Here's how e-cigarette vendors promote culture of 'vaping' online

As per a recent study, online e-cigarette vendors engage customers by using popular internet tools.First introduced in the United States in 2007, electronic cigarettes have risen dramatically in part because they are popularly considered safer and more socially acceptable than combustible cigarettes and because there are fewer restrictions on their purchase and use.The University of California study by San Diego School of Medicine researchers points to aggressive online marketing tactics that make purchasing e-cigarettes easy for all ages.First author Tim K. Mackey said that they found e-cigarette vendors were highly engaged in promoting the culture of ‘vaping’ online, including posting images to Instagram, a social media site used by 52 percent of teens.Mackey added that despite the fact that 47 states prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, the results highlight the potential of the Internet to encourage e-cigarette initiation and underage purchasing. This is particularly concerning given that the FDA does not have specific proposed regulations for online e-cigarette sales.Data from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey shows that e-cigarette use tripled among middle and high school students from 2013 to 2014.Researchers found that 68 percent of the 57 online e-cigarette vendors they studied displayed one or more health warnings about the devices on their website. However, the notices were often depicted in smaller fonts or placed discretely in the terms and conditions section of a website.One third of the vendors had no detectable age verification process for buyers and of those that did, most required only a simple click to say the buyer was within the legal age limit. Industry analysts estimate that online sales comprise 25 to 30 percent of the $2 billion annual e-cigarette market, which may account for a high presence of vendors on social media, said Mackey, who is also associate director of the joint master’s degree in Health Policy and Law.The study found that online e-cigarette vendors use a variety of sophisticated and aggressive marketing practices, including promotional offers and high social media engagement to promote the sale of their products, said Mackey.Mackey and team reported that 70 percent of the online vendors used more than one of the three most commonly used social media platforms: 63 percent used Twitter, 52 percent posted to Facebook and 42 percent were on Instagram.The researchers said the findings could impact the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2014 proposed regulations of e-cigarette use, sale, marketing and manufacturing to include online monitoring of the laws.The study is published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Here"s how e-cigarette vendors promote culture of "vaping" online

Here's How Marketers Late To Mobile Game Can Still Win

Many marketers aren’t functioning at the top of their mobile game, and they’re not likely to admit it. But it’s time to get hip, friends. Mobile adoption is increasing and there’s still time to get it right (assuming you’re not already) – and win. And here are some stats to frighten you into acting now!

Recent research from PunchTab shows the “global mobile wallet market is expected to reach 1,420.8 million users by 2020” – and Apple Pay just kicked that figure into overdrive.

Why should you care? Online is quickly encroaching on your brick and mortar store – and consumers will buy where it’s convenient. Much like accepting credit cards, mobile pay will soon be the norm. You have a little bit of time, Mom and Pop shops, but not much.

The outlook for online brands requires a more immediate response though. We had a Q&A with Marla Schimke, VP of Marketing at Zumobi around the “unprecedented opportunity mobile apps have created for impactful content marketing campaigns.”

ST: How should companies gauge whether their content marketing efforts are a success?

MS: Currently 42 percent of marketers are satisfied with their content marketing efforts, which is an impressive number for a young industry. However, there is room for improvement. Content marketing is all about audience engagement so effective ways to measure are increased in-app session times, conversions and retention. The aim is to create a customer journey that keeps users coming back for more.

ST: How can content marketers make mobile content marketing more effective? 

MS: According to Flurry Analytics, time spent on mobile devices grew in the US by 9.3 percent, from 2 hours and 42 minutes to 2 hours and 57 minutes; on the other hand, time spent on TV has remained flat at 2 hours and 48 minutes daily.

By implementing content curation/automated solutions like mobile content marketing platforms that assist marketers with aggregating all of their content where their clients are (on mobile devices), they have access to granular insights on what’s working, what’s not, and why.

ST: Can you provide an example of this in action?

MS: For example, if a retail brand posts three DIY blogs to their mobile app’s content hub, with a mobile content marketing solution marketers can visualize in real-time which blogs are performing the best (i.e., which blog is being opened the most/the least, how much time is being spent on each piece of content, whether or not they click through to a related piece of content, etc.).

With this insight, marketers can better understand the individual customer journey and tailor their content marketing efforts to present content that is the most on-demand and personalized for the user. They can then use this information to inform their other marketing channels like email and event print marketing. Thus, marketers will see increased ROI both online and in-store.

ST: How important is curating/automating in real-time? 

MS: Very. With mobile marketing content solutions, marketers can use a dashboard to immediately see what is working and what, perhaps, is not. They can then make adjustments on the fly to ensure that the app user has the best experience possible, manifest in the user’s returning to the app again and again.

ST: What’s next for content marketing and mobile?

MS: Mobile content marketing solutions will help brands monetize their users in new ways by introducing relevant products and services based on their expressed interests. It is exciting to see how the data analytics generated by these solutions can help marketers gain valuable insights into consumer behavior and concurrently enhance customer profiles for their cross-channel marketing efforts.

The convergence of mobile apps and content marketing is here – and adopting an omni-channel approach that takes EVERY channel into account is critical.

And be sure to keep the corresponding importance of incorporating Mobile Pay into your overarching mobile strategy because beyond reaching them, “consumers seek fast and easy ways to pay – and retailers must accommodate this new path to purchase – or watch their share of basket get chipped away by those who do.”

Where do YOU see mobile marketing taking us in the next year or two?

Top image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Here"s How Marketers Late To Mobile Game Can Still Win