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[marcielh]

Last-Click Attribution, Can Marketers Rely On It To Find Out The Best Marketing Approach?

From the beginning, I will tell you my answer: last-click attribution can't be used as a tool to test which marketing approach is best. It’s because it sometimes doesn't reflect the right results. It can not put the consumer end of the purchase of this action to a specific marketing method.

Before we move on to why last-click attribution doesn't reflect the effectiveness of the marketing approach, we need to figure out what last-click attribution is. Last click attribution is used to calculate the effectiveness of a marketing approach by using the platform on which the customer last made the purchase, or through which channel. 

For example, a customer sees a promotional message in an email and uses the email link to enter the site. And he successfully places an order on the website; then, the email marketing method will be counted as the best/effective part of the whole marketing process. By calculating the number of "last clicks" from customers in different channels, we can deduce which is the most effective way to promote this marketing method.

Why is this method considered inappropriate? There are two main reasons: first, how to judge consumers are really influenced by that marketing technique, such as after reading the email, he decided to buy. Second, how to judge which channel that influenced the consumers the most is to be able to feedback his real purchase process, that is, the process from knowing the product to finally taking action.

On the one hand, we cannot tell whether the purchase of the consumer is just because of that single marketing link/method. Imagine if you, as a consumer, want to buy a new laptop. Before you actually place an order, you will make all kinds of decisions and considerations. And what can affect those considerations and decisions is the marketing you've seen, regardless of the economics and other factors? 

You probably didn't plan to buy an Apple laptop at first. You start by searching a few laptops to find out which ones are right for you. That way, you'll see Apple advertising on Google: search rankings and product promotions. Walking down the road, you also see the advertisement for Apple products on the billboard. Next, if you want to learn more about the Mac Pro in detail, you visit its website and read review articles from other sites. On these review articles and video pages, you see display ads for Apple laptops again. 

Then you get a promotional email about an Apple product, but it's from Best Buy. You click on the link in the email and go to the Mac Pro purchase page at Best Buy. Finally, you place your order on this page. Your last click is Best Buy's email because you placed your order through the link in this email. So can we conclude that Best Buy's Email marketing was the most successful?

Obviously, we can't make such inferences, because your decision is influenced by various marketing methods. It's the combination of all of these marketing methods that affects your decisions step by step. In this case, we can't just take credit for email marketing.

On the other hand, the second reason is whether we can know which single marketing method has the greatest influence on customers' purchase intention. For example, did you think of other ways to purchase an Apple laptop before finally placing your order on Best Buy's website? 

When you go to an apple store and you go shopping, you want to order directly from the store. But the salesman tells you that the style you want is not in stock. You just want to buy it in other ways and get it as soon as possible. So you go to Apple's website, and you wish to place an order. However, the site tells you it takes 14 days. You don't want to wait that long, so you decide to buy somewhere else. 

That's when you see the Best Buy email. You just wanted to go to its website to see if the laptop was available and if it could be delivered faster. Best Buy tells you that the website is out of stock now, and it will take 14 days to mail. But now, if you place the order in advance, you will get a gift card worth $150. You end up placing an order on Best Buy's website.

So, in this case, can we attribute the credit for getting customers to place successful orders to the email promotion? What if there's no promotion in the email, and the consumer just sees the email and goes to the Best Buy website? What if the laptop had been available in an apple store and consumers had bought it in the store? What if the consumer visits Best Buy and finds there's no sale's promotion, and then returns to Apple's website and buys?

We need to comprehensively consider each marketing method, and combine all of them to influence consumers' purchasing ideas and decisions. After all, most people don't buy a Hermes bag just because of a marketing email. Also, most people don't decide to eat yogurt just because of Chobani's display ads.

[marcielh]

Automated Driving -- How Can It Relate to Digital Marketing?

First of all, my presentation starts with the current situation and future development direction of autonomous driving technology.

My innovative idea is to combine digital marketing with driverless technology to expand the way of electronic marketing. Driverless technology has been a hot topic since the last century. Although there is no fully driverless car until now, the maturity and application of this technology will be revolutionary in the near future. 

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the United States, there are five levels of automated driving technology: level 1 -- driver assistance, level 2 -- partial automation, level 3 -- conditional automation, level 4 -- high automation, level 5 -- full automation.

My project is mainly based on level 4 and level 5 autonomous driving technology. 

Level 4 "provisions": "An automated driving system (ADS) on the vehicle can itself perform all driving tasks and monitor the driving environment -- essentially, Do all the driving -- in certain circumstances. The human need not pay attention in those circumstances. "

Level 5 states, "An automated driving system (ADS) on the vehicle can do all the driving in all circumstances, the human occupants are just passengers and need never be involved in driving."

The fourth and fifth levels can be said to achieve our imagination of autonomous driving truly. These two levels of smart cars really enable people to rest and have fun in the car without worrying about driving.

Here will have some concept graphs of the automated vehicles to help me explain my ideas to the audience better.

While driving, people have a lot of free time and attention, so they will seek some entertainment and ways to kill time. In those days, the car was no longer equipped with simple entertainment facilities such as car TV and stereo, but a more advanced Omni-directional display screen loaded in the car, people would be surrounded by the display screen. As AR and VR technologies become more and more mature, people will eventually be able to experience different situations in cars. 

For example, people can sit in the car and listen to opera. The interior of the vehicle can simulate the scene of the opera house as if people are actually in the opera house. Another example is that people are bored in cars and can "wander" around museums. They can see, hear, and even touch/feel the objects in the museum.

Then I'll introduce by showing how digital marketing can be combined with this technology with some examples.

So how do you combine digital marketing with these services/entertainment?

One way is to place ads on the car's internal display, as you would on a TV or electronic screen. It's like when people watch a video, there's always an ad before the video starts.

The second is to work with these platforms/agencies/companies that offer entertainment services and recommend them in the car. For example, if I'm bored in the car and want to have some fun, the display in the vehicle can recommend a "visit" to the museum.

The third is to extend this in-car entertainment display technology to all automated vehicles. Just like the Android mobile phone system, although it is developed by Google, it is widely used in various mobile phone brands. In this way, digital marketing through on-board displays will not be limited by a single car brand.

Finally, my presentation will end with a question and answer session.

[marcielh]

What?!!! A World Without Cookie?

Not this cookie. It’s this one down here.

Although the professor mentioned in class that Google's decision to eliminate cookies would have a huge impact on the entire marketing industry, he did not discuss in depth why the existence of cookies is so important to the company and the marketing industry. Out of my own curiosity, I found an article dedicated to the disappearance of cookies.

The article is called "The future of identity in a cookieless world." https://searchengineland.com/the-future-of-identity-in-a-cookieless-world-332335 This article was just published this morning, and it's about the impact of the search engine Google changing to cookieless and what we as marketers should do. 

First of all, this article introduces the importance of identity to companies and the advertising industry. It then explains why the identity of the user/target consumer is so challenging to obtain. In fact, identity is not difficult to obtain, but how to obtain comprehensive identity information, including customer preferences, habits, health status, financial status, etc. 

The author points out three difficulties here: 

Firstly, each company has different requirements for user identity, so it is difficult to obtain the user information that you really need according to your company's requirements. 

Secondly, even if the company has acquired a more comprehensive user identity, there is an insurmountable gap between the identity and the real person, and it is difficult for the company to understand and establish a relationship with consumers through data. 

Thirdly, because people often share the same device, it is difficult to identify which consumer the identity data belongs to. If a company uses the "wrong" identity to understand its target consumer, it will most likely fail to establish a relationship with that consumer.

Moreover, the author puts forward five Suggestions to help marketers better acquire and establish customer identity. This includes getting the right information, gaining identity through multiple channels, giving customers good user experience, not touching the law, and connecting with real people.

Ultimately, companies want to acquire the identity of their target customers in order to understand better and serve them. This business is about real people. In order to establish a relationship with real human beings, the method of having to inquire about and even steal their information from various channels should be recognized as ineffective and easy to break the law. What we as marketers should really do is to improve the user experience and guide them to build a friendship with the brand through a series of means.

Getting a new customer is far more difficult than keeping an existing one. The fundamental question of how to retain a brand's existing customers should not be overlooked. Instead of spending a lot of energy and money on acquiring new customers, think about how you can keep existing ones.

[marcielh]

Is CVS’s Email Ugly?

Today I wanted to comment on an email I received from CVS. This email is about opening my annual membership notice, my rights, and some terms of service.

First, let me talk about the merits of this email. First, the subject line of the email is straight forward, without the fancy wording. Some people may think that the subject line of most emails is clear or that the subject line of the email is not important. However, I think the subject line of an email is more important than the content. I don't know how many people open every email and check it. Each time, I would select emails that might be of interest to me based on the subject line, and delete the rest. 

The subject line of an email is your first impression; It's like the first impression one person makes on another. If a person doesn't make a good impression on me the first time they meet, there's a good chance I won't want to know what's inside of them. However, the subject line of an email can make the difference between being read and going straight to the trash. 

The title of this email tells me two things: first, I successfully opened a membership; Second, the details of members' rights and restrictions are in the content. This transactional email got me to open it and read it carefully, and it is a successful email.

Secondly, the message was straightforward -- the key points were highlighted for the customer. Why do I sign up for CVS membership? For the equity it can give me, of course. Then, tell me directly what rights I can obtain.

The first part of the message told me the most important thing: I got a $10 reward. And I can use it immediately, so this email is very thoughtful to put the store link on the top and the store address query on the bottom. This is like telling you: is it convenient to buy online? B: that's all right. We have an offline address. You can buy it at our store. This way greatly promoted the desire of consumers to buy. Some people, like me, may not read on and go straight to shopping mode.

The second part of the email showed me the four most important benefits: free shipping for merchandise, 24/7 phone counseling for medications, free shipping for medications, and I ended up with a 20% discount. The font of the title of each benefit is bold, and the corresponding contact information or link is provided below. This design is very helpful to customers. This way, I don't have to look up contact information when I need help.

The third part is my account information, renewal date, and cancellation terms. Each title is highlighted, and red is used. It's compelling and easy to read on your phone. How to cancel the membership is also very clear.

Next, I'll start criticizing the transactional email. First, it is not qualified as a receipt. It's written in small letters in the account information section. The part of the receipt that is not listed separately is already making the customer uncomfortable. If I simply wanted to see if the correct amount was being charged, I would have a hard time finding that part. Because of the personal information involved, I will not put up the picture.  

Besides, the design of this email is too ugly for me. Although the subject colors of CVS are red and white, using white on a red background or highlighted red on a white background for the most important content of an email can feel old-fashioned. In fact, I feel that the CVS website also gives people an old feeling. I wish CVS would find a new design team and improve its overall user interface.

Moreover, CVS also has apps that can be downloaded. Honestly, if I hadn't searched the App Store, I wouldn't have known CVS had an App. But the email didn't mention it at all. Whether I read the email on my phone or on my computer, if I clicked on some link to make a purchase, they would take me to the interface of their website. This creates a very strange user experience. 

Some web page purchases on mobile phones are inconvenient, mainly because of the font size, the reduced search function, and the incongruity of input information with the screen. However, there is no such uncomfortable or even poor user experience on the APP. This email was read on the mobile phone without any mention of the app's download, which resulted in the non-cooperation between the email, website and app.

[marcielh]

The Keys to Chinese Market

As marketers, we not only need to be successful and skilled in marketing in the United States. We also need to have the knowledge and skills to market around the world. Because of the particularity of the Chinese network, many western digital marketing methods are not feasible in China. However, the Chinese market is so attractive to all industries abroad that many companies are looking for ways to enter and market there.

To successfully conduct marketing in China, marketers should learn and understand important Chinese applications and platforms, such as WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), Douyin, etc. Let's take WeChat and Little Red Book as examples.

WeChat and Little Red Book user experience, content, and operation are very different.

WeChat is a communication software/application like Messenger. According to a 2019 WeChat report, it has 1.1 billion monthly active users, and one of those features, called applets, has 300 million daily active users. With such a large user base, WeChat has been a major advertiser competition. However, there are no ads on the WeChat page. And the ads in moments (a feature that allows you to see a mini-facebook of your WeChat contacts) are actually quite recent. This kind of AD will appear between your contacts' posts. Please see the example below:

Moreover, another major place for advertising is in its "public account" function. Although this public can be called "public number," it does not mean that only by the official or company registration; Anyone can sign up. However, the content is available to the public by subscription. On your official account, you can write articles, just like a blog. And the bottom of the article and the middle of the content can be inserted panel advertising. This kind of article can also have the same function as content marketing. Please see the example below:

Xiao hong shu is more like the existence of Tumblr, but the audience and users of xiao hong book are more concentrated in the female group. Little Red Book started as an app for women to share their skincare, cosmetics, fashion, and other fields. Until now, beauty makeup is still one of the most important plates. The content of Little Red Book is dominated by "notes" (articles), but now also appears in the form of videos. 

There are several ways to market through this app.

First, insert graphic ads between notes and notes.

Second, these "notes" can also be used as content marketing.

Third, invite "web celebrity" (the owner of the note) to write "notes" for the product.

Fourth, promote your product on the recommendation page in the "mall" function.

Fifth, use the pop-up ads-- -- when you open the app, ads will show up firstly for a few seconds.

When it comes to marketing to women, such as skincare or beauty products, Little Red Book is an excellent platform.

[marcielh]

Clothing retailing needs new ways of presenting

Nowadays, online shopping has become the main way of shopping for many consumers. In order to provide better service to consumers, the websites selling clothes need to provide more display videos of clothes. Although some department stores' websites now offer videos to help customers learn about the style, texture, and what it looks like when you actually wear the cloth, most still use photos. Showing clothes to consumers via video has two benefits.

First, it can better show the effect of clothes. For example, this photo from the Neiman Marcus website. The photo shows a down folder, but because the clothes are all black and the background is all white, customers may not be able to see the details of the clothes. In fact, I didn't even know whether the reflection was due to the material, or the lighting from the photoshoot. 

In addition, although the color of the dress is not misleading to the customer, some clothes can be, especially if the color of the dress is subtle. Photos sometimes can mislead consumers because of color differences caused by lighting, camera branding, and other issues. However, if it is a video, it can show consumers the colors of clothes under different light sources.

Secondly, it can arouse consumers' desire to buy. The same picture from Neiman Marcus didn't make me want to buy it, because it looked so ordinary in the picture. This down jacket isn't cheap. It sells for $1,705. Getting consumers to spend the money on such an expensive down coat requires more display and excitement. Although the coat is simple and black, it can arouse people's interest and desire to buy if the video can show more combinations in different scenes.

Let's take a look at this screenshot from the website of Net A Porter. Also, a black coat, the site offers photos and a short video. After I read the display information about the clothes, I had the desire to buy them. 

Why is that? Because of the price? This coat is twice as expensive as the down jacket just now. Because of the design? It's just an ordinary wool coat, and other brands like Burberry have similar designs. It's because of the video. 

When I was leafing through the photos, I had no interest in the coat. In the video, the model shows the dress in motion, detailing the buttons and the shoulder and cuff design. When the model turned around, I could see the hem of the coat swinging with the movement. It is because of the cut. The whole thing is very "lively." I can imagine myself on my body, the wind blowing through my hem.

Besides, why do consumers visit websites and make online purchases? Because it's convenient. However, if the display photos, the sites provide, do not give enough information to the customers so that they have to go to the physical store to see the clothes in reality; then the photo marketing method is not in place or even not up to the expectation.

[marcielh]

New Use of Mobile Marketing

Do you have a hard time planning your trip? Do you have to go to great lengths to find out about tickets and hotels? Are you exhausted trying to get the best deal on your trip? Have you ever had a row with a fellow traveler over your itinerary? Have you ever been disappointed by a "five-star" attraction or restaurant?

Friends, we come to help you! We are masters of travel planning. We want to make every user satisfied. We are one of a kind personalized travel app.

Here's how we work. You tell us about your destination and your travel intentions, and we recommend and plan attractions, hotels, restaurants, and so on, which have been reviewed by many professional travelers. At the same time, we will prepare the whole journey for you, including the transportation you need to take in order to reach your destination. You can customize your trip through our websites or apps by using computers, phones, or pads. No matter when and where you temporarily change your goals, we can also replan your journey in time with just a few clicks from the mobile app.

No more painful trying to find a local restaurant in an unfamiliar place. No longer have to struggle to compare airline and hotel prices. No more getting lost because you don't know how to get around.

That's my prediction for mobile apps in the travel market in the future. In fact, we could make one of these apps ourselves, but make money by marketing it.

How do we, as marketers, market this?

First of all, regarding how to select scenic spots, hotels, restaurants, and air tickets into the app, we can charge certain fees to these places to boost their search rankings. In addition, we can recommend some places to users, and the places on our recommended list need to pay a certain fee.

Secondly, a specific bidding mode should be adopted when planning travel for users. For example, the same restaurant that bid higher will have a chance to be included in the planned route.

Thirdly, we can cooperate directly with airlines. If they provide relatively low ticket prices or special discounts for this app, we will promote the whole app of this airline.

Besides, we are quite strict about location screening, so users don't have to worry about being cheated.

These are just a few examples of marketing. There are more marketing options available for this travel app.

[marcielh]

Ulta Beauty’s Special Landing Page

One landing page I found was related to email promotions. A promotional email for Ulta beauty appeared in my mailbox on valentine's day. It says that I can get bonus points if I spend $50 over the next week. This kind of promotion is not uncommon, especially during some holidays. When you open your mailbox, you'll receive a ton of special promotions. This promotion is specifically for me, and I need to go to the landing page of Ulta by email and log in to the account to confirm the acceptance of the proposal. Here are a few screenshots of this process. You can see that I have accepted the offer and placed the order. So Ulta's targeted promotion was a success for me as a customer.

On the one hand, the landing page has three advantages. At first, the landing page is consistent with the marketing campaign in terms of color selection, color matching, and keywords. For example, the keyword in this email promotion is "Activate Now." And when you click on that sign, it takes you to a page that says the same thing. This allows consumers not to feel confused about whether they are on the right page.

Moreover, there are email promotions, which offer specific proposals, but the landing page is not directly about the offer but the front page of the official website. This is actually not very convenient for consumers because they need to spend some time to further find the specific offer page.

Furthermore, this particular promotion does not have a promotional code, which means there is no need to enter a promotional code manually. Imagine getting a promotional email with a long list of special promotional codes. You click into its sales page, add something to your shopping cart, and want to check out. At this point, it's impossible to remember what a long list of special promotional codes is. You need to go back to the email page and then go back and forth between the two pages to enter the code. For example, I received a promotional email from Staples. And it contains a really long code. 

However, Ulta's promotional code doesn't need to be entered manually. You just click "Activate Now," which automatically gives you extra credit when you check out. This saves customers a lot of time and efforts.

On the other hand, the landing page of this promotion also needs to be improved. Firstly, it does not say that this particular proposal can be used over and over again. This was important in furthering the campaign, but the people who designed the email page and the event landing page didn't realize it. Let's say a customer like me, I was interested in this offer, and I accepted it and placed an order online. I think this proposal is one-off, so the second order will not be placed during the activity. 

However, it wasn't until today that I clicked back into my account that I realized the offer could be used many times. For potential customers like me, who place multiple orders, this particular promotion was only half the battle. When a proposal can be used again and again, the designer must make sure that it is clearly marked and that it is prompted again on the landing page. Otherwise, customers won't double-check whether the offer is one-off.

In addition, if the target customer wants to accept the offer, they need to log in on the landing page before clicking to activate the offer. This actually increases the customer's workload, which is not conducive to attracting customers to accept the proposal and make a purchase. This is because any proposal that makes it difficult for customers or steps that prevent them from placing an order will make potential customers impatient and close the deal. Therefore, extra attention is needed when designing landing pages.

[marcielh]

Content Marketing: A content from a brand

The content I found was called "How Much Does Billboard Advertising Cost?"https://dashtwo.com/blog/how-much-does-billboard-advertising-cost/ I found this article when I was working on a project. I didn't know what this kind of content was, because although the content and data of the article looked professional, it was not from an academic website. This time I finally understand what category it belongs to -- content marketing. 

It is posted on a website called DASH TWO. This is DASH TWO site descriptions of their business: "we specialize in digital and out of home advertising, and we provide television, radio, print and creative services, too."

The main content of the article is to describe how much it would cost to choose outdoor billboard advertising. It gives you all the factors that affect prices, such as location, size, and form. This article gives all the reasons and Suggestions to influence the effectiveness of advertising from a professional perspective. The advice, of course, is to consult the site's professionals. In other words, readers become clients of the agency.

The reason this article was created and posted on the site was to attract readers to read the content and be able to translate them into brand customers. This content first lowers potential customers' defenses, so readers don't immediately think of content marketing when they read the article. 

However, when the reader finishes reading the content, the article does not have a direct or obvious direction to turn the reader into a customer. Instead, it screens potential customers by asking readers to leave contact information to get quotes on billboards. After all, there are readers like me who just need to find some information. But, at the same time, some people are making a preliminary online comparison to pick out the advertisers they like.

There is a comment section at the bottom of this article, which has both advantages and disadvantages. The upside is that if potential customers see good reviews of the brand from others, their chances of becoming real customers increase dramatically. At the same time, it is also a double-edged sword. If the following comments have negative comments about the brand, the likelihood of a potential customer becoming a real customer is greatly reduced. 

There are two kinds of suggestions. First, get rid of the comments section and make this a science article with implications. Then, after the reader has read it, or put a brand's contact information behind the quote on the billboard. Secondly, the comments section needs to be managed. Some employees need to create accounts to write good things about the brand. Then, if there is a bad comment in the comments section, the site's administrators need to find it and remove it.

In addition, the content of this article needs to be updated. The last time I did a Google search for a project, this article was at number 3 on the list. This time, the rankings have fallen. The manager of the site or the author of the article needs to keep the information up to date to ensure that the article is consistently at the top of the search results.

[marcielh]

Digital Marketing, is it better for branding or for direct response?

Digital marketing involves the use of many media and means, and it is a big topic. When people think of digital marketing, they might think of social media software, search engines, or online display advertising. Although the output terminals of digital marketing are mobile phones, computers, and so on; in fact, it is not limited to marketing in the network world. It has grown into a strong competitor to traditional marketing, and as the traditional market shrinks further, digital marketing will become the most powerful marketing method in today's society.

The rapid growth of the digital marketing market has provided more marketing tools for various industries, and also helped them to achieve a variety of marketing purposes, promoting their brands or gaining customer response and feedback. What does digital marketing better help companies achieve? In my opinion, it is branding. I have two reasons to support this view.

First of all, what is branding? According to the dictionary, the branding of a product is the presentation of it to the public in a way that makes it easy for people to recognize or identify. The greatest advantage a product or company has in the marketplace is that customers know, appreciate, and accept your brand. Branding is a must if the company wants to capture more market share or increase profits and beat other competitors. Otherwise, why would a customer want to buy your product if they think your brand is like everything else? In other words, branding is actually the ultimate goal of a company's marketing strategy. And a successful marketing campaign can help a company achieve that goal. 

So does this point prove that all marketing, traditional or digital, is for this purpose? Perhaps the goal of a marketing campaign is not to achieve branding, but the additional product is branding. For example, Apple's marketing campaign to promote Apple TV plus. Its ostensible purpose is to promote the new service and drive customers to buy. But its underlying goal is to promote the Apple brand. Apple offers a range of services for its electronics or home products, and the Apple TV plus marketing campaign is actually promoting other products. All these products are advertised on the basis that people can recognize, distinguish, and identify the apple brand. So, all of the marketing that Apple does is to get people to acknowledge and accept the brand.

Secondly, the possibility and authenticity of direct customer response in e-marketing are worth considering. This can also be achieved offline, rather than through the Internet, where direct responses from customers can be obtained. The way to get a direct response through digital marketing is through social media or some online display advertising. When a person sees marketing on a social platform, does he really want to give some direct feedback? If he identifies the brand and the brand is of interest to him, he may click on the link or comment directly below. But if he doesn't know the brand, he may simply ignore it, or even find it annoying. The same thing happens with display ads. 

Imagine that you are reading an article, but there are always some advertisements in the middle of the article, would you want to click on the advertisement to see the details? Moreover, the veracity of these direct responses is in doubt. If it's a panel ad that requires clicking on an image or link, how do you make sure people don't click on it accidentally? If it's a message response on social media, how do you guarantee the authenticity of what people are saying and the likelihood that they are actually the customers of the brand? To sum up, it is not wise to obtain the direct responses from customers through digital marketing. There is a better way to do this like survey or mailing why through digital marketing?