Billing Revolution released some results today from a survey it commissioned on consumers’ mobile shopping preferences. Harris Interactive conducted the survey and queried 2,029 US adults, ages 18 and older, from April 29 to May 1 of this year.
Of adults who receive bills from cell phone and credit card companies, 57% said they trust card companies more than cell phone companies for accurate billing. Here’s a pie chart with more results (you can click it for a larger version):
Of mobile users, more younger users (59%; ages 18 to 34) thought it was at least somewhat safe to purchase through a mobile phone than older users (34%; ages 55+). More male mobile users thought it was at least somewhat safe (50%) than female users (39%).
Of those willing to make purchases:
o 75% would be willing to buy entertainment items, such as:
– Event/movie tickets (58%)
– Music (41%)
– Games (34%)
– Mobile video or TV content (24%)
o 68% would be willing to purchase food or drink items, such as:
– Pizza (59%)
– Fast food (42%)
– Coffee (25%)
o 43% would be willing to purchase hotel rooms
o 40% would be willing to purchase travel tickets
Marketing decisions are best made with a level of certainty about an audience’s preferences. You don’t want to start offering a feature that customers aren’t interested in. And you don’t want to push a marketing offer that they don’t care about.
Social media and data mining can be used to find an audience’s preferences. And as we outline in a case study recently, online surveys are still effective strategy. Then last week I interviewed Glenn Edelman, VP Marketing, Wine Enthusiast, who has recently combined social media and surveying.
Edelman is responsible for Wine Enthusiast’s wine accessories ecommerce site, and WineExpress.com’s direct-to-consumer ecommerce wine sales. His team uncovered a great strategy for selling wine via email with product pages that include “virtual wine tastings” in two- to three-minute videos (the case study will be published by eTail later this month, and then by MarketingSherpa).
When adding video to the wines’ product pages, Edelman’s team wondered whether the videos should automatically play, or wait to be clicked by visitors before playing. The team asked Wine Enthusiast’s Twitter followers about the idea.
“We thought about testing it but said ‘hey, let’s ask our audience.’ And we got a huge, huge response to never do auto-play. ‘We hate auto-play,’ they said. It was such as negative response that we didn’t even bother testing,” Edelman says.
There you have it. Twitter can be used as a quick way to get your audience’s opinion, in addition to its other marketing applications, such as branding, PR, and promotion.
I had an interesting conversation with Scott Dunlap, CEO, NearbyNow, last week. NearbyNow helps consumers find products in local stores through its website, mobile apps, and the major search engines.
A consumer looking for a particular product in his or her area will typically be alerted via an email or a text message on the product’s availability. This service has several interesting applications for marketers–such its OnTheWay ads. These ads allow marketers to advertise in the alert messages to consumers who’ve indicated that they’re planning to visit a store near their own.
Some marketers, Dunlap says, have leveraged these ads to emphasize the core motivations that consumers have for searching for local products. The top three motivations that Dunlap’s team has uncovered,:
1. Consumers want the products immediately
2. They want to see, hold, and test the products (particularly relevant for apparel, shoes and gadgets, Dunlap says)
3. They do not like the hassles or costs of shipping
How have these motivations been applied to the ads? Some marketers are pushing immediacy to the extreme. They will give 20% off products in their stores for the next two hours. That can force some consumers to consider visiting the advertiser’s store before visiting their intended destination.
Local search and sales for products–with real time inventory updates–looks like it holds a lot of potential for retailers and brands alike. I expect the major search engines to start rolling out more ways for marketers to connect with consumers looking for products locally.
Advertisers beware: the FTC is reviewing changes to its guidelines for testimonials and endorsements–the first such changes since 1980. If approved, they could impact everything from social media marketing to late-night TV ads.
The proposed changes, outlined in this lengthy legal document, seek to curb ads with testimonials that emphasize best-case scenario product performance without mentioning a product’s typical results.
“On the issue of consumer endorsements, the proposed revisions state that testimonials that do not describe typical consumer experiences should be accompanied by clear and conspicuous disclosure of the results consumers can generally expect to achieve from the advertised product or program,” according to a FTC press release.
That means ads like this weight loss ad that features a testimonial from a woman who lost 150 pounds, and 22 pounds in the first six weeks, would have to include a “clear and conspicuous” disclosure of the program’s typical results.
The Financial Times reported last week that the changes may also impact social media marketing and blogging:
“If a blogger received a free sample of skin lotion and then incorrectly claimed the product cured eczema, the FTC could sue the company for making false or unsubstantiated statements. The blogger could be sued for making false representations,” according to the article.
The changes may also impact spokesmen such as Subway’s Jared Fogle, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune.
However, the changes are not official–yet. The FTC’s commissioners are likely to vote by the end of the summer on whether to adopt or revise the amendments, said Betsy Lordan from the FTC Office of Public Affairs. Until then, you might want to plan a new strategy if your ads or blogging partners make high-flying product claims.
It’s easy to say *testing the access model* is a key to making money from content on the web. Most of you know, that’s easier said than done.
After interviewing Rob Grimshaw, Managing Director of FT.com, about the website’s stellar performance of lifting paid subscriptions and registered users last year, that’s the tactic that stuck to my thoughts.
I won’t go into all the details of how FT.com achieved a 9% lift in online subscriptions. You can read about it in an upcoming case study. But I will say that a series of simple tests around access to content was a huge part of the strategy.
Here’s a takeaway that didn’t make it into the article:
-Test the presentation of pricing
I noticed from a former case study about FT.com that the site formerly presented the pricing of subscriptions as per month or per year. And the new model automatically presented pricing as per week. Example: Under “Standard Subscription” the price is $3.49 per week (52 weeks in total).
When asked if the *per week* presentation boosted subscriptions, Rob said that testing it made “a tangible difference in the kind of response that we get.”
When browsing the Web today, I came across a report of a mobile marketing campaign by a luxury auto brand—not unlike the mobile case study from BMW we published in our B2C newsletter today. Mobile Marketing Magazine covered the campaign well last year, and I want to pass along a few choice bits from their report.
Jaguar Cars created a WAP site in 2007 to promote its new luxury car, the Jaguar XF. The site included:
– Images of the car
– High- and low-res videos
– Downloadable wallpapers
– Jaguar dealer locator
– Email submission form to request a brochure
– Performance stats, innovation info
– Quotes from the press
The site was launched in November to coincide with the Los Angeles Motor show, and was promoted solely through mobile banner ads on sites such as MSN Mobile and Yahoo! Mobile. The ads generated:
– Over 15 million ad impressions
– Over 85,000 UVs to the WAP site
– About a .6% CTR
Results seen on the WAP site include:
– 12,000 video downloads
– 16,000 wallpaper downloads
– Users clicking beyond the homepage stayed for about 2 minutes, 12 seconds, on average
– 1.2% of users submitted their email address for a brochure
– 2.6% of users located their nearest dealer
BMW and Jaguar are not the only auto brands dabbling in the mobile space. A San Diego-based Cadillac dealership ran an SMS campaign in January, and Kia launched a mobile site last year to promote its car Soul. It looks as if high performance, luxury auto brands–brands consumers associate with cutting edge innovation–are delivering campaigns in one of the newest, fastest growing platforms.
About a month ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Tamara Adlin about best practices in improving users’ ecommerce experiences.
She was speaking at Etail West 2009 in Phoenix and I wanted get her insight since she’s been in the field for the past 18 years. She created the Customer Experience services team at Amazon.com.
Here were her Top 3 Tips for Enhancing Users’ Ecommerce Experiences:
Tip #1. Display differentiators and value propositions on the homepage
Adlin says 99% of the sites she sees fail to apply this simple rule. It’s as easy as constructing a simple statement, or bullet points, or a general voice that relays: Welcome. Here’s who we are. Here’s what we sell. Here’s how we’re different. Here’s why you should care. Here’s what you should do.
Tip #2. Look at the site from end-to-end
Companies should get into the habit of clicking through their site every day. Go to the site, click on the sale or promotion creative. Where does it take you? How can you make that process make more sense for the user? How can you give them exactly what they want?
Tip #3. Customer service is the key
Don’t slack on customer service efficiencies. If a customer says the product doesn’t work, invest in a proactive customer service department that offers to expedite a new product immediately. The positive word-of-mouth garnered from that simple gesture is worth thousands of marketing dollars.
Reworking your business and marketing to better fit your customers’ needs is generally wise–and it looks like Wal-Mart is testing how to better serve Hispanic customers in two markets.
The largest U.S. retailer plans to open two Hispanic-focused supermarkets this summer, dubbed Supermercados de Walmart. The stores will be in Hispanic neighborhoods in Phoenix and Houston. They will have different products, layouts and a bi-lingual staff.
The U.S. Hispanic population has grown by 20% over the last four years, according to a free report from Experian. Some other tidbits from the report:
Read more…
Third-party shopping comparison sites such as Shopping.com and Shopzilla can get products to consumers who aren’t visiting brands’ sites directly. However, these sites pose challenges: they have different audiences, data requirements, bidding requirements, and capabilities.
Mercent, a Seattle-based company founded by former Amazon execs, has built a platform to help marketers sell across a range of third-party sites. I chatted last week with Mercent CEO Eric Best and several marketers from specialty retailer Brookstone.
Read more…
MarketingSherpa members got a preview of our 2009 Social Media Marketing and PR Benchmark Guide last week. An executive summary, table of contents, and some great charts and analysis were released to them in PDF form.
The complete guide will be released the week of Feb. 9. Here are a few interesting nuggets for all of you to contemplate right now. Read more…
