Black Friday isn't driving shoppers to stores like it used to. Victim of its online success?

Social Content Marketing is no longer an Option.

Our web traffic will live or die on how well we engage in social media. Google Plus and Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and YouTube and LinkedIn and Yelp are all part of our social sphere of influence.

Those are pretty good numbers.  6 out of 10 people are not buying products because other people have shared them.  Who would have thought?

Can we really influence people? Should we just listen to what they have to say and tell stories and ways to help them?

Add BrandRooming To Showrooming

Pity the poor brick and mortar retailer. They've been battling showrooming and now Kraft launches their own ecommerce website.

Once major brands launch their own e-commerce platforms the end of the beginning is upon us. What about channel conflict? How will the Walmarts and Targets of the world feel about competing with Krafts ShopCrystalLight.com? 

How will big box retailers take to "brandrooming"?

If I were Walmart.com I would take Crystal Light off my website and, depending on the profits, off store shelves. I think the reason Kraft isn't worried about this is they must have run this idea by their key accounts first.

The backroom agreement is probably to keep the price of Crystal higher on their platform than through its distribution partners. That is a deal I would have done if I was Kraft too since Crystal Light calls out for contests, gamification and User Generated Content (UGC(.

With the right contests and gamification layer Kraft's ecom customers won't care about price as long as the price is in striking distances of the discounters.  

Email The Register Of Ecommerce
Email out performed all other channels when I was an Ecom director. Email contributed more margin to the bottom line and was the cash register of other "lost leader" channels such as PPC. 

Email also creates important diversification. People on YOUR list put you in control at least as far as you don't irritate or spam. If more than a tiny group on your list complains you are marketing insensitive to their needs (spamming in other words) and your ISP will black ball your website and it can be hellish to get off. 

Email As Mobile Life Curator
Email marketing is not without its new challenges. Batch and blast the same message means conversion will go down as spam complaints go up. Email's role is changing with the dominance of smart phones.

Smart phones and pads are the easiest way to manage emails. Email deletion is easiest on mobile and mobile fills up the free time of waiting in lines and sitting on the subway. Wonder why your open rates are going DOWN? A: Smart phones. 

All of this means you need personas and segments AND responsive emails in your email marketing these days. You MUST create relevant messages. Use personas, fully articulated archetypes for between 3 and 7 "super groups" within your list. 

Know what segments within your list such as "multi-buyers" or VIPs are the most profitable. Combine personas, which THEY ARE with your financial segments what THEY MEAN to you to create campaigns that will appeal to THEM and make money for YOU. 

Email Marketing In Mobile World Tips
* Subject Line is beyond important.

* Create responsive email (email must look great on all devices).  

* Use PERSONAS and SEGMENTS together.

* Tell STORIES over TIME.

* Curate User Generated Content INTO your email marketing.

* Count and trend unopens as a NO.

* Create & Trend new KPIs such as $ / sent, $ / opens.

* Keep emails OFF your website (dupe content and hurt heuristics).

This last bullet needs some explanation. Your email marketing needs a "can't see this email view it here" link, but keep your creative in a NON-SPIDERED folder.

Allowing your emails to get spidered can cause duplicate content problems and the heuristics of your emails don't help since, if you are creating great Call To Action emails, your audience will not spend much time on your emails as they are simply attention getter pass through to points of conversion.