6 Email Tests That Matter More Than Your Subject Line

Posted by Ellie Mirman

Wed, Dec 26, 2012 @ 08:00 AM

 Comments

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33966/6-email-tests-that-matter-more-than-your-subject-line?source=Blog_Email_[6%20Email%20Tests%20That%20M] 

A/B testing is one of those techniques that, if you have enough volume to give you significant results, is pretty much guaranteed to generate better results from your marketing. Email marketers have known this for ages, but what drives me nuts is that they waste their time on tiny little tests -- instead of tackling some of the bigger, more exciting tests that yield real insights and improvements.
In fact, MarketingSherpa's email survey found that subject lines are still the most commonly tested element in email marketing. Meaning that those few words that get your subscribers to open your emails and see your wonderful offers are what marketers focus on most in their attempts to optimize their email marketing. And while I'm sure this strategy can end up getting you the most tested, optimized subject line that will ever reach an inbox, the impact of these tests are minimal compared to all the other things an email marketer could be testing.

So ... are you ready to run some big, exciting tests? Time to think big!

6 Variables to Test Instead of Just Your Subject Line

1) The Offer

Possibly the biggest lever you have in your email marketing is not the few words you use to describe your offer, but rather, the offer itself. Whether you're testing two ebooks against each other, or an ebook versus a webinar, this test is bound to get you better results overall. The reason this is particularly important is, while you may think your offer is the best thing since the iPod, you may also be wrong.
We started doing this sort of testing religiously back in the summer of 2010 and saw dramatic results. Instead of taking our email list and sending them all our latest ebook, we would take a smaller portion of the list, split it in half, send them each two different offers, and then send the better performing offer to the (larger) remainder of the list. This testing alone increased our monthly email leads 4-8x instantly.



Here are some more specific offer elements you can consider testing:

• Topic: Do certain offer topics resonate better with your audience? For example, we might test one of our ebooks on Facebook against one of our ebooks on Twitter.
• Format: Which offer format does your list prefer? Do they love webinars? How does that compare to their interest in ebooks, kits, free trials, etc.?
• Length/Size: Does your audience prefer smaller, bite-sized offers like tip sheets, or are they hungry for more, like an 80-page ebook? Try testing longer forms of content vs. shorter offers, or one offer vs. a set of offers.
• Name of Offer: Sometimes the way you position your offer can make a difference with your audience. Think ebook vs. guide vs. whitepaper, or factbook vs. slideshow vs. download.

2) The Landing Page

The goal of your email is not just to get someone to open or click through; it's also to take some action. For example, to download your offer. So don't think of your email in a vacuum. Think of it in the context of driving that particular action, which means optimizing where the action takes place: the landing page. After all, if you create this great email that drives lots of clicks to your website but then you lose those potential leads at the last stage, it's like you've run the first leg of a marathon but then decided to drop out of the race during the very last mile.
Here are some important landing page elements to test:

• Description of Offer: The way you position your offer may have an impact. Calling out that a consultation is free, or referencing testimonials of people who have downloaded that offer, for example, can be interesting variables to test.
• Length of Description: Do you go on and on about your offer, providing testimonials and screenshots, or do you keep things short and sweet in bullet point form?
• Image/Preview of Offer: Using a supporting image is great, but what do you show? An image of the ebook cover, a sample page of the ebook so people can see what's inside, or a preview of the first few pages?
• Form Placement: Do you put the form on the left? The right? Below a block of text? Best practices say make it visible on immediate page load (above the fold), but feel free to play around with the placement.
• Number of Form Fields: What data do you really need from your prospects? Fewer form fields usually leads to a higher conversion rate, but you should always test asking the bare minimum versus asking for every personal detail -- and somewhere in between. We've also published some great advice about this debate here.
• Which Form Questions to Ask: In addition to the number of form fields, which questions you ask on your form can have a big impact. Asking for Social Security Numbers or visitors' first born child's name is very different from asking for size of company or industry.
• Form "Submit" Button Text: Do you use a straightforward, action-oriented phrase like "Download Ebook Now," a fun option like "Let's Go!" or a standard "Download" button? Test out the text of the button you know each lead is clicking on.

3) The Audience

The success of your email is not just dependent on what you're emailing or how you're emailing it, but also *who* you're emailing. For HubSpot, an offer called, Agency Kit: How to Create Effective Ebooks for your Clients may get a great response from marketing agency owners, but it'd probably get a terrible response from the nonprofit marketers interested in our content. The simple act of segmenting your email list to narrow your audience down to one that would find your content more relevant can have an amazing impact on your results.

Here are some audience segmentation tests you can run:

• Interest: Has someone downloaded an ebook on this topic before? Do you know they have a particular challenge based on their website browsing history? Target the offers around those interests for a boost in response rate.
• Persona: Identify your main business personas, and target your content to each one. At HubSpot, this means we send different content to small business owners than what we send to nonprofit marketers, for example.
• Recency or Level of Engagement: Did this subscriber come to your site recently, or has it been a few months? Did they download a dozen ebooks, or just one?
• Other Demographics: Try segmenting on other demographics collected by marketing or sales - things like industry or role or company size.
• Lifecycle Stage: Where is this person in the sales and marketing funnel? Did they just start engaging with you, or are they in the last stages of the sales process? This article provides suggestions on what to send at each stage of the funnel.

Check out this blog post for even more examples of how you can slice and dice your email list for better segmentation.

4) The Format

Changing up the format of your email can also have a surprising effect on your response rate. This could mean everything from the length of the email, to including a lot of images, to creating a simple, plain text email. Keep in mind that your results may differ depending on the type of offer. For example, our new ebooks perform best when sent in a nicely formatted html email, while our free consultation offers perform better when sent as a simple, plain text email.
Here are some formatting elements you can test in your email marketing:

• Plain Text vs. HTML: Simply try changing your pretty HTML email into a plain, personal-looking email to see how that changes your response rates. You might be surprised at the results!
• Content in Text Only vs. Text and Images: At HubSpot, for example, we tend not to rely too much on images because many subscribers don't enable or download images in their emails. That being said, some companies have had great success with using visuals to tell stories that you simply can't convey through words alone.
• Number of Calls-to-Action: Do you go with a newsletter style with a lot of calls-to-action, or zone in on one single offer?
• Length of Email: Do you go short and sweet, include meaty content, or go on and on about the value of the offer?

5) Timing & Frequency

Timing is one of the most popular things marketers try to optimize. But it seems like there's more talk about the best time to send in general, and not enough testing going on to determine the best time to send email to your own subscribers -- or even a specific segment of your subscribers. Even within HubSpot, we have segments of subscribers who respond more to emails on Mondays, Saturdays, mornings, afternoons -- on top of that, all in their own timezones. Instead of sending email at every marketer's favorite time (Tuesdays at 10 a.m.), break away from the pack and see what works specifically for your audience in order to optimize for your particular business -- and to have a better chance of breaking through the clutter of other businesses' emails.
Consider conducting the following timing/frequency tests in your email marketing:

• Day of the Week: If you always email on Tuesdays, try mixing it up and sending on a Monday or Saturday.
• Time of Day: Do you always send emails in the mornings on the East Coast? Try an afternoon send -- or even go for after work hours.
• Triggered by Specific Behavior: It's not just about when you want to send an email, it's about when your subscriber has taken some interesting action. Try targeting your follow-up around when they take an action using marketing automation.
• Timing Around Trigger Event: How soon after the triggering event should you send that email? Immediately? An hour later? A day later? Longer?
• Frequency: How much should you email someone, and how much time should you leave in between? Once a month, once a week, once a day? Check out this article to help you determine your optimal email frequency.

6) Sender Name/Address

If you haven't tested a different sender name or address yet, definitely add this to your list. While best practices still apply (in other words, using a name that recipients will recognize as well as a real email address that your prospects can respond to), you can always try out different names to see how it affects your open and clickthrough rates.
Here are some sender name tests to try out:

• Consistency vs. Change: Should you use the same name for consistency, or try changing it up email to email to garner more attention?
• Personal vs. Company: Should you use an individual's name, your company name, or some combination? (e.g. 'Ellie Mirman,' 'HubSpot,' or 'Ellie Mirman, HubSpot')
• Category-Related Name: If you have a subscriber in a particular segment of your business, you can try sending an email from the name of that segment (e.g. 'Small Business Team'). If your subscriber signed up for a particular type of content, try using a name related to that specific content type (e.g. 'HubSpot Webinars)'.

Reminder: Test Just One Thing at a Time

The key with any of these tests is to test just one element at a time so you can isolate your variables and thus tie the difference in results is to that particular change. And if you crank through this list of BIG email tests, here are some great ideas for quick, smaller tests to  always be optimizing.
Happy testing!

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33966/6-Email-Tests-That-Matter-More-Than-Your-Subject-Line.aspx#ixzz2GATcZSq6

Holiday Campaigns That Works

It's that time of year again! The malls are packed. Discounts are everywhere. People are looking for opportunities to volunteer or donate to charity. Advertising and marketing promotions are jam-packed with colorful lights and holiday ditties.

That means by now, you should have your own business' holiday campaign all ready and raring to go, especially if you want to stand out from all the other companies doing that exact same thing. And there are some companies that are doing this whole "standing out" thing particularly well with their holiday marketing campaigns. This post will highlight 8 of the very best holiday-themed campaigns this year. I hope they either inspire your own marketing, or at least make your heart swell with the warm and fuzzies!

Rue La La Goes SoGaMo (Social, Gamified, Mobile!)

Rue La La is an online store with discounted prices on luxury products. Sounds perfect for the holidays already, right? Well this year, they upped their already awesome game by using social media, mobile marketing, and gamification. And glitter.

In addition to their extensive social media campaign, they also give you the opportunity to play their addicting little game on your mobile device. The game? Every day, you get to OPEN PRESENTS!

Sorry, got a little carried away there.

But seriously, every day you get a box to tear open, and inside are ... prizes! And conveniently for Rue La La, you can use those prizes to buy things on their site, too ;-)

Zynga's Promotes In-App Donations

In the company's first ever holiday campaign -- that's right we've got a newbie on this list -- Zynga is allowing people playing their games to purchase in-app goods to benefit the charity Toys for Tots. So if you're playing popular games such as CityVille, Words With Friends, Draw Something, or Farmville, you can purchase a toy when you're in the game to donate to charity. For instance, here's their "cheer-ewe-up horse" people can purchase for $1 in exchange for a little FarmVille farm decorations.

Zynga has already generated $13 million in donations through 2.5 million in-game purchases. They took something they know they are good at, gamification, and are not only promoting their company's games but contributing to a great cause ... like buying games for kids! How incredibly appropriate. When creating your holiday campaigns, think about what you know about your audience and their habits, just like Zynga did here, so your audience will be more responsive.

Norton Reminds You What Really Matters

Who says B2B companies can't have holiday campaigns? Norton sells software to prevent and remove computer viruses. To celebrate Thanksgiving and kick off the holiday season, they created a funny video for the holidays. Take a look.

Theres a couple things I like about this video. First, please notice that they've created a memorable and trackable URL for this campaign, norton.com/turkey, that redirects to a page about online backup. Good stuff, guys!

But I also like the sentiment behind this campaign. Most people can relate to that woman ... feeling insanely frazzled this time of year, and kind of losing perspective on the "stuff that matters." The scenario ties in perfectly with the video's scenario, what Norton does, their video's tagline, and something we all could stand to remember this time of year: Protect the stuff that matters.

Gilt Groupe Leverages Mobile

Gilt Groupe is a luxury shopping website for women, selling retail items for up to 60% off the regular price. This season, they are partnering with nonprofit RED to reach a younger generation who uses their mobile devices for almost everything. To donate to RED, users have to dial **RED, and they will automatically receive a text message with several links including a link to gilt.com's online store where they can purchase red t-shirts, bags, watches, phone cases, and other red items in support of the charity.

Gilt has a large online audience, and by partnership with a charity in a mobile-centric way, they're able to reach that growing audience, provide discounts as expected by their fans, and donate to a charitable cause. Triple-threat holiday campaign! If you can take advantage of mobile during the holidays, definitely do it. Normally shoppers are on their phones non-stop, but during the holidays, it reaches monumental heights of activity.

The Red Cross Uses Inbound Marketing

Red Cross has launched their annual campaign, "Give Something That Means Something." The purpose of the campaign is to make donations, well, meaningful. So instead of donating money -- always welcome, of course -- donations are in the form of more tangible items like blankets, shelter, vaccinations, etc. They produce a digital holiday catalog with all of the choices of what people can buy. The Red Cross has found that people are more excited to give something that "means something" instead of the more traditional gift of money.

But it's not just the sentiment behind the campaign that we love. We actually wrote a case study (form-free, download your little hearts out) about how they're using inbound marketing to promote their campaign, too!

 

Coca-Cola Executes a Coordinated Holiday Campaign

Almost every holiday season, you can count on Coca-Cola to totally nail their holiday campaigns. This year, they hired Garyson Sanders, Lauriana Mae, and Jono to produce a song about friends spending the holidays together. To promote the campaign, they produced a series of videos and images that they promote across all of their social channels.

Regardless of how you feel about the particular song (or the giant Santa), this is a great example of a coordinated social campaign ... and it's kind of meta, since the video is kind of about working coordination. I mean, you better be able to work together if you're moving a Santa puppet that big.

When Coca-Cola promotes the campaign on their website, they have links to their Twitter, Flickr, Google+, Facebook, and YouTube accounts, and they use consistent tone and messaging that aligns with all their other campaigns throughout the year. And the bonus? Every year, they use music to promote their campaign, and use the song's sales to raise money for the Special Olympics.

Cisco Drives Engagement and Donations Via Social Media

Cisco is a company that designs, manufactures, and sells networking equipment. This year, they created a holiday campaign called "How Do You Give Back?" promoted on their Facebook page. Every time someone comments on their Facebook page and tells them how they plan on giving back to the community, four meals are donated to the World Food Programme. The page also promotes other people who are giving back to the community.

Though most people aren't making a natural leap from Cisco to Santa, they take the opportunity to show that they want to do something philanthropic during the holidays. At the same time, they're improving their social strategy by encouraging engagement and followers. Customers want to see that companies are doing something for good causes during the holidays, and by asking them to post on Cisco's wall about the charitable things they're doing, everybody wins: Cisco's social media presence improves, followers feel good about their charitable work, and the World Food Programme receives meal donations.

FedEx Plays With Stereotypes

During Christmas, FedEx typically does pretty well -- when people need to send gifts to all corners of the country, they know they can rely on FedEx. So for this year's holiday campaign, they decided to poke fun at some common holiday stereotypes ... but also use messaging to remind people that their reliable services are consistent throughout the entire year, and not just during the holidays. Here's just one of their videos:

FedEx created a series of videos that made fun of people for things like waiting overnight in line on Black Friday, buying gifts at the last minute, and the expectation that Santa is going to be in every store. In addition to delivering a chuckle, these videos are quick, to the point, speak to a pain point common to many people this time of year, and remind everyone these services are available year-round.

What other holiday-themed marketing campaigns do you love this year?

Image Credit: kennymatic

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33914/8-of-Our-Absolute-Favorite-2012-Holiday-Campaigns.aspx#ixzz2GA6XjcIjhttp://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33978/5-holiday-campaigns-that-totally-missed-the-mark-in-2012?source=Blog_Email_[5%20Holiday%20Campaigns%20]

Big Data, Small Bets - Avoid Seeing Patterns Where None Exist

http://www.forbes.com/sites/darden/2012/12/13/big-data-small-bets/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=linkedin&goback=%2Egde_1849542_member_198594443

Guest Post by Darden Professor Robert Carraway

Big data and small experiments—what could appear more seemingly incongruous?  Yet the truth is: these two trends, one from the world of analytics, the other from the world of innovation and change, can bepowerfully combined to drive sustainable success in a highly uncertain world.

Big data is a product of the technology revolution that is now well into its third decade. Thirty years ago, sophisticated analytical techniques promising extraordinary insights were lacking but one thing: the data to inform them.  The promise was clear: if you simply start measuring and tracking everything, from minutely segmented sales and resource usage metrics to every conceivable macroeconomic variable of remote interest, we will be able to identify all manner of relationships, correlations and insights, the net result of which will be the capacity to much more effectively and efficiently allocate resources to take advantage of opportunity and drive results.

The message was received, loud and clear.  In fact, perhaps too loudly and clearly.  Today, huge volumes of data, touching almost every aspect of the world in which we live in, are available at virtually the click of a mouse.  Want to know the relationship between sales of industrial cleaning systems in western Pennsylvania and capacity utilization in that region’s steel industry?  Not a problem.  Need to improve customer satisfaction?  Simply cluster customer complaint data by category, and while you’re at it, build a simulation model that accurately projects the impact of pulling any of several levers, all informed by the reams of data at your fingertips.

And therein lies the problem.  Two problems, actually.  First, analysts can no longer use the excuse, “MY analytical technique would work great if only we had the data on which to apply it” (emphasis on the “MY”).  There is now sufficient data to inform many analytical techniques and approaches.  So in lieu of the obstacle posed by lack of data, we now face an even more challenging set of issues: “Which technique(s) should I use?” and “What is this telling me?”  Which segues into the second, even bigger problem created by big data: you can probably find a technique and set of data to support almost any story you wish to tell.  Never has the aphorism, “There are lies, damn lies and statistics,” been more appropriate.  Everywhere we look, we see something, and if it’s not what we like, we simply look elsewhere until we find it.

One of our brain’s oldest and most valuable capabilities is the ability to recognize patterns, even when they aren’t there.  A colleague of mine at theUniversity of Virginia used to conduct an experiment in class.  He would ask one student to use a random-number generator to produce a list of random numbers, all between 1 and 10.  He would ask another student to compose, on her own using only her perception of what random means, a list of “random” numbers, also between 1 and 10.  He would then have a third student present the two lists to him, without telling him which was which.  My colleague says he could always identify which list had been truly randomly generated and which had come from the student’s mind: the one with all manner of apparent patterns and repetitions was the truly random list.  The student, on her own, would assiduously avoid any patterns or repetitions.  This is because we are wired to believe that any apparent pattern must have an identifiable cause, and thus cannot be random.  Hence, any time we see anything remotely resembling a pattern, we assume there must be something non-random causing it.

This capability was (and perhaps still is, in many contexts), a wonderful survival mechanism: when in doubt, assume the worst and run away.  Far better to think you see a pattern that isn’t there than to dismiss a pattern as random variation only to find out (to your extreme detriment!) that the pattern was actually caused by a predator.

So, you have a brain that is predisposed to “see” patterns that aren’t really there.  On top of that, this same brain has now developed sophisticated analytical techniques that enhance its ability to “see” such patterns.  Before you know it, if you’re not careful, you have embarked on a high profile, resource-intensive organizational initiative in pursuit of a pattern you think you have “seen”, only to discover that it wasn’t really a pattern at all, simply an artifact of randomness.

How do you protect yourself from falling prey to this trap?  Herein lies the role of “small experiments” that my colleague, Jeanne Liedtka at the Darden School, and others have explored.  An “experiment” differs from big “data mining” (the term used for mucking around in big data for whatever you can find) in that it is deliberately constructed to test whether or not a perceived pattern is real or a figment of our overactive imaginations (and analytical tools).  A carefully constructed experiment can make you far more confident that what you have spotted is real and therefore actionable.  The key to a good experimental design is to “stack the deck” against your pattern being real.  If it emerges as still present in the results of your experiment, you are far more likely to have discovered something of potential value.

Why “small”?  Given our enhanced proclivity to “see” patterns (thanks to our analytical tools), the existence of big data enables us to identify a myriad of potential opportunities.  If exploring each requires a significant investment of time and resources, we are far more constrained in the opportunities we can pursue.  Plus, we face far more pressure to “guess” correctly, i.e. identify a priori which patterns are most likely to be real and lucrative.  By keeping experiments “small”, in terms of time and resources, we can explore many more possibilities much more quickly.  The net result is an organization that is in constant innovation mode, rapidly discarding ephemeral leads and doubling down on ones whose fundamental assumptions persist.

How do we conduct small experiments?  The precise design of the experiment is highly context dependent, and often requires reaching out to the market.  But here we come full cycle: we can often use the same big data we mined for our initial potential insight to in turn test that insight.  By generating insights on a subset of our data (possible since we have so many of them), we can experimentally test these insights on “holdout” samples (data we deliberately do not use—or “hold out”—from our original search).  If the pattern persists over the holdout sample, we can then move to test it further by designing an experiment to gather new “live” data, facilitated by precisely the same techniques used to collect the big data to begin with.

Companies like Progressive Insurance and Capital One who have built successful businesses around their ability to mine big data are well aware of this virtuous cycle.  Their current competitive advantage stems from an ability to move rapidly through this “big data, small experiments” cycle.  Their use of sophisticated analysis and search techniques is informed by their understanding of the danger imposed by our inherent capacity to discover patterns that aren’t real.  Hence, they have deliberately developed an ability to effectively and efficiently use small experiments to sift and sort potential opportunities.

What does this mean for your company?  “Analytics” is a hot topic right now, induced by the existence of big data on which to apply its many and varied tools.  Many view analytics as promising to transform their business and innovation processes, enabling them to move quickly, nimbly and effectively.  But with every blessing comes a curse: if ye seek, ye shall find.  No matter how effectively you act on something that’s not real, you won’t get where you think you’re going.  The enhanced ability that exists today to spot patterns and identify potentially exploitable relationships must be accompanied by the ability to do some good, old-fashioned “fact checking” in the form of small experiments to confirm assumptions and hypotheses.  The million dollar question is, “Is it real?”

Myths that influence decision makers

A couple of years ago, at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, a small group of researchers and writers conducted a scenario planning project on the risks and implications of the financial crisis. They developed two alternative future scenarios based on cultural myths — the prevailing attitudes and beliefs, often so deeply held that they are virtually invisible, that determine the decisions made by business and political leaders. One scenario tracked what would happen if policymakers followed an economic myth, seeking growth; another supposed they would follow an ecological myth, seeking the health of a larger, interrelated system.

Economics and ecology are only two of five myths that shape the world view of decision makers, says Betty Sue Flowers — the poet, television commentator, documentarian, and educator who brought this idea to the Oxford scenario planning team. The other three myths are heroic (seeking to win), religious (seeking goodness), and scientific (seeking truth through reason). When company reputations sink, politicians get into intractable disagreements, or a financial crisis unfolds, one reason is usually a clash among these different perspectives.

Flowers is a uniquely qualified observer of the influence that mythic attitudes and beliefs have on current events. She saw the world of large-scale enterprise up close at Royal Dutch Shell PLC, where she helped draft many of the company’s influential scenario planning reports, and the world of big government at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Tex., where she served as director from 2002 to 2009. As a literature professor at the University of Texas, she edited The Power of Myth (Doubleday, 1988), the bound record of Bill Moyers’s six-part interview with mythologist Joseph Campbell, which was broadcast on PBS. Flowers met with s+b in New York to talk about myths, their implications for business and political leaders, and their link to resolving the financial crisis.

S+B: Why are myths such a powerful force in society?
FLOWERS: A myth is a view of the nature of reality, so prevalent that it goes unseen. Although myths are conceived by people, they can feel like they are the only reality, and they can become the context in which events are framed. The frame people follow then affects the judgments they make. The idea of business, for example, is a very powerful human creation, based on the economic myth: The best thing to do is to grow as large as possible. This myth is closely linked to the parental impulse, which is one of the most powerful impulses that human beings have. Asking “How do I take our product around the world?” is similar to asking “How do I raise a child to get into college?”

Of course, once children are grown, you let them go, but raising a product is a never-ending task. Over time, the danger of the economic myth is that it leads to single-line measurements of success, such as revenues, profits, and market size. Those will inevitably peak and decline at some point, because all systems have limits — and once they start to fall, they fall fast.

In fact, each myth has a limit that people caught up in it tend to fail to recognize. For example, if you look at the world through the scientific myth, you believe in truth: that there is an absolute form of rational knowledge available to humanity, even if it hasn’t been discovered yet. You expect the quest for truth to overcome resistance, which you tag as emotional; you don’t realize how much people mistrust claims of truth.

The heroic myth translates every event into a winner triumphing over a loser; it makes people who follow it vulnerable if their side loses. The ecological myth says that the health of a whole system depends on complex interrelationships. It therefore tries to take everyone’s needs into account, which can lead to immense expense and gridlock. And the religious myth — by which I don’t mean favoring any particular religion, but an ideological belief backed up by religious fervor — argues that all dissenting views are dangerous and must be stopped. That view cannot be sustained in a multifaceted, complex world.

S+B: When did you first become aware of how the conflict among these myths can result in misunderstandings (and worse)?
FLOWERS: In the early 1990s, I was invited to work on the Royal Dutch Shell global scenarios. One of our scenarios was focused on environmental sustainability as a driver for world decisions. At the time, Shell was applying for the right to let an old oil platform sink into the North Sea. After the British government approved the plan in 1995, Greenpeace organized such broad and dramatic protests at the site that Shell ultimately changed its plans.

I was interested in the way people talked past one another during this episode. Shell was clearly operating on the scientific myth. The Shell people did their homework, trying to find a cost-effective way to get rid of the facility with the least environmental damage, maximizing advantage for everyone. But the media is driven by the heroic myth, because that myth produces the best stories. To them, Greenpeace was David versus Shell’s Goliath. So when Shell trotted out its middle-aged engineers to talk about the science, the TV directors cut from them to the young people who were occupying the oil platform with chants against Shell, which was portrayed as a typical greedy corporation. In other words, Shell was perceived as following the economic myth — growth at all costs. Greenpeace, meanwhile, was motivated by a more religious myth: Don’t pollute the ocean, period.

I suggested to some of Shell’s managers that they should helicopter a small, diverse group of young employees to the platform with food and drinks for the protestors and the message, “We’re members of Greenpeace, too. Many Shell staffers are. Let’s talk about this.” Then the headline would be, “Maybe Goliath wants to join David, and not fight him,” which indeed was the case. Greenpeace later apologized and said they had gotten it wrong, but the apology appeared in the back of the newspaper and few people noticed.

Ever since, I’ve been determined to answer the question: What are the myths we live with, the ones that are so ever-present we don’t even realize they’re shaping our culture?

S+B: How did your tenure with government affect your understanding of the myths?
FLOWERS: I’m generally a left-leaning person politically, but if you listened to me talk about the absurdities I experienced as a federal employee, you would think I belonged to the Tea Party. In an advanced democracy or a complex economy, government follows the ecological myth, prioritizing the health of the overall system, often at the expense of common sense. Any individual government worker is constantly put in impossible situations.

For example, when I arrived at the [Lyndon Baines Johnson] library, we had just received a new shipment of Dell computers. Our people desperately needed them. But the government had not yet approved Windows NT, so I was supposed to send the computers to Washington, at great expense, to have them wiped clean and the older Windows 97 installed. Then, two months later, when Windows NT was expected to be approved, I would have to send the same computers back to Washington to have NT reinstalled.

One of my first decisions on the job was to stall. We waited almost a year until NT was approved and we could open the boxes. If any computers snuck out early, I’m not telling. It was a well-meaning endeavor; a security breach might have cost millions of dollars. But the total effect was absurdity and huge expense.

S+B: What myth led to the financial crisis?
FLOWERS: First of all, it was predictable — and people predicted it. There were warnings as soon as the Glass–Steagall Act was repealed. But the economic myth, that growth could go on forever and that we create our own success, was in full swing. When people act as if that’s true, it leads to bubbles.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the economic myth. But from the ecological perspective, there’s no such thing as perpetual growth; it always hits a limit, and there are always unintended consequences. If we have another economic crisis, it will be because no one has effectively tempered the economic myth with the ecological myth.

The latter says that we’re part of a larger system, which you have to participate in rather than dominate. People who perceive the world through this myth are more open to institutional arrangements in which government and industry work together on common solutions. They also tend to adopt measurements of success that relate to resilience and quality of life, not just having more. Companies become more interested in engagement with the rest of the world. Governments, meanwhile, discover they can’t do everything themselves. They don’t have the expertise, for instance, to clean up a major oil spill; they have to enlist industry support. The end result is not regulation of business; it’s regulation with business.

S+B: Would it be appropriate to say that for any given company, there is a golden mean between ecological and economic extremes, and the challenge is to find it?
FLOWERS: I think that’s fair. I would also say that if you look at the bigger picture, the inherent business of business is growth and the inherent business of government is health. That is a healthy tension when these myths work together. But if one side becomes too powerful in relation to the other, the system as a whole will become unbalanced. http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00151?pg=all

Before and After: 3 Real-Life Landing Page Makeovers

Posted by Jessica Meher

Fri, Dec 21, 2012 @ 01:00 PM

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Landing pages are the secret sauce to lead generation. But just having landing pages alone isn’t enough. No siree! They need to have all the right elements in order to generate high conversion rates. In fact, that’s why we recently wrote about "11 Simple (But Critical) Tips for Creating Better Landing Pages."
But we wanted to take those tips one step further and apply them to real-life landing pages. So to find those real-life landing pages, we reached out to our fans in social media and asked them to send us a landing page of theirs that they thought was in need of a little optimization love. We then selected three landing pages to analyze and improve right in this post.
But first, a small disclaimer. Keep in the mind that these recommendations are based on my years of testing which have resulted in positive effects on landing page conversion rates. That being said, I am not a master of every single industry, and only you know what resonates with your audience. In other words, keep in mind that it's still important to A/B test your landing pages to determine what really works for you.
Okay then. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started ...

What We Analyzed

When we looked at each of these three pages, we analyzed the following:

• Clarity: Is the page confusing? Is it clear what's being offered and who it's intended for?
• Value Proposition: How strong is the offer’s perceived value? In the visitor’s eyes, is this offer's value worth providing contact information via the form in order to redeem it?
• Page Design: Do you use all the right elements in the right place? Are there too many design elements, or not enough?
• Friction: Are there certain elements -- or lack of -- that get in the way of conversion?
• Form Best Practices: Are your forms too long or too short? Do they ask the right questions?
• Miscellaneous Goodies: These are other tidbits of advice we can offer to help increase conversion rates.

Landing Page #1: Health Dialog

Health Dialog is a company that provides population analytics, interactive decision aids, and healthcare decision programs to over 17 million people around the world. The landing page below is for a free whitepaper download called From Theory to Practice.

Before:

 

What Works:

What’s great about this landing page is that it's very simple (there's no page clutter), it's focused on one offer and objective, and it's reasonably clear that it's a content offer. It also includes many of the landing page must-haves, including a headline, body content, a supporting image, and a lead-capture form.

Suggestions for Improvement:

1. Remove the top navigation. One of the simplest yet best ways to increase conversion rates is to remove any other site navigation from your landing pages. This will keep the visitor from getting distracted and browsing other part of your website. When someone arrives at your landing page, your main goal should be to keep them there so they take the desired action -- completing the lead-capture form. Because this is the case, all of your page elements need to support that very goal.
2. Highlight the value in the headline. It’s a good practice to make your landing page headline the title of the offer it's promoting, but sometimes using only the title results in some vagueness about that particular offer's value. I’m not exactly sure whether Health Dialog's audience clearly understands what “From Theory to Practice” means, but if they don't, it makes sense for them to improve the strength of that title. In addition, the fact that this is a whitepaper is buried within the body copy. I would emphasize that near the top of the page so it's immediately clear to visitors that they'll be receiving a free whitepaper.
3. If the author is a benefit, tell us why! Who is Peter Goldbach? Is he an industry-leading expert? Best-selling author? A healthcare executive? If you're going to mention the whitepaper's author in your copy, tell people why he is so awesome, and how he adds value to this offer.
4. Use bullet points to highlight the benefits of the offer. There is a lot of great stuff in these two paragraphs, and while it’s short (which is great!), the benefits of what the visitor will get by downloading the offer are buried in here. Instead, Health Dialog should use short and simple bullet points to highlight the best qualities of their whitepaper so visitors can quickly scan the page and understand why they should convert.
5. If a field is not required, make it extra clear! This is a simple tip, but it can help immensely. Asking someone for their phone number in a form is a huge point of friction, simply because it screams, “Submit this form and get contacted by Sales!” In fact, if people so much as just seethat phone number form field -- whether it's required or not -- they may automatically get turned off and avoid the offer. Even though this field doesn't have a red asterisk (meaning it’s not required), the fact that it's an optional field isn't as obvious as it could be, especially considering all  the other fields are required. To help reduce friction, Health Dialog should add “(not required)” or something similar next to the 'Phone' label.
6. Make the ‘Download’ button more graphically appealing. Studies have shown that button colors and sizes do affect conversion rates. While this button isn’t bad, try testing bigger, more colorful buttons that stand out. Try A/B testing different images and colors to see what works best for your particular audience.

After:

This is an example of a redesign for Health Dialog's landing page, with the above suggestions applied:

What Was Changed:

1. Removed the top navigation so people stay on the page.
2. Added a clear headline with a strong offer title. I felt that the sub-headline of Health Dialog's whitepaper, “Implementing Shared Decision Making at the Point of Care,” was far more powerful than the primary headline, “From Theory to Practice,” simply because it's more descriptive and actionable, and less vague. I may be wrong, and the Health Dialog audience may know exactly what the previous headline means and why it’s important, but let's assume they don't. To make the title even stronger, I added “X Tips” as in “15 Tips for Implementing…” to the existing title, although you can spin it in other ways (X Ways for…, X Examples for…, etc). People LOVE numbers (such as in the title of this blog post!) because it clearly indicates exactly what they'll get, and creating a really sexy title for your offer is one of the best ways to increase its landing page's conversion rate. In a nutshell, make your titles and headlines so attractive that it's impossible for people to ignore.
3. Added a sub-head that adds credibility to the author. I used “by industry-leading author” here, which is just an example. But again, if you plan to use the author as a main selling point, tell your visitors why he or she adds value and credibility.
4. Added short bullet points that highlight the offer’s main benefits. I took the great copy Health Dialog already had and just turned it into a bullet format. This makes it easier to scan and digest. Additionally, I added a (fake -- although you’ll want to use a real one) testimonial from the author himself. This adds even more credibility. I also included his picture, because it always helps to prove someone is a real person (never use stock photography in these cases). Instead of the author, you could also use a quote from an influential thought leader or someone who resonates with your audience about how great the offer is. This adds social proof.
5. Reduced friction in the form. This is another simple addition, but I added “(not required)” next the 'Phone' label. Now, when visitors quickly scan the form before they decide to fill it out, they know they don’t have to give up their phone number to redeem the offer.
6. Added a bigger, more colorful button.  As I mentioned in my recommendations above, Health Dialog should test different button colors and images to see what works best for their particular audience. For example, some studies have shown that red or orange buttons work better than blue or green, but every website and its audience is different. I used the color blue in my design only because it matches the Health Dialog branding. However, it also makes sense to test other colors that don’t match your site colors to see if a color that stands out more moves the needle. In addition, test the text you use on your 'submit' button. For example, instead of just "Download," you may also want to try “Download Now,” “Get Your Free Whitepaper,” or “Access Your Whitepaper Instantly.”

Bonus:

I also noticed that this landing page's page title (what gets shown at the top of your browser, and in search engines) is simply “From Theory to Practice.” From an SEO perspective, this is simply too vague to get found online. Health Dialog should make sure its page has a strong page title that includes the page’s primary keyword in order to increase organic search traffic to their page.

Recommendation:

I'd change the title from “From Theory to Practice” to “Free Whitepaper: Shared Decision Making for Your Healthcare Practice – by Health Dialog” or something similar, to make it keyword-rich and targeted. But don’t go overboard here. Only include the keywords that are most applicable to this page and your industry, and place the whitepaper title before your company name. In general, think about what your audience is searching for, and focus on that.

Landing Page #2: Charmed Design

Charmed Design is an online shopping center for unique and beautiful jewelry. The landing page that was submitted below is for an email subscription. I chose this page because I come across so many businesses that use an email subscription or newsletter as an offer.

Before:

 

What Works:

The page is fairly simple, and it’s clear what the page is offering. I LOVE the email format option (yay for mobile!) and that the form is short and simple.

Suggestions for Improvement:

1. Remove the top navigation. Same as with the Health Dialog example above, Charmed Design should remove the main site navigation so people don’t feel tempted to wander off. I would also reduce the size of the header and remove the social media links that are at the top of the page (again, to reduce distraction).
2. Make the headline more actionable. “Email Sign Up – 20% Coupon” isn’t bad because it tells people what the page is for, and they're also adding an incentive. That being said, it could be stronger and more actionable, as in the structure "Do X to Receive Y."
3. Expand upon the sub-headline. I think Charmed Design's sub-headline is actually better than its main headline because it contains that action-packed language. Instead of duplicating this copy, they should try adding more clarity.
4. Shorten the horizontal length of the form, and add more supporting elements. Even though the form is short, the fact that it expands across the entire page looks a bit overwhelming. As a usability issue, the fact that the "required" asterisk markers are to the far right and not directly next to the field labels is also a bit odd. It also increases the chances users won't notice them. Also, considering this is just a subscription landing page, should last name really be required? If so, that’s fine, but if not, Charmed Design may want to make it optional to reduce additional friction. Additionally, when shrinking the field sizes, adding more supporting elements to the left and right of the form such as body copy, bullet points, testimonials, or an image of what a subscriber email might look like, can add more value to the offer.
5. Make the submit button stand out. This is the same advice as in our Health Dialog example. Charmed Design should make the button more colorful, bigger, and sexier.

After:

 

What Was Changed:

1. Removed top navigation and social media links so people stay on the page. As a best practice, save the social media sharing and follow buttons for AFTER they convert on your form -- such as adding them to the thank-you page or in your auto-responder email -- as a next step.
2. Revised headline to focus on the benefit of the email subscription first, and provide the incentive second. Receiving a 20% off coupon is nice, but you want your email subscribers to have a long-term relationship with you, not just take the coupon and bail afterward. As such, it might be best to highlight the value of the email subscription itself and then add the icing on the cake with a coupon or discount (the incentive). Consider what is valuable to your audience. Do they really want “news,” or do they want “to be the first to see the latest trends and products in jewelry” instead? Also, is 20% off enough? I would suggest trying bigger discounts, as 20% may not be valuable enough to fork over their email address. To create urgency, you might also want to offer the discount for a limited-time, or offer a limited quantity, as in, “Get a 75% off coupon -- only available for the next 100 people who sign up!” This technique is particularly effective during times of seasonality to push more sales during slower periods.
3. Added more supportive elements. In this case, I added a couple of bullet points about what people will receive (besides the coupon) by subscribing. In addition, I added images of jewelry as a visual element, although it’s worth testing which types of image works better (e.g. images of products vs. a screenshot of the email they'll receive).
4. Reduced form length and optimized form elements. There are a few important changes here. First, I added a header to the form to urge visitors to “Subscribe Now.” It might also be interesting for Charmed Design to test a multimedia counter with its limited-time offer, to create a sense of urgency. If you don’t have the technical resources for a counter, adding static text such as “Subscribe Now to Receive Your Coupon” would also do the trick. Additionally, I made 'Last Name' optional (again, do this only if it’s not really an important data point for you to capture) and added "HTML" as the pre-selected option for 'Email Format.' The reason for this is that some people might not notice an option is not selected by default. By pre-selecting it, you make the decision easier for them. Another thing for Charmed Design to consider is that the option “mobile” is a bit unclear. Do they mean mobile-optimized version? Try to circumvent as many questions as you can on the landing page to reduce friction.
5. Added a brighter, bolder “Subscribe” button. Using a dull grey button doesn’t look very exciting. One way to increase conversion rates is to make your button brighter and bigger. Try testing different colors as well. You'll notice I also changed the text on the button to "Subscribe Now" to repeat that sense of urgency I created in the form headline.

Landing Page #3: Curata

Curata is a software platform that enables you to easily find, organize, and share content. The landing page below is for a demo request of the software, which is one of the company’s primary offers.

Before:

 

What Works:

This is a fairly good landing page in the fact that it’s simple, clean, and to-the-point. When visitors arrive at this page, they know the offer is to see a demo of the software. Furthermore, there is little design friction, and the page contains many of the key elements of great landing pages. However, there is a lot of hidden friction, which I will address in a moment. I also love the use of the testimonial as well as the graphic of the software. I only have a few recommendations here, but I think they could make a big impact.

Suggestions for Improvement:

1. Remove the main navigation. This is the same lesson from examples #1 and #2 above. Removing the main site nav will keep visitors on the page and focused on this particular offer.
2. Use the headline to continue selling the demo and address pain points. Just because someone visits this landing page doesn't mean they're already sold on the offer or convinced it addresses their pain points. Continue the conversation on the landing page from previous pages or channels, and use the headline to pull them further into the page.
3. Add benefits and value copy. What will prospects learn, or get in return, by requesting a demo? How long is the demo? Is it an on-demand demo or does someone speak with Sales? Why should prospects spend their time demoing your software instead of with your competitors'? Why should prospects request a demo now and not later ... or ever? All of these are the types of questions prospects will be asking themselves when they visit this page. The goal is to reduce the amount of questions a visitor has, because when there are questions with unclear answers, it creates friction and doubt. It'd also be helpful to add a sub-headline or brief body copy that informs the visitor why it is valuable to see a demo -- and incorporate elements that create a sense of urgency.

After:

 

What Was Changed:

1. Added a more beneficial headline. How does Curata solve the prospect's top challenge? This is where you’d want to address that. I took a stab at a revised headline as an example, but I see far more opportunities to make this better. Other examples that include quantifiable data also work very well, such as, “Discover How 5,000 Business Use Curata for Content Creation.” Or “More Than 5 Million Pieces of Content Created and Shared With Curata.” Basecamp is a good example of a company that does this well: “Last week 6,078 companies signed up for Basecamp to manage their projects. Today it’s your turn.”
2. Added a little more information about what prospects will receive. Again, it’s important not to overdo it, but a little more descriptive information about the demo will help address visitors' top questions and concerns. To create a sense of urgency and a desire to continuing researching your product, adding some bullet points and benefits can really help increase conversions. With an offer that’s closer to the bottom of funnel, such as a demo request, it’s even more important to nail the page copy so it really resonates with your audience.
3. Reduced the form size. This is a minor change, but I reduced the size of the form fields and spacing so that, even when adding extra content above the form, the page length is exactly the same. Sometimes it helps when a form just appears shorter, even if it contains the same number of fields.

What else would you change about these landing pages? If you’d like to see your own landing page optimized, add your URL and your top challenge in the comments!

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33968/Before-and-After-3-Real-Life-Landing-Page-Makeovers.aspx#ixzz2Fxx7nUdX

10 Businesses We Admire for Brilliant Global Marketing

Posted by Hannah Fleishman

Fri, Nov 30, 2012 @ 01:00 PM

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Just a few weeks ago, we looked at the ins-and-outs of Facebook's new Global Pages -- a platform for brands to easily share region-specific content with international markets. Dankeschön, Facebook. No longer is global reach reserved for deep-pocketed brands, nor is it an incredible hassle for already over-burdened social media and community managers.
In fact, a global presence is possible for any business with a creative strategy and an understanding of world markets. To give you an idea of what a great global marketing strategy looks like, we've compiled some brands that totally "get it." Take a look at ten companies which have traveled successfully across the globe with their marketing!

1) Airbnb

Airbnb is the Craigslist of apartment rentals. The company, launched in 2008 out of San Francisco, has taken its national service to 192 countries for users to rent short-term apartments from other users. How did this start-up grow up so quickly? Unlike Craigslist, Airbnb has a fun, more user-friendly website that showcases the brand's transparent, trusting personality. The website is now available in 21 languages with consistent information, style, and personality to appeal to like-minded users across cultures. Notice the carryover between this page, for example:



And this page:



You're looking at Airbnb's mobile app page in both German and English. The brand tailored the headline to fit the language: in English, it reads '...at your fingertips' but in German it reads '...on your cellphone' using the less formal term for cellphone, 'Handy'. The brand tweaks its content to best suit the culture, but it's still obvious which brand you're interacting with regardless of language. And I think this global focus is working -- in 2011, Airbnb rentals in Italy saw a 946% increase and the UK at 748%. The company also opened 9 overseas offices in the past 4 years to accomodate its growing global presence. Having a strong, consistent voice across languages is a key factor when going global.

2) Rezdy

Some companies may not be trying to attract global markets directly, but if their clients are, they better know how. Rezdy is an Australian-based reservation software designed to make online booking smoother for tourists and agents alike, a valuable tool when over 60% of travellers make reservations online. Though Rezdy's clients are Australian-based, they need to cater to their clients' international visitors. Click on the screen shot to check out this fun video on Rezdy's homepage:


The first feature the video spotlights is 'Internationalisation.' The video walks us through how easy the service is for users, but is sure to emphasize the language and currency customization tool upfront. Even if your company is marketing to other regional companies, consider their global customers as if they were your own.

3) World Wildlife Foundation

WWF took its Earth Hour initiative, a voluntary worldwide event where participants turn off their lights for an hour to show how easy it can be to battle climate change, and brought it to Norway's mobile audience (1 in 4 Norwegians have 3G mobile access).
Scandanavian countries like Norway experience extreme daylight hours throughout seasons, making the country ready for WWF's Blackout campaign. Using digital agency Mobiento, the nonprofit placed the Blackout Banner across Norway's top media sites to promote Earth Hour. With one tap of the banner, the screen went black. Finger swiping the black screen slowly revealed the Earth Hour countdown. The banner attracted roughly 1,000,000 impressions and the campaign received three 2012 MMA Global Mobile Marketing Awards.
Case: Black out rich media banner for WWF Earth Hour from Mobiento.
Have a cool idea? Don't be afraid to try it out on one international market -- just make sure it's the appropriate audience. Also, don't be afraid of the dark.

4) Durex

The UK-based condom manufacturer is number one in the industry with 34% market share across 130 countries. Sure, sex sells, but how does Durex sell such a taboo product in foreign countries? All jokes aside, Durex is sure to play it safe. The company developed an internal platform for its marketers from different countries to connect and discuss the brand's presence overseas.
Anna Valle, head of global marketing for Durex, said of the online community, "It will help us to share the global vision, to engage, and be more consistent." Discussion among marketers fuels localized campaigns with an overarching brand personality -- risque. For example, check out this recent image Durex shared on Sina Weibo after President Obama had been re-elected. (Fair warning: if you don't like raunchy and/or political humor, don't click.) 12 hours after being posted, the image was forwarded 43,000 times with over 12,000 comments.

5) Pearse Trust

With offices in Dublin, London, Vancouver, and Atlanta, Pearse Trust has grown to be a global authority on corporate and trust structures. But it takes more than offices all over the map to reach an international audience. That's why Pearse Trust keeps content flowing on its Facebook page that engages its various markets. In this screenshot below, you can see Pearse Trust posts daily content featuring international affairs relating to the company's practice.



Within 3 days, Pearse Trust made daily Facebook posts, leveling out external articles with Pearse Trust content, featuring news from Germany, Ireland (where they have a Dublin office), and the UK (where they have a London office). This is a great example of focusing on common interests shared among your company's various markets while making the content relateable to customers by region.

6) McDonald's

We all know it's a successul global brand, so unlike their menu, I'll keep it light. While keeping its overarching branding consistent, Mcdonald's practices 'glocal' marketing efforts. No, that's not a typo. McDonald's brings a local flavor, literally, to different countries with region-specific menu items. In 2003, McDonald's introduced the McArabia, a flatbread sandwich, to its restaurants in the Middle East.



You can also find the McVeggie in India or the EBI-Fillet-O shrimp burger in Japan. This glocal approach has helped put McDonald's at #7 on Interbrand's Best Global Brands 2012. 

7) Innocent Drinks

Innocent Drinks is the leading smoothie company in the UK with 75% of the market share in 2011 -- additionally, Innocent products are now available in 13 countries across Europe. The company is known to have "chatty branding"; for instance, the website is very bubbly with contact information that reads "call the bananaphone" or "visit the Fruit Towers."

The brand won the #1 spot on Headstream's Social Brands 100 for its entertaining and playful online presence. Headstream attributes Innocent's online success to keeping the brand's personality in tact across 13 countries. "Key to Innocent's success," they said, "has been a consistent tone of voice -- one that's natural, honest, and engaging -- making social activity feel like a natural extension of the company's personality."
Global expansion and rapid growth can sometimes distract a company from consistent branding. As marketers, we need to be sure our brand's voice is interpreted the same way around the world.   

8) Unger and Kowitt

The phrase 'glocal' can be defined as "Think Globally, Act Locally." But what happens when you switch the two around? Woah, fasten your seatbelts -- literally. Unger and Kowitt is a traffic ticket law firm based in Fort Lauderdale defending drivers in the state of Florida. Not very global, right? Well, Unger and Kowitt understands that America is a melting pot and that Florida is bursting at the seams with different cultures and languages.



Though a domestic service, the firm's website is available in English, Spanish, Portugese, and Creole. With these options, Unger and Kowitt can cater to Florida's nearly 3.5 million Floridians who speak Spanish, Portugese, or Creole. Don't miss out on expanding your client base -- sometimes you don't have to look far to attract international business.

9) Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a great example of a brand using glocal marketing efforts. Though a large corporation, Coca-Cola focuses on small community programs and invests a lot of time and money in small-scale charity efforts. For example, in Egypt, Coca-Cola has built 650 clean water installations in the rural village of Beni Suef and sponsors Ramadan meals for children across the Middle East. In India, the brand sponsors the Support My School initiative to improve facilities at local schools. Not to mention, the brand sticks with selling an emotion that can't get lost in translation: happiness. Now, tell me this doesn't look like fun:

10) Results.com 

Ten points at #10 for Results.com, a business execution firm with offices in New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. This global company knows the importance of delivering on your promise, no matter how far that delivery may take you. On the website, Results.com says "We have global influence" and can provide "face to face consulting to companies from around the world."

 
Results.com does, in fact, bring face to face consulting to its customers. The company is bringing John Spence, marketing consultant and guru, from Florida to New Zealand in March 2013 to share his ideas with CEOs and business managers in the region. Since November 2010, the company's website traffic has increased by 180%. I wouldn't be surprised if events like this are generating buzz down under!
What other brands out there do a great job with their global marketing?

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33857/10-Businesses-We-Admire-for-Brilliant-Global-Marketing.aspx#ixzz2Dyfp5p4Whttp://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33857/10-businesses-we-admire-for-brilliant-global-marketing?source=Blog_Email_[10%20Businesses%20We%20Adm]