Examine the data

Which articles and posts have really worked for you?
Take a delve through your Google Analytics; examine which posts boast the longest average time on page, which are being viewed more than others, where that traffic is coming from.
Has a certain article been tweeted more times than an Oscar ceremony selfie?
Did something get more traction with your Facebook following?
You should be taking these stats and continually improving, not only in the content you produce but also the channels you promote it through.
Those that learn what’s working and where will continually be doing better.
They’ll be identifying the content they’ve created and where it’s resonated, whether that’s Twitter, Facebook, their own website or in forums.
If you’re banging on the same drum with the same message and they’re continually growing and learning they’ll inevitably be increasing the performance gap they have on you and your social media performance.
So stop, take a look at what you’re doing and scrap what isn’t working.
It’ll save you time in the long run and that’ll be time better spent doing what needs to be done!
For more information on how we can help improve and guide your social media activity please give us a call on 01566 784860 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk

The post Are you learning from your own content? appeared first on MiHiDigital.

The answer to that question will of course depend on the goals of your business, how you measure against those goals and how good those measurements are looking for you.

Ultimately the question is what are you looking to gain and are you gaining it?

Here are five quick things that will help guide you to successful social media activity:

1. Don’t lose sight or focus of what it is you’re doing it for

A common perception of plenty of business, no matter what their size, is that they need to be on social media but they are not quite sure why!

Social media can be used for many different business reasons; to reach people that you otherwise wouldn’t have reached through other marketing channels, to provide customer service, to build year round relationships where purchases are made seasonally (think of tourism) or to give your business a personal voice.

That’s just a few examples but what you should always have is an understanding of what it is your business is looking to gain from the time you spend on social media.

In no other area of business would it be acceptable to spend loads of time without any real understanding of why it is you are doing it; social media is no exception.

Make sure you know the why!

2. Keep a close eye on what you are achieving

Now you know why you are doing it, are you achieving it?

Set ways of measuring whether or not you are delivering what you want to.  For example, if you are looking to increase reach, how many new followers have you gained in the past month?  Examine whether those followers are of value, for example if you want to gain brand exposure in Devon and Cornwall, ten new followers in New York and Miami are going to have less value than five new followers in Devon.

3. Consistently take a look at your goals and objectives – are they being met?

Don’t let things idle along.  Make sure you have a regular timing for your reporting that fits your needs.  Once you have that in place, stick to it.  It can sometimes be tempting to delay if you’ve not been doing so well – avoid that temptation!

4. Don’t separate your online ‘life’ from your offline ‘life’!

Your social media life should compliment what you are doing offline.  Use social media to get yourself meetings, to speak to people on the telephone and to gain new leads.  Make sure it isn’t in isolation from behind the sofa, because nothing good ever came from behind the sofa!

5. Don’t let it become a time drain – allocate your time and keep to it!

Don’t let social media drain your time.  Everybody works differently with how they allocate their time during the day but if you need to, make sure you have time allocated to your social media activity.  Find what works for you, when it’s best to update Facebook or Twitter and once you know what works, stick with it.

Make sure one hour doesn’t blur into two hours and thirty minutes doesn’t blur in to no minutes!

For more information about how we can help you focus your social media activity please give us a call on 01566 784860 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk

The post Five Keys to Social Media Success appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Whilst open rates and click throughs will vary from industry to industry we tend to look at anywhere from 25 – 35% as being an average open rate.  You should then be expecting around 20 – 35% of those emails opened to be clicked on by the recipient.

There are many factors that will contribute to an open rate, for example how focussed your communication is to the recipient and the quality of your email database.  Again, if you send an email without many clicking opportunities or an email campaign that isn’t really relevant to the recipient then you shouldn’t be expecting mass amounts of click throughs.

A more in-depth list of figures has been provided by Mail Chimp.  By clicking on this link you’ll be able to see the open and click through rates for a range of different industry sectors:

http://mailchimp.com/resources/research/email-marketing-benchmarks/#section_average_by_industry 

For more information on how we can get your email marketing off the ground please give us a call or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk

The post How do your email marketing open and click through rates compare with others? appeared first on MiHiDigital.

One figure that will be of particular interest will be your ‘open rate’.  Now essentially this is the amount of people that open your email when they receive it, but there can be a little more than meets the eye here.

The open rate of your email is in fact the amount of people that open your email with images automatically enabled or click to enable the images on your email when opening.

This is because each email sent has a 1px X 1px square in the corner that is used to measure an email open.  If this square isn’t opened because the reader has not enabled the images on your email then it will not be registered as an open and therefore contribute to your ‘open rate’.

This means that your ‘open rate’ becomes a minimal figure rather than an absolute measure.  You can expect your ‘read rate’ (the amount of people that read your email) to be higher than your ‘open rate’ as some will be reading and viewing your content without enabling images.  As you can imagine this user is still engaging with your content and may click on links without registering as an email open.

For this reason it is always worth bearing in mind that your ‘open rate’ should be used and seen as an indicator of performance and not an exact measure.  When conducting A/B testing on subject lines it is for this reason also worth checking which email clients your recipients are using.

For example, Microsoft Outloook will default to not enable images when you send email campaigns.  For this reason if there is a disproportionate amount of users in your A segment with clients that do not enable images compared to your B segment you should factor this in to your results, particularly where testing indicates a close or massive difference in performance.

The majority of figures gained through your online marketing efforts should be used make better and more informed decisions in the future.  The open rate is no different, just be careful when using it in isolation as a specific measure.

For more information on how we can get your email marketing off the ground please give us a call or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk

The post Email Marketing Statistic – What is the difference between an open rate and a read rate? appeared first on MiHiDigital.

We would say that a key factor in successful marketing is integration – understanding who your customers are and using a range of different mediums to reach that customer with the right message. Inherently this can give you a reporting headache – the customer says that they heard of you from an advert but in reality much more will likely have gone into the decision making process. A visit to the website to find out more, perhaps a mention from a friend, some press coverage or the direct mail campaign that landed on their doorstep some six months ago.

It can be tricky, but as with most business decisions you want as much information in front of you when deciding what is working and what isn’t.

Do you currently know where all of your business is coming from? If you aren’t asking “where did you hear about us?” then why not? Asking and understanding where your customers are coming from can not only add value to your decision-making but also to the return on the bottom line of return from marketing spend.

Having processes that place as much information at your fingertips as a marketer or business owner must therefore be a necessity. Online you have Google Analytics which will give you a world of information on where your business is coming from, particularly for those working within the ecommerce sphere. Offline it is just as important to know where they are coming from so get asking!

For more information on how we can help you to understand and gain more from you reporting please give us a call or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk

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