To listen and watch playback of the webinar, Best Practices for Email Marketing, click here. You can view the PowerPoint deck below.

Key takeaways include:

• Building and keeping an effective list
• Creating relevant emails using segmentation and targeting
• Succeeding at customer acquisition and retention
• Benefits of automation
• Moving beyond the email silo by adding other communications to the mix

About David Hallerman

David Hallerman is eMarketer’s expert in US online advertising and marketing, covering email marketing, search and display advertising, internet ad targeting, online video advertising and ad spending across media. He is frequently quoted in top business publications and broadcast programs.

Sponsored by Lyris.

To listen and watch playback of the webinar, Mobile, Social & Geolocation—Key Trends for Marketers, click here. You can view the PowerPoint deck below.

Key takeaways include:

• How mobile consumers’ usage patterns are changing and what this means for marketers
• The evolution of location services and key players in the ecosystem
• How location marketing has moved beyond the check-in and toward the check-out
• Examples of brands that have successfully tapped into location

About Noah Elkin

Noah Elkin covers trends in mobile marketing, usage, content, devices and commerce. He is co-founder and co-chair of the Emerging Technologies Committee for the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization and a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mobile Advertising Committee. He is in demand as a speaker at digital and industry conferences.

Sponsored by AT&T AdWorks.

Our clients have told us that they would like to see more case studies and best practices to illustrate eMarketer’s digital trends and advertising spending analyses. We’ve listened.

One result is “Mobile Barcodes: Trends and Best Practices for Marketers.” In this report, principal analyst Noah Elkin explains the promise of mobile barcode technology as well as the obstacles to its adoption, such as the need to download a dedicated application to read the codes. It also spotlights how savvy consumers have begun to see the value in QR codes; majorities of those who access the codes use them to secure deals and discounts.

In another example, “Facebook Marketing: Strategies for Turning ‘Likes’ into Loyalty,” writer/analyst Kimberly Maul shows real-world examples of how marketers for Chef Boyardee and Clarisonic are enticing their customers to stay engaged with their brands’ Facebook pages. These are just two of several case studies in the report showing how marketers are succeeding in making deeper connections with consumers through social networks.

Here are eMarketer’s top picks from May 2011:

REPORT: Facebook Marketing: Strategies for Turning “Likes” into Loyalty
Facebook marketing used to be all about how many “likes” a brand could attract on its page. But to be successful in the post-“like” phase of Facebook marketing, brands will need to follow the example of companies such as Discovery Communications, which boasts 75 Facebook pages and regularly rolls out cross-page promotions, and Adobe, which encourages its most ardent fans to share their love for Photoshop.Learn more about this report.

CHART: Social Media Site or Blog that Is Critical to Companies
While company blogs are considered the most important social media tactic, Facebook and YouTube tie for second with 44% of companies in North America seeing them as critical or important, up from 24% and 26% percent, respectively, in 2009, according to Hubspot. Available only for Total Access subscribers.

CASE STUDY: Discovery Initiates Unique Dialogue for Each Show’s Facebook Page
Discovery Communications has a dedicated social media team to update its 75 Facebook pages. The team employs a number of tactics to keep viewers engaged, regardless of a show’s current status on-air. For example, the page for TLC’s “Sister Wives,” which started its second season in March 2011, is active, with video clips and questions for fans, while other pages are active even when the related programming isn’t. Available only for Total Access subscribers.

REPORT: Mobile Barcodes: Trends and Best Practices for Marketers
Barcode adoption, particularly of 2-D types like QR codes, is rising, but there are still a number of obstacles to greater usage. For one, the barcode field is fragmented, with a number of proprietary and open source formats jockeying for position. Nevertheless, marketers are developing best practices. Learn more about this report.

CASE STUDY: Adobe’s Facebook Page Gets Customers Talking
Adobe grew its number of Facebook fans from 240,000 to 1.8 million “likes” by demonstrating an “authentic” voice. For instance, to learn more about visitors, Adobe asked them what they would like to see, and then responded with what visitors asked for: behind-the-scenes glimpses of the product management team and the products they were working on. Available only for Total Access subscribers.

ARTICLE: Tablets Beat Smartphones for Online Shopping, Buying
Tablets hit it big only in 2010 with the release of the iPad, but their owners are already making use of them for commerce—and doing so to a greater degree than smartphone owners, according to research from the e-tailing group. Read article.

INTERVIEW: Product Videos Hike Sales at Zappos
Zappos.com has 40,000 videos live on its site, all produced in-house with help from employees. The result of all that work? Consumers who watch the videos not only purchase more, but return fewer products, according to Laurie Williams, video and photo product manager at the etailer. Available only for Total Access subscribers.

CHART: Top 10 Retail Sites, Ranked by Number of Videos
Among companies that appeared in Internet Retailer’s list of top video-using retail sites, Overstock.com took the top spot, with 46,198 clips on its site in Q4 2010, according to SundaySky, a software provider that specializes in repurposing digital content into automated videos. Others with at least 10,000 clips each included Amazon.com, HSN and QVC. Available only for Total Access subscribers.

REPORT: Demographic Profile—Millennials
Need a snapshot of millennials? Take a few minutes to read this report about the demographic segment that represents 23% of the population and is almost never unplugged. They shop, view, play and communicate through the internet—increasingly via a handheld device—and insist on responding to digital advertising on their own terms. Learn more about this report.

ARTICLE: How Moms Keep Connected Using Smartphones
Smartphone ownership is higher among moms than the general population, according to March 2011 research from parenting website BabyCenter. Nearly six in 10 moms have a smartphone compared to 50% of all internet users. Read article.

INTERVIEW: Taco Bell Cracking Code on Young Men’s Digital World
Ronalee Zarate-Bayani is charged with developing the strategy for Taco Bell’s social media and mobile marketing efforts, and for ensuring customers have a positive experience with the brand across all digital touchpoints. Read interview.

eMarketer Total Access subscribers have access to these features and more. To learn more about becoming an eMarketer client click here.

To listen and watch playback of the webinar, Integrating Search and Display—Tactics for More Effective Advertising, click here. You can view the PowerPoint deck below.

Join us for:

• Tips on optimizing your online ad spending through effective integration of search and display
• Best practices to increase conversion
• Techniques for creating an attribution model that enables you to build and measure holistic display and search campaigns
• Why it’s important to analyze the combined effects of display and search through the traditional purchase funnel

About David Hallerman

David Hallerman is eMarketer’s expert in US online advertising and marketing, covering search and display advertising, internet ad targeting, email marketing, online video advertising and ad spending across media. He is frequently quoted in top business publications and broadcast programs.

Sponsored by Knotice.

For AstraZeneca, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, engaging in online social media requires careful footing and continuous regard for government regulation. As such, the American arm of the UK-based drug manufacturer has crafted its social participation around big-picture healthcare topics and, for the most part, is steering clear of specific mentions of prescription products.

The goals for the company’s social media program were two-fold: AstraZeneca wanted to raise awareness of its prescription assistance program, which helps needy patients afford their medications. Additionally, the company wanted to interact with patients, healthcare professionals and industry advocates about the best ways to promote AZ&Me.

“We wanted feedback on how to operate our prescription assistance programs more effectively and efficiently to serve patients,” said Katie Lubenow, AstraZeneca’s senior manager of external communications. In essence, the corporation wanted to crowdsource ideas for future marketing of AZ&ME.

Strategy:

AstraZeneca’s PR team promoted the scheduled Twitter chat through both @AstraZenecaUS and the company blog. The event soon caught the attention of pharma industry pundits and bloggers who retweeted and posted information about the chat. On the day of the #rxSave chat, tweets denoting the planned hashtag began to appear, creating buzz about the event. At exactly 8:00pm, Jen McGovern, AstraZeneca’s director of Patient Assistance Programs, greeted those following the hashtag and welcomed them to @AstraZenecaUS’ first ever Twitter chat.

At the beginning of the event, McGovern established that, given current regulations, she would not be able to discuss specific medications or diseases using Twitter’s 140 character limit. She did, however, tweet that if individuals had questions about specific products, they could contact AstraZeneca through its corporate website or through a telephone help line.

With disclaimers out of the way and ground rules set, McGovern—via @AstraZenecaUS—asked participants what they thought were the best ways to increase awareness of prescription savings programs. Close to 30 responses came in and McGovern probed a few follow-up questions. The participants, largely individuals in healthcare and pharma professions, suggested ideas such as healthcare social networks, front-line education and the use of patient and health advocates to spread the word.

Results:

During the time allotted to the live chat, there were nearly 400 tweets using the #rxSave hashtag. Even after the close of the event, tweeters continued to use the hashtag. And four days later, there were more than 1,000 tweets from more than 200 different people that used the hashtag. AstraZeneca also gained 73 Twitter followers the day of the chat—and this number has steadily increased.

Because a number of healthcare providers participated in the chat, the pharma company was able to ask questions and get answers about real-life actions and challenges to prescription savings program adoption. AstraZeneca was also able to ask about communicating with patients via text messages, and gleaned insight about reaching caregivers of seniors.

Despite an overwhelmingly positive response, AstraZeneca did face backlash from one persistent tweeter. The individual, making use of the #rxSave hashtag, posted tweets critical of AstraZeneca’s past legal affairs. Despite the individual’s unrelenting negativity, the conversation continued about #rxSave, with both the @AstraZenecaUS moderator and participants largely ignoring the person’s trolling.

On the heels of this first success, “AstraZeneca is open to conducting additional chats,” Lubenow said, “if there are topics that would be beneficial to discuss while staying within regulations.”

The complete version of this case study is available to eMarketer Total Access clients only. Click here for more information.