BEE is offering a free plan to would-be users of its BEE Pro email and landing page design suite in what it says is a move to democratize design.  

The no-code design tool helps professionals at all skill levels create mobile-ready emails and landing pages, using templates and styles including fonts, colors and reusable content blocks.

The plan will “help us solve cross departmental communications and creative challenges within large organizations," says Tyler Bennett, head of sales at BEE.

Bennett adds that at times, “the presence of the free trial created some friction, resulting in various people in the company signing up for new free trials. “We've seen cases with 80+ free trials within the same organization.” 

Now, companies will “simply create a Free account, invite their colleagues, collaborate, and move to a paid plan when the value of the change makes sense. No more countless free trials. Just one free account that never expires and the work can get done when it fits their timeline."

BEE Pro, a business unit of Growens, says it is registering over 10,000 new free trials per month.

Earned or unpaid sources — including email — drove 75% of web traffic in 2021. That is down from 80% in 2020, according to the 2022 Digital Experience Benchmark Report, a study by Contentsquare. 

Some industries rely almost entirely on unpaid traffic:

• Financial Services — 91%
• Energy — 90%
• Media — 88%
• B2B — 86%
• Telecoms — 85%
• Travel & Hospitality — 80%
• Consumer Electronics — 77%
• Grocery — 74%
• Automotive — 71%
• Fashion — 68%
• Health & Beauty — 65%
• Home Goods & Furnishings — 65%
• Luxury — 59%
• Pharmaceuticals — 54%

What’s earned traffic? It includes social media, search engines, email, and referral traffic, as well as a user typing a website’s URL directly into their address bar. 

Earned traffic succeeds because of its authenticity — it generates word of mouth, online content, mentions, recommendations and shares, the study continues. Still, there was a 5% increase in paid traffic such as paid search as the pandemic seemed to be receding.

By itself, email is an important but relatively small traffic source across all industries:

Direct — 27%

Organic Search (SEO) — 22% 

Other — 22%

Paid Search — 19%

Emails — 5%

Paid Social — 4%

Organic Social — 1%

The email portion could become even smaller as interactive email takes hold, allowing shoppers to purchase without linking through to a website. But email teams have to be on their guard to avoid blasts that treat all customers the same. 

"Every part of the digital journey needs to connect in order for consumers to have high-value experiences," says Niki Hall, CMO of Contentsquare. "If email or social, for example, don't connect with owned digital properties like a website, that makes it incredibly difficult for audiences to engage in multiple ways across different devices.

Hall adds that "consumers want flexibility, yet are straightforward in their buying and digital consumption behaviors. They want convenience, but expect results quickly. Ensuring that every part of the journey, regardless of channel, is value-driven and interconnected is a big part of digital marketing success."

It also pays to remember that 51% of all web visits are repeats.

Mobile declined from 64% of all traffic in 2020 to 58% in 2021. Desktop traffic went from 33% to 39%, and tablet was flat at 3%. Despite the changes, brands need to design their emails for mobile and desktop both. 

Desktop has one advantage: consumers spend an average of 5 minutes 55 seconds per session on computers, compared to just 2 minutes 39 seconds on mobile. But brands are focusing on improving the mobile experience with faster loading times. These are now 1.61 seconds on desktop and 1.52 on mobile. 

Consumers tend to use desktop for big purchases like  vacations and electronics, relying on mobile for smaller transactions. 

Meanwhile bounce rates have risen from 47% in 2020 to 50% this year. This means that half of all content is never seen, proving that brands should prioritize A/B testing and content/product placement on their websites, the study says.  

The highest bounce rates were seen in B2B (65%), pharmaceuticals (60%) and media (59%). The lowest were in energy (37%), travel & hospitality (42%) and home goods & furnishings (64%). 

Contentsquare analyzed anonymized data from 46 billion user sessions across 3,870 global websites from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021. 

Marketers and developers paid much more for a conversion in Apple Search Ads during the fourth quarter of 2021 than they have in the past, according to data from SplitMetrics.

The CPA in Apple Search Ads is the indicator to measure how much on average marketers or developers pay for the conversion, which equates to a tap on the “Get” button.

SplitMetrics calculated the average CPA by dividing the total spend by the number of installs from an ad in Apple Search Ads in a specific time frame.

SplitMetrics estimates the average CPA at $3.64 in Q4 2021 -- up from $2.58 in Q3 2021. It remained steady in Q2 at $2.58, but rose from $2.22 in Q1 2021. The company also estimates the compound annual growth rate at 6.42%.

The report from SplitMetrics -- a global tech company focused on analyzing data from mobile apps -- analyzed the average taps and impressions (TTR), clickthrough rates or downloads and taps (CR), spend and taps (CPT), and spend and download or the cost per action (CPA) by categories and markets for the second half of 2021.

The data also compares each measurement with Apple Search Ads benchmarks from previous years, quarter-over-quarter.

The average tap-through rate (TTR) for Apple Search Ads for the second half of 2021 fell to 8.87%, up from 9.17% in the first half of the year, according to data from SplitMetrics.

The TTR measures the number of times that App Store users tapped on an ad. Then it is divided by the total number of impressions for the ad.

In Q4 2021, the TTR came in at 8.32%, up from 8.25%, but down from 8.7% in Q2 and 9% in Q1, according to data from SplitMetrics, a global tech company focused on analyzing data from mobile apps.

Sports led with the highest TTR for the second half of the year at 19.86%, up from 1767%. In the first half. Entertainment followed with 18.79% in the second half, but fell from 19.46% in the first half. Graphic & Design rounded out the top three with 14.43%, up from 9.94% in the first half of the year. The data tracked 15 popular categories. Eight out of 15 App Store categories under consideration had TTR above the overall average, 9.34%.

The average Apple Search Ads conversion rate (CR) reflects the number of app downloads divided by the total number of taps on the ad. The average CR in H2 2021 reached 62.22% in the fourth quarter in 2021, up from 60.96% in Q3 2021.

Similar to the TTR, SplitMetrics analyzed the top CR for 15 app categories.

Eight out of 15 categories show the CR above the overall average at 62.22%. The top three were Business, increasing 10.94%; Games at 8.19%; and Sports at 7.42%.

Health & Fitness, Graphics & Design, and Music fell 17.92%, 13.21%, and 8.77%, respectively.

The average CPT in Apple Search Ads is the total spend on the ads divided by the total number of taps on those ads. The average CPT rose to $2.27 in Q4 2021, up from $1.58 in Q3 2021.

The data shows the overall average TTR at 8.87%; CR, 62.22%; CPT, $2.22; and CPA, $3.76 for the second half of 2021.

CPT for Finance came in five-times higher at $11.73, compared with the average across all categories.

The CPA for Finance also affected the average CPA for other categories -- rising to $21.22, which is 5.6 times higher than the overall average.

Smart TV manufacturer and advertising platform Vizio is starting up a new type of TV ad format -- one that links linear TV viewing to a smart TV app platform.

Called Jump Ads, it allows programmers and marketers the ability to give an option to consumers -- at the end of linear TV program -- to jump to supporting apps through Vizio’s SmartCast operating system to continue their smart TV viewing.

Fox Television Network is the first partner to test Jump Ads.

At the end of the premiere episode for its new docu-comedy “Welcome to Flatch,” a Jump Ad will prompt viewers to continue watching additional episodes of the program or catch up on past episodes on the Fox Now app.

An "overlay" gives viewers the option via their remotes to move on to more episodes onto a streaming app.

Fox is streaming the first seven episodes of the season on-demand the same day as the launch of the show.

Vizio cites that 60% of viewers are frustrated with the process of navigating between different streaming services and apps, according to Accenture. Jump Ads make for an easy transition.

For TV networks, they can choose at what point in the show the ads will appear, and how often.

Vizio says it is working with other content providers and marketers on a variety of integrations.

Like WarnerMedia’s HBO Max before it, its new CNN+ streaming service debuted without app support on Roku, the largest streaming platform.

For the moment, at least, CNN+ is also unavailable on Android TV and Google TV devices, the Samsung and LG OS TV platforms, and the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox game consoles.

The service, which launched on Tuesday, is currently available on desktop and through the CNN mobile app on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and iOS and Android phones and tablets.

Later this year, CNN+ will also be available on the Xfinity X1, Flex and XClass TV platforms, through WarnerMedia’s multi-platform distribution agreement with Comcast.

CNN has said that it is working on resolving the distribution limitations.

With dominant share of U.S. connected TV (CTV) households and 60 million active accounts worldwide, Roku has not been hesitant to use its clout to negotiate hard for favorable terms with app publishers.

HBO Max, launched in June 2020, was not available on Roku devices until December 2020, just before WarnerMedia simultaneously bowed “Wonder Woman 1984”on HBO Max and in theaters — its first day-and-date release. (HBO Max also initially lacked support on Amazon Fire TV, the country’s second-largest CTV platform.)

Roku has also tangled in recent times over renewal terms for Charter Communications’ Spectrum TV app, and for YouTube and YouTube TV, among others.

The promise of mobile has always been for brands to have an always-on connection with consumers who've got an internet-connected device in their hand or pocket. But new research suggests many brands aren’t living up to that promise, and that a majority of consumers feel they’re being “ghosted.”

That’s the finding of new consumer research conducted by IDC for personalization platform Sinch.

The study found 89% of people want to initiate and reply to two-way conversations with businesses, via multiple mobile and social channels, but that more than half (53%) were frustrated when they discovered they couldn't reply to a mobile message sent from a brand.

Even when consumers do get a response, it doesn't always fit the “real-time” kind of expectations that mobile connectivity would otherwise suggest.

Nearly one-in-four consumers told IDC it takes a day or more to get a response from a business, and most said they were less likely to buy from that brand as a result of the delays.

While it’s possible various workforce and staffing issues may have been exacerbating consumer frustrations about the lack of or a delayed response from brands, the IDC study also found consumers feel ghosted by AI-powered chatbot interfaces.

While 70% of consumers say they have interacted with chatbots, 95% of them said they “desired to be instantly handed off to a live agent.”

What’s the lesson here? Well, among other things  you should be careful what you wish for -- and be prepared to step up and respond in kind when you ask consumers to interact with you in an always-on way. Otherwise, you may be turning them off.

White papers, those relics from another age, are back. Last year, the number of  uploads by marketers grew by 20.3%, outpacing the growth of all other B2B content formats, according to the State of Content Consumption & Demand Report, a study by NetLine.

Of course, eBooks dominated registrations, accounting for 43.3% of the total, versus 7.4% for white papers. 

Overrall, the results show that  B2B buyers sought serious information as we moved into the second year of the pandemic. 

Based on its own volume, encompassing some 4.6 million registrations, Netline reports that B2B content consumption increased by more than 9% last year. In addition, there was a 19% acceleration in additional content registrations and a 3.6-hour increase in overall time to consume content.

Mobile traffic fell to 7.9%, down from 23.43% in 2020—no big surprise given the changes in working arrangements. 

Speaking of which, the study found a big hike in content consumption in the Lifestyle and Career area. People were highly interested in how to protect their mental health and how to cope with a new way of working. 

Meanwhile, desktop consumption increased to 91.53%, versus 64.61% in 2020. Tablet use barely tracked in either year. 

Who’s doing the reading? Here are the 10 most active job areas:

• Information technology — 27.99%
• Executives — 14.78% 
• Education — 6.58%
• Engineering — 6.51%
• Human Resources — 6.19%
• Finance/Accounting — 5.35%
• Business — 4.54%
• Marketing — 4.17%
• Sales — 3.84%
• Manufacturing/Production/Operations — 2.42%

These figures reflect a 19.4% increase in executive consumption, and a 4.1% decline in the marketing areas. And they appear to be in sync with the list of the top most active job functions, with the groups they are part of:

• IT: It Systems Management — 12.6%
• Exec: CEO — 10.7%
• Edu: Teacher/Professor — 7.1%
• IT: Network/Server Admin — 6.6%
• Sales: Sales — 6.5%
• IT: Software System Architecture — 6.4%
• IT: IT Project Management — 5.6% 
• Exec: Senior Management — 5.6% 
• Exec: President — 4.9% 
• HR: Senior Management — 4.6%

Despite landing in the No. 1 slot, It: Systems Management consumption declined by 26%. 

The study also found that 31% of B2B professionals expect to invest in buyer-level intent data in the next 12 months, and 15% in the next six months.  

What is intent data telling B2B marketers? It varies by format. These are the content formats associated with immediate buying decisions:

• White Paper
• Survey Report 
• Tool
• Research Report
• Analyst Report
• On-Demand Webinar
• Live Webcast

Here are the content formats less likely associated with immediate buying decisions: 

• Tips & Tricks Guide
• eKit 
• Course
• Newsletters 
• eBook
• Book Summary 
• Cheat Sheet

Webinars are a big sign of intent: Buyers who register for one are 29% more likely to purchase within six months. 

The study also found that15.2% of B2B professionals expect to invest  (in something) within the next six months.

Sephora has for the fifth time been ranked as the top brand in Sailthru’s Retail Personalization Index. But this year it had to settle for a tie: Thrive Market has moved in with an equal score. 

The two brands each pulled an RPI score of 65. Sephora has been in the No. 1 slot since the Index was launched five years ago.

To determine the scores, the researchers examined the brands based on 80 attributes, then personally experienced each store’s purchase process. In addition, Sailthru surveyed 260 retailers and 5,000 consumers, 4,000 in the U.S. and 1,000 in the UK. 

Each brand was assigned an RPI score made up of how well they personalized their site, email, mobile and offline. They were also rated on privacy. The highest possible RPI score was 80. 

The best score for email was achieved by Fabletics: 26.  

Sailthru notes that while 71% of retailers think they excel in personalization, only 34% of consumers agree. 

This year’s Index seems different from that of 2021. Last year, Sephora pulled an RPI score of 89 and Thrive Market 88. But Sailthru then analyzed 96 attributes, versus this year’s 80. 

Here is the list of the top 25, including their RPI Score and how they rate on email and the other weighted factors. Note: There are several ties, and some skipped numbers in the ranking. For instance, four brands are tied for 18, resulting in a skip directly to 22.    

1. Thrive Market---RPI (65), Email (25), Site (20), Mobile (13), Offline (4), Privacy (3)

1. Sephora—RPI (65), Email (22), Site (24), Mobile (11), Offline (7%), Privacy (1)

3. DSW/Designer Shoe Warehouse—RPI (63), Email (23), Site (21), Mobile (10), Offline (7), Privacy (2)

4. Best Buy—RPI (60), Email (21), Site (20), Mobile (9), Offline (7), Privacy (3)

5. Adidas—RPI (59), Email (22), Site (21), Mobile (5), Offline (7), Privacy (4) 

6. Fabletics—RPI (57), Email (26), Site (16), Mobile (9), Offline (4), Privacy (2)

7. 1stdibs—RPI (56), Email (22), Mobile (7), Offline (4), Privacy (3)

8. Bloomingdale’s—RPI (54), Email (18), Site (17), Mobile (10), Offline (7), Privacy (2)

9. Just Fab—RPI (57), Email (22), Site (16), Mobile (8), Offline (4), Privacy (3)

9. The Home Depot—RPI (53), Email (17), Site (17), Mobile (9), Offline (7), Privacy (3)

9. Nordstrom—RPI (53), Email (16), Site (19), Mobile (8), Offline (7), Privacy (3)

12. Forever 221—RPI (52), Email (20), Site (13), Mobile (10), Offline (5), Privacy (4)

12. Fashion Nova—RPI (52), Email (22), Site (19), Mobile ‘(9), Offline (0), Privacy (2)

14. Petco—RPI (51), email (13), Site (19), Mobile (8), Offline (7), Privacy (3)

14. Overstock.com Inc—RPI (51), Email ‘(13), Site (19), Mobile (12), Offline (4), Privacy (3)

14. Wayfair—RPI (51), Email (20), Site (14), Mobile (10), Offline (4), Privacy (3)

17. Target—RPI (50) Site (16), Mobile (11), Offline (6), Privacy (2)

18. Carter’s—RPI (49), Email (18), Site (15), Mobile (7), Offline (7), Carter’s (2)

18. Dick’s Sporting Goods—RPI (49), Email (13), Site (17), Mobile (9), Offline (7), Privacy (3)

18. All Modern—RPI (49), Email (16), Site (16), Mobile (11), Offline (4), Privacy (2)

22. Office Depot/OfficeMax—RPI (47), Email (18), Site (15), Mobile (5), Offline (7), Privacy (2) 

23. Walmart—RPI (40), Email (16), Site (13), Mobile (10), Offline (6), Privacy (3)

24. American Eagle Outfitters—RPI (47), Email (9), Site (18), Mobile (8), Offline (7), Privacy (5) 

25. eBay—RPI (46), Email (19), Site (13), Mobile (8), Offline (3), Privacy (3)

25. Crate and Barrel—RPI (46), Email (18), Site (13), Mobile (8), Offline (5), Privacy (3) 

25. e.i.f. Cosmetics—RPI (46), Email (14), Site (16), Mobile (9), Offline (4), Privacy (3)

25. HSN (Home Shopping Network)—RPI (46), Email (17), Site (14), Mobile (8), Offline (4), Privacy (3)

Direct marketing’s venerable ECHO awards were presented last night, with the online dating application Tinder winning the top honor: The Diamond ECHO. 

Tinder won for a campaign titled “Swipe Night,” a live-action miniseries that was available only within the Tinder app. It was created by the 72andSunny ad agency. 

The jurors for the Diamond ECHO were marketing executives from Kimberly-Clark, Coca-Cola, BlackRock, NBCUniversal, FCB, Citi, Accenture Interactive, Rapp, and Santander Bank. 

Tinder also won the gold award for mobile.  

The top email honor — a gold ECHO — recognized the “We Got You, Baby” campaign for Huggies/Kimberly Clark, created by Accenture Interactive and Droga5. This effort also won gold in the CRM/Customer Loyalty and Consumer Products & Services categories. 

MediaCom and Choreograph won a new award, taking the gold Marketing Data Strategy of the Year award for a campaign titled “Vaccine Readiness Model.” This was created to help Walgreen’s identify COVID-19 vaccine prospects.  

The model utilized multiple data points to create an algorithm that predicted vaccine readiness. 

Gold social media awards recognized the Mac/Digital opening campaign for Mac Cosmetics, created by Wunderman Thompson Argentina, and The Golden Oven campaign from McCain and FCB Canada.    

Two gold ECHOs were awarded in a few categories. The international awards, founded in 1929, were presented in connection with the ANA’s Masters of Data & Technology Conference in Orlando.

Other gold winners included:  

Customer acquisition

Reaching The Full Potential In Hair Care And In Business, Harklinkken and Nordid.  

Campaign for CSR/Social Good

Degree Inclusive — Unilever and Wunderman Thompson Argentina

Missing Voices — Voces de la Ausencia 

Campaign For Under $250,000

It’s Not OK —  Truecaller and Wirality Media 

Data-Driven Technology

The win-win-win lottery — Varelotteriet and Ambitions 

Data-Inspired Insight

Act Too — me too. and FCB/SIX 

Emerging Technologies

Everest Expedition AR Experience — National Geographic Partners and Signal Theory 

Not For Profit

Just As Long As You Pay-- SSickKids Foundation and Cossette 

Retail & Etail

How India's underdogs won Flipkart the Festive Battle —  Flipkart and McCann Worldgroup India/ MRM India 

Mac Digital Opening — Mac Cosmetics and Wunderman Thompson Argentina 

Video Content

Through Your Eyes —Sony Music / Incucai and Wunderman Thompson Argentina 

Swipe Night — Tinder and 72andSunny

Branded Content

The Unignorable Notification — Duolingo Inc and Jotacom 

Swipe Night — Tinder and 72andSunny 

Campaign for CSR/Social Good

Degree Inclusive — Unilever and Wunderman Thompson Argentina 

Missing Voices — Voces de la Ausencia 

Consumer Products & Services

Huggies "We Got You, Baby," Huggies / Kimberly-Clark with Accenture Interactive and Droga5 

Quarantensions — Dole Sunshine Company with Campbell Ewald and Spark Foundry 

Mobile

Swipe Night — Tinder and 72andSunny 

Through Your Eyes — Sony Music / Incucai and Wunderman Thompson Argentina 

The international awards, founded in 1929, were presented in connection with the ANA’s Masters of Data & Technology Conference in Orlando.