Proof Email Marketing is Dead: Open Rate for Emails

February 7, 2011 by 1BlizzAdministrator 1 Comment

In Email Marketing is Dead the Statistics and Social Proof Clint Mayer confronts us with an argument that marketers should ditch their email marketing in exchange for a social media strategy.

He says:

According to a July 2010 Edition of the Email Marketing Benchmark Report released by marketingSherpa.com, the average open rate of emails in the USA dropped from 14% in half 2 of 2007 to a humble 11.2% in half 2 of 2009.

The decline in email open rates has been attributed to factors like image blocking, increased use of email hand held devices and list fatigue, but the biggest reason is being grossly neglected. It is what we are calling the era of social advocacy – Social Media.

Filed Under: 2009, Email

Consumer Review Statistics Motherlode

November 3, 2010 by 1BlizzAdministrator Leave a Comment

Bazaarvoice hosts the motherlode of “Social Commerce Statistics” snippets with an emphasis on reviews but much more.

Here is a small sampling:

Consumer reviews are significantly more trusted- nearly 12 times more- than descriptions that come from manufacturers, according to a survey of US mom Internet users by online video review site EXPO. (eMarketer, February 2010)
90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users. (Econsultancy, July 2009)
Customer reviews are an important research tool for online consumers, with 71 percentconsumer reviews make them more comfortable that they are buying the right product. (Nielsen Online Holiday Survey, December 2008)
Top-rated products site navigation path featuring 4- and 5-star products in each category delivered 49% higher conversion and 63% higher average order value. (Bazaarvoice, June 2007)
PETCO realized a 5X increase in email click-through rates by including relevant ratings and reviews content in the campaign promotion. (PETCO, June 2007)

Bazaarvoice also has a whitepaper resource guide.

Filed Under: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, Email, Reviews

US Search Engine Marketing Spend 2008 and 2009

October 25, 2010 by 1BlizzAdministrator Leave a Comment

Wow… 88% of Search Engine Marketing budget is PPC, not organic search. Compare that to the previous post which demonstrates that 88% of click traffic comes from Organic, not PPC.

Is something screwy here?

2008 SEM spending totalled $13.4 billion
2009 SEM spending is projected to rise to $14.7 billion
Long term projections show a total SEM spend of $26.1 billion in 2013
Paid placement accounted for 88% of 2008 spending, or $11.9 billion
Organic SEO accounted for approximately 11% of 2008 spending, or more than $1.4 billion
Additionally, the market for SEM technologies, including leasing, agency solutions and in-house development, accounted for 1.1% of overall 2008 spending, or $141 million.

Click Here for more

Filed Under: 2008, 2009, PPC, SEO

PPC vs Organic Search Usage by Consumers

October 22, 2010 by 1BlizzAdministrator Leave a Comment

According to Enquisite, 89% of all search engine clicks are driven through the organic search area and only 11% (or 10.53% of all clicks) are driven through Pay-per-click (PPC) or sponsored search.

Thanks to SEOMoz for this handy chart.

Filed Under: 2009, Consumer Behavior, PPC, SEO

Online Vacation Rental Market Enjoys Increased Demand

October 14, 2010 by 1BlizzAdministrator Leave a Comment

PhoCusWright reports that when the U.S. economy took a dive in 2009, growth of the online vacation rental sector continued unabated.

The online vacation rental category averaged more than 4.7 million monthly unique visitors from May 2009 through April 2010, up from an average 4.1 million in the preceding 12-month period.

Also, August 2009 up 25% over 2008 and November 2009 up 40% over 2008.

Those are pretty good numbers!

Filed Under: 2009, Vacation Rental

Research: Travel Shopper Online Behavior from Google and Compete

August 31, 2010 by 1BlizzAdministrator Leave a Comment

These are notes from a Compete and Google Webinar from 1-14-2009 entitled “Travel Shopping in Today’s economy”

As the economy has slowed, having an up-to-date perspective on consumer travel demand and preferences is more important than ever. Using an in-depth survey of traveler perspectives and a detailed online behavioral analysis, Google and Compete have partnered to create a new study exploring how consumers are shopping for travel in today’s economy.

Data from the Webinar

Travel Researchers are visiting fewer travel sites. from 3 sites in 07 to 2 sites in 08
Bookers are more active – 16.4% of bookers visit 10+ sites! avg 5.4 sites
15 million travel researchers using search monthly
70% of travel search coming through Google. 20% from Yahoo
54% travelers use search engine as go to source for travel ideas and information
44% prefer to spend money on travel than material things
86% of travelers use internet for travel decisions. Family & friends next, but only 37%

Filed Under: 2009, Consumer Behavior, Travel

Vast Majority of Online Marketers Are Missing Conversion Opportunities

August 26, 2010 by 1BlizzAdministrator Leave a Comment

Omniture’s 2009 Online Conversion Benchmark Survey reveals some startling facts:

80% of online marketers do not serve personalized content, and do not use performance metrics to promote content
Less than 30% frequently test their content
70% of content decisions are unsupported by data

Read more about it at Hope for Flailing Conversion Rates by Laurie Sullivan

Filed Under: 2009, Usability

40 Percent of Hotel Bookings Fail Because…

August 26, 2010 by 1BlizzAdministrator Leave a Comment

Stephen Joice of T4 Blog shares findings from Iperception’s Hospitality Index Report:

40% of customers failed to complete a booking on a hotel website because of booking or navigation problems.
Price on the other hand only accounted for 13% of customers failing to complete a booking.

Visit his article for more on this and the cost of so many abandoned booking engine transactions.

Filed Under: 2009, Booking Engine, Consumer Behavior, Hotel