Key Findings: January 2013
B2B Marketers Can Hit Bull’s Eye with Triggered Email Messages
Forrester Research projects that 2013 will see about $560 billion in business-to-business ecommerce transactions, indicating the sector must master multichannel marketing programs and proven techniques used by business-to-consumer entities. One online marketing technique gaining ground in B2B is the use of “triggered email messaging.” Triggered messages, which account for only about 2.6% of all emails, are sent automatically to a recipient as a result of a particular online action. Upstart B2B companies are already driving higher open and click-through rates by using “triggered messaging,” according to a report from Epsilon, a multichannel marketing company. Epsilon analyzed 6.4 million emails sent by 170 organizations in Q3 2012, and found triggered messages prompted about 75% higher open rates and 115% higher click rates than emails sent via traditional methods. BtoB Online
Digital Marketing is on Fire!
Digital marketing is on fire — as each year brands increase their level of engagement with social media, according to the 2nd Annual 2012 Webmarketing123 State of Digital Marketing Survey of marketing pros. A full 90% of those surveyed said they plan to increase or maintain their spending in 2013 on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) and Social Media Marketing (SMM). Top objectives for B2B digital marketers? Generating leads (54%), increasing brand/product reputation and awareness (28%) and boosting sales (10%); objectives for B2C online marketers: boosting awareness (33%), increasing sales (26%) and generating leads (22%). Two-thirds of marketers now say they are “moderately” or “fully” engaged with social media, while 1 in 10 still have no social media presence. Using more sophisticated measurement tools, 8 out of 10 online marketers report leads or sales from social media efforts, including new strategies using Linkedin. According to the report, B2C marketers generating leads and sales on Linkedin has increased 75% since 2011, while leads and sales on Facebook have declined about 20%. Most B2Cs (90%) are managing their social media in-house. Webmarketing123.com
Oil and Gas Independents See Industry Issues and Opportunities Ahead
The energy sector continues to boom and be one of the nation’s few areas of job growth. Yet, among upstream U.S. energy companies, price volatility (viewed as the top threat to their industry), finding and keeping talent and the need to operate more efficiently continue to be issues of concern for the sector. According to the 10th Annual Grant Thornton Survey of Upstream U.S. Energy Companies 2012, however, this uncertainty is not affecting expansion plans as capital spending is expected to continue in 63% of companies surveyed. In addition, more the three-quarters of the more than 100 responses from senior executives of independent oil and gas exploration and service companies are optimistic that new shale reserves will place the United States in a position to address its dependence on foreign oil. Some 86% believe employment levels in oil and gas companies will increase, a marked increase over recent prior years of low expectations. Those surveyed said they expect to offer higher salaries to attract skilled workers, along with cash bonuses and other enhanced benefits. More than half predict they will increase compensation for geologists, engineers and other professionals.
Report on U.S. Healthcare System Finds Waste and Opportunities to Improve
According to an Institute of Medicine report, “America’s healthcare system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual.” Mountains of data, inefficiencies, as well as economic and quality barriers waste $750 billion annually, or about 30% of all healthcare spending. Unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud and other problems cited in the report stand in the way of improvements and “threaten the nation’s economic stability and global competitiveness.” One source estimates that 75,000 deaths might have been averted in 2005, for example, if “every state had delivered care at the quality level of the best performing state.” The report detailed examples of health care providers currently using smarter systems in healthcare delivery, preventing re-hospitalizations, upgrading record systems and eliminating ineffective therapies. The Institute recommended solutions to reduce costs and improve care by: ensuring doctors work in teams and share information; making prices and costs transparent to consumers, rewarding doctors for outcomes, not procedures; ensuring all doctors use the best-tested practices and identifying and correcting errors. http://national-academies.org
Bullets
Business to Business
- Six in 10 consumers (66%) prefer web retailers, and more than four in 10 online shoppers (45%) have bought something online that they wouldn’t buy in person. (mashable.com)
- 59% of consumers are more likely to buy when brands answer the phone in under a minute; 73% are more likely to recommend highly responsive brands to other consumers. (Ifbyphone.com)
- More than six in 10 smartphone users (61%) say that if they don’t find what they want right away on a mobile site, they’ll leave. (MarketingVox.com)
- Gen Y was responsible for 30% of all spending on books in 2011 – knocking baby boomers out of the bibliophilic top spot for the first time in years. The panel of 70,000 book buyers of all ages made 39% of their purchases through online retailers. E-books jumped from 4% to 14% of all book purchases between 2010 and 2011. (publishersweekly.com)
- 50% of Internet users (96 million) listened to music on an Internet radio or on-demand music service in the past three months. More than one-third (37%) of U.S. Internet users listened to music on Pandora and other Internet radio services, while an equal percentage (36%) used an on-demand music service, like YouTube, VEVO, Spotify, MOG, Rhapsody, and Rdio. (npd.com)
Brand Strategy
- More than a third of consumers (36%) are interested in receiving social media messages from brands about upcoming sales. (pbinsight.com)
- Nearly a quarter of opt-in marketing emails (24%) opened by consumers are opened within the first hour after delivery. (GetResponse 877-362-4547)
- Nearly six in 10 consumers (57%) say they’re buying only what they need. (BIGinsight 614-846-0146)
- 17 million Americans are compulsive shoppers/spenders with men and women affected about equally. (The Shulman Center)
- Three in 10 U.S. mobile app users want retailers to offer mobile apps to save them time when looking for items. And one in four wanted mobile apps to ensure they weren’t missing out on store deals and offers.
(emarketer.com)
Energy
- The automobile is the most recycled consumer product in the world today. Recycling just one car saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone. Virtually every car taken off the road today is recycled – thanks to the steel and iron content. Using recycled steel to make new steel saves energy. In fact, the steel industry saves enough energy in one year to electrically power 18 million homes for one year. (ditc-eef.org)
- The average American office worker uses about 500 disposable cups every year. (earth911.com)
- Every year, Americans use approximately 1 billion shopping bags, creating 300,000 tons of landfill waste. (Clean Air Council 2009, May Why Plastic Bag Fees Work.)
- The oil from just one oil change is enough to contaminate one million gallons of fresh water. Americans who change their own oil throw away 120 million gallons of reusable oil every year. (cleanair.org)
- Airports and airlines recycle less than 20 percent of the 425,000 tons of passenger-related waste they produce each year. (nrcd.org)
- Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, an extra million tons of waste is generated each week. (cal.recycle.ca.gov)
Healthcare
- The United States is the only industrialized country in the world without a universal health insurance system. (nih.gov)
- 75% of all health care dollars are spent on patients with one or more chronic conditions, many of which can be prevented, including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, lung disease, high blood pressure, and cancer. (cdc.gov)
- There are four times as many health care lobbyists in Washington as there are members of Congress. (sickothemovie.com)
- An estimated seven to 10 million people worldwide live with Parkinson’s disease. In the United States, as many as one million individuals live with PD, which is more than the combined number of people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and Lou Gehrig’s disease. Approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease each year, and this number does not reflect the thousands of cases that go undetected. Incidence of Parkinson’s increases with age, but an estimated four percent of people with PD are diagnosed before the age of 50. Statistics have shown that men are slightly more likely to have Parkinson’s disease than women. (Parkinson’s FAQ)
- The flu kills about 36,000 people each year in the US—90% of those who die of the flu are 65 or older. (cdc.gov)