Sherpa: Changes in 2011 Email Marketing Budgets!

Have your email marketing budgets increased, decreased or stayed the same for 2011?

Take a look at this week’s chart from MarketingSherpa to learn how the changes planned for your 2011 email marketing budget compare to those of more than 1,100 marketers.

The extent of changes to email marketing budgets for the coming year



There's no question about it -- email budgets will continue to rise in 2011. As organizations become (cautiously) optimistic about the improving economy, purse strings are starting to loosen, and email marketing is a primary beneficiary.

In addition to economic forces, email is earning increased investment because it continues to prove itself as one of the most (if not the most) effective tools in the marketing toolbox.

Multichannel (B2B2C) organizations are much more likely to increase their email budget by a significant amount than are single-channel organizations.

B2B organizations, particularly in the industrial sector, are often considered conservative marketing spenders. While a majority of those marketing exclusively to other businesses are increasing email budgets, B2B marketers are also more likely than other marketers to keep their 2011 email budget the same as 2010.

For additional research data and insights about email marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from the MarketingSherpa 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark Report.

by Jeff Rice, Research Analyst

MarketingSherpa: New Chart: Changes in 2011 email marketing budgets.

Emineo Media

Google Analytics, Meet Webmaster Tools!

Google continues to provide amazing ways in which search marketing professionals can improve their campaign efforts. The latest is this week’s announcement that webmasters using Google Analytics to track site data can link verified sites in Webmaster Tools when using the same Google account. What does this mean to you?

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of connecting the two services is that users are able to access the Google Analytics Referring Pages report from within Google Webmaster Tools. This means that you will be able to “understand the overall trends in traffic volume from referrals, as well as the sites driving those trends,” according to Google.

This is quite the important development for a few reasons, but perhaps most notable is that webmasters will be able to use the data to see if the sites that link to them most frequently or the content that is linked to the most on a website are actually driving traffic. Why is it important to know that? Well, should you be witnessing links that are not driving traffic you can assume that there is not a lot of value in them which might in turn encourage you to seek out those that do.

This might just be the first value proposition from connecting the two account - in the future you might see others. For example, it is completely possible that Google could take data currently available in Webmaster tools (information on impressions or average position for example) and show the relationship between a number of variables including unique visits, time on site, etc.

WM won’t go into detail about how to link a verified site in Webmaster Tools to a Google Analytics profile but we will say this – the entire process takes just a few minutes and you’d be nearing foolish not to do so. Expect a lot more to come from the Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools connection in the near future.

Website Magazine

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The 2010 Inc. 500 Update: Most Blog, Friend And Tweet But Some Industries Still Shun Social Media!

A research report conducted By: Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D. reveals the growing social media trends with the Inc. 500. 

The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth recently conducted a new in-depth and statistically significant study on the usage of social media in fast-growing corporations. This new study revisits the Center’s study of Inc. 500 social media usage for the fourth consecutive year, making it a valuable and rare longitudinal study of corporate use of these new technologies.

The new study compares adoption of social media among the 2010 Inc. 500 with previous years. The Inc. 500 is a list of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies compiled annually by Inc. Magazine. For details about the 2010 Inc. 500 and the complete directory of the included companies, please visit Inc. Magazine's website at http://www.inc.com/.

In 2007, the Center’s first study of this group and their use of social media was released and revealed that the Inc. 500 was outpacing the more traditional Fortune 500 in their use of social media. For example, at that time, research showed that 8% of the Fortune 500 companies were blogging compared to 19% of the Inc. 500. This difference continued in 2008 with 16% of the Fortune 500 blogging vs. 39% of the Inc. 500. This trend held in 2009 with the Inc. 500 blogging at a rate of 45%, while the Fortune 500 had 22% of its list with corporate blogs.  The new data shows adoption of blogs leveling off in the Fortune 500 but continuing to grow among the Inc. 500 companies.

Read full report

Download full report

Emineo Media

Email, Social Media to See More Marketing Dollars in 2011!

Email marketers have been warming up to social media for the past year, using social elements like “share with your network” and buttons to connect with brands on Twitter and Facebook in email campaigns. Email and social media also go together in another way: They are the top tactics marketers worldwide expect to increase budgets on in 2011. 

According to a November 2010 survey of business executives around the globe by StrongMail, nearly two-thirds of companies will increase spending on email marketing, and 57% will put more dollars toward social media marketing. Search took a distant third place with 41% of respondents indicating they would spend more.



Email, Social Media to See More Marketing Dollars in 2011

Emineo Media

Social to Boost SEO!

Majority of companies have blogged with goal of search optimization

The majority of search marketers have recognized the importance of social media to their search engine optimization efforts, according to a November 2010 study from search marketing software provider SEOmoz.

Nearly 71% of respondents said they use social media as part of their SEO strategy. Social media marketing can be an excellent driver of content visibility, by helping to keep content fresh and abundant, and also by increasing the number of inbound links a site receives.

Social to Boost SEO

Emineo Media

Benefits of Email-Social Media Integration!

Social media most effective channel to integrate with email

Several studies have shown that a majority of email marketers are making use of social media tactics, both to boost their social media efforts as well as to improve email campaigns.

A June 2010 survey of North American email and online marketers by email marketing firm Lyris found that most of them were seeing positive results. Just 6% said their marketing results were no better after integrating social and email, compared with 54% who said results were at least somewhat better.

Benefits of Email-Social Media Integration

Emineo Media

Keep Brand Fans on Board!

Social media marketers who have successfully attracted fans of their brand to their Facebook or Twitter page have only just begun their real task: keeping those fans interested and engaged, and hopefully turning them into advocates on the brand’s behalf.

According to a September 2010 survey by social media marketing agency Cone, incentives remain the biggest draw for consumers connecting with brands online. New-media users expect deals, but also look for brands to help solve their problems and get their feedback on products and services.

Keep Brand Fans on Board

Emineo Media

Retail Ecommerce Spending to Grow 13.7% in Q4 2010!

Ecommerce spending is expected to grow 13.7% to $51.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, topping last year’s Q4 sales of $45.2 billion, according to a new forecast published by eMarketer.

Strong online holiday sales will push annual ecommerce sales to $162.4 billion for full-year 2010, up 12.7% over 2009. Online holiday sales will represent an estimated 23.7% of online retail sales in 2010, underlining the importance that November and December have on retailers’ annual ecommerce sales.

via Retail Ecommerce Spending to Grow 13.7% in Q4 2010 - The eMarketer Blog.

Emineo Media

What Really Drives Young Adults' Purchase Decisions?

Products that convey personal achievement and social interaction are valued:

Research has suggested that cause marketing appeals to US consumers, and that millennials in particular care about social and environmental issues.



Data presented by Resonate Networks at the October 2010 Pivot Conference in New York City confirmed the importance of such issues to young adults. Consumers ages 18 to 34 are more likely than their older counterparts to care about a variety of issues, including various civil rights and environmental concerns.

via What Really Drives Young Adults' Purchase Decisions? - eMarketer.

Emineo Media

UK Shoppers Are Global Leaders in Online Spending per Person!

Widely reported last week—by the Guardian, the World Advertising Research Council Warc and new media age magazine, among others—were the results of a study commissioned by Google from the Boston Consulting Group BCG. The headline figure brought a broad smile to faces more often creased with worry in recent months. According to BCG, the internet was worth £100 billion $139 billion to the UK in 2009. That was 7.2% of the country’s gross domestic product—not far behind the 9% contributed by the financial industry.

via UK Shoppers Are Global Leaders in Online Spending per Person - eMarketer.

Emineo Media

Social Media Change!

Social media is currently an intricate part of the consumer experience.  Countless businesses have become reliant on social media as a source of information for selling and marketing their products and/or services.  But just like sales and marketing are constantly changing, social media is just another change.  Businesses should not fear these changes, but try to understand, embrace and implement social media.  In doing so, they will enrich the consumer’s experience and in the process evolve into another phase of success they may deny themselves for fear of change. 

Emineo Media

UK Retailers Move to Embrace M-Commerce.

Most UK merchants expect mobile commerce to be part of their main strategy within the next 12 months, and more than 40% plan to have a transactional mobile site or application within the next year, according to a survey carried out by eDigital Research for the Association for Interactive Media and Entertainment (AIME), the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG).

Click below to read full story:

UK Retailers Move to Embrace M-Commerce.

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