Yesmail Interactive finds out that ‘shock horror’ almost half of B2B emails opened on a mobile device

Almost half of all B2B emails are now being opened with a mobile device, according to a new quarterly report from Yesmail Interactive.

“Interaction with email on a mobile device continues to trend upwards,” the report said. “While many have projected that mobile adoption is reaching the point of saturation, and is thus slowing its growth, the trending data available from the last three quarters of 2013 would suggest otherwise.”

The report, “Email Marketing Compass,” based on 6.4 billion emails sent in the fourth quarter, found that 48.3 percent of all B2B email opens occurred on a mobile device in the fourth quarter, up from 45.9 percent in the previous quarter. Overall, 55.0 percent of email opens happened on a mobile device, representing a 13.0 percent increase in mobile opens between June and December 2013.

Yesmail’s report also found that the increase in B2B mobile opens and clicks is coming at the expense of the desktop. In the fourth quarter, 53.0 percent of B2B emails were viewed on a mobile device only, up from 50.3 percent in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, 46.0 percent of B2B emails were viewed on a desktop only, down from 47.6 percent in the previous quarter.

Additionally, the number of people in the B2B sector who use both mobile and desktops to view email is declining rapidly, according to the report. In the fourth quarter, 1.0 percent of B2B emails were viewed on both mobile and desktops, down from 2.1 percent in the previous quarter.

“While the fact that mobile opens and clicks continue to rise at a consistent pace is not surprising, it is compelling to know that email subscribers are now more likely to view emails exclusively on their mobile devices,” the report said. “In only 6 months, the number of mobile-only email viewers has increased at a rate, almost inversely proportional to the decline of hybrid viewership over the same period.”

So it’s not really a surprise – what surprises me is how many people still send long eshots that haven’t been designed mobile first.

All our customer facing emails at Justaxi – Manchester taxi fare comparison app – have to be mobile first. As we are as a company. But I suppose we are a mobile app after all and B2C….. 🙂  

What do we all have in store – marketing wise – for 2014 …. Adobe predicts with the help of 2500 marketing people and Econsultancy

Recently Adobe, in partnership with Econsultancy, kicked off a global survey of more than 2,500 marketers and Internet professionals, in hopes of better understanding what companies and agencies alike are prioritising in 2014.

The 60 page report made for some interesting reading – here are the main points of it all compiled by Mark Zablan a digital media, digital marketing, and analytics strategist, Mark is president of Adobe EMEA and resides in the UK with his wife and two children.

Here’s a sneak peek at the meat inside this report: For the whole thing click here. 

• Customer experience is the single most exciting opportunity for in-house marketers in 2014, above mobile and content marketing.

• In the world of B2B, content marketing is king. For B2C marketers, however, mobile sits in at the top of the priority pile. We say AMEN to this – not only as I am now working for a taxi fare comparison app (which is 100% mobile) but as I have been ranting about mobile for many a year.

• 2014 is a year of experimentation and agility. Does your company culture instil a fear of failure? The inability to test, learn, and rejigger an approach is holding many companies back from digital success.
• Consumer expectations outpace corporate innovations. There is no doubt about it—consumers are in control. And aside from grabbing consumer attention, customer stickiness has become increasingly difficult as personalized offers and information from other brands increases at a staggering rate.
• Evolving role for email as marketers seek to engage with millennials. Over 90% of businesses use email as a cheap and powerful way of both broadcasting news and providing personal, 1:1 communication. However the debate of emails effectiveness in reaching a younger, social-minded audience continues.
• Technology brings efficiency and immediacy to display advertising in what has been a historically chaotic landscape for media buying. And as the efficiency of television advertising dwindles, brands should be able to effectively cobble together large audiences comprised of the right people—albeit from many different sources.
• Marketers fit for the future need to find the balance between extremes. More so than ever, marketing has become a combination of art and science—and the need for left-brained engineers who will eat, sleep and breathe technology into their marketing teams is just as prevalent as the call for creative geniuses. Breaking down organisational silos and balancing these two extremes continues to be a challenge.

• Companies focus on harmonising cross-channel messaging and experience. As technology evolves so too do marketing channels—consider Vine, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and other channels that have surged into popularity. Managing these multiple channels with consistency has become an increasingly crucial discipline for marketers. (And finding the time…)

• Mobile has won—the time for procrastination is over. There couldn’t be a safer bet than to predict that mobile will continue to grow in significance for businesses, as more customers adopt tablets, smartphones and wearable technology. 2014 will continue to see businesses work harder to improve the mobile experience, and to understand what mobile means for their customers.

• Content, mobile and social will become business as usual. While the vast majority of marketers understand that improving the customer experience must be one of the sole focuses of digital marketing, most companies are still gathering the right tools for their toolbox in order to create such experiences. But as marketing technology moves into a more integrated set of solutions, these functions should bring greater value in the year to come.

May this full report help enable us all to better understand the mindset, needs and concerns of today’s digital marketing professionals—so that the technology, process and people will continue to evolve.

Mobile spending expected to be up almost 40% this year

Worldwide mobile spending is expected to hit $18.0 billion this year, up from $13.1 billion last year, according to research firm Gartner Inc. By 2017, the market will reach $41.9 billion.

While video shows the most growth because of widespread adoption of tablets, display will rake in the most mobile revenue.

However, even though advertisers’ enthusiasm for the medium will continue to skyrocket, mobile growth will start to slow down in the coming years.

“Over the next few years, growth in mobile advertising spending will slow due to ad space inventory supply growing faster than demand, as the number of mobile websites and applications increases faster than brands request ad space on mobile device screens,” said Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner, in a statement. “However, from 2015 to 2017, growth will be fueled by improved market conditions, such as provider consolidation, measurement standardization and new targeting technologies, along with a sustained interest in the mobile medium from advertisers.”

The growing popularity of the mobile Web will cause the market to shift from in-app display to Web display. However, this shift is happening slower than Gartner predicted because the use of HTML5 tools in mobile website development is “taking longer to impact the market.” In addition, increased use of location data gathered from mobile users will boost the search and mapping categories.

Which is rather good news for the new company I am working for as JusTaxi is a geo location using mobile app that helps people get the best price for the taxi they book.

In case you didnt know – Google kicks ass for downloads but Apple cleans up with the cash.

Having worked for a mobile game developer and produced a couple of ideas myself I know that getting the game made is only half the problem – the real issue is downloads and making money from it all. Do you go freemium or premium ? And which is the better of the two houses? 

Gryffindor and Slytherin.

Or Google and Apple.

Google Play may have dethroned Apple’s  App Store in terms of downloads, but developers focused on monetization may want to stick with iOS, based on the App Annie Market Index Q2 2013.

Released last week, the report examines downloads and revenues across stores, countries and app categories.

• Though Google Play had more downloads, the iOS App Store still generated 2.3 times the revenue
• Games accounted for 80 percent of revenue for Google Play and 75 percent of revenue for Apple’s App Store
• 40 percent of all Apple App Store downloads came from the United States or China
• The combined downloads for the United States, South Korea and emerging markets comprised over one-third of the total Google Play downloads
• 40 percent of downloads in both Apple’s App Store and Google Play were gaming apps

The App Annie Market Index Q2 2013 showed the iOS App Store has a revenue lead over Google Play.

“Android’s open platform has given Google Play a very strong position in (emerging) markets because cell phone manufacturers like Samsung, Nokia, HTC and LG are offering cheaper handsets and already have established distribution channels to market and sell their products,” the report said.

Put aside the war between Apple and Google for a moment: This is really about the power of key app categories and how developers could generate more money from them. For example, App Annie noted that while gaming continues to reign supreme, secondary categories like social networking saw impressive growth in Q2, surging past productivity apps in terms of revenue on iOS. That revenue bump was not accompanied by a corresponding rise in downloads, however.

That means smart developers are probably using a mix of in-app advertising, in-app purchasing and perhaps even testing out paid downloads as a means of increasing their share of consumers’ wallets among their established base of users. Not a bad model to follow, whether you’re targeting iOS or Google Play.

Amen to that and something we started doing at Dojit – but are their even better ways to make money from mobile – is it really the ads or something deeper?

 

I am setting up EnterMobile to find out.
Read more: App Annie: Google Play gets downloads, but Apple App Store generates the revenue – FierceDeveloper http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/app-annie-google-play-gets-downloads-apple-app-store-generates-revenue/2013-08-01#ixzz2bCO5SB00
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Well I did say it would be around 30%.Facebook smashes it with mobile.

Am loving the fact I was right…. but heck you don’t make money from being right.

You make money from taking action.

And action in the mobile space is what Facebook has taken…. and it looks like their mobile plans are coming to fruition as the company’s first-quarter earnings exceeded expectations—mainly because of strong mobile advertising performance. Read on…

Four in ten marketers report that they feel unprepared for a digital first future, according to a survey from Accenture.

According to Marketing Week, four in ten marketers report that they feel unprepared for that future, according to a survey from Accenture.

This is interesting as surely since the digital age is already upon us (isn’t it all mobile now already) B2B marketers need to ensure their organizations are ready for this fundamental shift in marketing.

“Marketing executives are growing increasingly concerned that tight budgets and the lack of a clear strategy for implementing digital technologies are hurting their company’s ability to compete in the digital age,” said Brian Whipple, global managing director of Accenture Interactive, in a statement. “There is a clear performance gap between the demands of the marketplace and the ability of marketing organizations to apply the digital technology talent required to be more effective.”

Accenture Interactive’s online survey,  “Turbulence for the CMO,” conducted last August and September, polled 405 senior marketing executives in 10 countries. Sixty-three percent of respondents were B2B and 72 percent were CMO-level and above.

The report found that inefficient business practices (19 percent) and lack of funding (17 percent) are the main reasons marketers don’t feel well prepared to meet their objectives. In addition, 70 percent of executives believe that corporate marketing will undergo a dramatic change within the next five years and that their organizations must create a digital plan that will help them achieve higher revenue and increase market share.

But my favourite one – as a digital marketing trainer who specialises in B2B – is that they fear not knowing enough about becoming a digital-first organization.

Many of them are now thinking about how to maximize ROI across multiple channels.

Nearly one in five CMOs score themselves as below average in multichannel attribution, correlating advertising to sales, and measuring media buying effectiveness.

“How can CMOs succeed with customers if they can’t measure the most effective strategies to use with customers who are changing their behaviors and interacting with brands differently?” the report asks.

However, marketing executives are not sitting idly by, twiddling their thumbs.

To prepare for the digital shift, two-thirds (66 percent) of marketing executives will spend at least one quarter of their budget on digital marketing next year, and almost one-quarter (23 percent) said that more than half will be spent on digital marketing.

Also, senior execs plan to invest more in their analytics capabilities. To help retain and grow their customer base, almost half (48 percent) said they will spend more on managing customer data. Forty percent said they will boost spending on web analytics and 39 percent will spend more on marketing analytics.

But will they spend more on actually training their staff on how to use tools like Google Analytics properly? The tool is amazing – and free – so really budget should go on analytical training rather than fancy new platforms 😉

Finally, CMOs realize they need new talent and digital innovators to help them reach their goals. Half of the executives said they would begin an internal reorganization to become more digitally focused, and more than half said they would be hiring more people with the necessary digital skills (52 percent) or providing their existing staff with digital training (55 percent).

Which is great for a digital training company like Great Marketing Works, isn;t it 🙂

Online budgets increasing – and right so :) – according to new report from Nielsen’s Vizu

Despite marketers’ continued struggle with measurement of brand advertising, more than half (63 percent) will increase their online brand advertising budgets, according to a report from Nielsen’s Vizu. In addition, 20 percent of respondents said that those budgets would grow by 20 percent or more.

Looks like we were right to start advising our clients last year to be doing the same.

Thanks to Visu and FierceCMO’s Tequia Burt for the report below.

How do you make something viral – in nature?

As an agency, as a trainer, I have my own thoughts on what makes something go viral – and so it was interesting to see what someone else had to say on it.

Especially after my own thoughts have lead one client down a blind alley…. we wanted to know why and how.

7 Marketing Metrics Worth Obsessing Over

If you work in marketing or you do the marketing for your own business, you know alot of time is (or should be) spent on reports and analysis.

In fact today, most of my time was spent looking at different channels and the conversion rates for websites and landing pages and having ideas on how these could all be improved. So I read with interest in Duct Tape Marketing on the 7 key marketing metrics worth obsessing over. We do this for our clients everyday at http://www.greatmarketingworks.co.uk.

Emotion marketing – a key to success. But which ones to use? Find out here…

The latest Creston Limited “Brand Enrichment” research shows, the most important factor that drives peoples’ choices is not the monetary value; it’s actually the emotional value brands offer via their product. Which is great news as….