Thursday 13 October 2016

#WhatNoOneTellsYou About Email SPAM


  1. Spam accounts for 14.5 billion messages globally per day. In other words, spam makes up 45% of all emails.
  2. The most prevalent type of spam is advertising-related email; this type of spam accounts for approximately 36% of all spam messages
  3. Surprisingly, scams and fraud comprise only 2.5% of all spam email; however, identity theft (which is known as phishing) makes up 73% of this figure.
  4. According to a study by the Radicati Research Group Inc., a research firm based in Palo Alto, California, spam costs businesses $20.5 billion annually in decreased productivity as well as in technical expenses
  5. However, some researchers believe that based on an estimated current cost of $49 annually per inbox, the total cost of spam for businesses will balloon to $257 billion per year if spam continues to flourish at its current rate.


SPAM? Consumer's vs. Marketer's

SPAM? Consumer's View vs. Marketers


SPAM IS EVERYWHERE

Sometimes I just feel like "Seriously, another email notification?"
To be honest, I have dark experiences with email spam, it got me to the point where I deactivated 2 or 3 email accounts, because, it gets too annoying at times.
Spam email is perceived by customer in very negative way, even sometimes marketers failed to please consumer by the message and ended up losing consumer because they get too annoyed with email spam

What is SPAM?

The term SPAM was originally derived from Monty Phyton in reference to canned meat. However, today SPAM is defined as any unsolicited emails or undesirable online communication. YES! Undesirable! On other words, SPAM is like a flood of messages as form of attempt from a brand to inform their marketing and promotional offer to their customers.

How SPAM works?

SPAM email is form of direct marketing effort from a brand, to communicate "closely" with their customer. SPAM provides a brand with huge reach to customers. However, SPAM have its' downside on consumer perspectives. facts revealed in 2008 that approximately 88% of email traffic worldwide were considered as "SPAM EMAIL", and #WhatNoOneTellsYou: most of the activities are considerably illegal.

Why SPAM still there?

Considering on the negative impact of SPAM, why would still brand use email SPAM to build closure with their customer?
  • SPAM - affordable direct marketing tool
    • Spamming email is one of direct marketing tool, in which brand uses to communicate with consumer and build closure. Email om brand Is relatively cheap, not complicated and also fast track of information sent to consumer
    • Other method such as, social media advertisement will incurred cost to the company - even relatively cheap compared to TV/ billboard ad.
    • Compared to other online advertising method, SPAM email is still the best option to go
  • SPAM  - delivers highest ROI (Return on investment) for a company

    • New technologies are constantly being developed, but email is still the favorite one, why?
    • Lasted or 10 years, email is the channel generating highest ROI for marketers, in which $1 spent, email marketing generated $38

  • SPAM - beats social media in terms of customer acquisition

    • Email spam beats social media by 40 times, which simply prove that, EMAIL SPAM, although viewed by consumer negatively, it is very profitable indeed for a brand
    • The that email spam beats facebook/social media by 40 times, has led us to re-consider to implement it to our business because email spam is proven to have resonated consumers and is preferred as long term investment.

Email Spam is Effective Brand Recall

EMAIL SPAM is often considered as "annoying" way of communication from a brand to customer. However, the success do not lies in how is it perceived, yet more importantly about the message delivered and how the message positioned themselves in customers mind. Even without notice, once consumer are perceived with the email spam and read the promotional offer from the brand, they would immediately, not just absorb the message, but also remember about the brand, hence improving brand recognition and recall.

Email Spam is Effective Positioning

EMAIL SPAM, therefore, is an effective marketing tool. Marketer should consider about using email spam as it is low in cost, fast and flexible. The flexibility applies on the message. There is no burden on how long or short the email is going to be. However, marketers need to consider on building short yet appealing message to consumer, enhancing effectiveness in attracting customers. The more unique the message is, the more likely it would have strong positioning in consumer's mind.

What #NoOneTellsYou About WOM


  1. 1. 92% of consumers worldwide trust recommendations from family members or friends more than any form of advertising.
  2. 81% of U.S. consumers are influenced by a friend’s social media post, compared to 78% who are influenced by a post from the brand.
  3. ]BrightLocal88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts.
  4. ]BrightLocal72% say reading a positive customer reviews increase their trust in a business; it takes, on average, 2-6 reviews to get 56% of them to this point.
  5.  On social media, 58% of consumers share their positive experiences with a company, and ask family, colleagues, and friends for their opinions about brands. [SDL]
  6. 91% of B2B buyers are influenced by word-of-mouth when making their buying decision. [USM]
  7. ]MarketShare]Word-of-mouth has been shown to improve marketing effectiveness by up to 54%.
  8. 43% of social media users report buying a product after sharing or favoriting it on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Over half of purchases inspired by social media sharing occur within 1 week of sharing or favoriting, and 80% of purchases resulting from social media shares occur within 3 weeks of sharing. [VisionCritical]
  9. ]Radius Global] Millennials ranked word-of-mouth as the #1 influencer in their purchasing decisions about clothes, packaged goods, big-ticket items (like travel and electronics), and financial products. Baby Boomers also ranked word-of-mouth as being most influential in their purchasing decisions about big-ticket items and financial products.
My favorite one!
"On average, a satisfied customer tells 3 people in their life about how good a product is. Guess what happen when they aren't satisfied? Research has found they, on average, would tell 9 people on how bad the product is."

Wednesday 5 October 2016

WORD OF MOUTH

"I was so happy when a stranger sent me a Coke bottle"


WOM? What is it?

When we heard the term "word of mouth" what is the first thing that pops to your mind?
Personally, this what comes to mine: "GOSSIP"
But what is it actually?
Word of mouth described by Marketing Terms is a marketing method that relies on casual social interactions to promote a product.

But why WOM (Word of Mouth)

Here is 5 principles of WOM that would explain you how beneficial is WOM to a brand


How successful WOM looks like?

Coca Cola is one of the most recognized brand these days. Most of people in this world recognized Coca Cola, because the brand has been such a valuable part in their happiest moments in life - weddings, birthdays, hangout to the bar, or simply just a happy lunch.  Coming back to "gossip" oh yes, even sometimes Coca cola is there when some girls gathered and do the "girls talk". But how is Coca Cola so successful in their word of mouth?

the brand tagline itself is "spreading happiness".

Throwback CocaCola


To begin explaining, let's have a little throwback to the era when internet, TV, or any other media are yet to exist and only WOM could help a brand.
1888, Asa Candler took over Coca Cola which was only prices for $0.05/ can, and sold for 9 cans/day. Candler decided to gave away free CocaCola coupons to consumer - "spreading happiness", and stored barrels of Coca Cola syrup to stores reluctant to stock this drink. However, as consumers with coupons flocked to these stores, store owners quickly turned as paying consumer.
The strategy was a breakthrough! By giving incentives to both retailers and consumers to talk about CocaCola, Candler was able to generate buzz and build his brand.
That was how CocaCola set foot on the path towards the successful journey.

Success of  Hilltop song campaign



Featured in the series finale of AMC's Mad Men, Coca Cola's "Hilltop" was an advertising jingle that had the world sing along during 1969“Chorus of the World”, a gathering of people of various nations ethnicities singing the song “I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke” on a hill. The song was so popular that troves of people were calling radio station requesting the commercial be played

The reason why it work so well was because "Hilltop” was a heartwarming ad that appealed to the socially progressive values that were prevalent in the era.
It also helped that it was a beautiful song that was incredibly well-received. It’s hard to ignore a song flooding the airwaves and sung by everyone around you, is it?!

What's up now?

4 years ago in 2012, partnering with google, CocaCola made another breakthrough by reimagine the "hilltop campaign", but this one, to be placed in mobile era.



the tagline of the campaign "spreading happiness - make the world feels a little bit smaller" worked just as successful as the "Hilltop Campaign" back in 1969
The main reason why this worked was how the campaign successfully take us back to our "happy moments".

Personal Perspective

Based on personal experience with the brand. Myself who is categorized as Millennials have heard of the jingle through my parents. Personally, when I think of it, The ad itself is closely appealing to the ideals of connectivity and unity. This is why people were happy to share stories about the campaign or "storytelling" the campaign that creates successful word of mouth.

Thursday 22 September 2016

#WhatNoOneTellsYou about SEO


1. 75% of SEO is off-page and 25% is on-page
2. 91% of US Internet users search every month
3. Google+ is the highest correlated social factor for SEO ranking
4. The top 5 search results on the SERPs get 75% of user clicks.
5. Around the world, 131 billion searches are conducted on the web each month
6. 70% of the links clicked on by search users are actually organic
7. Google owns 65-70% of the search engine market share
8. 81% of businesses consider their blogs as an important asset to their business
9. Search and e-mail are the top two internet activities
10. Page titles are the most important on-page element after content
11. 70-80% of users ignore the paid ads, focusing on the organic results
12. 50% of search users begin their search with a mobile device and this percentage will only increase

SEO.. BE MY HERO

I'm a small word inside a book, world is a huge library full of books. Will the librarian ever find me?


Back to early 2005, I always went to library to find certain book that could support my assignment.
Imagine! this whole internet world is no different than a library. But what if my brand is just a word, in a book, in a library with billion books? will the librarian find me?


According to Search Engine Land, SEO (Search Engine Optimization)  is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines. The key purpose or a brand to use SEO is to increase “visibility” in all sorts of ways in search engines.
SEO has been used by wide variety of brands, including massive brands in car manufacturing such as: BMW, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, etc.

When you think about it, its a bit unfair how big brands always come up on top of the list, its like small brands do not have the chance to be visible to customer. According to thetoptens.com , the best car brands are BMW, Mercedez, Lamborghini, Audi, Ferrari, Porsche, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen and Honda. Isn't there so much more than that? Where is Hyundai? Mazda?




Based on Google Trends data on Australian Region, Hyundai is the least brand googled compared to its competition, Honda, Toyota, Mazda and BMW. To be more specific, I conducted more research in Victoria State, Australia. However, the result was unfortunate.

Hyundai is still the least brand googled by Australians. Will this be the end for Hyundai?

If internet world = library, as a brand, you want to make sure you are visible to the librarian and to the readers. You don't want bigger brands caught their attention, and you're left there invisible.

INVISIBLE? BE INVINCABLE!



Hyundai will still have the chance to survive! How? By setting up an effective SEO that is done through:

Branding

"Being known among people who look for your product's category is enough"
It all comes down to building the proper and effective brand image. An image that will remain strong in consumer mind - a unique positioning. According to Revolutionautogroup.ca Hyundai is known for their good safety, it has three vehicles named Top Safety Picks by the highly respected Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in 2016; they were the Sonata, the Genesis and the Tucson.
A unique selling proposition help a brand in building strong image. 

Search localization

"Even if you are a small brand, tell people exactly where you exist."
According to Wordstream.com , one sneaky way to improve awareness is by using location to be specific about our marketing. With Google, the local presence is often the quickest way to shoot your site to the top of search results. Regardless of how many big brands dominate them, Google is still bound to display some local results. Simply saying, it is way more specific to search for "Hyundai South Melbourne" than just "Hyundai".


Social media

"Social media may not be the most functional way to increase awareness, but when you're focusing on brand level competition, it is invaluable"
Sure, many of your customers will use it for customer service and other support related queries but what’s a better opportunity to develop your brand than by helping customers in public? - Social Media
Contests and other ways to entertain your audience are other ideas that help build connection with an audience. Stephen Brown, a renowned marketing professor said: “a brand is nothing more or less than sum of all the mental connections people have around it

By putting efforts to improve the following three, YOU as a brand should be able to be recognized by the librarian (search engine: Google/bing/yahoo), so then your readers (web surfers, your target audience) have as many knowledge as possible about your brand.


ITS YOU, THE LIBRARIAN & THE READERS

Friday 16 September 2016

#WhatNoOneTellsYou About NETFLIX


  1. Netflix was almost called Blockbuster.com. In 2000, Blockbuster considered purchasing Netflix. Netflix was going to sell them 49% stake in the company and would have become the online service that Blockbuster was looking for.
  2. Netflix has 76,897 different categories while searching. Some of these categories include “Cool Moustaches”, “Dark Canadian Thrillers”, and “Understated Detective TV Shows. Maybe that’s where all the good shows I’ve been looking are hidden.
  3. You can sort your list of movies on Netflix by their Rotten Tomatoes rating. You can do this by going to the Rotten Tomatoes Netflix streaming page OR you can download a free Chrome extension that will give you the ratings listed right on Netflix.
  4. Netflix employees are allowed to take as many vacation days as they want. Netflix spokesperson Joris Evers said, “It’s about freedom and responsibility and treating people like adults
  5. Netflix employees know how to have fun. On April Fool’s Day one year, they changed up their categories and added some made up categories instead. Some of these ridiculous categories included “Movies That Are In English But Still Require Subtitles”, “Movies Featuring An Epic Nicholas Cage Meltdown”, and “TV Shows Where Defiantly Crossed Arms Mean Business!”

If you are watching Netflix on your computer there are a ton of keyboard shortcuts you may not know about. Here are a few of them: F = Full Screen, Shift + Left Arrow = Rewind, Shift + Right Arrow = Fast Forward, M = Mute, Up Arrow = Volume Up, Down Arrow = Volume Down, Enter = Play/Pause, Page Up = Play, Page Down = Pause, and ESC = Exit Full Screen. Some of these will come in handy when you are watching movies at work rather than actually working.