Till today, this blog has been proved to be a significant project that contributed a lot to my learning curve. This initiative had derived from the insight that a lot of individuals we interacted on our daily routine (mostly the clients) are not literate enough to cope with the basics of digital marketing, even though it’s a vital part of their job description.

Today, 8 years since the creation of my blog, I decided to switch to the Medium platform, for a number of reasons (less effort, higher reach, real engagement), aiming to publish my personal business opinions about digital marketing, every 2–3 months.

I was really astonished once I realized that I have published over 100 blog posts regarding digital marketing and advertising. Thus, I decided to upload my favorite ones on my medium profile (25 posts in total).

Among those, you may find below my top-10 articles, which I somehow still consider them to provide me plenty of valuable insights for my every-day work:

👉 10 AdWords Experts share their top 3 must-check PPC metrics (link)

I created a round-up session with a few noteworthy Greek Adwords Experts by posing them the following two questions:

1. If you could check only 3 Pay Per Click metrics in your PPC account, which three PPC metrics would you choose? In other words, which PPC metrics provide the most complete picture of your Paid performance, and why?
2. What PPC metric do you think is overrated/a waste of time? […]

👉 An interview with the Senior Social Media Marketing Manager of LEGO (link)

I wanted to speak with a top expert from the Social Media industry. I couldn’t find someone more suitable than Eleni Karamalegkou, who is the Senior Social Media Marketing Manager in LEGO’s Global team.

After quickly solving the debate of “are you a LEGO or PLAYMOBIL kind of guy?”, we talked about Content Planning and Measurement framework in the social media channels of a huge brand like LEGO. […]

👉 An interview on Recruiting, with the CEO of Workable (link)

I had the pleasure of speaking with Nikos Moraitakis, CEO of Workable, who shared with me a bunch of valuable insights from the point of view of a Recruiter (the person who’s the first to see your CV and evaluate it). When a recruiter has 40–50 CVs before him for a specific position, then there must be some things that will make your own CV stand out. It’s a one-shot opportunity. […]

👉 8 must-have tools for digital marketing (link)

Nowadays, It’s more than a challenge to find the tools that can prove to be useful in the everyday life and work of a Digital Marketer, within the massive “noise” that reigns supreme on the internet. Just like anybody else, I’ve stumbled upon countless tools that offer demos and free trials. What I have discovered is that no matter what’s written on the proverbial tin, on the end of the day you decide which of those tools should you combine in order to optimize your time allocation and productivity. […]

👉 An interview about Usability in e-commerce (link)

Katerina Karagianni, the Business Unit Director in UXlab, the only Greek agency that deals exclusively in issues of Usability and User Experience, took the time to answer my questions on the importance of the conversion rate optimization, which has also “landed” to Greece over the past few years. For example, I surely can’t forget the fact that Expedia deleted one field from their registration process and increased their profit by 12 million euro(!). […]

👉 When someone decides to compete with Procter & Gamble (link)

If you want to advertise diapers, conditioners, toothpastes, soap, then you’ll find yourself up against P&G. It owns more than 40% of the market share in each of these products, and also has a powerful position in shampoo, cake mixes, and house products. It spends about $700,000,000 each year on advertising, more than any other company, and its turnover is $12,000,000,000 each year. First of all, P&G is disciplined. Their philosophy is using a methodical plan and minimizing risk. […]

👉 The Marketing Strategy of the American Elections Candidates (link)

Mike Schauer is probably the only person that has gathered the entire visuals, played in the various television channels, that were used by the Republican and the Democrat Candidates. He’s displaying the whole context around them, and his analysis offers a huge value, due to the fact he shows the way that politicians use effective marketing strategies in their political campaigns. […]

👉 Why aren’t brands being advertised on adult sites (link)

Everyone assumes that people love porn, but when someone looks at the numbers, then we’re talking about a “gold mine” of advertising opportunities. About 30% of the TOTAL web traffic worldwide is for adult sites. Actually, by the time that you’ll have finished reading this sentence, about 197,806 users will have viewed adult site material on the internet (you’re included in that as well, I can see that incognito tab!). […]

👉 How did the new Facebook Notes increase my post’s ER by using a shark image (link)

Users don’t want to hear about our product all the time. They are bombarded with TV spots, radio ads, web ads, huge billboards. Users don’t come to Facebook to see ads. So, I decided to publish a Facebook post that, which according to “common sense”, is completely useless and no one would waste his time to have a look at it. I wanted to check the results of my test. […]

👉 7 tips for e-mail marketing in the Sports Industry (link)

Having a list of loyal subscribed users in your e-mail database is the best thing if you want to start structuring your Email Marketing Strategy. Through careful segmentation, dispatch of relevant content and continuous analysis of the results, there’s a high chance of increasing your ROI. All athletic teams have loyal fans which just wait to be informed about a wide range of services. […]

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Digital Marketing is a jungle. Right? My goal is simple: Make a difference, be more! I am a fan of the 80/20 rule. You can subscribe to my newsletter here in order to receive a notification every time I publish a new post.

After my 1st interview that dealt with the YouTube ecosystem, I wanted to speak with an expert from the Social Media industry. I couldn’t find someone more suitable than Eleni Karamalegkou, who is the Senior Social Media Marketing Manager in LEGO’s Global team.

After quickly solving the debate of “are you a LEGO or PLAYMOBIL kind of guy?”, we talked about Content Planning and Measurement framework in the social media channels of a huge brand like LEGO.

1. Eleni, initially, what do you do in the LEGO team?

I’m part of the Global Social Media & Search team of LEGO, where we’re basically creating the global content calendar, which is then distributed to the marketing teams of each country where we operate. We’re internally managing all of our social media channels, and we really invest time in achieving the best quality for our content. We’ve also taken the responsibility of organizing our internal processes for creating content that serves each country’s needs, as well as those of each channel.

2. How’s your content calendar structured?

Our Team’s objective is to inspire and help children develop their abilities, on the communication aspect, and to keep things as simple as possible, on the organization aspect. We’re creating a yearly calendar which also contains a structured design of the upcoming campaigns, on a six-month basis. I’ll only mention that each year we design more than 300 new LEGO products launches. Each launch is carefully boosted, either in a small scale, or a larger one, depending on our objectives. Also, we are instructed to create all the brand content, both on larger, strategical objectives, as well as seasonal and tactical Brand activities (Christmas, Mother’s Day, etc.).

3. What is LEGO’s main target group?

The main users we’re targeting through social media are:

1. Children over the age of 13, since we want to ensure the security of all of our online channels’ users. Those who contact us and are under 13, are directed to our message boards, on our website, which is a completely protected environment. It’s important to offer parents the maximum possible security, both through our products, as well as our Internet activity.

2. The parents, of course.

3. Gift-givers — people buying gifts for a loved one (godmothers, grandparents, parents).

4. And finally those called AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO), those adults who are “geeks” and still play with their LEGO!

4. Which are the KPIs for LEGO’s Facebook fan page?

Initially, I have to mention that we maintain a global general page, where we communicate our most important news to the wider audience, and then we maintain a different page for each of our products, where we are directed to the specific user target group. The objective of our general page is to secure a high Brand visibility and offer a great online experience to our fans and followers.

More specifically, regarding KPIs, we can mention likes or engagement rate or consumptions, but in the end of the day there is no value in insight gathering if you can’t “read” it. To understand what works and what doesn’t, you have to each day invest in raising engagement with your users, since your page’s posts reach only a very small percentage of your total fans.

In the end, the Business Goal of each Company is very important (e.g. awareness, leads, transactions, etc.). The most important thing is to recognize your content strategy’s “voids” in time. Each user is different, and some will never interact with your page. They use Facebook as a newspaper, which they leaf through each day. Your page’s audience type is important, so that your message can reach that 2% of active and precious fans. So, define your marketing objective from the start, and recognize the channels that will allow you to achieve it.

For example, we recently launched the new LEGO Simpsons House. Initially, we communicated through our YouTube channel, posting a video with our designers, who designed the product completely from scratch. On the same time, we posted a “coming soon” post on Facebook, as well as picture material with “behind the scenes” footage, giving our users the ability to see exclusive LEGO content. On the same time, we used Instagram to promote the person who created the minifigures (the original content used for creating LEGO figures). All this functioned well for us, since we know our audience in each platform, and we always aim to give our fans a great experience.

After doing all that, we gave a link to our audience that leads to the physical store where they can buy our product.

5. What is LEGO’s social media channels’ final objective?

Our purpose is to inspire children and parents, as well as AFOLs, through our content, and to offer a high quality online experience. Our global content can’t be applied to every country. It differs by the geopolitical position of each country, as well as its culture, and how powerful our Brand is in it. From a Business perspective, our main objective is to organize all this web as simply as possible.

6. Which is your “strongest” and which is your “weakest” market?

Our strongest markets are the USA and Europe. From a communication perspective, Asia is a high priority, since our product and Brand there is relatively new, and we must raise awareness. In Europe, you speak of LEGO, and the parent already knows the Brand’s values, something we must build in Asia.

And when we speak about LEGO and Vine, the final result is something like this:

LEGO Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LEGO

LEGO YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/LEGO

LEGO Instagram: http://instagram.com/lego

LEGO Twitter: https://twitter.com/LEGO_Group

LEGO Vine: https://vine.co/LEGOVine

You can find Eleni Karamalegkou in Twitter as @itselenikara

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Digital Marketing is a jungle. Right? My goal is simple: Make a difference, be more! I am a fan of the 80/20 rule. You can subscribe to my newsletter here in order to receive a notification every time I publish a new post.

After five years of this Blog’s existence, I decided to attempt to find a way to make a logo for this Blog.

Truth is that with the following solution, I’ll enrage the Designers, but in the end, I have decided to do all parts of this site’s structure completely by myself (#goaheadandtellmeoff), because it allows me to learn more things every time.

So, I decided to choose the DIY road again, and so I turned to fiverr. Do you remember that I’ve written about fiverr before, regarding creating a perfect CV template with only $5?

So, I began my search for logo-creating users, and based on their rating, I finally chose this team that would made me three different samples with $20, two reviews, and I’d finally receive the final logo in optimal HD solution, both in PNG and source file formats.

After three days and a bit of discussion with them, I made a shortlist of the following two logo versions.

What I need from you is to give me 30" of your time and choose, through the following Poll, which of the two you prefer.

This attempt is completely investigative, inside the context of DIY. If you have any feedback, it’s more than welcome.

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Digital Marketing is a jungle. Right? My goal is simple: Make a difference, be more! I am a fan of the 80/20 rule. You can subscribe to my newsletter here in order to receive a notification every time I publish a new post.

There is so much information in the web. Imagine this scenario: you stumble upon a very interesting article, but in the same time, you have other things running which don’t allow you to read it at that very moment. What do you do? Leave it open in your browser? Send it to yourself through email? Bookmark it in another way?

The worst scenario that may occur once we spot on something interesting on the web, is later forgetting it, and when a situation arises where that particular article would prove useful, we can’t even remember where that great “hidden” knowledge that could provide a direct solution to the situation lies. For example, have you ever found a well-written article about the most important KPIs that an eShop has to keep regarding its performance, but after months, when you need to work on this specific issue, you need to search the whole web to find well-written articles like the one you found all that time ago?

There have been uncountable situations where I needed to use precious resources from articles archived before, and that has saved me a huge number of hours of searching new sources and tools.

We can talk about the many bookmarking tools and methods (like pocket, saved etc.) but in the end of the day, each and every one of us has his own method. Each way is correct, if it fits the user.

That’s why, after years of experiments and trials, I started to take bookmarking in the web seriously. And the more structured the method, the more it has helped me, and the more hours it has saved me. I came to the conclusion that I needed tools that I could use and access in seconds, tools that would function cross-device, that would have a great search function, and ideally be free to use.

So, you may see below the ways I bookmark articles to use them fast and easily, again and again:

1. When I find an article that I realize its content holds great value, but unfortunately I have no time to read at that moment, I use the tool fwrdto.me. This tool has this simple and ergonomic function: when you are in an article and want to have it sent to your email in 2" to read later, then you only have to click it (adding it as a bookmark in your chrome browser):

• Step 1: You install this tool from here and add it as a bookmark in your browser.

• Step 2: Every time you find an article, the only thing you have to do is click on it, and then you’ll see the following indication.

• Step 3: The article was just sent to my inbox, so that I can later read it in peace.

Simple, isn’t it? We can finally put an end of going to your email and pressing “Compose → New email →send to:” and so on.

2. I always liked Google chrome’s bookmarking. Mostly because, even though it could be more “primitive” when compared to other tools that have been released more recently, it’s pre-built in the browser itself, it saves superfluous clicks, and has the most simple and easy to read interface. This is why I’ve built all of my process on it, slowly cultivating a huge and detailed “electronic library” of resources which I can search through easily and quickly. It’s unbelievably how, with barely more than a click on chrome’s “little star” and creating simple folders based on certain subjects, I ended up with access to precious knowledge in seconds.

This way, my bookmarks library came to be a little “monster” 😊. You can get a little taste from the following images:

What bookmarking tools do you prefer to use?

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Digital Marketing is a jungle. Right? My goal is simple: Make a difference, be more! I am a fan of the 80/20 rule. You can subscribe to my newsletter here in order to receive a notification every time I publish a new post.

With all that buzz around social media, maybe it would be a bit untimely to write about e-mail. I’ve started dealing with this part recently, which allows you the ability to play with various things, in order to achieve getting into a user’s personal online “drawer”.

A tool which is both cheaper than the classic digital marketing, and also has almost 40 times(!) the Conversion Rate of the Social Media channels, so it’s enough to add to your strategy.

And yes, we can talk about open rate, CTR, Delivered Rate, but in the end of the day, the key word is “conversion”.

Recently, Avinash Kaushik wrote an articled titled “Email still rocks! Social, Surprisingly, Stinks!”:

Social was never meant to be a conversion driving channel. It was always silly to believe that pimping your company’s products and services on Facebook would lead to short-term revenue — but the social ecommerce hype was/is too strong. Social media platforms are fantastic at See and good at Think. But they massively stink at Do. You don’t go to social platforms to buy, and only extremely rarely to research. You are there to reach out to people you have real (or fake!) relationships with, you are there to get updates on your digital or real world existences, and you are there to be entertained.

We can talk about many things regarding e-mail marketing. We can talk about:

-The KPIs of an e-commerce site’s e-mail.

-The campaign data. How many e-mails were sent, to whom, and what actions did the recipients perform.

-Segmentation and Multi-channel customer purchase behaviour, or customer lifetime value.

But before talking about these, it could be better to initially set objectives, later find the data in the BIG data’s “jungle,” and then we start to experiment.

People love receiving personal e-mails, especially receiving content tailored to their preferences.

I did a simple test, sending an e-mail that contained the user’s first name in the newsletter’s subject line, and I compared its performance to an e-mail which had a generic subject line.

The results were clear:

A good enough reason for the next article, which will contain the account of a series of tests I performed.

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Digital Marketing is a jungle. Right? My goal is simple: Make a difference, be more! I am a fan of the 80/20 rule. You can subscribe to my newsletter here in order to receive a notification every time I publish a new post.

The truth is that I never expected to receive this question during an interview, but it happened.

And while this question could be mainly asked for Sales positions, I was taught a great lesson about some basic principles regarding the fact that everything begins with first learning more about the customer you’re about to sell something to.

Thankfully, I was lucky to had seen “The Wolf of Wall Street” recently, and I remembered that DiCaprio, who played Belfort, a young stockbroker who tricked the whole of Wall Street and ripped off his customers for $200 million, speaks with his future partners regarding the fact that all people want to be rich, and how they could capitalize on that greed. The scene is on the video above.

So, I made sure to give them that same reply. It was wrong of course, and after the interview, I started thinking on its aspects, and understanding its exact meaning.

Even Belfort himself, in an interview, mentions that the reply given in the movie is wrong. Specifically:

“It’s sort of a trick question. Because when you say to a salesman, ‘Sell me this pen,’ you might find some will say to you, ‘This is a great pen, this pen writes upside down. It defies gravity, this pen is the cheapest pen on earth, this pen will never run out.’ They’ll say all the reasons the pen is good, they’ll start telling you the features, and the better ones will give you the benefits too. But that’s not what the real answer is. “

People ask this question because through it unfolds the creative approach, displaying how well you can sell a product to someone.

When someone asks you to sell them a pen, it’s very easy to focus on the pen and start describing its countless possibilities. It writes under water, it has a huge ink storage area, it has an attractive color, etc.

What’s the alternative approach? We start with the customer. Everything begins with collecting more data regarding the customer and their needs, and what they are looking for. Real pros know that a sale is always related to satisfying a need.

A great script for the simulation of a reply to the question “Sell me this pen” is the following:

CEO: Do me a favor, sell me this pen. (reaches across to hand me the pen)

Me: (I slowly roll the pen between my index and thumb fingers.) When was the last time you used a pen?

CEO: This morning.

Me: Do you remember what kind of pen that was?

CEO: No.

Me: Do you remember why you were using it to write?

CEO: Yes. Signing a few new customer contracts.

Me: Well I’d say that’s the best use for a pen (we have a subtle laugh).

Wouldn’t you say signing those new customer contracts is an important event for the business? (nods head) Then shouldn’t it be treated like one. What I mean by that is, here you are signing new customer contracts, an important and memorable event. All the while using a very unmemorable pen.

We grew up, our entire lives, using cheap BIC pens because they get the job done for grocery lists and directions. But we never gave it much thought to learn what’s best for more important events.

This is the pen for more important events. This is the tool you use to get deals done. Think of it as a symbol for taking your company to the next level. Because when you begin using the right tool, you are in a more productive state of mind, and you begin to sign more new customer contracts.

Actually. You know what? Just this week I shipped ten new boxes of these pens to Elon Musk’s office.

Unfortunately, this is my last pen today (reach across to hand pen back to CEO). So, I suggest you get this one. Try it out. If you’re not happy with it, I will personally come back next week to pick it up. And it won’t cost you a dime.

What do you say?

CEO: (picks jaw up off floor) Yes.

The framework that was followed for the answers above is simple and methodical:

1. Learn when was the last time they used a pen (collect information)
2. Emphasize the importance of the activity where they used a pen (a response to the information that was collected)
3. Sell something “bigger” than a pen, an ideal (deliver info)
4. Do the sales move (epilogue)

Info Sources:

• Best answer to “sell me this pen” i have ever seen
• Sell me this pen! A key to the Sales Job interview
• “Sell me this pen”: The real answer to the wolf of wall street’s challenge

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Digital Marketing is a jungle. Right? My goal is simple: Make a difference, be more! I am a fan of the 80/20 rule. You can subscribe to my newsletter here in order to receive a notification every time I publish a new post.

If you want to advertise diapers, conditioners, tooth pastes, soap, then you’ll find yourself up against P&G. It owns more than 40% of the market share in each of these products, and also has a powerful position in shampoo, cake mixes, and house products. It spends about $700,000,000 each year in advertising, more than any other company, and its turnover is $12,000,000,000 each year.

First of all, P&G is disciplined. Their philosophy is using a methodical plan and minimising risk. They distribute huge amounts of samples to households. In 1977, its President had said, “The largest part of our initial investment is given to introductory sampling. Only when our customers have a complete experience of our product, do we start advertising for sales.”

They never go for smaller product categories, unless they expect them to grow, and they always take care to dominate the category they choose. By creating a huge amount of sales, they manage to have lower operational costs than their competitors, and this gives them higher profit margins, or allows them to sell in lower prices.

They perform extensive market research in order to find the consumers’ specific needs. Their former President Ed Harness mentions that, “We continuously try to understand what hides behind every corner. We study the customer and try to discover new trends in taste, needs and habits.”

Through blind in-home tests, they make sure that their product’s superiority is clearly shown. Harness mentions characteristically that, “The key for successful marketing is your product having the best quality. If the consumer doesn’t finally receive a real benefit from your product, then no advertisement or sales move that can save it.” When they launch a new brand, they advertise it to a very high degree, supporting it by spending huge amounts of money. $29,000,000 for Crest, $24,000,000 for High Point, $19,000,000 for Pampers, $17,000,000 for Tide, and so on.

Their test-marketing is incredibly detailed and continuous. For Folger’s international expansion, they did 6 years of test before presenting it to the East. As their President mentions, “Patience is one of this Company’s highest virtues.” They prefer being right than being first. Only 3 products in P&G’s history have been internationally launched without first going through test-marketing for at least 6 months. 2 out of 3 failed.

They do extensive market research to discover the most successful strategy, and they never change it if it proves successful. Their strategy for Tide, Zest and Ivory Bar hasn’t changed for 30 years.

They always promise an important benefit for the consumer. They believe that their advertisement’s first duty is to successfully communicate about the product, not to be entertaining or original, and they evaluate this communication in 3 stages: before the copy is written, after the ad is created, and in test markets. All of their ads contain a “moment of confirmation.” They show a woman squeezing Charmin and testing its softness.

In 60% of their ads, they use demonstrations to show how absorbent Bounty is, etc. Their ads speak directly to the consumer, using a tone and a set of circumstances that are familiar to them. If the product is for bathroom use, then it’s advertised in a bathroom, not a lab. While their ads are incredibly competitive, they don’t spend their money to name the competing brands. They mention them as “other leading products.”

When P&G continuously uses a certain character to promote a brand, then they will be an unknown actor, and never a celebrity. This way they come even closer to the audience that’s connected to the products brand identity.

Only 30% of their budget goes to advertising during the evening. Instead of using 30" spots, they prefer 45" spots, since they’ve ascertained that those extra 15" serve to even better carry the ad’s message through.

Source: Ogilvy on advertising

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Digital Marketing is a jungle. Right? My goal is simple: Make a difference, be more! I am a fan of the 80/20 rule. You can subscribe to my newsletter here in order to receive a notification every time I publish a new post.

Just as we passed into the new year, we had the chance to read countless articles on the new social media trends.

However, I think that starting from self-evident answers to current “simple” questions, is enough in order for a brand to stand out on the social media era. And when I say “stand out,” I don’t mean that it would be a creative process, but to initially set KPIs, to measure, to test things, and then to repeat this many times until it gives correct results.

Aggelos Galanakis, Head of Digital in Mindshare gave me answers to three questions that all those who run accounts in social media are called to answer in a daily basis.

1. Which are the three metrics that you never skip in your monthly social media report?

To settle on the three essential metrics that you have to have in your monthly social media reports, we first need to examine the objectives that each campaign might have.

If I could make a parameterization to the reply, I’d say that the first metric I’d always want to see, but to also show to the advertised party, is Cost per Objective. This way, there would obviously be campaigns that would have to be rated by their Cost per Click, others that would have the Cost per New Fan as their main objective, yet others would be based on the Cost per Engagement, and other campaigns that would have a Cost per App Download as their main objective (especially if we dealt with mobile — install app ads), or even Cost per Video View.

So, to sum up, the first metric would be Cost per Objective, exactly because Social Media campaigns could follow multiple and different objectives, depending on the specifics.

The second would be the ratio between Paid Engagement VS Earned Engagement, in order to see how much our campaign had its desired effect in having the social community interact with the social account.

The third metric that I’d always like to have, in any kind of campaign, is the result of social listening and the result of Positive Mentions VS Negative Mentions. Because, in the end, the essence of social media is to see how people talk about the advertised party who trusted us with their communication.

In essence, but also in practice, the three basic metrics that exist in every social media report are:

• Cost Per Click — the basic buying metric
• Cost Per Engagement — how much engagement was brought in by the campaign
• Cost Per People Taking Action — the engagement coming from light engaged users or heavy engaged users

2. Does SEO and Social media go hand-in-hand?

Of course they do. Firstly, social media can enhance overall SEO in many ways.

Either by the social account posts that can be republished by users and/or bloggers, even in websites, or the posts made in social media, both can create Google searches, and as such, are directly connected to the SEO already made. Finally, actions made in social media can bring traffic in the website, raising its ranking.

More specifically, Google+ is the most comprehensive example of the direct relationship between social media and SEO.

But I’d like to set a final parameter in the connection between SEO and social media. If the possibility for social media monitoring exists, many buzz graphs can be created, showing the frequency and method (words) of people’s mentions of the brands, in social media, giving a more complete image of the on-site SEO.

3. Why should someone invest in social media if they’ve already invested in Google AdWords?

In my opinion, the advantages offered to someone advertised through Google AdWords, related to those offered by Social Media, most often work cooperatively and rarely antagonistically.

In simple language, one could say that AdWords gives cost-efficient, targeted and ROI-oriented communication, while social media give the opportunity for community building, branded dialogues, fans turned ambassadors, and finally, the creation of a continuously growing foundation of people, from which we can learn their thoughts on our product, its real image in relation to the image we want to build, and finally, to extract customer satisfaction data.

In summary, regarding the advertised party, I’d say that AdWords brings customers, making them buy, while social media is the after sales service.

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Digital Marketing is a jungle. Right? My goal is simple: Make a difference, be more! I am a fan of the 80/20 rule. You can subscribe to my newsletter here in order to receive a notification every time I publish a new post.

About a week ago, “Super Tuesday” took place in America, which was super for Hillary Clinton, and semi-super for Donald Trump. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, you can read more here.

But there’s another highlight from that day, and that’s the swipe file sent by Mike Schauer.

He’s probably the only person that has concentrated all the visuals, played in the various television channels, that were used by the Republican and the Democrat Candidates. He’s displaying the whole context around them, and his analysis offers a huge value, because he shows how politicians use marketing in the American elections.

Beginning with the Democrats, he mentions candidate Bernie Sanders, who is told to have no chance against Hillary Clinton. He has very little recognizability by the wider audience, and is the oldest candidate.

Their biggest difference, according to Schauer, is that:

Most of Hillary’s ads are about HER.

She is widely known, has the luck to have the “Clinton” surname, is a woman (which by itself is USP), and even though she doesn’t have a strong CV, she appears experienced.

You may view the entire visuals here.

On the other hand, Bernie’s ads focus on people, on change, and on his vision, something that motivates people.

He is Hillary’s polar opposite, since he uses words like “we” and “us,” in contrast to Hillary’s most often used words, “you” and “you’re.”

You may view the entire visuals here.

Keeping those in mind, even though you knew nothing about these two candidates, which would you support?

The younger voters, who should be for Bernie, at least in theory, contrast with the older ones, who aren’t really comfortable with the concept of his huge change, which he mentions again and again.

All the while, Hillary uses celebrities for her e-mail marketing:

Bernie uses pop-ups and opt-ins in his site, which you can see for yourself here:

On the other side, we have the Republicans.

Angry guys, repeated insults, focus on fear and shock, things that make the Democrats appear like “kittens” before them.

Also, the Republican voters’ attendance is record breaking, since people haven’t really given any attention to elections for decades, and no matter if we like it or not, it’s mostly because of this guy…

Donald Trump.

There’s no reason to analyze this entity, but like Schauer mentions, if you are a student of the mythical marketer Dan Kennedy, then you might have heard this before:

Donald Trump is in the business of being Donald Trump.

If you ask someone of his voters, they’ll easily and effortlessly say that he is a tough guy, speaking without filters, and unafraid of getting dirty.

He also had said, at some point:

I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.

So, in contrast to the Democrats, he focuses on his power as a “celebrity” and “being against the status quo,” something that makes him a brand by himself.

Just like this site which Trump uses to sell t-shirts:

Or just like this newsletter which placed Trump in a hypothetical financial situation to boost his sales:

Finally, there’s Ted Cruz, criticized by many for his misleading mails.

Like, for example, a letter he sent, promising it contains a cheque, while in truth he asked people for donations.

Fingers crossed, to avoid the uber disaster of Donald Trump being the next planetary governor…

If you enjoyed this story, please click the 👏 button and share to help others find it! Feel free to leave a comment below.

Digital Marketing is a jungle. Right? My goal is simple: Make a difference, be more! I am a fan of the 80/20 rule. You can subscribe to my newsletter here in order to receive a notification every time I publish a new post.

Having a list of loyal subscribed users in your e-mail base is the best thing if you want to start structuring your e-mail Marketing Strategy. Through careful segmentation, sending relevant content and continuous analysis of the results, there’s a high chance of raising the ROI. All athletic teams have loyal fans which just wait to be informed about a wide range of services.

1. Collect the relevant data

No matter how much money you spend on advertising and other ways of communication, if you can’t convince a user to sign-up for your e-mail list, then you have a glaring error in your total Marketing Strategy. E-mail marketing is considered to be one of the top, and cheapest ways of raising ROI with your customers/fans.

In simple terms, it’s important for users to be able to easily and quickly sign-up to your newsletter, giving them in the same time a motive for doing so. A simple example could be a form mentioning that you could “Be the first to know all important news of the Team, and receive discounts in premium tickets.”

2. The first email

The first welcoming e-mail is one of the best ways to be in touch with the fans while they are still available at that moment. Ideally, you would use the “welcome email” as a cross-selling tool or as a tool for them to interact with the team. You could also use it for promoting certain products of the Team’s online shop.

3. Personalize

Remember that you are up against hundreds of other e-mails in the inbox folder of the user, which means that you have to find a way to make them pay attention to you. Before sending the next newsletter to your fans, try one of the following:

-Include the user’s name in the subject line of the newsletter.

-Don’t miss to mention their name in the body of the e-mail as well.

-Mention the most recent match which that particular fan attended.

-Try to send them a person-centric wish, signed by their favorite Team.

-Offer an exclusive discount for a court-side ticket. This discount could be a function of their purchase history.

-Remember to send them a reminder a couple of days before the next match, mentioning important details for the Team’s roster, its schedule, as well as anything else noteworthy.

-Try to send them a newsletter with dynamic content, based on the user’s behavior in the Site itself. It would be great to mention products they have chosen before but haven’t purchased (i.e. abandonment card). A good company offering such dynamic content solutions is Mojn.

The creation of user loyalty is a long- and short-term victory.

With an average open rate of 22% and an average click rate of 3% in the sports industry, every person-centric technique could raise the newsletter’s performance.

4. Design

In the sports industry, everything should be connected to the Team’s brand. Logos, colors and the text itself have to follow the same direction. Elsewise, how will you keep the fans/users “loyal”? The mobile responsiveness is rewarded when you also use alt-text in your images. The reason for that is because when opening an e-mail, most images aren’t loaded immediately, and your users might not know where to click. A smaller CTR = less Engagement.

5. Segmentation

It’s a fact that not all of your users have the same needs and preferences. For this reason, you should face each and every one of them in a different way, entering them in different user groups. A list with different segments which could be used in a sports Team’s newsletter, could be structured like this:

• Purchase history
• A user with one purchase
• A user with two purchases
• User with repeated purchases (3 to 5 purchases)
• User with a great purchase history (5 to 10 purchases)
• User with an exceptional purchase history (10+ purchases)
• Booking habits — The device through which they make most of their purchases (smartphone, tablet, desktop)
• User’s sex: male/female
• Type of purchase by user

a) Fans who bought VIP tickets (heavy spenders)

b) Fans who bought mid-range tickets

c) Fans who bought normal price tickets

All the above-mentioned segments could be used to structure an organized e-mail Marketing Strategy for a Team’s fans.

6. Automation methods perform well

In the sports industry, there are countless chances for its application: birthdays, dates when season tickets come on sale, new products, etc. The automated e-mails save time, and make sure that the customers will receive only relevant offers, which will create the impression of being payed the attention they deserve. An example of this would be sending an invitation to a simple poll after every match, asking them to rate the Players’ performance, in return of a discount coupon for the next ticket’s purchase.

7. Test, optimize and repeat

A successful e-mail would offer the user a good “taste” of what they’ll see on the page they’ll be redirected to. This optimization procedure can’t ever stop, since the user’s preferences change constantly. The only way to keep a user “loyal” is through continuous testing.

If you enjoyed this story, please click the 👏 button and share to help others find it! Feel free to leave a comment below.

Digital Marketing is a jungle. Right? My goal is simple: Make a difference, be more! I am a fan of the 80/20 rule. You can subscribe to my newsletter here in order to receive a notification every time I publish a new post.