Consumer Marketing

SUMMARY: Testing and optimization can be done incrementally, by testing details on a webpage or email. Or, the approach can be more radical, by creating a distinct treatment from scratch.

This case study offers both, but centers on a product landing page with a dismal conversion rate. The testing team completely rethought the site design and pitted the two pages head-to-head. Find out how this process led to a 400% increase in sales over one year, and a 90% lift in cart conversion.

Steve Parker, VP, Direct Marketing Division, firstSTREET, will present at the upcoming Optimization Summit 2012 in Denver, June 11-14. read the complete case study

SUMMARY: Digital marketing makes testing and optimization efforts easier than ever, with a constant flow of data and relatively low cost compared to testing traditional marketing channels.

Learn how Cabela's has maintained a testing culture over its entire history, alongside details about its digital split testing and optimization program. Plus, get an inside look at how the team combines offline channel data to get a full view of its marketing and optimization efforts.

Tony Uhlir, Internet Customer Experience Manager, Cabela's, will present at the upcoming Optimization Summit 2012 in Denver, June 11-14. read the complete article

SUMMARY: "Lower-income shoppers are the fastest-growing income group in the United States and will generate $84 billion in incremental spending during the next decade." "During the third quarter of 2008, CPG spending and private label performance has improved, which is a trend being led by lower-income shoppers." view the complete research record

SUMMARY: The traditional marketing funnel is broken, says Joseph Jaffe, marketing consultant and author. Its emphasis on customer acquisition means marketers spend most of their time looking for new customers rather than nurturing the ones they already have.

Changing this marketing paradigm is the call-to-arms of Jaffe’s latest marketing book, “Flip the Funnel,” which officially launched with a keynote presentation at MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit in Miami last week. We sat down with him for an interview following his speech to learn more, and to outline five key strategies for changing your company’s marketing focus. read the complete interview

SUMMARY: Do you have a short anecdote about test results, campaign lessons or other insights you gained in 2011? If so, please take two minutes to share it for your chance to be published in the 2012 Marketing Wisdom Report, sponsored by HubSpot. read the complete article

While this is just one consumer’s complaint, it’s something to think about. “Rob” recently was quoted in a Consumerist post about how Amazon ruined his wife’s surprise Christmas present by sending email recommendations relevant to the gift he purchased.

His wife saw a subject line referring to the surprise gift (a TomTom GPS) on the couple’s shared Google homepage enabled with an iGoogle email widget showing recent emails.

I suppose one could argue that it’s... read the complete blog post