Don’t Be Offended By Opt-Outs

Posted by Bob Fladung

It’s easy to get disappointed when you notice a jump in your monthly unsubscribe numbers. Why would people, who once asked to receive your content, ask you to stop sending emails to them? You might be compelled to ask them, “why don’t you love me anymore?”

Of course, if you receive a large volume of unsubscribes in short time frame, you will want to dissect your email marketing strategy. Are you sending emails too often? Is the content you are sending of real value to the people in your database? Did you send out an email in a tone that is uncharacteristic of your company’s voice?

If you are guilty of one of the items above, fix it. But if you’re not, try not to take these unsubscribes too personally.

The number of emails that a customer, or a potential customer, receives presents a challenge in and of itself. A 2014 study by The Radicati Group, a California-based technology research firm, found that the average business user sends and receives an average of 120 emails per day. This is expected to grow to 140 emails a day by 2018*.

With that quantity of emails hitting someone’s inbox, people have a lot of messages to sift through and most days, your email just won’t make the cut. You might catch the user on a bad day where they feel bombarded by content and unsubscribe from many sending sources at once.

It is also possible that given someone’s life changes, your marketing message may no longer be relevant to them. 91% of people have unsubscribed from company emails they previously opted into**. People change their mind, people move on, and your database and blast numbers will reflect this natural cycle.

I recently stumbled upon an interesting article by Julie Knudson that shared tips on reducing opt-outs. Although the tips were simple, they propose solutions for the challenges of volume, relevancy, and engagement.

Through our marketing and lead-generation solutions, we can help you build your email lists, but it’s up to you to keep those subscribers. Although you may be able to use some techniques to reduce opt-outs, don’t be offended by natural attrition. It can and will happen, so keep calm and market on!

Best,


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.

 

*http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Email-Statistics-Report-2014-2018-Executive-Summary.pdf
** http://www.business2community.com/social-media/104-fascinating-social-media-marketing-statistics-2014-2015-01084935

An Interview With Director of Advertising, Bob Fladung

Posted by admin

In June, Investing Info-Marketing Summit’s co-founder, John Newtson, asked our very own Director of Advertising, Bob Fladung, to explain INO.com’s unique and cost-efficient advertising opportunities which are the cornerstone for many major financial publishers.

Please watch this interview where Newtson and Fladung discuss…

– What types of traffic INO.com has available.
– What OFFERS are working best right now (Summer of 2016).
– How to get the highest conversions when advertising to INO’s audience.
– What kinds of volume you can expect.
– How INO.com prices advertising … and WHY.
– Plus, they talk about how INO.com has managed to maintain the quality of traffic over such a long period.

Please leave Bob a comment below if you have any questions about INO.com and how we can enhance your marketing efforts.

Is your site mobile-ready?

Posted by Bob Fladung

One of the most wonderful and frustrating things about Google is that their search algorithms are always changing. They give kudos to sites that are ever-adapting to fit web trends, and they penalize sites that follow outdated practices.

Depending on your tech resources, you may applaud this system or you may curse it under your breath.

Google releases many updates every year. It may feel like you need dedicated manpower to simply follow and optimize for these updates.

In May of 2016, Google released the Mobile-Friendly 2 update. This adds ranking boosts to sites that are optimized for mobile when a user is searching on a mobile. Of course, this makes sense – why not show users the results of sites that are optimized for a device that they are currently on?

Smart Insights found in a study that mobile digital media time in the US is now significantly higher at 51% compared to desktop (42%). Given that mobile plays such a strong role in informational and transactional communication, it is important that sites are easy to read and navigate on mobile devices.

So with this new update, many sites have some homework. Do you?

Besides web-developer updates from Google, here is another resource to keep up with Google’s ceaseless updates.

Happy marketing,


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.

Resources

2024 Mobile marketing statistics compilation

Introducing INO.com’s Stock of the Week

Posted by Lindsay Bittinger

We love offering complimentary tools and services to INO.com’s visitors. From our Top Stocks List to our Daily Analysis and Commentary, we know that giving our visitors useful content will help build our relationship with them and show our value in their day-to-day lives.

INO.com's Stock of the Week

Starting this month, we’ve teamed up with analyst, Daniel Cross, to offer INO.com visitors a free weekly stock pick newsletter. Subscribers can join this list to receive a hand-picked stock that we release every Tuesday at 7 am (ET). This pick is backed by Cross’s solid research and analysis.

We are not currently offering sponsor messaging within the body of this newsletter. However, this may change depending on the list’s growth and advertiser interest.

We are fortunate to have a network of knowledgeable and talented people with whom we can create awesome tools and complimentary resources for our visitors.

We want to welcome Daniel Cross to the INO.com family as an independent analyst. Check out INO.com’s Stock of the Week.

Best,

Lindsay Bittinger
INO.com, Inc.

Where do you stand?

Posted by Bob Fladung

It is easy to get into the habit of judging your marketing campaigns based on your previous successes or failures. But, are you holding yourself to unrealistic goals? Are you not setting your bar high enough? It can be difficult to determine your effectiveness when just looking at inward efforts.

In the grand scheme of things when looking at your industry, what does your company’s open rate and CTR look like next to your competitors?

I wanted to share this great email marketing benchmark guide created by MailChimp.

This guide, updated 3/1/16, found that for the financial industry:

Average Open Rate – 21.49%
Average CTR – 2.77%
Average Soft Bounce – 0.72%

Although this guide is not the end all, be all, it is a resource you can use to take a big picture look and see how you measure up!

Have a wonderful week,


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.

 

 

Something new, authentic and interesting is the only way to get people’s attention.

Posted by Bob Fladung

Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Arthur Ceria, of CreativeFeed said, “Risk – calculated risk – is key to success online. There’s no need for complicated metrics to prove this point. Logic tells us that with so much content clamoring for attention, offering something new, authentic and genuinely interesting is the only way to get people to pay attention.”

Is your offer new, authentic and truly interesting? You can have the best ad placement in the world, but unless your offer is truly meeting the needs of your audience, it doesn’t matter. The best campaigns that I have seen meet both the emotional and financial needs of our audience. They don’t come around too often, but when they do they knock it out of the park.

I’d love to work with you and see your new, genuine offer. I know that we can exceed your every expectation if you let us take your compelling campaign to our active and engaged audience.

Best,


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.

 

 

Happy Customer Service Appreciation Week

Posted by Bob Fladung

I wanted to extend a genuine thank you to the Customer Service Team here at INO.com. Although they don’t work directly with my advertising clients, they are the ones in the trenches supporting our MarketClub Members.

Since today is Customer Service Appreciation Week, I thought they were very deserving of a big shout out! I know your job is not easy. I know that customers aren’t always pleasant and you do your best to help them with a smile. I know that responding to hundreds of emails and calls a day can be a bit overwhelming, but you do a great job.

A company can not be successful and efficiently operate without the hard work of each department. The Customer Service Team is a valuable resource here at INO.com.

Our job functions may not cross paths often, but I am grateful for the job you do! Happy Customer Service Appreciation Week.

If your company has a Customer Service Team, give them an extra pat on the back today.

Best,


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.

New Ad Placement – Blog Alert Sponsorship

Posted by Bob Fladung

Ad Blog Placement 400We have received some great initial feedback for a relatively new ad placement. Our Blog Alert Sponsorship is a text-based slot prominently displayed in each of our Blog Alert emails. The alerts go out to approximately 66K traders who have requested an email every time we publish a blog post by INO.com founder, Adam Hewison, or any of our other distinguished traders and contributors.

As multiple alerts could be sent in a single day, this placement is priced on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis.

Specs:

Headline:     Max 60 characters with hyperlink
Body:            Max 360 characters
Link Line:    Max. 60 characters with hyperlink

Do you think this placement would be good fit for your offer? I’d love to talk with you about this position and discuss how we can help boost traffic and add volume to your lead-gen or sales campaigns.

Best,



Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.

When Financial & Mobile Marketing Collide

Posted by Bob Fladung

I wanted to share this great article that I found on The Financial Brand regarding millennials, mobile, and financial marketing.

With more than half of consumers’ time spent on mobile devices, it is imperative that financial companies are not only improving their mobile presence but also capitalizing on mobile ad opportunities.

Millennials, Mobile Channels & The Future of Financial Marketing – Read Me

This short, but interesting article, explores millennials’ use of their mobile device in relation to their interaction with financial services.

Can you believe that 92% of millennials (those born between 1981 to 1997) own smartphones and 43% own tablets? The way connectivity has changed in the last decade is astonishing, but we must change as technology changes!

When you prepare your mobile ads, it is also important to abide by the mobile phone creative guidelines set forth by the IAB. When your ads comply with the guidelines it will enhance user experience, load time, and should improve consumer response.

You can find a helpful mobile phone creative guideline cheat sheet here.

I’d love to hear how you are profiting from the mobile revolution. Please comment on this post or reach out to me via our contact page.

Best,


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.

 

How to Market Financial Services to Millenials

Posted by Bob Fladung

Back in May, I read this great article about how to market financial services to millennials. Written by Jeff Fromm and Jason Parks, executive VPs at Barkley, this article suggests that the secret to marketing to this segment is the consideration of how exactly they grew up.

Fromm and Parks make a fantastic point. Out of the 80 million millennials in the U.S., half of the millennials have children and each day 10,000 millennial moms over the age of 25 give birth. Parenthood changes a person’s priorities. If you’re a parent, you know how true this is. While financial planning, estate planning, and insurance may not have been a hot topic for this “irresponsible” generation before, it sure will become an important subject as they plan and provide for their offspring.

Millennials are at a wealth disadvantage — they are making less money than their parents were at the same age. Although millennials have education, they also have debt as a result of that education. Fromm and Parks explained that although brand loyalty was high for millennials pre-kids, once they become parents, brand loyalty dramatically shifted to value brands like Dollar General and Wal-Mart. Given past events (dot-com bust, September 11th, housing crisis, Iraq and Afghanistan wars), millennials are “more likely than other generations to believe that working hard and saving/living frugally are the ways to achieve success.”

Fromm and Parks say that to win with Millennials in the marketing of financial services, companies must…

1. Embrace disruptive schemas that align to millennial values.

2. Create tools that simplify millennials’ life and financial planning needs.

3. Act in a more authentic and transparent way.

4. Curate content that helps millennials make more informed decisions.

5. Engage millennials as your brand partner by allowing them to co-create new products, customer delivery channels, and more.

Marketing financial services is not an easy thing, but marketing to millennials is even more challenging.

As marketing teams consider the millennials’ life experiences, they will be able to create more compelling campaigns and more valuable products.

Best,


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.