Survey shows 81 percent of moms respond positively to brands when offered rewards; more than one-third are motivated by non-financial rewards such as elite status or early access to products

Palo Alto, Calif. – Loyalty and engagement platform PunchTab today shared results of a survey of over 600 moms that offers new insights into what works to motivate engagement and purchase from this high-value audience segment.  The data shows that 81 percent of moms will engage more with a brand when offered some type of reward, and that rewards can work to increase a brand’s social following, boost positive word-of-mouth and to driving more sales.  The study also reveals that some non-financial incentives – such as elite status or early access to products – can be very effective behavior motivators.

“Moms are the most critical demographic segment for many brands. They are the primary decision makers when it comes to household purchases and influence $2.4 trillion in spend every year.  Everyone wants to engage this audience segment.  The question is: what motivates moms to take action?” said Angela Sanfilippo, CMO at PunchTab.  “This study offers definitive evidence that providing moms with the right incentives can boost word-of-mouth and drive sales across a company’s entire brand portfolio.”

Key findings of the survey include:

1. Moms will engage more with a brand when offered a reward.

PunchTab’s survey shows that 81 percent of moms will engage more with a brand when a reward is in place.  Rewards are most effective at driving participation in surveys and polls, with 72 percent saying they would take a survey or poll if provided with an incentive.  Rewards can also help with building a customer database: 59 percent of respondents say they would sign up for regular email updates when a reward is offered, and 41 percent say they would share personal details and purchase behavior.

PunchTab data also shows that rewards can be effective at driving word-of-mouth amongst moms.  According to the study, 41 percent of moms will post a review when offered a reward, and 50 percent of moms on Facebook say they would be willing to share brand content on Facebook. Increasing positive word-of-mouth through rewards can lead to more sales: studies show that more than half of moms rely significantly on the online recommendations when making purchase decisions.

2. Rewarding moms for following your brand on social channels can boost sales.

The study shows that rewards can motivate moms to follow a brand on social channels.  Over half (57 percent) of moms on Facebook say they will “Like” a brand’s page on Facebook when offered a reward; 50 percent of moms will follow a brand on Pinterest and 52 percent of moms will follow a brand on Twitter when offered a reward.

Social followers will take a number of other social actions to promote your brand when incentivized. 92 percent of moms who say they would be willing to “Like” a brand on Facebook when offered a reward, say they would also be more likely to share brand content, post reviews or purchase additional brand products if incentivized.  This number jumps to 98 percent for Twitter and 93 percent for Pinterest.

3. Moms are motivated by more than just financial rewards.

The study shows that while financial rewards are highly valued by moms, the VIP treatment can also be a strong motivator.  67 percent of respondents say they would be interested in receiving perks associated with elite status, such as free shipping or branded merchandise.  More than one-third of moms indicate they would value incentives that offered them exclusive access to a brand, such as being able to buy new products ahead of the general public (39 percent), being able to influence a brand’s future products (38 percent) or getting advanced notification of new products (36 percent).

When it comes to financial rewards, some are more highly valued than others.  Free products and services from the brand are the most popular incentives, with 83 percent of respondents saying these would be effective motivators, followed closely by receiving gift cards from popular retailers (82 percent).  Discounts and coupons are also valued by moms, with 60 percent saying they would take an action in return for a discount or coupon to use on the future purchase of a brand product.

Doing good is also a strong motivator, with 58 percent of moms saying that they would want a brand to make a donation to charity on their behalf as a reward.

While gamification strategies such as leaderboards and badges have historically been popular, the data shows these types of “social recognition” programs are the least effective at motivating behavior.  Only 6 percent say they would be interested in being rewarded with badges, and less than one-quarter (23 percent) says they would appreciate recognition for their contributions.

4. Umbrella loyalty programs can be effective at increasing trial and purchase.

While many companies focus their loyalty programs on single brands, the data shows parent companies of brands would be wise to consider developing umbrella loyalty programs that take advantage of moms’ loyalty to specific brands to increase purchase of other products in the company’s portfolio. 73 percent of respondents say that they would be interested in a loyalty program for a parent company, with 59 percent of all moms in the study saying they would buy other products from the parent company if doing so resulted in more loyalty points.

More than half (52 percent) of moms would also be willing to take a social action in return for a discount or coupon to use on a future purchase from a brand’s broader family of products.

Almost half (46 percent) say they would switch from a competitor’s product to a brand or parent company product in order to earn loyalty points, assuming equivalent product quality.

Digitally Engaged Moms Research Methodology

The Digitally Engaged Moms study was conducted by PunchTab, a multi-channel loyalty and engagement platform that enables agencies, brands and enterprise organizations to incentivize user behavior. This survey was fielded online, between April 18, 2013, and April 22, 2013, and sent to a random sample of moms between the ages of 18-44. There were 647 total responses from moms across the United States. 54% percent of respondents were moms who also work full-time outside of the home, with another 18% also working part-time outside of the home. The household income of 57% of respondents was greater than $50,000, with 21% between $25,000 and $50,000 and 22% less than $25,000. PunchTab asked what channels moms use, what actions they would take in exchange for earning loyalty points, and what rewards they would like to receive for points earned in the program. In addition, PunchTab combined secondary research from multiple sources around channel usage and various motivations for interacting with brands.

About PunchTab, Inc.

Founded in January 2011, PunchTab is a multi-channel loyalty and engagement platform that enables agencies, brands and enterprise organizations to incentivize user behavior and drive business success. PunchTab’s customers use the company’s flexible solutions to deepen audience engagement and build awareness by leveraging everything from social sharing and UGC and awareness campaigns to sophisticated B2E and B2B programs.  PunchTab offers both an out-of-the-box product and a fully customizable, white-labeled solution that can reward any action with virtual, social and real-world rewards.  For more information, please visit www.punchtab.com.

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Ability to post and engage directly from Topsy Pro lets users break down the barriers between analysis and action and capitalize on real-time marketing opportunities; from reacting to emerging PR crises to promoting the most viral content

SAN FRANCISCO – Topsy, the real-time social analytics company, today announced that users can now act immediately on insights they uncover in their analysis by engaging directly with their audience through Topsy Pro.

Topsy Pro already gives users the best way to spot trends, track sentiment, and identify key influencers relevant to their business; Topsy’s new functionality allows users to also reply, retweet or favorite key Tweets surfaced in an analysis. Topsy Pro customers can use these features to react in seconds to emerging PR crises, find and promote the most viral content, identify and engage with local customers and generally be one click away from taking action the minute they see an opportunity.

Topsy Pro customers will now be able to:

•          React immediately to a PR crisis. Customers can already monitor for negative tweets with live statistics, and analyze how much traction a crisis is getting; now, they can engage and reply directly to influencers to mitigate the crisis.
•          Deal with customer service issues faster. As customers track negative tweets about their brands and products, and sort by relevance to surface the most important tweets, they can now respond quickly to the most pressing issues.
•          Amplify ad and marketing campaigns. Customers can watch conversations during an ad or marketing campaign and engage with audiences, helping an ongoing campaign gain more traction. They can quickly identify and retweet content from key influencers and other top content (tweets, links, photos and videos) being shared around the campaign.
•          Get in on the second-screen conversation. During a sporting event, TV show, conference or other live event, customers can use Topsy Pro to find and retweet content being shared by their audience.
•          Better engage audiences with viral content. Using discovery features, customers can create a broadened topic based on terms people are using for that area of interest, and engage and retweet around the broader terms in the topic.
•          Get ahead of the competition. With Topsy Pro, customers can also track a competitor’s conversation and quickly respond to negative tweets, offering up an alternative solution.

“I help to manage the digital profiles of celebrities with millions of followers like Jamie Foxx, John Stamos and Chris Bosh, and being equipped with the remarkable tools and information Topsy is rolling out can literally equal money and virtual power for my clients,” said Cat Schwartz, founder of The DGTL NTWRK. “Topsy not only helps me understand what the most influential people are saying, but also allows me to determine who my clients should engage with and when, and which words they should choose to assure they knock their messages out of the park. No joke, choosing the right 140 characters keeps my clients in movies, at the top of the charts, on Wheaties boxes and off of TMZ.”

“We are continuing to expand the functionality of Topsy Pro to better serve the needs of brands and media organizations as well as the agencies that serve them. For the first time, Topsy Pro customers will be able to not only monitor conversations and identify breaking news and trends, but also engage directly in these conversations right from their Topsy Pro dashboard,” said Jamie de Guerre, vice president of product at Topsy.  “This new functionality will help customers move seamlessly from social insights to business impact with a single click.”

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Hispanic-targeted marketing is the “Electric Car” of advertising challenges.

Like auto execs, we marketers will freely admit that our current methods are short-sighted (thanks, in our case, to a seismic shift in consumer demographics), and yet we’re hesitant to embark on a new, more future-focused path because the ROI picture remains cloudy.

Fortunately, there’s good news for fence-sitters: Hispanic-targeted marketing can be simple to implement, powerfully effective, and no more expensive than the status quo. We just haven’t been given the whole story… until now.

As with electric vehicles, there’s a host of misinformation about Hispanic consumers that’s been needlessly sabotaging our efforts. So to start, let’s debunk the three biggest misconceptions about the Hispanic market—and in the process, flesh out the contours of an “emissions free” Hispanic-targeted marketing strategy:

Myth #1: Online marketing doesn’t work well with Hispanic consumers

Proponents of this myth would have you believe that digital marketing strategies (such as Web marketing and mobile advertising) are less effective with Hispanic consumers than other demographics, when in reality the opposite is true.

On average, Hispanic Internet users spend 40% more time online than other users, and generate 50% more page views. In mobile, the numbers are even more striking: 45% of U.S. Hispanic mobile users have smartphones, compared with only 34% of the general U.S. market. Furthermore, a full 30% of U.S. Hispanics use their mobile phones as their primary access to the internet.

Hence, far from abandoning high-tech marketing methods like mobile, we should be expanding our digital efforts when targeting the growing U.S. Hispanic demographic.

Myth #2: Hispanic consumers don’t spend as much money as other demographics

This myth conveniently ignores the fact that U.S. Hispanics spent over $1T in 2011, at a growth rate twice as fast as the general economy’s. In addition, U.S. Hispanics spend, on average, more dollars than non-Hispanics on mobile products and services, while netting higher CPMs (Costs per Thousand Impressions) in online search marketing campaigns—which proves they’re more valuable than average consumers when viewing highly targeted communications.

Not only are Hispanics pouring into the middle class (e.g., 25% of the 2012 freshman college class was Hispanic), they’re quickly becoming the fastest growing and most coveted consumer group in the U.S.

As the coveted “new” customers, clients, and patients for local merchants and service providers, U.S. Hispanics represent the premier revenue growth opportunity for local businesses and national brands alike.

In other words, now is the time to be targeting this lucrative market effectively.

Myth #3: Hispanic-targeted content means regular content in Spanish

While it’s true that 80% of U.S. Hispanics still speak Spanish at home, successive generations are increasingly willing to consume Hispanic-targeted content in English.

So what do we mean by “Hispanic-targeted content”? Despite the above myth, translating content into Spanish does not make it Hispanic-targeted. Rather, both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking Hispanics want unique content with true cultural relevance.

Ultimately, this involves producing new, tailored content for Hispanic audiences, and then delivering that content in a fully bilingual fashion to satisfy both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking consumers.

Life After Myth

Now that we know some traps to avoid, let’s focus on the positive:

Because U.S. Hispanic consumers are more receptive than other demographics to social media marketing, “intent-based” inventory marketing, and especially targeted communications—there’s an enormous opportunity for advertisers to engage with Hispanic audiences in ways that maximize receptivity and ROI.

National advertisers like WalMart, 7-11, Tide and H&R Block are leading the charge on capturing and influencing U.S. Hispanic consumers. Meanwhile, online search destinations like YaSabe have found terrific receptivity from local businesses looking to target Hispanic consumers.

With more than 52 million Hispanics in the United States (and growing by more than 1M per year), the demographic shift is far too massive and widespread to treat with a status quo response. These incredibly desirable consumers account for 80% of U.S. population growth. (And a growing population coupled with rising purchasing power equals huge market opportunity.)

But don’t worry: Hispanic-targeted marketing doesn’t have to mean spending more—just spending more intelligently.

The key is focus—direct and strategic targeting. Digital marketing, search marketing, content marketing—these tactics all still apply. They just need to be tailored to meet the needs and preferences of a new market.

In other words: You don’t have to treat Hispanic consumers differently. You just have to treat them personally.

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SARASOTA, Fla. - eCampaignPro, the leading provider of self-service real estate email flyers and email marketing products for real estate professionals recently released a comprehensive report of marketing trends and predictions for real estate industry professionals after surveying thousands of its past and current customers in September 2012.

“Ultimately, these results will inform our future endeavors here at eCampaignPro.”

eCampaignPro, who has been serving real estate professionals for the last decade, polled their valuable customer base to gather insight on marketing trends, past and present. The survey, conducted in the fall of 2012, asked clients about all types of marketing, online and offline, to see what forms were favored by the surveyed population. The data was then analyzed and compiled into a report outlining marketing trends based on the responses from brokers, agents, mortgage lenders and service providers to the industry including home inspectors and stagers.

“It was important for us to get a real time view of marketing trends,” says Robert Dodd, founder of XL Technologies, the parent company of eCampaignPro. “What we found is that the way we communicate is changing. Digital options are increasingly popular and real estate professionals are not afraid to try new things.”

In terms of most used marketing tools used within the last six months of the surveyed population, eCampaignPro discovered email campaigns, social media (Facebook, Twitter), promotional mailers and featured listings to be the most popular. Real estate professionals listed networking, email campaigns and online featured listings as the most effective tools for marketing while print listings and print advertising were found to be the least effective, according to the survey results.

“This report not only helps our customers learn about what works in terms of real estate marketing, but it allows us to interact with this feedback,” says Dodd. “Ultimately, these results will inform our future endeavors here at eCampaignPro.”

Real estate professionals cited new frontiers to try in 2013 including use of the social video tool, YouTube, and digital networking through Facebook and blogging.

The complete findings have been published in a comprehensive 13-page report which eCampaignPro has made available in a downloadable PDF. The report can be found on eCampaignPro’s website for real estate professionals, here.

About XL Technologies

Based in Sarasota, Florida, XL Technologies, LLC is a privately held company founded in 2001 by a team of highly experienced professionals with backgrounds in sales, marketing, technology, finance and real estate. Having developed some of the world’s most advanced web-based applications, we continually expand our line of products and services while improving our highly regarded “Uncompromising Support”- a term we coined to describe our unique level of technical and customer support.

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SEATTLE, WA - Mixpo, the leading cloud-based video marketing platform, today announced that Salim Hemdani has joined Mixpo in a newly created position of Vice President of Software Development. Salim brings over 15 years of experience in software development, digital marketing, and platform strategy and will be focused on driving innovative and market-driven solutions for Mixpo’s core software development initiatives.

CEO Anupam Gupta says, “Salim’s wealth of experience and industry knowledge will help drive innovation of our core software platform to make advanced technology simple and accessible to our customers and partners. Salim will play a key role in driving rich cross-screen solutions for agencies and publishers, based on the latest software technologies, digital experiences, and client needs.”

Before joining Mixpo, Salim was CTO of Avalara and spent over eight years developing and deploying cutting edge digital experiences at Razorfish. At Razorfish he drove innovative tech-driven marketing solutions for Fortune 500 brands, working with clients including Microsoft, AT&T, Nike, DELL, Nintendo, Best Buy, MillerCoors, Costco and Levi. Salim managed the Creative, UX, Delivery and Technology disciplines for the Microsoft business and also acted as executive sponsor for all digital experiences executed by his team. He holds an Executive MBA from the University of Washington Foster School of Business and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in India.

Salim’s mantra is simple: engineering enables experiences. He excels in producing digital experiences unconstrained by technological limitations, fostering holistic solutions that align with customer and brand needs, and driving product and engineering teams to solve hard client problems through a unique blend of expertise, adaptability, and agility.

“Video advertising is a rapidly growing market and I am very excited to be part of the growing Mixpo team,” says Salim. “I am a technologist at heart with a passion to drive business and I hope to be part of the Mixpo team that will take our products to the next level. Mixpo provides an easy, scalable and fast self-serve platform which builds cross-screen video experiences that grow our client’s businesses.”

To learn more about Mixpo, please visit: http://www.mixpo.com/

About Mixpo
Mixpo is a cloud-based video marketing and analytics platform. We help media companies efficiently build differentiated cross-screen video ad products that command a premium. We also help brand marketers leverage any form or source of video content to maximize brand impact across screens and gain meaningful performance insights. Mixpo’s platform delivers the broadest and deepest array of video engagement reports available so media companies and brand advertisers can readily plan and act on use of online video with informed confidence. In 2013, we were selected by Forbes as one of America’s Most Promising Companies.

Mixpo, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Seattle, with offices in New York, Boston, and Victoria BC.

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Survey Finds Marketers See Online Personalization as Vital for Business Performance, but Nearly Three-Quarters of Marketers Don’t Know Where to Start or How to Approach

PHILADELPHIA – Providing personalized online customer experiences is seen as vital for business performance but most marketers are stuck in the slow lane when it comes to delivering. This was among the key findings in “The Realities of Online Personalization,” a new independent survey conducted by Econsultancy in association with Monetate, which was released today.

In the survey of more than 1,100 digital and ecommerce professionals working for brands and agencies, 94 percent of companies agreed that “personalization of the web experience is critical to current and future success.” Companies that reported personalizing web experiences and have performance metrics in place, on average, achieved a sales uplift of 19 percent, which typically translates into hundreds of millions of dollars in additional sales for online businesses.

This assessment maps with the business success of Monetate customers, which achieved a 20 percent ecommerce revenue increase from Q4 2011 to Q4 2012, as compared to an average increase of 15 percent gained by other U.S. ecommerce sites.

(download the complete personalization survey report here)

However, despite widespread agreement on the benefits of personalization, 56 percent of the companies surveyed said they are not personalizing the web experience for visitors. 72 percent of marketers reported they understand the importance of personalization, but don’t know where to start or how to approach it.

“It is quite clear that personalization is seen as mission critical to the success of online business but too many organizations have yet to implement a well thought-out and tested approach,” said Linus Gregoriadis, Research Director at Econsultancy. “Those companies focused on delivering personalized customer experiences are realizing great returns in online sales and key website performance metrics.”

Technology and Data Present Challenges for Companies

The survey examined the top issues driving online personalization, the tactics and types of data being used to tailor online customer experiences, and the barriers to success. Other key findings include:

• Companies Held Back by Technology. The two most significant barriers to adopting or improving website personalization are technology related – with just under half of companies surveyed saying IT roadblocks (47 percent) and legacy technology (46 percent) are “major barriers.” According to 32 percent of organizations, lack of technology was the main obstacle preventing them from using “real-time onsite behavior to create personalized experiences.”

• Ability to Turn Data into Action Falling Short. Data – such as a consumer’s location, device and browser – are essential to tailor and personalize customer web experiences. Despite the advantages of leveraging data sources, 72 percent of client-side organizations and 52 percent of agencies don’t use real-time onsite behavior to create personalized website experiences. With the main obstacles identified as lack of technology, lack of resources and “don’t know where to start.”

• Smartphones and Tablets too Often Overlooked. The survey uncovered a desktop bias related to online personalization, with 43 percent of companies delivering personalized desktop experiences and another 40 percent planning to do so in the next 12 months. Only 14 percent of in-house marketers indicated they are using tablets to deliver personalized experiences, with a similar proportion (13 percent) personalizing on mobile phones.

• Use of Tactics and Testing Limited. When asked which attributes are considered when creating personalized web experiences, on-site behavior (30 percent) and inbound marketing channels or traffic sources (29 percent) were the top selections – followed by geography (23 percent). Digital marketing tactics most widely used were product recommendations (42 percent), on-site search results (40 percent) and images or text (40 percent). More than half (57 percent) of companies surveyed are not running any A/B or multivariate tests.

“The digital experiences that companies present to customers have become, in most cases, the face of the brand,” said John Healy, Monetate Chief Operating Officer. “The survey results overwhelmingly reveal marketers and agencies expect personalization to improve both the customer experience and business performance.   Our customers in fact have proved that this is not just theory, as brands that use Monetate to personalize their websites realized a revenue increase that was 33 percent higher than the U.S. ecommerce industry average from Q4 2011 to Q4 2012.”

About Monetate

Monetate empowers marketers to leverage Big Data to create more personalized and engaging online customer experiences. By providing more relevant web interactions, leading brands are able to anticipate and react to consumer preferences to generate stronger customer relationships and significantly increase profits.

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