Email marketing receives the highest open rates on Tuesdays

For media planners, it’s pivotal to give clients a media recommendation that has great potential to be successful. Part of the planning process is doing research to see historical and trending statistics. According to eMarketer, the email marketing software company GetResponse recently did a study to see how consumers navigate email marketing.

The study first showed that marketers send out the majority of emails to consumers on Tuesdays followed by Thursdays and Mondays. This is good news considering Tuesdays have the highest email open rate of 19.9% and a click through rate of 4.6%. The national average for email marketing open rates is 10%. Surprisingly, Fridays have the second highest open rate of 19.6%, and it actually has the highest click through rate of 4.9%.

Therefore, a recommendation was for marketers to invest more email marketing dollars into Friday drop dates. Research supports that Fridays had the fewest emails sent out during the work week.

During the weekends, the open and click rates were pretty even. Saturday had an open rate of 16.9% and a click rate of 4.4%. Similarly, Sunday had 17.1% opened emails and a 4.5% click through rate. 

Options for reaching consumers through music

Amy Winehouse, James Morrison, Neon Trees, The Penguins, Ne-Yo, The Black Keys, Nat King Cole, Boyce Avenue, and Cyndi Lauper… what do these recording artists have in common? Other than being musicians and being on a 29-year-old female’s mp3 player, not a whole lot. If an advertiser intends to reach this potential consumer through music, what are some options?

Terrestrial radio is always a solid choice. There is a mass reach and has the closest time of purchase that many other media options lack. However, one of the down sides to mass reach is that there is a limiting factor to targeting. Research can help advertisers to find stations that pull well generally for a demographic like women 18-34. But what about the women in that age bracket that don’t listen to those high-ranking stations and listen to male dominated stations instead?

Today, advertisers can look to online streaming music as a highly targetable option. With vendors like Spotify and Pandora, advertisers are able to target messaging on very specific demographic and geographic criteria. The down side to this is that while membership is growing exponentially, it’s not the audience size that radio has.

For those of you who have a Spotify or Pandora account, do you remember signing up and giving your birthday and your gender as part of the process? This information allows advertisers to only put the message in front of potential consumers. It limits the amount of spill.

So if a 42-year-old man is listening to a Justin Timberlake station, which is primarily known for a big female audience, he will not be shown the advertiser’s ad. However, if a 29-year-old woman is listening to Alice in Chains, you can reach her.

For online streaming, it’s not about the genre of music, but rather, the person. For terrestrial radio, it’s about casting a wide net and reaching a lot of people. Depending on the campaign and the goal, either of these options or even both can work.

   

Illegal outdoor boards will receive fines in California

Let’s face it…the current generation is all about mobility. We want what we want when we want it, and media is no different. Media is working hard to stay relevant to advertisers and more importantly, the consumer. Sometimes, however, that can backfire. Take for instance outdoor and California. MediaPost reports that the state is working to shut down illegal outdoor ads and limit legal boards.

California Governor Jerry Brown recently approved a law that will make it increasingly harder to advertise with illegal outdoor boards. Typically, these illegal boards are trailers pulled by cars, trucks, bicycles, etc. to various locations. What makes this illegal is neither licenses were obtained nor rent paid to the city government or property owners. In Los Angeles alone, it is estimated that nearly 4,000 signs around the city do not have the proper paperwork or are in violation in some way.

Once caught, this new law allows for steeper penalties to be given to the violators. Los Angeles and San Francisco are two cities that have already established ordinances. Some people are working to increase Los Angeles penalty fees from $2,500 per day to $48,000 per day.

Advertisers should be aware of laws in any market in which they are advertising. One great outdoor blitz may end up costing the client a lot more than originally planned. The lesson one should take away is make sure that your outdoor vendor, whether it be mobile or static, has a permit. 

New study reveals women feel the most ugly on a Monday

A key component for any advertising campaign understands the target audience. This is why so many resources are funneled into research. Ad campaign misfires do occur; however, with the proper planning, the right product can be put in front of the right consumer.

According to MediaPost, Omnicom’s PHD recently conducted a study to determine which days and times of the week American women feel the least attractive and the most beautiful. The purpose is to know what kind of beauty product messaging is the most effective depending on the moods and perceptions of the audience.

The majority of respondents, approximately 46%, agreed that Monday was the day of the week in which she felt the ugliest. Sunday was close behind with a 39% response. Researchers found a variety of reasons on why these were two days where women felt less flattering. One reason is Monday is the start of the work week and signifies the end of the weekend, while Sunday can show the results of a socially active Saturday on women’s faces. Also, early hours of the day between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. and the later hours after 10 p.m. did not help women feel attractive either.

While a day of the week where women feel the most attractive wasn't listed, the study did denote that between the hours of noon and 3 p.m. women had the most positive outlook about their looks.

In knowing when women typically feel attractive and ugly reportedly will help this advertiser launch an “Encourage/Empower” strategy. Basically, the advertiser can run messaging that helps women feel good during least attractive times. In the window where the audience feels beautiful, the advertiser can run ads that maintain that image of beauty for women.

Overall, being sensitive to the target audiences feelings on a variety of topics, whether it is personal appearance or lawn equipment, can help advertisers avoid missteps which may end up offending the consumer.

Singles and smartphone habits

If you are a single American adult, chances are that you are in a committed relationship with your smartphone. eMarketer reports on a recent survey conducted by online dating sites Christian Mingle and JDate. The survey interviewed single adults and discovered a few mobile trends.

·        Apparently, 47% of those surveyed constantly check text messages throughout the day.

·        38% utilize the internet on his/her phone several times in the day.

·        35% check and send emails several times daily.

·        32% constantly check a social networking site throughout the day.

·        40% talk on the phone several times in a day.

·        31% look at or share photos several times a week or at least once a week.

·        47% rarely or never check online dating sites or apps.

The study also shows that the age group of 27–34 single adults seems to have the stronger reactions to certain statements regarding mobile habits.

·        61% of 27-34 acknowledged “I’m always afraid of missing something interesting if I don’t check my mobile device(s) frequently.”

·        57% admitted that they are, “so dependent on my mobile device(s) that it’s like an addiction.

·        47% stated, “I often get less sleep than I should because I’m using my mobile device(s) late at night.

What does this tell advertisers? While it would be great to use this as across the board responses for all single American adults, it has to be put in the perspective that these results are coming from a niche group of people from niche dating sites. Use this information as an insight to the single adult habits, but don’t consider it to be the absolute truth.