ROI research (Return on Investment) is a key consideration for companies pursing or thinking about pursuing the hottest digital trends:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Big Data
• Digital Transformation
• Influencer Marketing
• Mobile Apps

Each of these areas is about innovation with the goal of saving companies time, money and providing better and more personalized customer experiences.

But the reality is they are big endeavors that also require big investments and often infrastructure change. So how much? For how long is required? When does it pay off?

Here is the ROI research on the 5 hottest digital trends.

ROI research on Artificial Intelligence (AI)

70% of companies claim they’re using a form of artificial intelligence (AI). This includes machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and cognitive computing. Manufacturers worldwide are looking to technologies through artificial intelligence (AI) to increase efficiencies and avoid disruption from industry newcomers. KPMG surveyed 299 global manufacturing CEOs, and another 73 from the US. The conclusion for their ROI research: AI investment could take up to 5 years, 56% of manufacturing CEOs say.

ROI research on Big Data

Big Data adoption reached 53% of companies in 2017 according to the NewVantage Partners Big Data Executive Survey. 84% of survey respondents name factors related to speed, insight, and business agility as the primary reasons for big data investment. Tech Republic reports that ROI on big data can be delivered in 6 months if companies outline a very specific business case and outcome for the big data investments. Examples include sensors to shorten delivery routes or reduce in-transit theft. Behavior data to better understand consumer preference and relationship to sales. Wikibon research claims, the average Big Data project delivers a 55 cents ROI for each dollar invested.

ROI research on Digital Transformation

88% of companies report they are undergoing digital transformation. This year, according to IDC, companies around the world are expected to have spent a total of $2.1 trillion on digital transformation. The network is at the heart of any digital transformation according to IDC. No network means no business. Yet IDC has stated that in the next two years almost a third (30%) of large and midsize businesses will suffer a service failure due to mismatches in power delivery and IT workload profiles caused by hardware obsolescence. A DT-ready network can be surprisingly affordable achieving an average return on investment of 349% over five years and payback in as little as six months. Automation is an essential element of such a network; an IDC study found that companies lowered their networking costs by 33%.

ROI research on Influencer Marketing

75% of marketers are using influencers as a marketing tool and many plan to increase spending 43% in the next 12 months. A study on influencer marketing showed that it can give an ROI of 11X more than banner ads. A Celebrity Intelligence survey found for $1.29 beauty brand spend on beauty influencer, they are generating a return of $11.38. According to Tomoson, $6.50 in revenue is generated from every $1 invested in influencer marketing strategies. Finding the right influencers for the right campaign is one of the most frequent difficulties faced by nearly 68% of the marketers.

ROI research on mobile apps

58% of all connected consumer time takes place in mobile apps, according to digital research firm comScore. According to a report by Gartner, mobile apps will be responsible for generating a revenue of $77 billion by 2017. Mobile apps are a core ingredient in the future of tech in our everyday lives. ROI research on mobile apps is determined based on the function and goals of the app. It’s different to develop mobile games to make money than to create a free corporate app to enhance your brand and be able to connect more directly with your customers. But ROI is also pretty basic for mobile app. The primary markets are the Apple Store and Google Play. They offer tools for keeping a record of the times our app gets downloaded, as well as from which countries it was downloaded from and user performance data. You can also check the comments and opinions left by those who have tried our app and the error reports it may have generated to act accordingly and get these problems solved in future updates.

Does this ROI research help you in your pursuit of these innovative technologies. Could your company benefits from a ROI assessment for any initiatives you may be doing or thinking in these areas?

Mobile App marketing

Mobile App marketing matters. The number of apps available to Android users is 2.1 million on Google Play and iPhone users have 2 million available apps on the Apple App Store.

Mobile apps account for nearly half of global internet traffic and are an important channel to consider for businesses seeking to better communicate with customers.

But only 40% of smartphone users browse for apps in app stores. The majority find apps through search, websites, social media, ads, videos, reviews and recommendations.

Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they’ll come. A marketing plan for your Mobile App is as important as its development.

Here are 9 essential rules to follow for Mobile App marketing.

1. App store optimization (ASO)

Both Google Play and Apple’s App Store algorithmically prioritize certain apps in search results based on a variety of ranking factors (ratings, tags, screenshots, app title, download data etc.). However, unlike SEO (which primarily focuses on Google) app store optimization is not a one-size fits all game. The most important ranking factor when it comes to app store optimisation is your app’s title. If you’ve built a train time-checker app, then it’s recommended to use ‘train time checker’ in the title.

You can use Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool (with the device setting on mobile) to identify which terms and phrases are relevant to your app people search for the most on mobile.

2. Social media marketing and advertising

One of the most effective ways of acquiring mobile app installs has been through clever use of Facebook’s advertising platform. Use a combination of page promoted posts & sponsored stories targeted to mobile news feeds. Similarly, promoted tweets are another highly effective way of driving mobile app downloads when set up correctly. Start off with a small budget testing various different keyword segments, and scale up what drives the best cost-per-acquisitions. Reddit advertising is ridiculously cheap. Play around with advertising or contributing on niche social networks, such as Reddit or Quora.

3. Reviews, drive them naturally

Reviews are a huge aspect of app store optimization, as well as an important factor in convincing people to download your app. It’s extremely important that you find an effective way of driving reviews in a way that’s natural and won’t trigger Google or Apple’s spam filters. Offer something cool – be it some free credits or an extended subscription, giving the user something valuable in return for a review is a win-win situation that seems to work well.

4. Microsite with a blog for effective search engine optimization (SEO)

A micro-site opens up a whole host of marketing possibilities. If you’ve built an app that sells concert tickets in London, you could build a micro-site and do some SEO around it. If you ranked #1 for ‘London concert tickets’ you’d drive approximately 8,100 people searching for ‘London Concert Tickets’ to your app per month. If you create a blog on your site, you can find many other relevant keywords for your app and write blogs using these keywords in titles to continuously drive traffic to your site and, for there, to your app.

5. YouTube channel for app instructions

You can also create your own YouTube videos on how to use the app to deal with specific problems. This will help capture people that are looking for solutions to those problems, and convert them into users. Once they see a step-by-step guide on how they can use the application for their needs, they’re so much more likely to give it a try. Remember that even simple apps can be confusing to some people, even with instructions and onboarding. A demonstration is a great way to get customers interested in downloading and using the app.

6. Email marketing

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways of driving traffic, building advocacy, and converting leads to users / customers. Build a newsletter and offer your potential users information that’s useful and valuable to them. They’ll respect you for it and ultimately be more inclined to download your app.

7. Start Mobile App marketing before launch

From the minute the app concepts and designs are complete, you should be thinking of marketing it.  Figure out who your ideal users are, why they should download the app, and how to encourage them. If only 40%
search for apps through the mobile app store and the rest find the apps through YouTube videos, blogs, and tutorials online, among other options; that’s means your missing out on over half the audience you could have if you start Mobile App marketing early.

8. Use Mobile App marketing to engage with potential customers

In order to create the ideal app, it has to be designed to meet your ideal users’ needs. So you should get feedback from your target audience throughout the creation process. Seek out and engage with potential customers during the app creation process. Get feedback from real users through through your microsite, your blog, your YouTube Channel and social media.

9. Get more feedback from customers after launch

Mobile apps in app stores are often ranked on popularity and value, based on ratings. So you definitely want to get customer feedback and more reviews to increase the possibility of more downloads after launch. You should also include contact info in your app descriptions, so customers can reach out with more detailed feedback or questions.

Do these rules for Mobile App marketing make sense to you? If your thinking of developing a Mobile App for your business, do you need a Mobile App marketing plan?

Best digital marketing case studies are meant to not only inform us on significant accomplishments for this year but to inspire us in the year to come.

A digital marketing campaign is an online marketing effort by a company to drive engagement, conversions, traffic and revenue. 

While the best digital marketing case studies demonstrate integration, depending on the unique aspects of the business, certain channels can stand out.

Here are the 20 best digital marketing case studies of 2018 to inspire in 2019 across the areas of content marketing, ecommerce, mobile, social media, UX experience and video.

CONTENT MARKETING

• LEVONO: Developed a digital content hub called “Tech Revolution” to deliver technical news and technology information to IT decision makers for best digital marketing case studies of the year in content marketing. They were able to successfully engage with their target audience through this content marketing hub. The leads generated via Tech Revolution, were routed to their website, based on which sales executives were able to readily connect with consumers. The digital content hub had more than 250 articles with 34 million impressions, 308 link clicks, and was visited by 1,70,000 new web users, In terms of financials, $300 million in sales was attributable to this initiative alone.
• HUBSPOT: Coined the phrase “inbound marketing.” The main reason HubSpot has grown so fast is because of their content marketing strategy. Their blogs are central to their content strategy: one focused on marketing, the other on sales. The goal of these blogs is to help HubSpot acquire traffic to their funnel. Content marketing has been one of HubSpot’s main growth drivers. It helped the company go from being funded in 2006 to a $75 million run rate public company worth over a billion dollars.
• STR SOFTWARE: Attracted large businesses with big budgets and long, complex sales cycles. So instead of investing thousands of dollars to acquire each customer, STR Software decided to to set themselves apart by developing a content marketing strategy. STR Software promoted their “University” extensively throughout their site, including on their homepage, sidebar, and other articles. They also used email marketing to promote it to their audience. They saw 54% increase in website traffic, 67% increase in pageviews and 10% conversion rate on forms, up from 1-2 percent on other forms.

ECOMMERCE

• ENVELOPE.COM: Wanted to see if they could “rekindle the flame” and land some sales from hot leads using target followups in best digital marketing case studies for ecommerce. These are visitors who created an account and put an item in their shopping cart. So they tested out email sends at two alternate time lapses post cart abandonment; the first group sent the following morning at 11 a.m. and the second group 48 hours post cart abandonment. The emails sent after 48 hours delivered: 1) An open rate of 38.01%, 2) click-through rate of 24.71% and 3) a conversion rate of 40.00%
• RAW GENERATION: A company that makes drinking raw, unpasteurized juice from fresh fruits and vegetables more convenient. For their business, deal sites like Groupon, Gilt and Rue La La proved to be a major channel. After initially promoting on social media and getting no traction, Jessica, the founder was introduced to Lifebooker, a deal site. After promoting on Lifebooker, they hit a homerun. Once they discovered a marketing channel that working, they didn’t go seeking new marketing channels. Doubling down on the channel that’s working took ecommerce sales from $8K to $96K per month.
• BEARDBRAND: An Ecommerce store that sells beard oil and beard care products and that prides themselves in leading the movement for all the “urban beardsmen” of the world, chose not to put ads or not to put products on sale because they wanted their brand to be as consistent as possible in providing premium customer experience. Then focused on offering premium customer experience by using high-quality oils for beard care, high-end packaging, one-business-day shipping and offering no discounts on products. Within a year, they created an ecommerce business that went from $0 to $120K per month.

MOBILE

• CAROLINA PANTHERS: Wanted to elevate their ecommerce experience for their football apparel best digital marketing case studies for mobile. They enlisted the help of their official retail provider Delaware North Sportservice. One particular focus of the Panthers was to improve the mobile shopping experience. They not only looked at the desktop experience, but focused equally on the tablet and mobile shopping experience to be sure that customers would be able to navigate the site, find items, and checkout with ease –– no matter where they were shopping. Since the site has gone live, the Panthers mobile conversion rate, has increased 83%, with overall conversion rate growing by 37%.
• DUNKIN DONUTS: Launched a new text messaging promotion towards young adults in the Boston area. Via a local radio DJ, Dunkin’ Donuts advertised the text message promotion on-air and ran mobile internet ads encouraging people to opt-in to text message promotions. The result was 7,500 consumers opting in. 17% of participants forwarded or showed the text message promotion to their friends. 35% of the participants considered themselves more likely to buy lattes and coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts. 21% increase in store traffic occurred due to the mobile promotion. 
• ARGOS: The British retail major wanted to deliver a multi-channel experience comprising 14 combinations of order and fulfillment. The British retail major wanted to deliver a multi-channel experience comprising 14 combinations of order and fulfillment. Its multi-channel sales comprised over 50% of the total sales. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

• CHEVROLET AND BUICK DEALERSHIP: Castle Chevrolet & Castle Buick GMC turned to Facebook Advertising, targeting the campaign to Facebook users who were located within a few miles of their showrooms as well as those that lived near Castle’s top competitors. The ads featured a map that showed exactly how close Castle’s dealerships were to the audience. The three-month campaign generated 2,212 unique visits to the dealership website at a cost of $0.98 per click. 23 vehicle sales were directly attributed to the campaign, providing a 23x return of advertising spend.
• DISNEY: Came up with a wonderfully simple idea. For every photo that featured Mickey Mouse ears and the hashtag #ShareYourEars uploaded to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, Disney would donate $5 to Make A Wish Foundation. The campaign for best digital marketing case studies of the year was a huge success and Disney ended up donating $2 million.
• SHUTTERFLY: A company who flagship products are photo books, came up with a promotion to offer a free personalised ceramic mug. And the audience they chose to target in best digital marketing case studies for social media? Mothers with kids at home. Using Facebook’s Offer Claims feature, Shutterfly reached out to their target audience and distribute a unique, single-use offer code to each person who clicked its ad. The three-day campaign resulted in over 16,000 offers reclaimed. But crucially there were 8,000 additional purchases generated, resulting in an 11-fold return on ad spend.
• STATE BYCYCLE CO.: Came up with a number of ways to reach out to cycling lovers. One of the most popular is their weekly photo challenge, where State Bicycle Co. reward the follower who submits the best snap on a given theme (e.g. the winner of the “most beat-up bike” theme landed themselves a brand new ride). State Bicycle Co. also offer unique discount codes on ‘Facebook Fridays’ and encourage followers to like posts to reveal sneak previews of new products. Since 2013 State Bicycle Co. has grown its followers from 4,500 to 480,000. Today, 12 per cent of State Bicycle Co.’s website traffic comes from Facebook, at a fifth of the cost per click of other platforms. Best of all? State Bicycle Co. attribute $500,000 in annual sales to coupon codes and traffic from Facebook.

WEBSITE DESIGN & UX EXPERIENCE

• CONCORDIA PLAN SERVICES: An insurance provider, had a major problem for best digital marketing case studies in UX experience. Its three disjointed websites made it nearly impossible for users to find information and forms. As a result, customers resorted to calling support with basic requests, tying up support lines, causing customer dissatisfaction and increased support costs. They consolidated three websites and over 800 disjointed pages into a single 60-page user-centric website. The new website makes it easy for users to find information, resulting in a significant reduction of support calls and resulted in an improvement in 92% customer satisfaction.
• HEARTLAND SENIOR FINANCE: (HSF): Australia’s largest leading provider of reverse mortgages, enables seniors to release equity in their property to help them live better in retirement. They developed content around solving problem to use keywords their customers used in organic search. They created a drop-down widget on the homepage which led to optimized landing pages, each focusing on one of the reasons for taking out a reverse mortgage. They did systems consolidations to ensure they converted as many leads as possible. In just a few months, the saw: 1) 29.5% increase in page views, 2) 25.38% increase in new visitors, 3) 81.2% increase in returning visitors, 4) 71.95% increase in guide downloads (leads)  and 5) 19.94% increase in conversion rate. 
• STANLEY: Consolidated two separate brand web properties into one site. The process needed to mitigate traffic disruption, improve traffic, and increase organic search results. So they focused on increase search rank of top performing keywords as the key measurement of web design success. The results? Almost 40% of keywords Stanley ranked for were on the first page of organic results, and the company generated a 100% lift in revenue.

VIDEO:

• CHILI’S: Decided to run a digital campaign to raise awareness of its 3 for $10 deal. The plan was to capture people’s attention using a made-for-digital 15-second creative spot that highlighted one of the meals from the promotion. Form ads — a new TrueView for action format optimized for lead generation — create a sign-up form that enables viewers to submit their name and email right below a video ad. It’s a quick and easy process that doesn’t interrupt the viewing experience. The campaign ended up generating over 7,800 form leads, a valuable addition for a campaign focused on brand consideration.
• OVERSTOCK: Personalized each of the 15-second pieces of creative on YouTube. While the first half was one of several funny plays on a person’s name, the second half was tailored to a specific set of products, like furniture, dining, or bedding. Overstock regularly used search ads. If someone is browsing online for, say, a table, the company can serve up a relevant ad featuring tables. Using a new YouTube tool, Overstock was able to take this understanding of what customers were actively looking to buy and apply it to video. Overstock used TrueView for action, a direct-response format, placing a call to action underneath the ad that told people to “Shop Now” or “Save Big.” When viewers clicked, they were taken directly to Overstock’s website. The direct-response video campaign an 80% increase in the conversion rate compared to other campaigns.
• NAVY: Shot their first made-for-digital creative and personalized it for those audiences for best digital marketing case studies of the year. The creative was built into over 60 different 15-second and six-second video ads, all tied together with the tagline “Forged by the Sea.” Finally, they served the ads in a specific order, making sure each viewer saw more than one. People who saw the ads two or more times were 16% more likely to consider joining the U.S. Navy, and users who saw the ads at least twice were 19% more likely to search for U.S. Navy keywords on YouTube within three days.
• PEEL: Sells thin phone cases, with the major selling point being they’re both functional and stylish. They used Facebook video ads to help tell the story of what separates their products from everyone else. When one of your brand’s major selling points is aesthetics, little details conveyed in video proved critical to messaging. The campaign proved successful resulting in a 16x increase in revenue and 3x higher ROI in best digital marketing case studies for video.

Do these best digital marketing case studies in 2018 provides inspiration for 2019? Does your business need direction in digital next year?

Calculating ROI (Return on Investment) is based on a simple formula involving the gain from an investment, the cost of the investment and the resulting ROI. Here it is:

Yet, to many, it is one of the most desired but vexing business measurements. Why?

Here are the 10 most common mistakes businesses make in calculating ROI.

1. CONFUSION BETWEEN CASH FLOW AND GAINS: A common mistake in calculating ROI is comparing the initial investment, which is always in cash, with the gain as measured by profit or (in some cases) revenue. And not basing the gain on cash flow. For example, customers might be billed but that doesn’t mean they all pay on time. Or shipments might have gone out. But some goods might have been returned. The correct approach is always to base the gain, either profits or revenue, on the cash flow received.
2. UNDERESTIMATE INITIAL COSTS: Many businesses try calculating ROI without first properly accounting for all initial costs. As a result, they may end up underestimating initial costs. Before you start your calculations, know what your initial costs are. Here are some of the areas that might be missed.
3. FAIL TO INCLUDE PEOPLE’S TIME: One of the reason ROI is a highly regarded measurement is it includes not just out-of-pocket costs but operational costs like labor. Most business owners are aware that time is money for any company. However, when it comes to calculating ROI, they forget to consider the value of their time or that of their employees.
4. DON’T KNOW THE MINIMUM RETURN REQUIRED: Take into consideration the minimum ROI that your company requires because there probably is one. Look at the relative risks, cost of capital, and opportunity costs. Here’s what experts say is a good ROI for various industries. Even if it hasn’t been formally stated, have the discussion to bring it out when you start calculating ROI.
5. MEASURE THE WRONG THING: In 2010, Pepsi launched the Pepsi Refresh Project, an initiative where people could submit and vote for their favorite nonprofit projects to receive grants from Pepsi. The project generated 3.5 million Facebook likes, 60,000 Twitter followers, and over 80 million votes for nonprofits. But it didn’t sell more Pepsi. Pepsi cancelled the project in 2012 after falling from second to third place in national soda market share. It was a noble initiative, but likes, followers and votes were not the right measurements for ROI.
6. MEASURE TOO MANY THINGS: In data-rich environments, it’s easy to lose sight of the metrics that really matter. Before calculating ROI, know the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your business. KPIs are the metrics that matter for any business. They are metrics that, just like your ROI, have a target. If you don’t know them, you may find yourself measuring too many things.
7. DON’T LEVERAGE EXISTING CAPABILITIES: A manager at a large wireless telecommunications firm recently called for help with her budget. She’d “taken a stab” at quantifying the ROI for the company’s data warehouse and wanted to review her calculations. Her worksheet—which included a rigorous mix of hardware, software licenses, maintenance, burdened staff, and consultant costs, etc.—made clear that she’d forgotten an important step: Leverage current IT infrastructure and resources to reduce cost estimates and make a project more attractive to business executives.
8. DON’T GET THE BUSINESS TEAM INVOLVED: No one wants to own ROI. Calculating ROI can be difficult; understanding all the required skill and resource components can challenge even the best manager. When the planning phase of a project occurs, most managers take it upon themselves to calculate ROI on their own. It’s important that baseline ROI numbers are adopted by a team and accepted by the key business stakeholders.
9. DON’T ACCOUNT FOR THE FULL SALES CYCLES: In the B2B buying process, it can take many months for a prospect to go from first touch to closed sale. If you try to calculate your ROI too soon, you may undervalue the amount of impact that investments are making. In the B2C buying process, it may take time to generate awareness, educate consumers and gain trial. But, once you do, buying frequency might increase at that point. Pick a time period to measure your ROI that makes the most of the resources invested.
10. DON’T ACCOUNT FOR CHANGE: Nothing is certain. You can’t know what competitive developments, new trends or surprises might occur during the measurement period for your ROI. So don’t treat ROI as an area that you “set and forget.” Look at it regularly. Evaluate against KPIs. And be prepared to make revisions as necessary. Anything worth measurement should be view with the most current data.

Do these mistakes help you to understand the correct way to calculating ROI. Does your business need help in doing and managing ROI.

Affiliate marketing is an advertising model where companies (merchants) pays commissions to third-party publishers (affiliates) who generate leads or sales by featuring the company’s products and services on their websites or blogs.

Affiliate marketing has been a proven business model since 1994, just four years after the origination of the internet. It is one of the only marketing channels and forms of  commerce where no money is exchanged until mutually agreed-upon results are achieved. One can be either a merchant or affiliate with very little, if any, investment.

It is relatively easy to begin. Merchants and Affiliates sign up at reputable affiliate marketing sites such as Commission Junction (CJ), Clickbank, Ratkuten, PeerFly, ShareASale, Wide Markets and Amazon Associates to name some of the top sites. After completing the sign up process, code or text links are provided for the merchant and affiliates to put on their websites identifying any actions that come from their relationship.

Is it worth it? Here are 22 affiliate marketing cold, hard yet amazing facts.

1. 90% of traffic and conversions to affiliate merchants’ programs are driven by 10% of affiliates.
2. Over 80% of brands have affiliate programs.
3. 78% of CMOs admit affiliate marketing is their least mastered area of digital marketing.
4. 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a social media reference.
5. 67% of affiliates come from North America (US and Canada).
6. 66%% of affiliate programs fall in into 4 categories: Fashion (23%), Sports and Outdoors (18%), Health & Beauty (14%) and Travel (11%)
7. Nearly 50% of affiliate related traffic originates from a mobile device.
8. 55.5% of affiliates work from home.
9. 48% of affiliates make under $20,000 a year; 20% make $20,000-$50,000 a year; 6% make $50,000-$100,000 a year; 6% make $100,000-$150,000 a year and 3% make $150,000+ a year.
10. 40% of marketers say affiliate marketing is their most desired digital marketing skill.
11. 38% of marketers call affiliate marketing one of their top customer acquisition methods.
12. More than 30% of affiliate-related sales originate from a mobile device.
13. 16.6% annual growth is expected through 2021.
14. 15% to 30% of all online sales are generated by affiliate programs.
15. 10% to 15% conversion rate for pay-per-call affiliate campaigns vs 2% to 3% for online affiliate campaigns.
16. 10% of Amazon’s sales are estimated to come from affiliates.
17. 7.5% of total digital spend for retailers goes to affiliate marketing.
18. $5 billion in revenue was generated last year in the US by affiliate marketing.
19. $5 billion in revenue was generated last year in the US by affiliate marketing.
20. 600 million products are promoted online by affiliate programs.
21. Over 2,000,000 affiliates were on Amazon as early as 2008.
22. 1,000,000+ affiliate accounts are registered on ShareASale.

Do these facts convince you affiliate marketing is worth it? Is your business interested?