Study: Smiling prospects convert more often

According to Mintigo's new DNA Spotlight, B2B prospects who are seen smiling in profile pictures are more likely to engage - and convert - when contacted by the business. Using their Customer Search Engine, researchers analyzed email click-thrus of campaigns aimed at promoting B2B marketers - they targeted those matching the 'ideal traits' of brands' buyers as well as their public profiles. What they found was that while 5% of all those contacted responded to the campaign, 20% of those found smiling in profile images responded.

"[Big] data from the web and social networks can reveal valuable indicators of the behavior of prospects. When individual attributes can show lift of 400 percent or more, the combination of multiple attributes is even more valuable," was written in the report. "Marketers need tools to look deep into the text, and even into images, to find those prospects who are most likely to respond and, ultimately, to convert. Sophisticated analytics of huge amounts of publicly available data can make the process of finding and nurturing leads much more efficient and ultimately profitable for the B2B market."

Going a little deeper, researchers looking specifically at prospects on the LinkedIn social network and found 63% of respondents were 'smilers'. LinkedIn users were also nearly 5 times as likely to respond to campaigns when they endorsed or recommended connections within the social network.

Tags: advertising analytics, b2b marketing, b2b tips, Mintingo, online advertising