123 eGuides

1 Minute Advice: It's a Streaming World

The digital shift that has been going on for some time is now tipping the scale away from live television, according to the latest Deloitte "Digital Democracy Survey."

Streaming video services, now used by more than 42 percent of American households, are heavily changing media consumption habits across generations, according to the ninth edition of the Deloitte Digital Democracy Survey. The study reveals that streaming content has overtaken live programming as the viewing method-of-choice, with 56 percent of consumers now streaming movies and 53 percent streaming television on a monthly basis, as compared to 45 percent of consumers preferring to watch television programs live. Moreover, younger viewers have moved to watching TV shows on mobile devices rather than on television. Among Trailing Millennials (age 14-25), nearly 60 percent of time spent watching movies occurs on computers, tablets and smartphones, making movie viewing habits decidedly age-dependent.

The report also finds that the trend of binge-watching – viewing three or more program episodes at one sitting – is prevalent with 68 percent of consumers doing so today. In fact, 31 percent of Americans who binge-watch, do so at least once a week, led by Trailing Millennials, who binge watch more frequently than any other generation at 42 percent. 

"Personal viewing experiences and the ability to consume media at your own pace is significantly impacting how U.S. consumers value their content devices and services,” said Gerald Belson, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP and U.S. Media & Entertainment sector leader. 

Read more from the survey here.

1 Minute Advice: Who is Your Marketing Target?

If you market to consumers, who exactly are you trying to reach? It may seem to be an easy question to answer, but chances are your product or service has a "sweet spot" -- a certain type of consumer who is likely to be more receptive than another. Consumers can be categorized in any number of ways, by demographics (gender, age, marital status, location and income, for example) and psychographics (interests, opinions, lifestyles, and so on).

From a generational perspective, it's important for marketers to know how consumers segment into age groups. The most current data from the U.S. Census Bureau (July 2014) breaks it down this way:

• 12-17: 25 million (7.8%)
• 18-24: 31.5 million (9.9%)
• 25-34: 43.5 million (13.6%)
• 35-44: 40.5 million (12.7%)
• 45-54: 43.5 million (13.6%)
• 55-64: 40.1 million (12.6%)
• 65-74: 26.4 million (8.3%)
• 75+:    19.8 million (6.2%)

Here's a useful chart from Marketing Charts that offers a visual of the above data. 

Take a close look at the groupings and map them against your own marketing targets. 

Are B2B Marketers Neglecting Web Basics?

A new research report from Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing and BuyerZone focuses on B2B web usability. It uncovers a somewhat shocking fact: Almost half (44 percent) of survey respondents said they left a vendor's website because they could not find contact information or a phone number. Over half (51 percent) said "thorough contact information" was missing most often on company websites. When it comes to what information people most want to see available on a company website page, contact information was second only to products and services. It's hard to imagine that B2B marketers miss something as basic as including contact information that can easily be found on a website.

Another interesting discovery: In B2B, blogs and social media is not nearly as important to prospects looking for vendors. When asked the question, "Do B2B company blogs aid you in your vendor discovery process?" only 12 percent of respondents answered "Yes" and 40 percent answered "Sometimes." When asked "Does social media aid you in your vendor discovery process?" only 19 percent of respondents answered "Yes" and 40 percent answered "Sometimes." In fact, 46 percent of respondents said neither a blog nor social media impact their vendor decision making process.

If you're a B2B marketer, this report is invaluable. You can get a free copy here (no registration required).

You also need to read the new 123 eGuide, B2B Marketing 123. It presents a 3 step approach for marketing to businesses that is grounded in timeless principles but recognizes and takes advantage of the brand new marketing world we live in. Purchase B2B Marketing 123 today for just $2.99 at the Amazon Kindle store or in any eBook format, including PDF, at Smashwords.com. This title is also be available wherever eBooks are sold. 

 

 

1 Minute Advice: Marketers Making Better Use of Email

Email continues to be one of the most relied upon marketing tools and with good reason: It still works. Hard bounce rates (the rate of emails non-deliverable because of bad addresses or closed accounts) have declined significantly from 2012 to 2013, according to Silverpop's 2014 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study. The firm interprets this metric as an indication that marketers generally are making efforts to clean up their email databases and that they use email responsibly.

In the U.S., the mean unique open rate (measuring one opened email per recipient) was 20.1%, with the median unique open rate at 16.8%. The mean unique clickthrough rate (the percentage of emails that drew at least one click) was 3.2% with the median unique clickthrough rate at 1.4%. The mean clickthrough open rate (the percentage of opened messages that recorded clicks) was 13.1% with the median clickthrough open rate at 9.4%. The mean unsubscribe rate was 0.1501% with the median unsubscribe rate at 0.0276%. According to Silverpop, "even the lowest-performing marketers generate unsubscribe rates of well less than 1 percent."

Why do email recipients unsubscribe? Two main reasons: The first is they get too many emails; the second is the email content doesn't target the recipients' interests.

Get a copy of the benchmark report here.