TV Not Going Away, but Viewers Multi-Tasking

TV Not Going Away, but Viewers Multi-Tasking
Don’t be fooled by rosy stock market and economic indicators  

Sixty percent of U.S. consumers still want to watch their shows on TV, but these same consumers also want their smartphones and tablets by their side, according to a new report from KPMG International. Sunday’s Super Bowl telecast/advertising fest will likely bear that out.

Researchers said that 42 percent of U.S. consumers say they watch TV and access the Internet via a laptop or PC, while one in six (17%) watch TV and access the Web via a smartphone. The study also found that more than one in five (22%) watch TV and use a social networking site at the same time.

In a prepared statement, Paul Wissmann, national leader of KPMG's U.S. Media & Telecommunications practice, said: "The introduction of smart TVs is an indication of how the digital transition is accelerating to coincide with the demand of today's consumers to access anything, anywhere and at any time. The smart TV is beginning to reveal itself as the next disruptor."

The study said that one in seven (14%) U.S. consumers polled prefer to watch TV via their mobile or tablet for greater flexibility--mostly coming from what the report called "mobile-centric consumers" 25-34 years old.

Our Take: What may surprise many B2B marketers is that urban consumers in China, Brazil and Singapore are proving to be bigger consumers of digital/mobile media than in the U.S. and they also tend to have higher rates of smartphone/mobile device ownership.

Whether you use conventional TV, mobile or video as part of your marketing arsenal there is no one-size fits all solution. Just like consumers, your clients and prospects have more choices than ever for consuming, engaging and sharing their information. Whether they’re 25-34 or 55-64, you need to take a holistic approach to reaching them.

As our good friend John Graham, president of the American Society of Association Executives is fond of saying, “They want it when they want it in the format they want.”

And if you don’t give it to them “how they want it” they’ll go somewhere else who can.

Macro View

The major stock indices are at or near their highest levels since 2007 and coming off their longest consecutive daily winning streaks since 2004. Initial jobless claims hit a 5-year low last week and spending on residential construction is growing at a faster rate than at any time since 1994.

Today’s meeting of the Fed policy-making committee indicated that the Fed will likely continue buying bonds to hold down borrowing costs since the economy remains weak.

So we’re all good right?

Sorry to make your champagne go flat, but recent surveys of investor sentiment have shown a big uptick. Come again? The American Association of Individual Investors reported that half (46%) of its members felt bullish, up nearly eight percentage points from a week earlier—and well above the long-term average of 39 percent. By contrast, only one in four (27%) felt bearish as of Jan. 9, a nine-point improvement from the previous week. As the Wall Street Journal reported recently, that ain’t good for investors who are historically poor readers of peer sentiment.

Here’s why. In the past, increasing ebullience has portended poor future returns. For example, in the 12 months leading up to October 2007, when the market hit its peak, investors put $207 billion into U.S. stock mutual funds and ETFs, according to investment-research firm Morningstar. On the other hand, in the year before the market bottom in March 2009, they took out $44 billion.

So despite the firm economic indicators we pointed out above—which should be good news for your clients’ and prospects’ businesses—they’re most likely investors in the financial markets. If we have the correction that many pundits expect, they’ll be feeling less likely to spend on their businesses when they’re feeling less flush about their portfolios, retirement accounts and college savings plans.
In other words, things are looking promising, but no one’s ready to exhale.

Conclusion


The stars are never going to be in perfect alignment to make completely worry free decisions about investments, capital expenditures, advertising and hiring. If you’re a marketer, you’ve got to keep the lead pipeline full at all times.

Rob Ingraham, EVP of Global Exchange Events told us today he started his company in 2010 when the trade association business was in the depths of the recession. His firm, which facilitates meetings between vendors and suppliers has been doubling every year, and is on pace to do so again. “A downturn not when you take and hide; it’s when you have a great opportunity to go after market share.”

You don’t need to spend recklessly, but you do need to spend. Trying to time the demand cycle is about as easy as timing the financial markets—or buying gas for your car one gallon at a time when you feel the price is right. Sooner or later you’ll run dry—usually at a very bad time in a very bad place.

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You’ll Never Do Your Best Work Chained to Your Desk

You’ll Never Do Your Best Work Chained to Your Desk
Mobile ad revenue to surge; housing officially rebounding

While the benefits of today’s technology are many, there are some serious health risks for desk-bound professionals, even those of us who exercise diligently every day. Here’s the deal. We spend way too much time sitting and staring at our screens. We’ve got to do a better job of keeping ourselves moving throughout the day, not just during our lunch breaks or time spent jogging or at the gym.

Jack Dennerlein, a professor at Northeastern’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences in Boston suggested in a short New York Times item today that you should do a variation of the 20-20-20 rule used to reduce eyestrain. Take 20 seconds to look at something 20 feet away (instead of at your computer), and repeat this exercise every 20 minutes. Dr. Dennerlein, who specializes in ergonomics and safety, says this eye rule can be applied to movement as well. Every 20 minutes, walk 20 feet away for 20 seconds or more. Stop by a co-worker’s desk. Get a cup of coffee. Pace. Just don’t sit.

Management by walking around


While some of my colleagues think I’m pretty wired or suffering from ADD or a tiny bladder, Management by Walking Around (MBWA) is one of the key tenets we preach to our clients. It not only gives you a badly needed break from the information overload on your screen(s), but it can help you calm down long enough to avoid sending an email or voicemail you’ll later regret. This tactic can also prevent you from turning in an important piece of work before you’ve REALLY checked it over carefully to ensure it’s your best effort. The stretching and blood flow doesn’t hurt either. Best of all, it increases your opportunities for “chance” meetings in the hallway, kitchen, elevator or restroom with hard to schedule superiors or non-confrontational colleagues who’ll do anything to avoid a “face to face” discussion with you.

Can’t I just save time by standing up once in a while? Dr. Dennerlein points out that standing for long periods of time is not good for you either. The key is to vary your work posture throughout the day. “Just keep moving and changing things around,” he said. “I think people should be empowered to make adjustments to see what feels right for them. And one thing that might feel comfortable in the morning might not feel comfortable in the afternoon.”

Here at HB, we’ve found that many professionals do their best work via the “interval” approach. Rather than grinding it out for 8, 10 or 12 hours at a time, some knowledge workers are much more effective with a series of relatively short, but intense bursts of work (say one to two hours at a times), followed short 15 to 30 minute breaks. More on that next week.

Mobile ad revenue surges

A new Gartner report projects worldwide mobile ad revenue will increase 16 percent to $11 billion this year and more than double by 2016. Gartner says its estimates include mobile Web display, in-app display, search and maps, video/mobile TV and messaging.

Macro View

Strong reports on housing starts and jobless claims lifted markets last week. Both the Dow and S&P 500 finished the week at or near their highest levels since December 2007.Jobless claims also fell to a five year low and builders started work on homes in December at the fastest rate since December 2008 according to the Commerce Department Thursday. Economists say housing may no longer be a drag on the economy and residential construction probably contributed to economic growth for THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2005.

Conclusion

While hashing out your plans to leverage your expertise in mobile, don’t forget to take a break from your screen. Walk down the hall rather than firing off a text message to a colleague and you never know who else you’ll run into on your way. It could be just the “chance” meeting that changes your entire week, month or career.

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TAGS: Gartner, mobile ad revenue, housing market, management by walking around, Jack Dennerlein, Northeastern University Bouvé College of Health Sciences

Tablets to Outsell Notebooks in 2013

Tablets to Outsell Notebooks in 2013
Online advertising now 25% of U.S. ad budgets; mobile key to growth

Two important milestones were reached for B2B marketers this week. First, tablets are expected to outship notebooks this year, according to separate report this week from NPD DisplaySearch and Gartner. Second, U.S. marketers will devote at least 25 percent of their budgets to online advertising in 2013.

For the first time ever, researchers predict that tablets will grab more than 50 percent of market share in 2013, up from around 38 percent last year and 26 percent in 2011. Growth in tablet shipments are predicted to rise 64 percent this year from 2012, the report said. Global demand for tablets has opened up the market for a variety of players, both large and small. But, what caught our attention was that growth will not necessarily be driven by the iPad, but by a variety of devices, particularly those with smaller screens. Apple recently curtailed order for iPad parts, although we think the company’s recent stock slide is a correction more than a long-term trend and might signal a buying opportunity for those looking for bargains in the tech sector.

“Tablets have dramatically changed the device landscape for PCs, not so much by cannibalizing PC sales, but by causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than replacing older PCs,” according to Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa, in the report. “This transformation was triggered by the availability of low-cost tablets in 2012,” he added.

According to the NPD folks, tablets with screen size between 7.0 and 7.9 inches will garner 45 percent of the market this year--that’s about 108 million units. In contrast, larger 9.7-inch tablets such as the traditional iPad are estimate to get only a 17 percent share of market. The other 38 percent is made up of the wide variety of sizes, ranging from 5.6 inches to 13.3 inches.

"The tablet PC market saw increasing investments in North America in the second half of 2012, from major brands that tested not only new screen sizes and price points, but also unconventional business models to support their efforts," NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim said in a news release. "In 2013, further investments are expected worldwide, stoking demand to the point that tablet PC shipments will exceed those of notebook PCs."

Online poised for 25 percent share of ad dollars; mobile fueling half the growth

Meanwhile, online advertising will pass a symbolic milestone this year, becoming one out of every four dollars spent by U.S. advertisers, according to new projections from the equity research team at J.P. Morgan. The growth, writes Internet sector analyst Doug Anmuth, is being fueled by advertisers shifting budgets from analog media to follow consumer time spent with digital media, especially Internet connected mobile devices, as well as continuing momentum of social media platforms like Facebook which announced a powerful search feature today to compete with Google, Yelp and LinkedIn.

“As consumer behavior and time spent online rapidly shifts towards mobile, we expect advertising dollars to follow,” Anmuth wrote in a report released to investors late last week, adding: “We are projecting Internet advertising in the U.S. to grow to $43.5 billion in 2013.”

The J.P. Morgan estimate represents a 17.4 percent gain over 2012 online ad spending levels. As a result, online media will be receiving one out of every four dollars in 2013 U.S. ad budgets. That being said, Anmuth estimates about half of that growth will be coming from mobile Web ad spending, and without the mobile component, the uptick in online ad spending would be only about 10 percent from 2012.

Conclusion
Two key tipping points have finally tipped. Do you think the surge in tablet adoption and online/mobile advertising is merely a coincidence? C’mon. You’re too smart for that. Do we really need to tell you where to focus your energies in 2013?

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TAGS: Android, Tablets , iPad, notebooks, Apple, Doug Anmuth, J.P. Morgan, Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa, NPD DisplaySearch, Richard Shim, Facebook, Facebook, Google, Yelp, LinkedIn

Think Blog, Not Slog

Think Blog, Not Slog
Still not sold on blogging? Think it’s too difficult, too old school or too “consumer-y” for your organization? Think again.

New research from marketing firm Hubspot found businesses and professional organizations that blog just once or twice a month garner 70 PERCENT more leads than those who don’t. If you can post more frequently—say several times per week—researchers found you’ll generate on average 5 TIMES more web traffic than competitors who don’t have blogs.

But wait, there’s more! Unlike many other online marketing tactics, blogging is scalable. For instance, researchers found that doubling you posting schedule to 21-plus times per month from 11 to 20 times per month resulted in a 45 percent boost in traffic.

As we mentioned last week, a new survey by the Custom Content Council and ContentWise, found that brand content (aka brand journalism, sponsored editorial or thought leadership content) is getting a bigger slice of the marketing pie: a 13 percent increase in spending for the last two years.

But, you have to be relevant

What’s hard for many organizations to understand is that blogging isn’t the same as email blasting. It’s not the same as aggregating, scraping, tweeting, pinning or Facebook posting, either. You don’t have to be a seasoned journalist. But, you do have to commit to your own point of view and you have to be relevant. Why else would your time-pressed clients and prospects take time out of their busy days to read/watch/view what you have to say?

Be a thought leader

Blogging is about being a thought leader. You don’t have to be first with the news. You just have to put an authoritative spin on it so you can showcase your expertise. You want to be arrogant. You do want to give readers short nuggets of intelligence that can help them solve a problem, unlock a new opportunity or make their jobs easier.

There’s no ideal post length and no ideal frequency. Just commit to a schedule and volume that you and your colleagues can consistently maintain. But, if you take shortcuts and put out stale, over-used content your numbers will suffer and your reputation as well.

First impressions

According to the good folks at Gadzoog you have about 10 seconds to capture a potential customer’s attention before they click “back” and move on to your competitor. There has to be something of value offered to keep them not only interested, but coming back. Whether it’s an informational video, blog post, or a free consultation, there should be some element that helps you stand out from the crowd.

They want to find as much out about you as they can, before the commit to a phone call, demo or in person meeting.

Remember, your prospects go through a due diligence process before making a final decision about you. This time should be seen as an opportunity to inform, engage, and most importantly, offer value to your prospective audience. This poses a major advantage over the competition when considering that most businesses with a website usually lack a blog and the ones that do have a blog, rarely maintain it.

Conclusion

Blogging is not a magic silver bullet. But if done even reasonably well and consistently, it will elevate you above the clutter. It’s pretty simple to do, but just hard enough to separate the thought leaders from the pretenders. Just remember to be relevant and make sure you integrate blogging with your other marketing initiatives. You’ll be glad you did even if you don’t get the same boost in traffic (or leads) that researchers claim above.

Time after time, clients tell us the process of blogging gave them a great new idea for a presentation, video, brochure or new product that wouldn’t have occurred to them otherwise.

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TAGS: Gadzoog, blogging, Hubspot, Custom Content Council

Will 2013 be the Year of Branded Content?

Economic optimism  even as we fall over the cliff


According to a new survey by the Custom Content Council and ContentWise, brand content (aka brand journalism, sponsored editorial or thought leadership content) is getting a bigger slice of the marketing pie: a 13 percent increase, or $1,640,107 in spending for the last two years. As more organizations jump onto the content marketing bandwagon, let’s hope the standards don’t slip.

Top Four Reasons for Using Branded Content

Respondents’ primary reasons for using branded content are: (1) educating customers, (2) boosting brand loyalty, (3) up-selling and (4) retaining customers. Again, No.3 won’t work in a vacuum—you can’t simply upsell when you need a sales boost; you need to work the up-sell efforts in smartly while you’re educating, engaging and retaining your customers all year long on a consistent and non-intrusive basis.

Need for Outsourcing

Four out of five marketers (79%) say their companies are moving into branded content either at a moderate or aggressive pace, but they can’t do it alone. More than half of respondents (52%) say they outsourced some portion of at least one type of branded content creation in 2012. Researchers say more outsourcing dollars than ever are being spent on external agencies such as custom publishers, PR/social media firms, design firms, ad agencies, and interactive agencies handling aspects of branded content. More than half of brands (56%) now outsource, and of those, the average annual spend is $987,417, an increase of 46.6 percent from a year ago.

Importance of integration

According to researchers, three in four brands build content for print and repurpose that content for social media and the brand’s parent website. The multi-channel nature of content marketing is driving an average brand to investment over $1.7 million annually, up 5.1 percent increase from a year ago.

Our Take: As more and more B2B marketers search for ways to cut through the clutter and bypass banner blindness, the need for high value content will reach a new level. Fortunately, most journalists, analysts, researchers and academics we know will resist the temptation to sell out to the highest bidder for the services. A few organizations will look to save a few bucks by aggregating, scraping and video clipping whatever they can get their hands on in the public domain—or turn to low-cost vendors who provide those services. That approach will come back to bite them (hard) in the long run.

If you outsource, stick to your guns and hire only proven service providers who have true subject matter experts creating expert content for them.

Final Macro View of 2012

With six hours to go in calendar year 2012, we’re still on a fiscal cliff hanger and not likely to be rescued.

Here’s what are best sources are telling us: The White House and Senate Republicans are closing in on a budget compromise that would raise tax rates on couples making more than $450,000 a year, increase taxes on VERY large inheritances and extend unemployment benefits for a year. But, with the January 1 deadline fast approaching, negotiators are hung up on how to postpone the $110 billion in spending cuts due to take effect January 2.

Most likely it will be a series of stop gap measures. Government will continue to find ways to spend money irresponsibly and legislators won’t be fired or laid off if they fail to come up with a deal by the stroke of midnight tonight. Regardless of income level, we’ll all be feeling a pinch in one way or the other, but for most Americans (individuals and businesses) there will be gradual pinches over months and even years, irritating yes, but not painful bites that could knock us on our butts in one fell swoop.

So let’s tough it out and look at two very important positives that came out late last week

1) U.S. ad spending should rise by at least 5 percent (eMarketer, Veronis Suhler, Media Post and others agree)

2) Home prices increased for the fifth straight month year over year The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller national home price index released late last week showed that prices increased 4.3 percent from October 2011, the largest year-over-year increase in two and a half years, when a home buyer tax credit temporarily increased sales. October was the fifth straight month of year-over-year gains, after nearly two years of declines.

Conclusion

We can’t do much about the waste in Washington, but consumers and businesses have been on a three-to-five year waste reduction program and the fruits of those labors will slowly but surely pay off in the months and years ahead. Onward and upward in 2013—the year of thought leadership (aka the Year of “I Told You So.”).


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TAGS: fiscal cliff hanger, U.S ad spending, Standard & Poors/Case Shiller, content marketing, Custom Content Council, Content Wise, eMarketer, Veronis Suhler

Online Video Has Too Much Potential; Don’t Make TV Broadcaster Mistakes
Forget the fiscal cliff--focus on fiscal 2013

Whether you’re in consumer or B2B, it seems like everyone’s jumping on the video bandwagon to connect with customers and clients and to show they’re cool. However, if you’re using video to steer prospects closer to a purchase decision, then you better take the high road and keep the intrusive hard-sell to a minimum.

New research from AOL and QaulVu indicates that consumers would rather be pitched prior to watching short videos rather than being pitched at the beginning and middle while watching longer videos online. "Consumption habits are evolving rapidly, and we're seeing consumers display many of the same ad avoidance tendencies online than they do with TV," said Ran Harnevo, senior vice president of The AOL On Network, in a press release.

Our Take. Duh! But before dismissing this report as just another expensive exercise in restating the obvious, let’s drill down into some useful kernels of insight:

The AOL/QualVu study found that ads in short-form content actually produce significantly higher recall, brand affinity and purchase intent than those in long-form content.

Additional findings include:

• Ads in short-form videos are more effective than ads in long-form content-- short-form video produced a 25 percent higher brand recall and a 42 percent higher purchase intent for the featured product or service.
  
• Viewers are adopting traditional avoidance behaviors during ads within long-form videos. If ads are too frequent and interruptive; they’ll avoid them altogether (by walking away, going to other sites, multitasking with their phone). This is the same “annoyance” behavior that is demonstrated when viewing television without the use of a DVR.
  
• Consumers want content that’s more targeted and more humorous. Researchers found that 67 percent of respondents would be willing to answer a question to make their ads more personalized and enjoyable.
  
•  ‪Consumers understand the exchange of free content for advertising, but they want to make sure their time tradeoff of watching ads also benefits them. They found coupons, contests and links as the most positive forms of engagement.

Don’t insult the viewer’s intelligence. They’re busier than ever and have a myriad of myriad of ways to bail on you instantly if you bore them, bother them or overbear them with your message.

Fiscal cliff and beyond

Whether or not Congress sends us over the fiscal cliff next week, it can’t stop the calendar from rolling over into 2013. You have budgets to meet, customers to serve and new products to roll out. At the end of the day, most of you are in businesses that won’t live or die by new capital gains rates on the ultra wealthy and a few more bucks taken out of the average worker’s paycheck. They’ll be some residual impact, but the overall macro economy is showing more positive signs than ever and the so-called cliff is more likely to be a gradual slope than a one-step painful trip to the auto body shop.

Are we out of the woods yet? Not by a long-shot, but it’s going to take some real legislative hubris in Washington to put us on a direct flight to Recessionville.

Here are some positive macro-indicators that have us encouraged:

• The U.S. economy grew faster than expected (3.1%) in Q3 according to the Commerce Department. Consumer spending, which the Department says fuels 70 percent of the economy rose 0.4 percent in November and incomes rose 0.6 percent, the biggest gain in 11 months
  
• Homebuilding permits reached their highest level since July 2008 in November the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Further evidence of consumer confidence and demand is that mortgage rates are actually inching higher according to a separate report from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
  
• The National Federation of Independent Business reports that the share of small business owners who say their credit needs are not being met is falling.
  
• Corporate profits are at a high. They’ve amassed mountains of cash waiting for fiscal cliff and other issues to be resolved. They have tons of cash available to buy cash or hire people when the feel secure enough about the recovery.
  
• Consumers have become a lot more responsible about debt. They’ve significantly deleverage themselves since the downturn began and are finally feeling a little better financially, especially with housing market bottoming out according to experts.
  
• Household formation is picking up: Young people are finally getting some form of employment and moving out of the parental nest and into their own homes, according to Moody’s Analytics. Demographic data suggest there should be about a million more households headed by younger Americans today than there actually are—that bodes well for continued formation of households and typically injects about $150,000 of output per household into the economy, according to Moody’s.
  
• The average vehicle on the road is at a record high of 11.2 years, according to research firm R.L. Polk. Experts expect pent up demand for new cars being unleashed (especially as job market slowly improving and workers need reliable transport to get to their jobs).

Conclusion

Have some eggnog. Unwrap those presents and let’s hit the ground running by the middle of next week. Don’t wait for the day after New Year’s. We’ve got to much work to do. The world didn’t end when the Mayan calendar expired yesterday and it’s not going to end on January 1. You customers, clients and constituents are counting on you.

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TAGS: AOL, QaulVu, Ran Harnevo, Commerce Department, fiscall cliff, online video advertising, ad avoidance, R.L. Polk, Moody’s Analytics, National Federation of Independent Business, Mortgage Bankers Association

Make Every Day Count

Yesterday’s senseless tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT reminded me of how short our time is here on this planet. Newtown is about 25 miles from where I live. It’s a quintessential New England small town which I’ve visited many times. It’s got to be one of the safest and most wholesome places in the U.S. to raise kids. Yet, even in a place like Newtown, the lives of two-dozen young people were snuffed out in a flash yesterday. Just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I have school age kids myself. Pretty scary when your wife calls you from work in a panic ("Did hear there was a shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut?"). At first we didn't know which town or which school.

My kids  didn’t know any of the victims personally, but they played baseball at the Sandy Hook field complex this summer, just a long relay throw away from where the tragedy took place.  Surely the opposing players and coaches had siblings, relatives or neighbors impacted by yesterday’s shocking events. I can’t imagine what they must be feeling today. A close friend of mine had a sports medicine practice in Newtown until just a few years ago. He has elementary school age children and thinks he once treated the shooter and his family.  He lives 1,000 miles away now, but to say he’s shaken up by yesterday’s events is an understatement.

Last month, the storm surge from Hurricane Sandy came to within 10 feet of my home, but did not leave a drop of water in the basement or a single shingle out of place. Many of my neighbors were not so lucky.

Two week before Sandy, my younger sister (one of the healthiest and most upbeat people you’ll ever meet) thought she was suffering from migraine headaches. Her family doctor ordered an MRI just to be safe. Turns out she had a baseball-size malignant tumor in her brain. She had surgery two days later despite a mountain of responsibilities at work, at home and being in the final stages of a campaign for elected office.  No time to re-schedule. They caught it just in time. The chemo and radiation is no picnic, and her life’s been altered forever. But she’s handling the treatment like a champ. She’s able to continue working and hold on to her elected position with only limited side effects and fatigue.

 On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was supposed to be at a 9 am meeting in Jersey City. To make that meeting, I would have been on a PATH train, under the World Trade Center Towers at about 8:45 am—right when the first hijacked plane made impact with the iconic skyscraper. But it was a Tuesday. We had Primary elections that day in my state and I took a slightly later train into Manhattan in order to vote. My cousin, who worked on the 60^th floor of the South Tower had a breakfast meeting in midtown that day so he avoided certain disaster and my other sister, who worked at No. 7 World Trade Center, had just bought a home and was moving that day and never came to work. Oh, and my company at the time was scheduled to start leasing space in the South Tower in December of 2001.

Talk about near-misses and good fortune.

No matter how carefully you plan out your life, it’s really just a series of chance encounters, random events and near-misses. Make the most of your encounters and celebrate your good fortune each time you walk away unscathed from a near-miss.

No matter how tired or unmotivated you feel, make sure every day you do at least one of the following things, if not all four:

·        

• DO SOMETHING FUN
• DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE
• FIGHT FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN
• DO SOMETHING WORTHWHILE THAT GIVES BACK TO OTHERS

You’ll never hear any of us here at HB Publishing & Marketing Company say, “What Can You Do?” or “It Is What It Is” or “Same Shit Different Day.” Those are cop outs for not living your life giving your life 100 percent each and every day. We don’t do hire people who use those expressions and we don’t do business with them either.

Life’s too short. Make the most of it.

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Size Matters When it Comes to Email Subject Lines

According to new research from a British online marketing firm, email subject lines that work best are either less than 30 characters, or longer than 90 characters. You want to avoid the  “dead zone” between 30 and 90 characters.

The study conducted by Adestra, which analyzed over 1 billion B2B emails sent within the last 12 months, found that marketers using 90 characters and up produced the highest response rates because more benefits could be communicated. In contrast, snappier subject lines that used 30 characters or less performed well in the case for transactional or direct-action emails.

Word count is a proxy for character count, and vice versa. But, in B2B, where industry-specific jargon tends to be long words, it’s important to consider this metric.


Researchers found that word count results in the study produced similar results to the character lengths in that each end of the count scale performed the highest. However the comparative results show that much shorter subject lines (14 or fewer words) produced considerably higher engagement than longer subject lines.

While conventional wisdom says using dollar signs in your subject lines is risky, researchers say spam filters use “Baysian” filters to determine spam ratings, and in the B2B world, users engage strongly with currency symbols. Thus spam filters no longer penalize for dollar signs. That being said, the report found that engagement is high only when relevant and valuable financial email content is communicated in the subject line.

No kidding!

Here’s a summary of the report:

• Discount terms: These generally performed below average. “Sale” was found to above-average, though, in opens (14.4%), clicks (76.5%), and click-to-opens (54.3%). Others such as “% off,” “discount,” “free,” “half price,” “save,” “voucher,” “early bird,” and “2 for 1″ all came in below-average in all 3 metrics.
  
  
• News terms: These had better success than discount terms. “News” (16.2%), “update” (4.9%), “breaking” (33.5%), “alert” (25.9%), and “bulletin” (12.5%) all saw better-than-average click-to-open rates, with “newsletter” being the only term to perform below-average in each metric.
  
  
• Content terms: “Issue” (8.5%) and “top stories” (5.9%) were the only to perform above-average in click-to-opens, although the latter saw slightly below average open and click rates. “Forecast,” “report,” “whitepaper,” and “download” all saw below-average performance in each of the 3 metrics. “Research,” “interview,” and “video” scored above average for opens, but below average for clicks and click-to-opens.
  
  
• Benefit terms: “Latest” was the only to see above average clicks (8.8%) and click-to-opens (9%), while “special,” “exclusive,” and “innovate,” while performing average in opens, fared far more poorly in clicks and click-to-opens.
  
  
• Event terms: Each of these terms performed below average in opens, clicks, and click-to-opens. The terms examined were: “exhibition,” “conference,” “webinar,” “seminar,” “training,” “expo,” “event,” “register,” and “registration.” The worst offender for click-to-opens was “webinar” at -63.5%.
  
  
• Multichannel terms: Facebook (21.6%) and Pinterest (16.4%) were the only terms to score above average in clicks and click-to-opens, though both showed below-average performance in opens. However, “app” and “iPad” were above average in opens, and below average in clicks and click-to-opens. Both “Twitter” and “LinkedIn” were below average in all 3 metrics.

Social Networks
Generally speaking, referencing social networks won’t get you great response. Experts say this could be due to the huge volume of emails pertaining to them, or it could be an indication that in the B2B world people aren’t using social networks as much as pundits had predicted.

Personalized Subject Lines
With personalized subject lines, recipients feel instant engagement, but engagement falls off when people open the email, since in most cases the content of the emails is not personalized! The key here is to construct a congruous user experience, says the report.
As with everything else in B2B marketing, there’s no one-size-fits-all option. You just have to keep testing and tweaking as Adestra researchers agree.

Macro Economic View

Despite yesterday’s disappointing numbers on manufacturing activity, auto industry analysts reported yesterday that new vehicle sales rose 15 percent in November and a measure of planned business spending rose to its highest level in five months in October, the Commerce Department said last week. Meanwhile, single family home prices rose for an eighth straight month in September, according to the Standard & Poors/Case Shiller composite index.

Our Take: We think the overall trend is positive as the manufacturing index from the Institute for Supply Management is based on sentiment while the aforementioned data are from actual results. We’re also encouraged that the financial markets have held their ground despite no clear indication that the fiscal cliff will be avoided before January 1, 2013.

Conclusion

Just as there’s no one-size-fits all solution for email marketing, there’s not going to be a one-size-fits all marketing strategy for 2013. Things will be in constant flux regardless of what the economy and DC policy makers throw at us. You need to keep adjusting, tweaking and constantly measuring your game plan. You also can’t keep your head buried in spreadsheets and computer screens. In this data driven, ROI and KPI era, the need for anecdotal feedback is more important than ever. Go ahead and crunch the numbers. But, don’t forget to pick up the phone and call your clients and customers. Better yet, go spend some time with them, preferably at their offices or facilities. Get a feel for their culture, pain points and morale.

That’ll tell you more about their spending plans than any forecast or new metric.

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TAGS: Institute for Supply Management, Adesrta, email subject lines, size matters, Standard & Poors/Case Shiller, auto sales, housing market

Billionaire Buffet Offers Plain Talk Tax Solution

Online viewers watch more long form videos thanks to tablets

Consumers who stream TV shows, movies and sporting events are increasingly tapping their tablets when they tune in, with tablet video viewers watching 54 percent more long-form videos than they did at the start of the year, according to video technology and streaming provider Ooyala in a new report analyzing video habits of nearly 200 million unique viewers across devices for Q3.

Researchers said tablet owners spent 71 percent of their total tablet video viewing time watching videos 10 minutes or longer. What’s more, the report said the overall share of tablet video viewing grew 90 percent in the past two quarters, an increase from 46 percent in the first quarter. That’s a significant rise in a short period of time, and suggests that tablets are becoming akin to second TVs for many who have them.

I’m in B2B, so why do I care? You care because your target customers (and their families) are also savvy, device-equipped consumers. Whenever you direct them to one of your webinars, podcasts, thought leadership videos or whitepapers, they’re more likely than not watching them on a tablet or smart phone. And they expect a professional quality experience from you.

Your customers, clients and prospects are watching “TV” more than they’re reading at work at home and on the go. But, that doesn’t mean you can be cheap or careless about what you put into your videos. Do it right, or don’t do it at all. 
Your customers will thank you and be more likely to refer you.

Buffet Straight Talk on Taxes



In a New York Times editorial today, Warren E. Buffett, billionaire head of Berkshire Hathaway, threw out some pragmatic ideas about taxing the ultra-wealthy and a smarter definition of the minimum threshold for “wealthy” in this country (hint it’s not $250K a year). Regardless of the motive for Buffet’s altruistic intentions, we agree with buffet that $250K annual adjusted gross income does not make one ultra-wealthy in many of the places you readers hail from: the Bay Area, Southern California, the Northeast, South Florida……His suggestion for $500,000 is a start.

What we liked more about Buffet’s op-ed is that he argues for Congress to get started on a few pieces of must-have tax reform, rather than straightening out the whole labyrinth IRC which could take years—and give opponents plenty of time to stall and continue reaping aggregious gains.

For instance, Buffet argues for a minimum tax on truly high incomes ASAP—at say 30 percent of taxable income between $1 million and $10 million, and 35 percent on amounts above that. “A plain and simple rule like that will block the efforts of lobbyists, lawyers and contribution-hungry legislators to keep the ultra-rich paying rates well below those incurred by people with income just a tiny fraction of ours. Only a minimum tax on very high incomes will prevent the stated tax rate from being eviscerated by these warriors for the wealthy.”

Again, we’re advocating the removal of uncertainty—we’re not advocating removal of incentives to get rich and be successful. That’s the American way and it’s in our DNA….just like Black Friday shopping.

Buffet says our government’s goal should be to bring in revenues of 18.5 percent of G.D.P. and spend about 21 percent of G.D.P. — “levels that have been attained over extended periods in the past and can clearly be reached again.” According to Buffet it was about 15 percent in and 22 percent out last year.

“All of America is waiting for Congress to offer a realistic and concrete plan for getting back to this fiscally sound path. Nothing less is acceptable.”

Amen to that.

TAGS: Warren Buffet, $250,000, taxes on wealthy, online video habits, tablets, Berkshire Hathaway, Ooyala

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Fiscal Cliff Notes
Don’t get sucked into the pessimism. Why are investors and big business leaders so surprised?
U.S. stocks hit a three-month low yesterday as big business leaders and institutional investors continue to be spooked by the looming fiscal cliff, continued worries about Europe and finally admitting to themselves that they’re facing four more years of a President who may not necessarily be anti-business/anti-wealthy people, but is certainly hell-bent on spreading the nation’s wealth (and financial pain) around.

This didn’t exactly come out of left field like Hurricane Sandy. Duh.

The threat of spending cuts, an end to coveted tax breaks and a financially weak Europe have been issues for a long time. Iranian hostilities didn’t just bubble up yesterday. And the prospect of Mr. Obama winning a second term shouldn’t strike any rational person as a huge upset. Most reliable polls had him as a slight favorite for several months, even before challenger Romney’s ill-fated “47-percent” remark. The only thing that surprises us is the level of surprise. You’d think there might have been a contingency plan or two put in place? They’re not small-mid business owners and B2B marketers like us.

Sure the Dow is off about six percent since the President won re-election, but isn’t this the same administration that held the White House during an 85 percent gain in the Dow during its first four-year term?

If you’re a business owner or B2B marketer, don’t get sucked into the recent wave of pessimism. The macro-problems we’re dealing with have been with us a long-time and we’re still seeing slow but steady gains in hiring, job creation, home prices, consumer confidence, business confidence and more.

Great companies will continue to do well. Great products will continue to sell. And great marketing will continue to create demand for great products made by great companies. It’s those on the margins who might get whacked if they don’t get it together ASAP.

Are things great? Not by a long shot.

The Institute of Supply Management’s business confidence index is at 51.7, just slightly below its historical average of 52.8, but a significant drop from the low-60s it reached mid-year. About three-fourths (73%) of the corporate elite who attended this week’s Wall Street Journal CEO Council conference in Washington said their primary concern was the "fiscal cliff," the federal spending cuts and tax increases that begin in January unless policy makers intervene. Only one in eight (12%) said their top fear was Europe's financial crisis.

The President and Congress are trying to put together a long-term deficit-reduction package that could replace the fiscal cliff, but they have made little progress and have just seven weeks to cut a deal. Experts say the fiscal cliff would raise taxes roughly by $400 billion and cut spending by roughly $100 billion in 2013. Several economists say the measures would cause another recession.  The President and House Speaker John Boehner claim they’re open to compromise and don't want to replay the BS that occurred last year during a fight over raising the government's borrowing limit. But you know negotiations will go slowly, most likely into 2013—i.e. over the perceived cliff.

The Wall Street Journal report that several CEOs at its conference claimed this uncertainty has prompted them to make contingency plans for layoffs and prepare for a sharp economic contraction, which is holding back investment. You know that’s an excuse.

Business leaders and policy makers have known of the fiscal cliff since it was created last year as part of the deal to raise the debt ceiling. But few paid much attention to it because they were focused on the presidential race. "The narrative of the country was completely dominated by the election, and that's changing currently," said Stephen Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackstone Group., a private-equity firm.

Our take: Congress will likely extend all expiring tax cuts for at least another year and make gradual plans to shore up the deficit and even out the tax pain faced by businesses and individuals of all income levels.

The long-term U.S. deficit must be addressed, Seifi Ghasemi, CEO of Rockwood Holdings told the Journal, but, "I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep if we have negative growth for one quarter in order to solve the longer-term problem."

Conclusion

We’re sleeping OK as well. Maybe not all the way through the night, but at least we’re getting some rest. We’re hitting it hard right now—not waiting till 2013 to find out what may or may not happen. We suggest you do the same.

TAGS: Hurricane Sandy, fiscal cliff, Institute of Supply Management, business confidence index, Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone Group, Seifi Ghasemi, Rockwood Holdings

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Wait-Till-After-the-Election Excuse No Longer Valid

Wait-Till-After-the-Election Excuse No Longer Valid
Time to start making (and sticking with) decisions

The elections are over….thank God. Within the next 24 hours we’ll finally get a break from those inane political ads and we’ll most likely found out who the new President is. And now what excuse will you use for procrastinating about your next big hire or capital expenditure? C’mon already.

As we’ve said many times before, campaign promises aren’t legally binding and Congress isn’t on commission and doesn’t have specific deliverables to hit like the rest of us. The election process shouldn’t be taken lightly, but you’re mostly voting on faith…not on hard facts.

Sure, there are significant differences between the two main political parties in this country. But either way, you can be sure we’ll remain a democracy. Either way, you can be sure we’ll be in a slow growth economy for the foreseeable future (emphasis on growth, rather than on slow). Either way your corporate and personal taxes are likely to go up. Either way, major cities in the Northeast will be untangling a hornet’s nest of legal, ethical and financial issues from last week’s storms for months to come.

As for the “fiscal cliff” looming on January 1, don’t expect a series of all-nighters from Congress to solve it in late December. Expect a series of strategic delays and stalling tactics. Again, not much will change for your business and your portfolio exactly on New Year’s Day 2013.

If that’s what’s really keeping you up at night then things won’t really get scary until Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke likely steps down from his term in 2014 regardless of who wins today’s election.

So here’s the deal. We have 55 days left in 2012—about 40 quality work days left. That’s practically half of a fiscal quarter. Be bold and be smart, but by god make some decisions or get the heck out of the way for those who can make decisions.

The on-ramp’s going to be a lot more crowded than the off-ramp in 2013. You better start making some media buys while you can still get quality audiences at a fair price. You better start hiring good people while you still can and you better start filling up that product pipeline fast.

The only certainty for next year is that the pace of business will never be faster and the competition for market share will never be more cut-throat.

Are you ready to get back in the game?
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Mobile Video Viewers Watch 7 Minutes Daily; 3.5 Hours a  Month 

But B2B marketers who take the cheap route to meeting demand will ultimately get burned

If you think mobile video and advertising is growing fast, you’re not alone. The Interactive Advertising Bureau said last week that mobile advertising had nearly doubled in the first half of the year to $1.2 billion, while eMarketer has said that half of smartphone users watch video at least once a month on their phones. Plus, research from Cisco, the networking giant, said that two-thirds of the world's mobile data traffic will be video by 2016. In other words, the average device owner is watching about seven minutes per day according to NPD Group  or about 10 minutes per watching videos on their phone, according to Nielsen’s findings.

Quality vs. Quantity

Unfortunately for most B2B marketers, you can’t get by with the cheap, homemade variety of video that still dominates YouTube and America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Online video has become critical to corporate Web pages, helping with search indexing and giving you type of visual impact that customers and prospects demand. Beyond having a respectable corporate web presence, virtually every brand needs a Facebook page--and video helps with page ranking there as well. You also need an official presence on YouTube.

Broadcast-quality video used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce. Now thanks to technological advances in capturing, editing and streaming video, you can produce ALMOST the same quality for a lot less. But it’s still not dirt cheap. See our web site home page if you’d like high quality without high prices. Do we offer it dirt cheap? No. But, you’ll be surprised what you can get if you can commit some time and resources to our vision of B2B video.

As Neil Perry noted last week in Online Video Insider, “Marketers are simply not interested or able to spend $300,000+ on a single commercial spot and still meet their video needs when considering the required quantity and quality. Whatever the case, marketers who can find or devise the most creative solutions will be the ones who will win for their brands in the coming years.”


Macro View

The median price for a home resale rose 11.3 percent from a year earlier. Experts say the rise in prices appears to be a result of tight inventories and a downward trend in foreclosure sales. More importantly, the nation’s stock of existing homes sale fell 3.3 percent last month to 2.3 million units. At this rate, housing experts say inventories would be exhausted in 5.9 months, the lowest rates since March 2006 accord to National Association of Realtors.

You might also be surprised to learn that U.S. Stocks are outperforming all other major asset classes. According to Bloomberg data, for the first time since 1995 U.S. equities are a better investment than Treasuries, corporate bonds, commodities, the dollar and equities in Asia and Europe.

“For all the concern about unemployment and manufacturing growth, the best assets this year remain American companies after unprecedented steps by the Federal Reserve to support growth. Forecasts for a rebound in the U.S. economy and the central bank’s pledge to keep interest rates near zero for years convinced bulls the S&P 500 will extend gains. Bears say political gridlock will drag down prices after monetary stimulus wears off.”  

Conclusion

Whether your producing high quality video for your organization, entering the online advertising fray or deciding which asset class to invest in for your company or your personal retirement account, be smart,  but don’t be cheap. In the long-term, you always get what you pay for.

TAGS: Online and mobile video advertising growing, Bloomberg data, US stocks outpaces other asset classes, housing prices gain, Neil Perry, Online Video Advertiser, NPD Group, Cicso, Interactive Advertising Bureau, National Association of Realtors


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