Knowing the psychological motivations behind purchase decisions can bring B2B and B2C marketers one step closer to reaching their target audience, and psychologists have identified six traits that are becoming more prominent in social commerce.

The following infographic from Digital Buzz Blog captures the enormous power of social influence in purchase decisions. Some highlights? When making purchase decisions, buyers rely on:

1. Social Proof
          •  Refers to the advice offered by friends and family members on social media. 81% of buyers rely on this.

2.  Authority
        • 77% consult reviews.

3. Scarcity
          •  Exclusive offers garner more interest and appeal from 77% of potential buyers.



Have a great weekend!

Thanks to everyone who attended our latest webinar, "Top Website Design Trends for 2012". We had a phenomenal turnout and lots of fantastic questions!

Our hosts, Shaun Scholtz, Interactive Art Director at Station X Communications and Richard Sharp, VP of Marketing at Marqui, provided their insights into the 2012 web design landscape, exploring 11 popular trends that can keep your web design visually compelling, and in support of your business objectives:

1. HTML5, CSS3 and JQUERY
2. Mobile Compatibility and Responsive Layouts
3. Typographic Layouts
4. The Grid
5. Large Background Images
6. Perceived Affordance and Metaphoric Design
7. Social Media Integration
8. Illustration
9. Single Page Websites
10. Parallax
11. Elegant Modal Boxes

If you'd like to know more, check out the full webinar here.

Thanks again to everyone for attending, and stay tuned for our upcoming e-book, "The Definitive Guide to a Website Redesign". Coming soon!

Email marketing plays a fundamental role in today’s
marketing efforts.  Whether it’s attracting new customers,
nurturing leads, developing loyalty or transactional messaging, there are standard best practices for email content.  Marqui’s email content best practices can be applied to all emails including promotions, e-newsletters, triggered campaigns, drip campaigns, win-back or client education programs.

The following lists the tactical approach Marqui recommends to all email marketers with regard to email content best practices:

Trust Elements  

•    Is the privacy policy clearly accessible?
•    Can recipients easily control their email subscription?
•    Does the “From" line contain a recognizable company name?
•    Does the email let the recipient know why they are getting it?

Engagement

•    Does the subject line communicate value?
•    Is the subject line too long (< 50 characters)?
•    Is the message self-explanatory without graphics?
•    Is the relevant content above the preview pane fold?
•    Will the content properly display on mobile devices?
•    Are there quick ways to read the email?
•    Does the look and feel integrate with your brand?

Action

•    Is there a clear call-to-action?
•    Can the user complete the promised action?
•    Are you tracking for conversion optimization?

Word-of-Mouth

•    Are members motivated to forward the email?
•    How easy is it to subscribe?

Metrics

•    Does the deployment ensure short and long-term measurable results?
•    Do you have a plan to continually optimize your content to improve results?

Following these best practices for email content will help you ensure that your campaigns are engaging and effective.  A Marqui email audit can help you determine how best to implement these practices and invigorate your marketing efforts. Talk to a Marqui Email Strategist today.

Many of us can make some pretty solid hypotheses about which areas of a web page attract instant attention from your visitors. However, when you throw something like eye-tracking into the mix and look specifically at social media profile pages, as EyeTrackShop has in a recent study with Mashable, you can end up with some really interesting conclusions.

For companies with pages on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, the results of studies like this one can help to reinforce what you already knew about social media profile pages, and may help to also uncover some new, useful tips. Read on!

1. Be Strategic in Your Profile Picture Selection

This one's especially important with Facebook, Klout and StumbleUpon. Ask yourself: is my company's profile picture representative of my brand? Is it eye-catching, unique and memorable? You can add to this by gathering feedback from your customers and/or asking your business contacts. What's their first impression?
   


2. Who You Know Matters

The study shows that people do look at those thumbnails of connections on your profile - make sure your company is making the right impression! This is especially the case with Facebook, Twitter and Google +.


3. Keep Your Content at the Top of the Page

This one you may have guessed: the top portion of your page is prime real-estate. The further down you go, the less likely people are to engage with the content, although the study found this effect to be less pronounced on Twitter and YouTube. 

Check out the full EyeTrackShop/Mashable study results here.