In a bid to create a sustainable future for the marketing industry, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has unveiled its new Responsible Marketing Committee, which aims to identify the opportunities and risks in an ever-changing sector landscape; as well as provide direction and thought leadership to marketers.

The DMA’s Board appointed the Committee to set out clear policies for marketers to adhere to, in addition to defining what constitutes responsible behaviour. Furthermore, a key responsibility will be to ensure that The DMA Code remains fit for purpose to protect the long-term health of the marketing industry amidst changing customer views and societal expectations around each of these four core principles.

Chaired by Skip Fidura, DMA board member and client services director at dotmailer, other members include the managing director at Bow & Arrow, Andy Grant, and chair of the Direct Marketing Commission, George Kidd.

Social media is constantly evolving and, in turn, can become bewildering for brands and marketers to use to their advantage. Consumer expectations are difficult to measure when it comes to social media, but its wide audiences and reach means that it can’t be ignored.

This year, it’s predicted that social media will continue to advance, adjust and diversify; making it easy for some marketers to get left behind. Therefore, if a brand not only wants to keep u and thrive, changes need to be incorporated into marketing strategies as swiftly as possible. Marketers need to be sure that the content they produce is going to engage their target audience – is it desirable or a waste of time and budget?

Earlier this year, Twitter announced its plans to offer a ‘recommendation tab’. Personalisation is always important and when it works, it works brilliantly. However, a user may have tweeted a complaint about a restaurant, but this doesn’t mean they’ll be interested in receiving recommendations from this restaurant and others like it. So, how can they ensure their content is being seen by their desired audience in the appropriate way?

One size does not fit all

Greenlight discovered that 55 per cent of FTSE companies’ have fake or inactive followers. Even some of the biggest brands with the largest marketing budgets aren’t reaching ‘real’ users with their content, highlighting that quantity shouldn’t come before quality. To ensure their team doesn’t spend too much time and resources speaking to no one, brands should invest time digging a little deeper to check where their audience is actively engaging with content. They must remember that Facebook will not reach the same audiences as LinkedIn for example, so they need to find out where their audience really is.

Marketers need to take an attentive approach to this targeting process. A first step is to remember that there is often a demographic behind each social media platform. Facebook users aren’t as young as one may think, however the demographic of Snapchat isn’t as low anymore either, as parents are now inclined to join. Different ages and locations will have very diverse interests; therefore relevant content should be served up to individual audiences and consumers.

By carefully developing these insights, marketers will have a greater understanding of target audiences in order to choose the channels that are relevant for their brand and audience. Brands will then be able to attract and grow their customer base, in addition to influencing and enabling consumer purchases and sign-up rates.

Data driven tools

Marketers can’t stretch themselves across a number of platforms and just hope for the best – they must determine what the best approach is for their brand to reach their customer. For example, if they work with a visually pleasing brand targeting consumers, Instagram and Pinterest could be suitable platforms. If marketers want to target B2B clients, and keep them informed, Twitter might be right, but arguably LinkedIn could be more relevant.

Marketers have to take the plunge and make the most of data analytics to stay on top. Whilst one may think Burberry, with 6.1 million followers on Twitter, is a social media king, research from Greenlight Digital showed that 65 per cent of their users are inactive. Tools like Hootsuite and Glow can manage and listen to audiences – very helpful for the brands that aren’t sure what platform is right for them. Not all tools are necessarily best for all brands, marketers have to do their research to get the most from these data driven tools to gain the greatest insights. When marketers find their match for social media monitoring it will ensure they won’t be left behind by the constantly evolving social media sphere.

The marketing industry will have to wait and see what the major social media players introduce to keep their users on their platform, but in the meantime taking the time to really understand where their audience is and using social media tools to their advantage, can ensure marketers brands don’t become a nuisance.

Selfridges launching its winter wonderland on the first day of August was a shock to the system. Down came the swimming costumes and suntan lotion, and up went 50,000 Christmas decorations and fluttering faux snow.

From a customer perspective, it’s likely that Selfridges fired too soon. The campaign was instantly met with criticism. While some lamented the robbing of their final summer weeks, others decried the rise of rampant consumerism. Christmas is ruined.

Selfridges might be cleverly launching Christmas so early to scoop up trade from tourists, but many shopper marketers would agree with the outcry. Timing is everything in retail. By focusing on Christmas now, Selfridges is missing out on making the most of the summer season, and potentially even Halloween. Time and money could be better spent optimising these events and related purchase opportunities. Christmas could then be rolled out when the summer fun has cooled down and customers are in a wintrier mood.

That said, Selfridges has shone a twinkling light on the fact that, as Christmas seems to arrive earlier and earlier commercially, retail marketers really need to plan ahead.

Christmas has always been a competitive affair. Products and brands like sherry and Quality Street that are organically associated with the holiday become high-demand, while non-Christmas brands shake up their strategies to try to directly associate with it. Suddenly brands can find themselves competing against others not normally within their category for the most part of the year.

The latter has become much more sophisticated than just decorating packaging with Christmas trees. Innocent Smoothies’ Big Knit for instance, backed by Age UK, leverages people’s more charitable nature in the run-up to Christmas, raising money to keep older people warm.

In fact, Christmas in retail is becoming more sophisticated across the board as new technologies provide exciting and disruptive ways to engage consumers. There was a time when all brands needed was a well thought out TV advert to bring the nation to its knees. Coca-Cola’s ‘Holidays are coming’, which celebrated its 20^th anniversary last year, is a great example of a timeless campaign that will never fail to get the family around the television set.

Brilliant Christmas TV adverts still have their place – who can forget Sainsbury’s ‘Christmas is for sharing’ 2014 epic to mark the centenary of World War One? – but businesses are increasingly embracing omnichannel activation to inspire their customers at every touchpoint.

John Lewis is really leading the way here. Both the Bear and the Hare (2013) and Monty the Penguin (2014) were launched via beautifully directed and emotionally charged TV ads, but were a central part of the brand’s entire Christmas activation, from online to in-store to the products people bought.

We’re told that Christmas is a time for giving and sharing – something that directly impacts the mindsets of shoppers at this time of year. Marketing agency, smp’s report, Beyond Demographics, identified seven mindsets that influence shopper decisions today much more than traditional demographics. These range from ‘secure’ and ‘conscious’ to ‘social’ and ‘creative’. At Christmas, people are much more open and looking for purchases that build connections and generate sociability. Brands need to follow the likes of John Lewis and offer solutions to suit these mindsets.

This is why planning ahead is vitally important in today’s retail landscape. Businesses need to assess the tools available to them and take a holistic view of how to engage with consumers. While Selfridges might have transformed itself into a summer Scrooge for some, stealing precious summertime from shoppers, the retailer has also taught the industry an interesting lesson in how to shake up its approach to the festive season.

Although many in the marketing profession have publicly declared the platform of email to be a thing of yesteryear, it’s still evident that a majority brands and sales departments are keen to adopt an effective strategy that will connect an audience and spread the intended message.

Taking a standard template, filling in the blanks and hitting send is easy for anyone to do; but that’s not how you grow a business. It’s crucial to put some thought into developing a solid strategy, or even better, replicate an effective process that has gained a substantial amount of traction, and make solid improvements over time.

Every email campaign should have one goal in mind: don’t overwhelm your audience with too much information. You want to create a campaign that is easy for everyone to read and navigate; as well as ensuring all the appropriate information and links are included.

The day you choose to send out a campaign can also greatly impact the amount of traction gained. According to marketers, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays tend to be the best days to send emails.

Although a template will more than likely be replicated for every campaign, emails should still look personal to the individual. Avoid decorative HTML designs; make sure emails appear to be written and sent by a real person to increase loyalty.

Subject line tips:

The subject line you decide to go with will undoubtedly be the most important part of your email. It’s just a few words; but you should dedicate as much attention and care to your subject line as you do to the email body. If it doesn’t attract interest, it won’t get opened.

• If appropriate, use a reader’s name.
• Make the subject line as inviting and personal as possible. The more personal the subject line, the higher the open rate.
• Experiment with attention-grabbing questions as subject lines.
• Always deliver in your email what you promise in your subject line.

British fashion house, Burberry, has become the first luxury brand to partner with  the picture-sharing platform, Pinterest, by offering a ‘personalised service’ and the opportunity to create customised make-up boards; coinciding with the promotion of its latest ‘Cat Lashes Mascara’ product.

Although Burberry has suffered some rather public setbacks this year – with the current chief executive, Christopher Bailey to be replaced in the near future – the personalisation service works by asking customers three questions and, by using their initials, their answers will be the source for creating a personal Pinterest board suited to their individual needs.

Claiming to be the largest beauty platform in the world – with an estimated 38.5 million unique viewers of its hair and beauty category – the content uploaded to Pinterest will include inspirational images, makeup preferences, product tips and ‘how to get the look’ guides.

In a survey analysing the attitudes, expectations and adoption of ‘mobile wallets’, the mobile engagement and solutions company, Urban Airship, has found that more than half of consumers have used a mobile wallet pass; with millennials at the top of the list, and Generation X (born between the early 1960s and to mid-1970s) and higher-income mobile users firmly behind.

The State of Mobile Wallet Marketing report also reveals what key findings from the survey mean for brands to reach mobile users. Readers will learn about how 2,000 consumers in the US and UK want mobile wallet passes for a variety of uses, in particular, to receive coupons and special offers as well as managing loyalty programmes.

Download the full report here

The advertising industry’s think tank, Credos, has stated as a result of its latest research that brands urgently need to start making a significant contribution to the wellbeing of young males between the ages of 8-18; as 67 per cent of the 1,005 respondents say it is unacceptable for brands to use digital techniques to change a model’s appearance and body shape in advertising.

The ‘Picture of health?’ study, which looked into the body image of young males at primary and secondary school ages, revealed that 53 per cent of secondary school boys are pressured to look their best by advertising; along with social media, friends and celebrities.

Credos director, Karen Fraser, said: “This new research shows boys are increasingly worried about their appearance. We have to recognise that advertising and the wider media play some part in shaping how young people feel about themselves – both positively and negatively. This work is about encouraging brands to further engage in the debate and make an even greater contribution to the health and well-being of young men.”

Furthermore, 23 per cent claim to have changed their exercise routine after seeing images portrayed in advertising.

Read the full report here

With the social media giant, Facebook, announcing on August 9 that it is planning to update its current technology to prevent the use of ad-blocking software on the desktop version its website, Adblock Plus has hit back by branding the decision as ‘anti-user’.

In a blog post entitled ‘Oh well, looks like Facebook just got all anti-user’, Adblock Plus owner, Eyeo’s communications and operations manager, Ben Williams, used Facebook’s press release to launch a scathing attack by claiming the main reason people use ad blockers is to ‘stop annoying, disruptive ads’ – in addition to why users are being prevented from making decisions in what they can and cannot block.

Read the full blog post here