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The next stage of software automation
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Digital engagement specialist Parker Software has released ThinkAutomation 4.0, a sweeping update to the company’s leading business automation software. The upgrade adds extensive new functionality to the product, such as sentiment analysis, social media monitoring and SMS-driven automation, making it ideal for logistics, marketing and retail businesses looking to streamline processes. 

ThinkAutomation allows businesses to increase efficiency by automating tasks and processing documents and inbound messages. Version 4.0 builds on these functions with advanced document processing, which allows automatic conversion of file formats as well as attachment analysis, and SMS hotline functionality that can improve business communications.

Automated SMS functionality allows businesses to update systems via text. This is achieved by establishing hubs to receive specific messages, such as internal communications and delivery enquiries. Customers and employees text these numbers with enquiries or updates and ThinkAutomation sends personalised responses, as well as updating all relevant systems and databases.

“The development of business technology has meant that offices now operate in environments that are increasingly hectic and process-intensive,” explained Howard Williams, marketing director of Parker Software. “The latest update to ThinkAutomation adds more capabilities for the software to help businesses cut through the noise and stay on top of what really matters.

“Almost everybody has a mobile phone now, whether it’s a smartphone or a more traditional device. The introduction of SMS to database functionality in our software means that tasks can be streamlined more than ever before. Curious customers or ill employees will no longer have to navigate complex procedures, they simply send a message on-the-go and ThinkAutomation handles the rest. It’s a convenient business solution for the twenty-first century.”

The software also provides businesses the ability to monitor how people are responding to their brand more closely through sentiment analysis and social media monitoring. By setting the software up to process inbound data from social media accounts, ThinkAutomation can respond to key words and phrases and action them accordingly – either by notifying relevant personnel or by delivering automated responses.

“The rise of social media and internet forums has meant that customers have more platforms than ever before to review businesses in a negative light – with ever growing audiences,” continued Williams. “This poses a problem to businesses in that the vast quantity of data generated by monitoring company mentions is not only daunting but, for a large percentage, not meaningful or useful.

“Sentiment analysis allows businesses to break down online interactions by specific search strings, individually highlighting both the positive and negative content. This can then be automatically responded to with keyword recognition and pre-determined answers, or even create a new entry in a database.”

Welcome to the new Digital Marketing Solutions Summit!
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The Digital Marketing Solutions Summit is set to take place on May 8th at London’s Grange Tower Bridge Hotel.

Formerly known as the Internet Marketing Summit, the event will once again match senior marketing professionals with leading product and service providers for a day of match-made business meetings.

Last year the event attracted over 65 senior professionals from the likes of Bupa, Lloyds Bank, Tesco, Hilton, BT, Vision Express, Investec, Legal & General, MetLife, Paragon and more meet and network with companies including Amobee, Click Consult, Adestra, Redfish Group, King Content, Yoyo Design and Soak to discuss their respective requirements.

Attending the event is free for all marketing professionals and your complimentary place includes lunch and all refreshments throughout the day. You’ll also get access to a seminar programme covering topics including Web Analytics and Search Engine Optimisation, Content Marketing and Email Marketing.

 

To find out more about attending, contact Kerry Naumburger on 01992 374099 or email k.naumburger@forumevents.co.uk.

 

A number of supplier packages are available for companies looking to meet with some of the UK’s leading marketeers. Contact Carlos Dieguez on 01992 374091 or via c.dieguez@forumevents.co.uk to find out more.

 

Mailjet crowns Waitrose winner of best Christmas email campaign…
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The email service provider Mailjet has revealed that Waitrose is ahead of its competitor supermarkets in the email campaign stakes, analysing key metrics including the chain’s subject lines, automation, cross-channel marketing and personalisation.

Reaching a total score of 21.3 points out of an available 29.0, this marks the second consecutive victory for Waitrose in the study and represents a significant improvement on supermarket’s performance from last year, rising 10 per cent overall.

Mid-market brands Tesco and Asda closely followed Waitrose’s success, hitting 20.0 and 19.9 respectively, however, Marks & Spencer struggled to compete scoring just 17.4 in total.

With regards to emails prospecting new consumer audiences, the research places Morrisons and Sainsbury’s joint last as both failed to send any communications to consumers who haven’t yet purchased through their online shopping platforms.

Josie Scotchmer, UK marketing manager at Mailjet said: “Consumers buy from the brands they build emotional connections with, particularly during the Christmas season. With low scores in critical areas for digital marketing like personalisation and automation, many supermarkets are not making the most of their emails to engage consumers with powerful storytelling.

As Mailjet suggests there has been much discussion on the importance of campaign personalisation this year, just two of the total eight supermarkets surveyed registered a score above 0.0. Specifically, Asda fell short on the top spot for its lack of personalisation, losing five points by omitting any room to add personal messaging to the email in favour of a singularly product-focused, visual structure.

Scotchmer added: “Winning greater share of the market in run up to Christmas holiday relies on having an online and offline campaign that fires on all cylinders. There are opportunities for all of these brands to learn from one another and broaden their use of digital strategies to engage and build loyalty with consumers at this critical period in the retail calendar.”

ANA members vote Transparency as ‘Marketing Word of the Year’…
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Members of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in the US have voted the word transparency as the ‘Marketing Word of the Year’. 

During the week commencing November 28, the ANA surveyed its members online and asked them to vote on the ‘Marketing Word of the Year’ from a list of finalists prepared by the association’s staff. A total of 267 members participated and ‘transparency’ received the most votes.

A representative selection of verbatim comments from ANA members include: [Transparency] is the single most important issue in marketing and has the greatest potential benefit in terms of improving marketing ROI; [Transparency] or lack of, defines all media agency relationships and provides a new perspective to consider these relationships; and [Transparency] affects everything we communicate in marketing, from our product formulations and labels to how we communicate in all channels to our internal culture.

Bob Liodice, CEO at ANA said: “It’s no surprise that our members chose transparency the Marketing Word of the Year. Our media transparency study was one of our most important initiatives and it sparked fundamental behavioral changes among marketers and in the industry, here and around the world.” 

Other top choices considered by ANA members were customer experience, content marketing, influencer, and programmatic. It was the third consecutive year the ANA announced a ‘Marketing Word of the Year’. Previous winners were content marketing in 2015 and programmatic in 2014. 

 

Gender inequality experienced by nearly half of female marketers…
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The Marketing Society Scotland has found that almost half (48 per cent) of female marketers in the country have experienced gender inequality in the workplace during their careers, compared to just 16 per cent of their male counterparts.

The ‘Mind the Gap‘ project indicates unfair treatment to be a major concern, with 53 per cent of females and 79 per cent of male marketers agreeing with the statement that both are treated equally in the workplace. In addition, just 29 per cent of females believe they are equally paid to their male colleagues, compared with 59 per cent of males.  

Helen Campbell, chair of the Marketing Society Scotland and head of global brand and marketing communications at VisitScotland, said: “The Inspiring Women initiative is borne out of a recognition that as a marketing community we must work harder to ensure greater equality in the workplace, at all levels.

“Where there is inequality we need to understand why and most importantly take proactive steps to address it. Now is the time to work smarter and harder to build a more balanced marketing community and culture.” 

Furthermore, nine percent of females and 29 per cent of males think that both genders are equally represented at all levels in marketing and agency jobs in Scotland. 

Scotland is reported to have the worst gender pay gap in the UK and, of the Scottish based companies in the FTSE 100, only 25 per cent of board positions are held by females. 

 
Learn more about ‘Mind the Gap‘ here 

Carlsberg UK to ‘increase marketing spend by £15 million’…
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Carlsberg‘s British arm will inject a further £15 million into their marketing spend in a bid to attract the millennial demographic and revive its Export brand, according to industry reports.

Following a year-long project conducting ‘exhaustive’ consumer research, trends monitoring and category analysis, Drinks International reports that Carlsberg will aim to confront the ‘long-term decline’ seen in the lager category by engaging with the millennial consumer group; identified as the most influential and responsible for driving key trends.

As of January 2017, the Export brand will have a new design that will reflect the brand’s Danish heritage. In addition, all consumer ‘touch points’ have been remodelled, including a new bar font and glassware, through to a new premium 330ml-sized bottle.

Liam Newton, UK vice president of marketing, said: “The fundamental reason for the decline in the beer category is the fact the biggest segments – standard and premium lager – are losing relevance with millennial consumers. In our eyes, the dramatic change in the UK beer market requires bold action, and an even bolder approach, and this lies at the heart of our revitalisation of Carlsberg.

“Standard and premium lagers recruit new drinkers, and if consumers don’t enter through these segments, it is unlikely they will move into world and craft. This means brands like Carlsberg and premium beers like Carlsberg Export remain vital to the long-term health of the entire beer category.”

Drinks International has cited statistics that the company claims the number of consumers drinking standard lager has fallen by 1.1 million, and the number drinking premium lager has also fallen by 430,000 over the last five years. 

Survey demonstrates the qualities of high-performing marketers…
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Autopilot has revealed that high-performing marketers are surpassing their peers when it comes to customer journey marketing, with some generating revenue growth by as much as 122 per cent.

Consisting of 505 marketer responses, the email marketing firm’s ‘2016 State of Customer Journey Marketing‘ report found high-performing marketers generate revenue 58 per cent faster than their colleagues; acquire 23 per cent more leads; are twice as happy with their performance; and win a higher number of customers.

Brand awareness was pinpointed as a ‘main measure of marketing success’ (29 per cent), closely followed by customer satisfaction (22 per cent), and, for B2B marketers in particular, 43 per cent claim investing in brand assets is a ‘top priority’.

The report states: “All marketers are prioritising brand awareness, converting leads to sales and generating new leads. But high performers are investing in customer events and marketing, referral and satisfaction programs, and analytics and attribution, rather than in online ads, to get there.”

High-performers affirm the top three investment areas are: customer events and marketing (35 per cent), loyalty referral programmes (29 per cent) and analytics and attribution (19 per cent).

  

Download Autopilot’s research here  

Facebook beats LinkedIn as content king for senior execs…
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B2B content marketing agency, Grist has confirmed Facebook to be the ‘go to’ social platform for C-suite executives to seek business advice.

As a result of its new ‘The Value of B2B Thought Leadership Survey’ – presenting the findings from more than 200 interviews conducted at FTSE 350 companies – Facebook was cited as the most popular social platform for senior executives to engage with business content (79 per cent), followed by Twitter (73 per cent) and LinkedIn (68 per cent).

Regards thought leadership, 84 per cent believe this plays an important part in adding value to their role. Meanwhile, two-thirds search for thought leadership particularly on a Monday and believe it fails to make an impact when it’s too generic (63 per cent); lacks original ideas (58 per cent); or doesn’t address the reader’s needs (53 per cent).

Andrew Rogerson, founder and managing director at Grist said: “This research is great news if you are in control of your firm’s marketing and communications programme. The C-suite clearly values thought leadership and is happy to receive it from advisers.

“However, we can also see that much of this content is below par. The C-suite is a sophisticated and demanding audience, and will not respond to rehashed marketing material. Instead, thought leadership must provide a return on investment (ROI), both for the firms that invest the money to produce it and the senior executives that invest time in reading it.

“Consider, too, that Facebook matters in business-to-business communications. The marketing department, content teams and agencies need to deal with the consequences of this and devise a compelling editorial plan that includes a wide range of channels and different perspectives.”

Format was also discussed, as 800-word articles (63 per cent) and 300-500-word blog posts are preferable to longer content pieces.

Access the full survey here

Technical abilities overriding core skills in marketing recruitment…
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Core marketing capabilities such as copywriting, project management and analytical skills are often overlooked by industry employers, new research from Hays suggests.

83 per cent of the 300 respondents surveyed agree core skills hold more importance in the sector compared to technical skills, despite the ‘Elements of a marketer’ report concluding that too much deliberation is placed on the technical abilities of each recruitment.

Clare Kemsley, managing director at Hays said: “Core skills are vital to all marketers and without them, technical abilities cannot be used to their full potential. Marketing leaders need to consider the ideal mix of skills, within their teams and within themselves, in order to be able to capitalise on the ever-evolving digital world. 

“When looking for new roles, candidates should focus on highlighting their core skills and ‘fit’ with the organisation in order to increase their value, and earning potential, with future employers.”

Individuals in middle management positions were found to have the most significant skills gaps, as 21 per cent admit to struggling with strategic thinking and 14 per cent on analytical skills. 

Some employers did, however, indicate they would be willing to pay higher salaries for candidates who hold a strong balance of technical abilities and core skills.

Request a copy of the report here

‘Wasteful meetings and excessive emails’ hindering productive marketing tasks…
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UK marketers are increasingly spending large portions of their working day focused on activities outside of their productive duties, a new Workfront study claims.

Wasteful meetings (64 per cent), excessive emails (62 per cent) and excessive oversight were found to be the top three indicators that ‘got in the way’ of completing necessary tasks. In addition, the enterprise work management solutions provider found that over a quarter (27 per cent) would best describe their feelings about attending meetings with negative emojis.

Joe Staples, chief marketing officer at Workfront said: “Meetings and email are a necessary part of today’s workplace. Unfortunately, they are often misused; decreasing, rather than increasing, productivity. The good news is there are better ways to manage work.

“By implementing a solution like Workfront, marketers are able to collaborate in the context of work, and gain complete visibility into the work that is being done. This eliminates the need for unnecessary status meetings, and lengthy email threads and gives teams time back to be more productive. It’s really about providing the tools that allow businesses to focus on the right work, create their best work, and deliver that work faster than ever before.”

The ‘2016 UK Marketing State of Work Report’ collected data on other key factors of a marketer’s typical work pattern, including:

  • 57 per cent take 30 minutes or less for lunch and 27 per cent take less than 15 minutes. 49 per cent claim to be too busy and 36 per cent prefer to work through their lunch hour.
  • 9 hours is the typical workweek for marketers, compared to their non-marketing counterparts who work an average of 40.6 hours per week.
  • 29 per cent said uninterrupted blocks of time would help them be more productive at work, followed by more efficient work processes (23 per cent), and more/better qualified people and resources (20 per cent).
  • 60 per cent believe the majority of workers will work remotely in the coming years.
  • 34 per cent of marketers agree that email will no longer be the main mode of communication in the next five years.

The full report can be accessed here