Miller High Life focuses its message on the pleasure of spending time with the beer, not on how cheap it is (even though it is cheap!)
With all of the incredible free marketing content being published these days, it’s virtually impossible to keep up (though that doesn’t stop me from trying!) It’s easy to get in the habit of skimming over tons of articles without retaining much, but that seems like a waste of time. Wouldn’t it be better to focus on key takeaways and make a note of them for future use? Why not take it a step further and make it a blog post? It seems like that way you might be more motivated to keep an eye out for key points and takeaways… that’s the logic behind this roundup anyways. So without further adieu, here’s a roundup of some of the stuff I’ve run across in the past week or so…
U.S. Mobile Local Ad Revenues to Grow from $664M in 2011 to $5.8B in 2016
As people spend less time on their computers and more time on mobile devices, it’s important for advertisers to include mobile in their marketing mix (especially local businesses!) This article is based on a study by BIA/Kelsey, and these were my main takeaways:
- Search eclipsed display last year as the leading mobile advertising format and should continue to increase its share in the next few years
- Most mobile ad formats today fall into the main categories of search, display, SMS, and video (although other formats are evolving)
- Local advertising represented 41% of all mobile advertising in 2011 ($664M out of $1.6B) and is predicted to grow to 58% ($5.8B out of $9.9B) by 2016
- Search is the largest local revenue component in mobile advertising and should continue to be so for the foreseeable future
Using Behavioral Economics, Psychology, and Neuroeconomics to Maximize Sales
The high anchor price of “Le Balthazar” makes the “Le Grand” price seem reasonable by comparison
I’m naturally drawn to psychology. I’m fascinated by how the human mind works and I always want to be aware when psychological principles are being used to sell me on something. My main takeaways from this article:
- Price anchoring: include a high price “premium” option to make other offerings seem relatively inexpensive
- Selling to “tightwads”:
- Use the power of words (e.g. “for a small $5 fee” vs “for a $5 fee”)
- Re-frame the pricing to make it seem less expensive (e.g. $84 per month sounds better than $1000 per year, even though it’s the same thing)
- Reduce the pain of purchasing with bundling: we’re often willing to pay more for a bundle than it would cost to buy each item individually (e.g. upgrade packages on new cars)
- Sell time over money: focus on the pleasure of the time spent with your product rather than the money spent (the theory being that we have a negative association with money… see the Miller Time picture at the top of this post)
Reality Check: How to Tell if Your Marketing Content Is Actually Valuable
Hubspot puts out some amazing content. One of the big takeaways from this article is the need to create personas that represent your target audience. As a marketer, segmentation is far from new to me but it’s always good to be reminded, and this article contains a link to a great power-point which can help you create your personas. Key takeaways:
- Write clearly (avoid business babble, i.e. excessive jargon which is used to make yourself sound smart and/or hide the fact that you don’t know what you are talking about)
- Target your content to your audience (and make sure you are clear about who your audience is i.e. personas)
- Use bench-marking data (metrics) so that you have something to compare your metrics to (so that you know whether or not you are achieving success!)
- Align your content with the reader’s stage in the sales cycle. Awareness building is very different from asking for a purchase, and content should reflect this
12 Critical Marketing and Sales Metrics You BETTER Be Tracking
Another Hubspot post, and it’s about one of my favorite subjects in digital marketing: metrics! I love being able to get real numbers and being able to measure success… it makes work more like a game! However, it’s crucial to know which metrics to measure and to avoid vanity metrics. There are a lot of different metrics in this article, and I look forward to the opportunity of being able to implement some or all of them at some point in the near future… this article is definitely stored in my bookmarks.
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Well, that’s about it for this week. To close, I will leave you with a bizarre bit of comedy. This may be old news for some, but I just discovered this and I was literally laughing out loud… literally. I am a big fan of weird comedy, and this is right down my alley. Thanks for stopping by, and please feel free to give this blog some comment love!