Merit Mile News
The Impact From Image Marketing
Content is king, but more emphasis should be placed on images when selecting and shaping content. The human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text. According to Laura Silverman, director of the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development, 37% of people actually prefer to receive information through pictures.
What’s more, there is a reason why 40 million images are uploaded to Instagram, and over 300 million images are uploaded to Facebook daily. The number of image-driven social media websites and applications are escalating, which suggest consumers want to communicate more visually and expect brands to deliver the same kind of content experience.
A 2012 report by ROI Research found that 44% of respondents were more likely to engage with brands that posted pictures on their…
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Email Marketing For Mobile Devices
The number of commercial emails opened on mobile devices is currently at 41% according to recent data from Knotice. Before the end of the year, this number is expected to surpass emails opened on PC/desktops. This fast-growing trend presents new challenges for marketers as the portable inbox requires specialized designs and messaging.
Despite this accelerated growth in mobile devices dominating the preferred delivery method, 58% of marketers are not designing email campaigns for mobile. This signals a big disconnect between marketers and the consumers they’re trying to reach. The issue cannot be ignored - marketers need to account for mobile devices when planning and executing email campaigns, even if they’re integrated with larger campaigns that include offline advertising strategies.
The following…
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Video Marketing Offers Great Return On Content
When it comes to advertising and marketing today, it is clear that content is a key piece of any successful marketing strategy. But what types of content are generating the highest return on investment? Although featured articles are still prime content options, video is not far behind. Video marketing is a technique that connects companies to their target market better than any other medium out there. According to research from video testimonial service BuboBox, people who view a web video are 64 percent more likely to purchase than visitors viewing other content. With shortening attention spans, consumers today don’t want to read anymore - they want others to show them what they have to offer; to them it’s much more visually appealing to click a link with a graphic already embedded into it rather than just plain text…
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How Can Success Stories Help Your Business?
Often times, it’s not enough to simply tell customers how you can help them. Rather, it’s important to show customers how you can benefit their business. This is strategically achieved through sharing a success story of a project that took place with a previous customer engagement. Also known as a case study, these stories take a “problem/solution” approach so that future prospects can see how your products and services offer potential to help their situation.
Taking this a step further, companies are also wise to broadcast their successes to larger audiences by getting the media to write about the situation. This can be challenging, though, as some companies are hesitant to lift the veil on their internal problems and the strategies they employ to overcome and succeed.
SAP, a large enterprise software company with customers throughout the world, could…
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Mobile Marketing Growth: Are You Ready?
Mobile Marketing has quickly become a leading strategy in the business world, as well as the campaigns associated with many of today’s largest brands. The mobile device has transcended from what was once used purely for leisure to recently becoming an added appendage we depend on for communication balance though our everyday and business outreach. According to ComScore, mobile Internet usage will eclipse the desktop by 2014, and insight from ABI Research shows that the annual volume of mobile app downloads will reach 56 billion this year alone. With all this new development in the mobile marketing sphere, what does this mean for the consumer and the new bridges of connectedness from marketers?
Simply, because mobile marketing is so personal, there must be ground rules set in order to achieve the…
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Effective Holiday Marketing Strategies For Your Business
Businesses both large and small, and in a variety of industries, wonder what the right holiday marketing strategy should be to capitalize on sales. Place more emphasis on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or spread out a marketing budget throughout the course of the holiday season to capture last-minute shoppers.
While much hype has been placed on the retail success of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, smart marketers will base their answers on a three-part strategy:
Planning Sets The Foundation
Savvy marketers of businesses both large and small should plan their holiday marketing strategies several months prior to the holidays. In fact, the planning phase actually begins immediately following the previous holidays (more on this in a moment). The planning phase should include understanding your audience, identifying the methods and timing…
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Content Is King…But Then What?
No doubt, B2B marketers have heard, uttered and preached the phrase, "Content Is King", more than once over the last few years. And there is reason for that. According to B2B Magazine, a recent survey of 440 B2B professionals revealed that 34 percent said they were “very” or “fully” engaged with content marketing, compared with 18 percent the previous year. The most interesting aspect of the study predicts this number will shoot up to 66 percent by next year. That means heading into 2014 there will still be 33 percent of the B2B world that doesn’t believe content is a main driver of marketing results.
Who are these professionals in the 33 percentile?
Every B2B campaign today involves content as a cornerstone strategy. Why? Because it is effective.…
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Your Brand Always Has An Opinion
Brands are always under the microscope. Like it or not, in this day and age of social media and 24/7 news coverage, everything a brand says is fair game for public record. Marketers, employees and those sitting in the C-suite should be very aware of this.In addition to strategic business mistakes by large companies, there have been several recent examples where brands have had an opinion for all the wrong reasons. First, Chik-fil-A, the popular fast-food chicken company was tossed into the spotlight when it’s CEO made a public statement against gay marriage.
It doesn’t matter whether gay marriage is right or wrong. That’s not the point. What is problematic is that Chik-fil-A should not be focused on a topic that has nothing to do with selling chicken sandwiches. The…
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