123 eGuides

1 Minute Advice: Marketers Struggle with Lead Conversion

As reported by Marketing Charts, a new report indicates that 43 percent of marketing and sales professionals from both B2C and B2B companies think "collecting enough data on leads" is the top challenge in lead conversion, followed by 41 percent who think the top challenge is "following up with leads successfully." For almost half (48 percent) of the companies responding, sales staff handles lead conversion, while 36 percent have an in-house call or contact center. Just 30 percent have a dedicated staff for lead conversion. Only one-quarter of respondents currently use marketing automation software for lead conversion.

In terms of costs associated with lead conversion, more than half (54 percent) said there is a cost associated with "missed opportunities for revenue," and half said lead conversion challenges caused "wasted staff time and resources."

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1 Minute Advice: Top Brands Ranked by Customer Loyalty

According to the latest brand customer loyalty study conducted by Brand Keys as reported by Marketing Charts, Amazon is ranked number one, a position it has held for four years running. In fact, Amazon is in the top ten at two spots for two different businesses. Here are the top ten brands in order:

1. Amazon (online retail)
2. Netflix
3. Amazon (video streaming)
4. Apple
5. Domino's
6. Google
7. Disney
8. Home Depot
9. WhatsApp
10. Samsung

Brand Keys’ Loyalty Leaders analysis was conducted in August and September 2020 and includes assessments from 52,515 consumers, 16 to 65 years of age, from the nine US Census Regions, who self-selected the categories in which they are consumers and the brands for which they are customers. The 2020 Loyalty Leader assessments examined 109 categories and 1,121 brands.

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Read about 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!

1 Minute Advice: How Shopping Behavior is Changing

McKinsey has conducted extensive research to assess how consumer shopping behavior is changing during and potentially after the coronavirus pandemic. Here are some of the important trends to know about:

• Online shopping has grown and become part of the regular consumer shopping habit. US consumers say they expect to continue to shop online, even after the pandemic crisis subsides. Online shopping is especially attractive to Millennials and high-income earners.
• Consumers are more receptive to changing brands as part of their new shopping behavior: 73 percent of consumers who have tried different brands say they will continue to use new brands on a regular basis.
• Hygiene and transparency about hygiene have become new concerns of shoppers; for example, 79 percent of consumers say they will continue or increase their usage of retail self-checkout.

Find more insights from McKinsey here.

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Read about 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!

1 Minute Advice: The Current Risk of Social Media Ads

Because of a swirl of misinformation surrounding the pandemic and the national election in November, this is a particularly dicey time to place advertising on social media platforms. eMarketer reports that "most US buy-side decision-makers are concerned about their ads potentially running up against controversial content on social media."

September data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) shows that 41 percent of ad buyers say they are "extremely concerned," 27 percent are "fairly concerned," and 22 percent are "slightly concerned" about their ads appearing adjacent to controversial content. That means 68 percent are expressing more than mild discomfort. According to eMarketer principle analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin, “Premium content publishers in the media have put a lot of pressure on brands over the past few years by highlighting the divisive nature of a lot of user-generated content, which is now driving advertisers to reconsider their spending on social media and perhaps redirect some of that spending into premium channels including programmatic connected TV ads.”

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Read about 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!