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Forrester Study: Email and Search, Not Social, Drives Sales Online

posted on September 26, 2012

I can hear the din of social media rock stars and gurus around the globe howling at the notion that social is not a primary sales driver in the eCommerce world. Heretic!

Usually people get the most riled up when something they hang their hat on is called out and shown in the light to be a lot less spectacular than when pitched with hyperbole and emotion.

The report from Forrester called “The Purchase Path of Online Buyers in 2012” (link is to page to purchase full report which Marketing Pilgrim receives no payment whatsoever) basically says the the most effective tools in the online space to drive sales are the equivalent of online hammer and nails: email marketing and search marketing. Here are the main points but without the report’s detail.

  1. Paid search matters most for new customers
  2. Email matters most for repeat customers
  3. Social tactics are not meaningful sales drivers

Commence screaming and feigned outrage.

Need a chart to look at and further lather you up? Here you go. Look at the impact of email vs. social media on repeat customers.

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Mobile Marketing Goes Postal with Holiday eCommerce Promotion

posted on September 25, 2012

It may not seem like it, but mobile is actually the perfect compliment to the US Postal Service. When a customer uses their mobile device to buy something online, that something has to be mailed to them and there’s a one in three chance that that something is going to arrive via the US Postal Service.

In order to encourage this symbiotic relationship, the USPS is offering a special holiday direct mail promotion aimed specifically at mobile marketers.

The 2012 Holiday Mobile Shopping Promotion gives online merchants a 2% postage discount as long as they have a a mobile bar code or QR code that leads back to the web. (You’ll find the specifics here.)

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Facebook Ads: Women Are More Expensive, But Aren’t We Worth It?

posted on September 25, 2012

Men are Cheap, that’s the name of a new study from Resolution Media and Kenshoo Social and it could be my favorite study title ever.

The study takes a quick look at the gender differences in Facebook ad campaigns and comes to a not so simple “chicken or the egg” conclusion. Here’s how it goes:

The majority of Facebook users are women, but not by much; 58% female vs 42% male.

Even though there are more women, more Facebook ad dollars are spent on men. (53% male vs 47% female)

Because they’re spending more on men, men are offered more ads. Since they’re offered more ads, the law of averages applies and they click more often.

That leads us to the fact that it’s cheaper to target men on Facebook (with advertising).

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The Stench of Anonymous Blogging

posted on September 25, 2012

When my cat was younger, he liked to claw at certain areas of our carpet. Through trial and error, my wife discovered that the best way to keep him from scratching was to spray Dollar Store Perfume where he’d like to claw. The strong scent would keep him from being naughty and ruining the flooring. I would jokingly ask my wife why she couldn’t buy the perfume that she wears at the Dollar Store…for after all, they’d feature many of the top “Brands” (term used loosely). Her reply was that Dollar Store perfume was very strong-smelling and the scent doesn’t last for more than a few minutes.

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Google’s Schmidt Says No Google Maps for iPhone 5 Users

posted on September 25, 2012

Although it was a bit unclear from the article from Reuters it appears as if there are no plans to roll out any Google Maps alternative for the millions of people making the mobile move to the Apple’s iPhone 5 and iOS 6. I say unclear because it is hard to tell if the door is left open for an app in the future or not. This revelation comes despite the rumors that bubbled up (shocker!) that Google has an app waiting approval for iOS 6 users (which could end up ultimately being true considering how the truth is rather fluid in the Internet space but the likelihood seems extremely slim at best).

Reuters reported

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The Fancy: All the Top Social Commerce Trends, All in One Place

posted on September 24, 2012

What are the top trends in Social Commerce right now? Photo galleries (Pinterest, Lover.ly). Subscription boxes (Love with Food, Birchbox). Daily deals are hanging in there (Groupon, AmazonLocal). Gamification is always hot, as is social sharing and referrals. Put them all together and they spell The Fancy — a new place to buy more stuff.

I got The Fancy bug after reading comScore’s article called From Pin to Purchase. The piece talks about that illusive social media fellow, the conversion. You know, 10,000 Likes on your Facebook page but only 1 sale. Hundreds of photo repins on Pinterest but not one clickthrough.

The Fancy is working to change all that by providing users with every opportunity to not just covet and share what they see on the page, but to buy it, too.

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Tracy Morgan Emmy Stunt Results in 60K Tweets in 3 Minutes

posted on September 24, 2012

The Call to Action is one of the most important steps in a marketing campaign. Just tell people what you want them to do and they’ll do it.

Last night, Jimmy Kimmel showed us all how it’s done with the help of Tracy Morgan and Twitter. He asked the actor to lie on the stage, then told viewers to Tweet, “OMG, Tracy Morgan passed out at the Emmys. Tune in to ABC right now”.

The results:

And there’s TV Guide spoiling the joke.

The initial response was 25,000 Tweets but when it was all over, the full count came to 60,000 in around 3 minutes. That’s insane. Could we get 60,000 people to Tweet reminders not to drink and drive on New Years Eve or something that might make a real difference in this world?