Month: December 2015

Five Rules for Content Marketers in 2016

thumb-adobe-state-contentFrom our trusted partner Adobe, Get Elastic is pleased to bring you this insightful post from Adobe’s just-released digital marketing report the “State of Content: Rules of Engagement for 2016″.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: 2016 planning. With the New Year around the corner, we know content marketers are looking for insights and trends that will shape the year ahead and help their content stand out.

On Dec. 14, we released findings from one of the industry’s largest and broadest global surveys of consumer views on digital content. We surveyed more than 12,000 consumers across six countries to get a deeper understanding of evolving consumer expectations and how they are fueling marketers’ challenge. The report, titled “State of Content: Rules of Engagement for 2016” sheds light on five rules for content marketers to follow in optimizing engagement with their target audiences.

Design for the Multiscreen Reality
Consumers report using five different devices and, on average, 83 percent use 2.23 devices at the same time. While the majority of consumers report feeling good about it (81 percent entertained, 80 percent connected, 76 percent productive), nearly half (47 percent) say they are distracted. As attention spans shrink, good design and optimization are paramount. Consumers ranked display (65 percent) as the most important aspect when it comes to content experience in their personal life, and 54 percent listed overall good design, such as appealing layout and photography as important. Content marketers can’t attempt to “get away with” a one-size-fits all approach to content distribution: content must be well-designed and optimized for each viewing device.

Don’t Fall Victim to #TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read)
Consumers report lower patience for sub-par content experiences – with length a key factor. Nearly 9 out of 10 digital device users would switch devices or stop viewing content altogether if it fails to meet their quality, length and formatting expectations. Sixty seven percent of consumers would stop engaging if content is too long, and 79 percent would do the same if the content doesn’t display well on their device. Marketers need to deliver content in the right format, get to the point and optimize or consumers might say #unsubscribe.

Humor Makes Brands More Relatable
Seventy percent of global consumers agree that humor makes companies more relatable, but just 14 percent rate company-created content as entertaining. Globally, “making people laugh” was identified as the top personal motivator for sharing content. Content marketers should work to create authentic activations that entertain to help drive brand engagement.

In Our Relationships We Trust
In an era of high skepticism, authenticity and trust are critical. Consumers are more likely to engage with content they trust, but many are highly skeptical of most content they view online: 50 percent of consumers question whether negative comments or reviews have been removed, 49 percent wonder if an author was paid or incented to write a positive review, and 48 percent question whether a news article is biased. However, consumer trust in content increases as their relationship with the source grows stronger. Only 23 percent of consumers trust content from companies whose products they don’t buy, but if the source is a company from whom they do purchase products and have a relationship, that number nearly doubles to 43 percent. Brands need to work on building trusted relationships with their audience, which includes disclosing any endorsements, sponsorships and affiliations.

Don’t Show Up Uninvited
The majority of consumers understand the value of predictive recommendations, with 73 percent noting they are willing to share at least one piece of information about themselves and 71 percent reporting they are open to predictive recommendations from brands based on past behavior. Among consumers not willing to share their information, 40 percent believe companies could do something to ease their concern and 25 percent suggested “asking permission to access data” would make them more comfortable. This maps back to trust; consumers are most comfortable sharing information with brands they trust.

In addition to these insights shaping content marketing in 2016, the study also unveiled interesting findings about online engagement and behavior. For instance, there’s a rising fear of digital footprints. Twenty-six percent of U.S. consumers have cleared their browser history to hide content they viewed from a friend or loved one, and 17 percent have hid or embellished the truth about the content they regularly consume.

These results, as well as insights on millennial attitudes about content, can be found via the full report.

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This blog post originally appeared on Adobe’s Digital Marketing blog at http://ift.tt/1Qi2sy2. Written by Loni Stark, Senior Director, Strategy & Product Marketing, Adobe. Reprinted with permission.

Find out more about Elastic Path Commerce for Adobe Marketing Cloud, the world’s best solution for integrating ecommerce with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), at http://ift.tt/NWpa0H

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ICF Interactive’s 10 for ’16: The Ins and Outs on eCommerce, the Digital Transformation, and Customer Experience Management

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Fred Faulkner, Marketing Director at ICF Interactive, was recently interviewed for CMSWire’s Discussion Point: What’s on Your 2016 Digital Radar? while at Gilbane Conference. Essentially, he states that while brands will need to invest in marketing, experience, and content management technology platforms, digital success will be determined by the ways in which an organization staffs and trains its teams.

That’s our #1 prediction for 2016. Read on for nine more predictions, trends, and ways to revolutionize engagements for the new realities of the New Year.

2. IN: The re-introduction of the human element across the customer journey.
Automated process implementations, technology investments, and digital solution development have been of the highest priority, commanding all-hands-on-deck attention and healthy budgets. While we don’t see these aspects of evolutionary business practices abating anytime soon, we suspect that in order for brands to bridge the gap between omnichannel strategy and flawless execution, we’ll start to see more person-to-person interactions.

3. OUT: Piecemeal and legacy systems.
IN: Holistic and strategic digital ecosystem applications.
Many organizations have benefitted from extending existing technology platforms and applications to solve new business challenges brought about by the constantly-connected consumer. However, as customer expectations have shifted with a speed not previously seen, especially with regard to mobile and commerce (what’s in stock, where’s my order, how do I contact, and so forth), we’re beginning to see that legacy technologies have been stretched to their limits. Moreover, it’s no longer acceptable to architect a solution or module that isn’t wholly integrated within the entire digital landscape – brands will need to carefully evaluate every existing technology, taking an honest approach to whether or not it serves today’s goals, and if it can manage those of tomorrow.

4. IN: Delivery within contextual needs
Both B2B and B2C brands are getting better at determining when and where customers need information, thanks to a wealth of analytics and customer experience management platforms that allow for targeting and personalization based on profiles and purchase history. This should continue on an upward trend so long as organizations continue to invest in emerging technologies – such as geolocational functionality, wearables, and other internet-enabled devices.

5. (Potentially) OUT with Big Box and IN with Boutique.
If big box retailers can’t figure out how to compete with smaller shops – those offering a high level of personalization, time-sensitive email communications, engaging social media interactions, and great customer service – 2016 might be the year we see luxury experiences replace the convenience of the all-in-one store.

6. IN: Responsible, smart social media campaigns.
Without naming [brand] names, we can all think of at least one brand who’s dropped the social media ball in the past year. Whether it was blamed on the intern, the poor campaign design, the unfortunately coincidental timing relative to a crisis, or the lack of customer service response following an event such as a site crash or failed flash sale, there have been a few from which we can all look and learn. Because social media platforms are effective engagement channels used by one of the biggest buying audiences of our time (looking at you, millennials), we’re thinking we’ll see social media interactions as larger, more well-thought-out marketing and sales tactics in 2016.

7. OUT: Waiting (In line, on the phone, for a delivery, for information).
The age of instantaneous fulfillment is upon us – from drones that deliver to streaming media, social media channels as 24/7 customer service centers, to same-day delivery and scheduling functions that allow that consumer to dictate how, when, and where he or she interacts with a brand. Speed is nothing new, but we think a few more folks will lose a few more reasons to be late to work in the morning.

8. IN: The Internet of Everything.
It’s being touted as the Internet of Things (IoT), but why stop with things? We see software application development and Internet connectivity being leveraged in as many places as one can imagine. Our bet? 2016 will be the year in which integrated products (smart [fill-in-the-blank]s) will surge in popularity, availability, and mass usefulness (sorry, Google Glass).

9. IN: Meaningful rewards, offers, and loyalty programs.
Competition is fierce among retailers and service providers. Purchasing preferences definitely vary across generations, but who doesn’t like an incentive? However, unlike blanket coupon offers or a system in which a customer is required to accumulate points for dollars, customer data allows brands to create highly personalized packages – and unlike that krazy kash that you have to remember to use before the expiration date or points that are only redeemable with a card, brands will start regularly sending offers straight to the inbox, ones that can be instantaneously acquired with a click.

10. IN: Innovation.
2016 will be the year of the monkey – considered clever and swift. 2016 is also a leap year, so if the stars align, we’re expecting to see some incredible strides in both what we’re already in the midst of, such as the digital transformation, as well as product enhancements, real-world uses for new applications, and decisions driven by the end-user.

logo-icfICF Interactive is a full-service interactive agency, offering multi-channel enablement, implementation, and digital marketing solutions. They excel in strategy and program management, business intelligence and process improvement, UX, visual design, CMS, portal solutions, enterprise search, CRM, and service-oriented architecture. Partnered with Adobe, SiteCore, Elastic Path, Red Hat, and Amazon Web Services, ICF Interactive implements custom, scalable enterprise hosting and WCM for Fortune 500 companies across platforms, across the globe.

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Cracking Mobile Commerce Myths

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In addition to driving half of all ecommerce traffic, mobile accounted for 30 percent of all US retail ecommerce sales in a recent three-month period. For some retailers, mobile accounted for as much as 40 percent.

What’s more, approximately 40 percent of all digital sales were “cross-device” – meaning consumers used more than one device in the purchase journey.

In this new post, we’ll crack some common mobile commerce myths, discuss the pros and cons of different mobile site design methodologies, and leave you with some tips for making the most of mobile context.

Myth: Mobile is a separate channel
Truth: Shoppers don’t think in terms of channels. They think of “the Web” and use their preferred device of the moment. Mobile is a key player in the customer journey. “Multi-screening,” or using multiple devices to research, evaluate, and complete a purchase is common. Criteo reports 68 percent of shoppers use multiple devices to purchase a product at least half of the times they shop online.

Mobile devices also serve as a bridge between digital and physical, connecting consumers to the content, pricing information, and offers that influence their purchase decisions.

Marketers that don’t recognize mobile’s role in the overall customer journey – both digital and physical – may erroneously believe mobile is its own channel, and silo people, technology, and budget.

Myth: Mobile is an extension of ecommerce
Truth: Some see mobile and desktop as a unified digital front, while others consider the mobile experience as just a scaled-down version of the desktop experience. This often leads to mobile sites that are not designed to serve the unique navigational, informational, and functional needs of the mobile context.

In such organizations, mobile technology, design, and maintenance may even be outsourced, further siloing mobile and Web teams, and disconnecting the customer experience. For example, changes to the desktop site may not update to mobile in real-time.

Myth: Mobile is about Millennials
Truth: Chances are you know (or are) a Millennial that’s glued to his or her smartphone at all times. While Millennials have grown up with technology, they’re not the only mobile users. Boomers and seniors are mobile shoppers, too, with one in four mobile shoppers over the age of 55 (proportional to their share of the US population). The fastest growing cohort of mobile users is age 46-54. Businesses that believe that mobile is only for the Forever 21s, Starbucks, and Apples of the world, but not for their target age demographic, are misinformed.

Myth: “Tablets are like smartphones” or “Tablets are like desktop”
Truth: Tablets are the in-between device – the mobile-ness and touch screen-convenience of a smartphone without the constraints of the tiny screen size. They render desktop versions of a regular site fairly well, so it’s tempting to make tablet design and optimization a low priority – or no priority at all.

Failure to appreciate that tablets are valuable and deliver their own experience (both in form factor and user context) leads to a lazy design strategy.

Myth: There’s still time
Truth: The fact that the majority of transactions still occur on desktop is not justification to delay investment in mobile development and optimization, and doesn’t mean the customer is satisfied with the status quo. And it’s somewhat alarming that, given the importance of mobile, 49 percent of businesses report they don’t understand how mobile fits into the customer journey (Econsultancy).

Mobile has arrived, and it’s only increasing in importance to the customer. Mobile strategy should be highly important to your online business, and appreciated as an integral part of both the digital and physical experience, while requiring its own consideration of mobile’s contextual role in the customer journey.

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