Increase Conversion in 2012: The last 20,000 hours of marketing research distilled into 60 minutes – MECLABS Managing Director Flint McGlaughlin will share our top 2011 discoveries.
But before we share what we learned, we wanted to hear from you. Here are a few of the top “Aha” moments from your peers …
Phone calls from Adwords
That 96.5% of our Adwords conversions in a three-month test were phone calls – which were not tracked in our analytics. We’re now testing KeyMetric.net capabilities on a couple campaigns so we can track phone keyword conversions.
– Michael Cordova, Managing Partner, Mercury Leads
Are we still welcome in your inbox?
Finding a simple, no sales language approach was best to engage email subscribers who had stopped opening and clicking. The message tone and approach needs to match the situation and strength of relationship between the individual and brand. Incentives can look too much like yet another “sell” to the disengaged.
Best subject line in tests – “Are we still welcome in your inbox?”
– Tim Watson, Operations Director, Emailvision
Marketing a blog is no easy task
That marketing a blog for business use is no easy task. It takes time, strategy and dedication. I am close to calling it quits as I have just not seen the results I expected from my efforts. Learning the tools, the writing, editing and publishing is complicated and time consuming. You have to work this effort diligently like any good marketing effort!
– Jennifer Norene, Strategy Consultant, Haley Marketing Group
Tell the truth. Tell it early. Tell it often.
That no matter how much resources you invest in social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn), one public relations misstep can wipe away all the goodwill you’ve sought to build.
When it comes to potential public relations disasters and their inextricable relationship to marketing, the best advice is the simplest: “Tell the truth. Tell it early. Tell it often.” The American consumer will forgive genuine mistakes but not cover-ups, obfuscation or outright lies.
– Bruce Mendelsohn, Director, Communications and Outreach, Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Go East, young man …
80% of U.S. Internet users live east of the Mississippi.
Living in California, it’s very easy to forget this.
Of all the statistics in this article on the science of social timing published back in June of 2011, that one really smacked me upside the head.
– Kevin Convertito, Group Creative Director, High Speed Productions
Refine and Reproduce
Top Lesson – That excellent marketing is a series of small steps and not just one great big awesome value proposition.
Aha Moment – Seeing the true value of lead nurturing and the human touch put into full practice through the marketing funnel and not just at the top or bottom end.
Advice – Measure, track, share, discuss, refine and reproduce with your colleagues and peers.
– Jason Croyle, Business Development Representative, MECLABS
Be authentic
10,000-foot view – it is all about authenticity these days. If you are not authentic, you do not stand a chance in marketing, especially on social networks.
Product AHA – Google Plus with its “hangouts.” Very cool.
Side note but impactful – Learning about Steve Job’s death on the very device he helped create.
– Maria Nikishyna, Account Manager, Google
In memory
Realizing how “big” the “Apple fandom base” is. You need to go to one of the mature markets and see people standing in lines in front of Apple store to really understand and appreciate the accomplishment of late Mr. Steve Jobs.
– Branko Norwisz, Digital Strategy Manager for Central and Eastern Europe, IBM
What was your top “Aha” moment of the year? Tell our sister company, MarketingSherpa, what you learned this year for a chance to be published in the upcoming 2012 Marketing Wisdom Report, sponsored by HubSpot.
Related Resources:
How to Increase Conversion in 2012: The last 20,000 hours of marketing research distilled into 60 minutes – Sign up for today’s Web clinic
Share your wisdom for a chance to be published in the 2012 Marketing Wisdom Report
The Last Blog Post: How to succeed in an era of Transparent Marketing