As a part of the recently released 2014 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report, Experian Marketing Services surveyed North American marketers across nine different verticals about their marketing initiatives. Of the marketers surveyed, the large majority are marketing in multiple channels, with almost 100 percent active in email, social and Web.
The popularity of email and Web in this survey is consistent with the channels marketers in a global Experian Marketing Services survey identified as the most important to their marketing campaigns. While many may be using it, just less than one-quarter of marketers around the world identify social media as one of the top three most important channels for their business. There is a great opportunity for marketers to coordinate this channel with email and Web initiatives and optimize performance. It appears that marketers understand this and plan to make the necessary investments in 2014.
In fact, the majority of Experian Marketing Services clients are already promoting social in their email campaigns with a small percentage allowing social sharing at in-store checkout. The following is a list of the percentage of our clients that are using certain social tools and tactics in their various marketing campaigns to encourage and enable social sharing:
- Thirty-three percent of clients have used “pin it” buttons in emails
- Forty-three percent of clients have used “like it” buttons in emails
- Twenty-one percent have used “tweet this” buttons in emails
- Fifteen percent of clients allow social sharing at checkout
- Ninety-six percent of marketers promote social media in headers and footers
When looking at the social networks our clients display or promote in emails, Pinterest had the biggest increase compared to 2012, while newcomer, Instagram, is now being promoted by 39 percent of brands.
For example, Steve Madden® prominently displays an Instagram hashtag in the header of its emails with a call to action to tag photos with the hashtag in order to be featured in the brand’s home page.
Hashtag campaigns such as this one are a fun and effective way to engage customers that are active on social media and organically expand the reach of new products through the advocacy of fans and followers.
Understanding the channels and how they work together is an integral part of a successful cross-channel marketing plan. Download the full 2014 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report and register for the Digital Marketer Webinar for more benchmarks, trends and best practices for using and coordinating channels to most effectively run your campaigns.