New York SBDC Research Network

By yext From eMarketing Image by John Hain from Pixabay A significant number of retailers in North America are now working with influencers as part of their marketing strategy. According to polling by Retail TouchPoints for referral marketing platform Extole, 31% of retailers said they have worked with brand advocates to become influencers, 30% used microinfluencers and 28% used paid celebrity influencers. “Influencer marketing is important for businesses around the world, particularly those in retail, fashion, beauty and entertainment,” said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson, author of our recent report, "Global Influencer Marketing 2019." “Many consumers, particularly young people, get product recommendations from the influencers they follow. Retailers that collaborate with an influencer can bring new shoppers into stores and create buzz around their offerings.” But influencer marketing can be more complex for retailers that sell a wide variety of ...

Excerpt from an article by Krista Garcia To read more, visit  eMarketer "Email marketing is one of the most evergreen retail tactics. It's also one of the most targeted forms of messaging since recipients opt-in and often provide solicited information or preferences. Despite these factors, personalization can still be hit or miss. An April 2018 Evergage and Researchscape International study found email content was by far the channel that more US marketers personalized, cited by 71% of respondents. Personalizing home pages (45%) and landing pages (37%) were a distant second and third. When asked how email was personalized, 76% of respondents said they use a first name in the message or subject line. Just over half recommend products based on audience segment, while one-quarter suggest products on an individual basis."

An offer for the free eBook "Step-By-Step Guide To Creating A Winning Email Marketing Campaign" From ThomasNet Email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with prospects and grow your business. However, it takes a lot of planning and preparation to get it right. "Whether you are new to email marketing and want to set up your first campaign, or if you’ve been doing it awhile but need to improve your results, this step-by-step guide will help you achieve winning results. - Learn the best way to build your contact list - Find out how to choose the email platform that's right for you - Get expert writing and design tips - Find out about different tools and apps that can make your job easier And more."

Excerpt from an article by Jackie Dana To read more, visit  NameCheap "Every business needs happy customers and clients to be successful. From repeat business to word of mouth, satisfied customers sustain your business and help it to grow. But not every customer or client is going to be happy all the time. Your quest, should you choose to accept it, is to view each complaint you receive as an opportunity to build your business and improve your customer relationships. Let’s take a look at how you can transform your angry customers into your biggest fans and become their hero."

Excerpt from an article by Ayaz Nanji To read more, visit  MarketingProfs "Marketers are using original research primarily to create blog posts, infographics, and PDFs, according to a recent report from Mantis Research and BuzzSumo. The report was based on data from a survey conducted in January and February 2018 among 698 marketers from around the world (53% work for B2B firms, 16% for B2C firms, 26% for hybrid B2B-B2C firms, and 5% for governments/nonprofits). Respondents were surveyed on how their firms are using original research, which was defined as research published to gain attention from external audiences (benchmarks, salary guides, etc.), not research conducted to meet internal needs (marketing plans, competitive analyses, etc.)."

Excerpt from an article by Jen King To read more, visit  eMarketer "For the most part, consumers have a game plan when they enter a store—they know what they intend to buy and stick closely to their shopping list. Still, in-store shopping has one advantage that online doesn't: the ability to see and feel items in person. That's likely why many people end up spending more then they intended to. A May 2018 survey conducted by AYTM Market Research for Blis asked 2,000 US internet users ages 18 and older whether they spent more than intended when shopping in-store."

Excerpt from an article by Stewart Hodgson To read more, visit  MarketingProfs "Building a brand for your company is one of the most important things you can do as a marketer. A brand allows you to differentiate yourself from industry competitors with a unique image, a memorable voice, and an identity that resonates with your target customers. But establishing and launching your own brand from scratch can be difficult—particularly when you're a startup with limited resources. It can be tempting to rush through the process of market entry and start selling products as quickly as possible, but the way you introduce your company to your customers could have a huge impact on your potential for future sales. After all, you really do have only one chance to make a first impression."

Excerpt from an article by Krista Garcia To read more, visit   eMarketer "According to an April 2018 survey of US internet users by verification services company SheerID and Kelton Global, more than two-thirds of respondents said an offer just for them is more important than a promotion sent to everyone, and 94% would take advantage of an offer that wasn’t made available to the public at large. What would these consumers do if they were given an exclusive offer? Nearly half said they would make a purchase sooner than normal, while 41% would look for products to buy so they could use the offer, and 38% would treat themselves to something they wanted but didn't really need. This would be the nudge to make a purchase, but fewer would spend more or buy a more expensive product. As many studies have shown, consumers want personalized offers, but they also want control over how much a brand or retailer knows about them."

From eMarketer The US economy is in relatively good shape when looking at measures like unemployment (it's down) and gross domestic product (it's up), but consumers are still feeling financial pressures. According to a Q1 2018 study by market researcher IRI, 47% of US internet users said they are making sacrifices to make ends meet. That's down from 50% in Q1 2017, but it's still a sizeable percentage. Even so, one-quarter of respondents plan to buy more premium brands in the next six months. This intent was stronger with higher-income brackets, as well as with retirees and seniors. When asked what they would be willing to pay more for, benefits beyond basic nutrition had the most interest (36%), followed by natural or organic products (29%). Paying extra for home delivery and in-store pickup of online orders were less popular.

From eMarketer According to a February 2018 Nanigans survey of retail marketers, a vast majority (83%) think they would’ve achieved the same sales results if they hadn’t used retargeting. And yet, just 28% said they had the ability to measure whether sales occurred, organically or not. Even so, 53% of these retail marketers planned to spend more on performance ads in the next 12 months—on average, 24% more. This theme held true when respondents were asked about their biggest digital advertising challenges. More than half (55%) cited measuring true business impact. That sentiment was felt more strongly by larger companies (63%) than smaller ones (43%). Visibility into how ad budgets are being spent (39%) and ad fraud and viewability concerns (39%) were also challenges for respondents overall.

From NewHope A founder wears many hats: leader, evangelist, visionary and more. One of the heaviest of those hats is as a fundraiser. Great ideas don’t become good businesses without money. Too often, this chase for capital becomes all-consuming. There are alternatives to friends and family, angels and venture capitalists. Crowdfunding, both rewards-based and equity, is a growing avenue for early-stage food startups. Cheryl Clements, founder and CEO of PieShell, a rewards-based food and beverage crowdfunding platform, shared, “There is currently an appetite for funding food. Investment in food and beverage has tripled since 2013 and the crowd wants in on the action.” Stating the obvious, reward-based crowdfunding campaigns provide product samples, brand swag and recognition in exchange for investment dollars. Equity crowdfunding is a democratized way to sell shares of the company.

From MarketingProfs In a world where consumers are more likely to shell out for concert tickets than buy their favorite band's merchandise, there's no doubting the power of experiences. Consumers today want a brand they patronize to enrich their lives, not just fill their closets or decorate their walls. That's why brands were predicted to increase their spending for experiential marketing 11% in 2017—nearly double from just two years ago. That said, to deliver truly transformative experiences, brands must challenge the traditional take on events and tradeshow exhibits. We're entering a new generation of experiential marketing that considers cultural context, program timing, content development, and positioning within a brand's long-term business objectives. Using better insights to expand your experiential efforts, you can go beyond the places your brand normally advertises and activates.

From Camille at superhuman.com Email marketing is one of the oldest strategies for marketing on the internet. This leads some to wonder whether it’s still worth spending all the time and effort required to run campaigns. The truth is that while email may not be the newest or most exciting tool in digital marketing, it still has the potential to be one of the most effective. In 2018, nearly 90% of marketers list email as one of their top three priorities, with 45% saying it is their top concern. Furthermore, it still offers of the best returns on investment when compared to other marketing channels. Numbers like this make it easy to see that email marketing is not going away anytime soon. However, if you want to produce competitive email marketing campaigns, you have to make an effort to develop a strategy that can meet the demands of the modern market and use tools like an email verifier to ensure the highest possible deliverability and conversion rate. If your tactics are old...

Obtained From: Marketing Profs What does it mean to be an empowered marketer? Let's start with the definition of empowerment. The Oxford English Dictionary tells us it is "The process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights." So what does the word mean when applied to B2C marketers? Marketers today have a million demands on their time. During a typical day, you might send out a few personalized emails, run A/B tests to drive conversions on your e-commerce website, publish some beautiful targeted ads on Instagram, and then analyze the ROI across all your marketing campaigns. And that's just in one day! It's no wonder B2C marketers are feeling the pressure to continually perform. Sound fantastic? It is.That is exactly why marketers need to become empowered—so they can access customer data directly, easily execute complex marketing campaigns, and dive into detailed analytics to prove the value ...

Obtained from:   Ma rketingProfs Which types of content do consumers of various ages want to see more of from brands? Do some content formats resonate more with certain age groups? To find out,  HubSpot  surveyed 3,010 consumers age 18 and older in Colombia, Germany, Mexico, and the United States. More than half of  surveyed  consumers age 54 and younger want to see more videos from brands they support. Some 47% of consumers age 55+ also want to see more videos from brands they support. There are significant differences in the preferences of various age groups for other content types. Only 22% of consumers age 18-24 value emails from brands they support, compared with 68% of consumers age 55+.

Obtained from: eMarketer It’s been called a fad, a bubble, a waste of money. But influencer marketing will remain immensely popular in 2018, and it’s important to put the discussion of disclosure in the context of just how important the tactic has become—not just for the usual suspects (marketers of fashion, beauty and gaming products) but increasingly for marketers in other categories. Marketers and influencers that don’t disclose put themselves at risk for Federal Trade Commission (FTC) scrutiny and consumer backlash, both of which are rising.

From MarketingProfs In the world of marketing, there's a misperception that B2B marketing is serious and logical and that B2C marketing is fun and creative. Though B2B marketers may need a deeper understanding of technology and they may have more limits placed on their creativity, the role emotions play in both B2B and B2C marketing is strikingly similar. As neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor puts it, "Most of us think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, but we are actually feeling creatures that think”. To gain a clearer understanding of the concept, I interviewed Jonathan Kahn, co-founder and creative marketing hacker at creative agency JM Consulting, and Michal Zarankin, head of digital marketing at in-app engagement platform Insert (recently acquired by Pendo), to learn their thoughts on the role of emotions in B2B marketing.

From Marketing Profs : We all know mobile is gaining momentum, and it's not going to slow down anytime soon. So what can marketers do to make sure their websites stay up-to-date with the latest mobile trends? This infographic by film editing simplifiers Filmora has the following tips: • Make sure videos are mobile-friendly. • More broadly, make sure your website is mobile-friendly. (If your audiences use mobile devices—and they probably do—this should be your first priority.) • Explore augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) options to enhance customer experiences. • If you're running video ads, use mobile native video advertising. • Ensure making payments on mobile is easy to do. • Consider QR codes to streamline user experience.

From MarketingProfs : For marketers, a mindset that puts the customer first is critical to competitive success. That's something marketers know. Yet, during day-to-day execution, that customer-centric mentality tends to get pushed aside, more so in Marketing than in other, client-facing parts of the business, such as Sales and Customer Support. It happens easily, even to the best of us. With so much going on in our pipelines at any one moment—from lead gen campaigns, events, new product launches, and more—marketers can't help but get caught up in the weeds of project execution. We run fast, focusing on what needs to get done now; in those moments, the customer-centric mindset is important, but not mission-critical. Or so it seems. The truth is that a customer-centric mindset is necessary for our marketing to be successful. It helps campaigns resonate with prospects and customers, leading to more sales and enhanced client satisfaction and engagement. Those results benefi...

From:  Medium Marketing is  really  about how customer values translate into aspirations, insecurities, fears and motivations. Marketing, at the end of the day, is not just about a company’s values — it’s about understanding what these mean  to a customer , and getting that meaning to be felt strongly enough that they buy. The success of a business — and its marketing message — is partially figuring out what people want. And partially the promise of fulfilling it. There are a number of companies popping up that sell clothing with elephants on it and donate part of the proceeds to “saving the elephants.” They’re popular. And they’re popular not because donating makes people feel good, but because  elephants make people feel good. It’s not accidental. These companies aren’t donating to, say, endangered Amazonian spiders or rock moss. No. It’s elephants. Why? It’s simple. You want to sell some fast-fashion casual clothing?  Look at who’s buying it. Onc...