Action Words

Is Julia Gillard a marketer?

2010-07-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

So how would you rate our new Prime Minister as a marketer?

If you are locked in as a voter for either of the major parties, you could easily be biased. But if you look at the PM from a marketing point of view exclusively, how would you rate her?

Is her marketing of herself and her party going to be a positive in getting her to The Lodge?

Well, obviously, it's impossible to know for sure. My instinctive answer is that yes, I think she would make a good marketer.

For starters, her sense of humour would be a good thing around the office. Every marketer has failures at some stage, so being able to laugh is very much a bonus.

But let's look at some tried and true criteria.

1. Does she have a marketing personality with flair and drive?
2. Does she walk in the shoes of her customers?
3. Does she understand numbers?
4. Can she present well and communicate effectively?
5. Is she innovative in her thinking?

(When students achieve their Master of Marketing at Monash, and I see them pick up the certificate they have worked so hard for, I sometimes ask myself these questions. In the Monash scenario, my theory is that if you have your Masters and you can tick off all those five questions, there is no reason why you can't have a wonderfully successful marketing career).

So now, how do we rate Julia Gillard? If circumstances were different, would you give her a role in your marketing department?

Obviously, I don't know her personally, but from what I have read and from what I have seen in the media, I suspect most of us would say she rates fairly well against these marketing criteria.

My brief answers to the five questions above would be:

1. Yes, absolutely.
2. Yes - I think most people would say she talks in a language that they easily understand. She certainly seems to be concerned for ordinary Australians (however, I suspect that for thoughtful people, what she really stands for is not yet obvious).
3. Not 100% sure on this, but she obviously got the numbers right regarding her 'ascension' to the top job!
4. Yes, absolutely (my guess is that we are no longer distracted by the sound of the voice, which is grating when you first hear it).
5. Yes, probably – being the first PM in 60 years to not move into The Lodge was a simple day-one example.

You might feel my answers are simplistic. That's OK. Probably everyone will have their own perception of such a public figure.

If you'd like to put forward your own ideas on JG as a marketer, please go to 'Post a comment' now.

Getting serious about your mobile strategy

2010-07-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have heard a number of marketers say “we need an iPhone app”.
But this may be very superficial.

If we want to capitalise on the incredible growth in mobile, we need to think more carefully.

Mobile marketing is much deeper than a cool app or a simple SMS blast. Mobile marketing is as deep and different as every customer.

Smart companies don’t market to gadgets or platforms. They market to customers. When and if mobile marketers adopt this strategy, they can increase the value of customer relationships via the mobile channel. Essentially, mobile marketing must be addressed through a proper customer segmentation strategy.

A critical, first consideration when planning a mobile marketing campaign is that the term “phone” now refers to a landline.

Today, people use “mobile devices” to text, send pictures, talk, email and so much more. And mobile devices are not limited to just smartphones or feature phones, but include any handheld that allows for interaction and remote connectivity.

Mobile devices now offer a plethora of new features and research is starting to show a resulting change in customer behaviour.

According to Washington based CTIA – The Wireless Association (an international nonprofit membership organisation that has represented the wireless communications industry since 1984) consumers sent almost 5 billion text messages per day in the last half of 2009. That’s up a massive 25 percent from the previous year.

Plus, the number of multimedia messages – those that contain a picture or video – more than doubled year-on-year. No matter where we look, mobile data usage is increasing dramatically.

But not only that. Mobile commerce is rising quickly as well. A US Mobile Marketing Association study released a few weeks ago shows that 17 percent of all respondents used their mobile device to purchase applications, ring tones and other content.

More importantly, 6 percent used their device to receive coupons or discounts and 6 percent used their mobile device to purchase physical goods or non-mobile content or services. And you can be quite certain, those 6 percent figures will be 12 percent and 24 percent before you know it.

Today, successful mobile marketing requires a keen understanding of customer behaviours and attitudes. It comes down to the differences in how customers use their devices. Marketers that overlook customer differentiation may be wasting money and time and could be impairing their brand equity on an increasingly important channel.

The next dm Forum in Melbourne on 10 August will discuss which mobile technologies are having an impact now and those to watch out for in the near future. If you are not on the invitation list, please email Frank Chamberlin now. frank@actionwords.com.au

'Eye on Australia' report from Sweeney and Grey provides view of where consumers are at - today

2010-05-28T12:11:00.000-07:00

Australians are exiting the recession with a growing sense of optimism.

That’s one of the major findings from the 19th annual ‘Eye on Australia’ report released at the beginning of May.

The ‘Eye on Australia’ report tracks and identifies trends in consumer attitudes across metropolitan and regional areas. It provides detailed insights on how Australians feel about work, life, environment, spending habits and the economy.

The report is jointly put together by agencies Grey Advertising and Sweeney Research. The survey questions were asked in February 2010 and they show some amazing swings since a year earlier. (Whether response would be different now, three months later, is anyone’s guess).

Unemployment and job security concerns have dropped considerably, from 33% in 2009 to just 20%, while the proportion of Australians concerned about the economic outlook is dramatically lower – at just 25% compared with 36% last year.

The report indicates that back in February this year Australians were defiantly optimistic in the face of economic gloom and that as the recession was receding, economic anxieties were receding with it.

Overall, the results show that Australians are largely upbeat about the economy, with fewer financial concerns than a year ago. Personal finance worries decreased from 46% in 2009 to 33% in 2010, while more than half the people questioned say that the economic situation is improving. GFC concerns have halved from 44% to 22%.

The reduction in economic concern is reflected by the ‘satisfaction with life’ responses. Almost half of the respondents said that they were ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ satisfied with life today. And 75% said that they were enjoying their work.

You could probably conclude that the survey answers are indicative of a ‘don’t worry, be happy’ attitude.

However, there is one exception to this overall trend. Twelve months ago, 45% of women aged 45–56 years were ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ satisfied with life. One year on, and that number has fallen to only 31%.

The women in this age group are mostly the ones running established families. While the majority of Aussies are less concerned with their finances, the women in this age bracket (traditionally big shoppers) are still carrying the burden of worry. And it’s not just worry about their own finances; it’s the finances of their elderly parents and their children as well.

More information about the report can be obtained from Grey Advertising, Level 5, 470 St Kilda Road, Melbourne VIC 3004. Phone 03 92081931. www.grey.com.au

Generating leads from your site

2010-05-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

When you visit a website and click on a link to get information, do you expect the information to be free and with no registration requirement?

Almost always the answer is ‘yes’.

Yet, for the marketer, giving away free content without getting a contact is not a great way to collect leads.

So what’s the answer?

Maybe an option is to ‘step’ the offer. In other words, you can offer a teaser, such as an excerpt of a white paper. And for this, no registration is required.

Then, once your site visitors become intrigued by the free content, they'll be more willing to provide data for lead generation.

To get the full white paper, they have to register.

You can let them click right through to the excerpt from the white paper, but inside the white paper is a link to a landing page where they can go and get the full white paper. In that case, they do have to pay for it ... with name and email address.

Email and social media must work together - Forrester

2010-05-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

A Forrester report released on 13 May 2010 pushes the thought that email marketers must integrate social media into their campaigns to stay relevant to consumers.

Forrester says that such integration will create new opportunities for email list growth, extend campaign reach, and harness social insights to inform targeting.

The process of integrating email with social media should be more than sporadic coordination of campaigns.

With prospects and customers interacting with companies and brands largely on their own terms, marketers will achieve better results through the integration of their communications and channels. That's the overarching message in the Forrester report that was produced by research executive, Shar VanBoskirk .

In her report, “How to Integrate Email with Social Media”, VanBoskirk points to some significant benefits of tightly aligning email and social media, including better open, click-through and conversion rates; better email list growth; and increased campaign reach and influence through viral activity.

VanBoskirk advises marketers to adopt three specific tactics for integrating marketing efforts across email and social media:

1. Drive email subscriptions within your social media presence: place email registration boxes, or links to your email registration page, on your company blog, discussion forum or Facebook page. When you do this, people can sign up for this contact as they become more engaged with your brand.

2. Encourage subscribers to share email content: apparently, very recent Forrester research is finding that people are now beginning to share email content with friends via social sharing tools. The suggestion is that we should support this trend and benefit from it by not only placing "share with a friend" icons and links in your email, but at the top of your email layout.

3. Leverage social media content for more relevant emails: as with all campaigns, relevancy is what prompts engagement and response. Forrester urges marketers to increase the attractiveness of emails by incorporating user-generated content from social media presence.

Home brands and marketing

2010-04-05T23:50:00.000-07:00

For some years now, thoughtful marketers have been wondering about ‘home brands’.

We all know that, traditionally, retailers have not been strong in marketing. But you couldn’t help wondering about their strategy.

As the big two supermarkets in Australia have pursued a home brands policy and stated over and over that it’s the way to go, anyone with any respect for brands has had to wonder.

It’s hard to believe that proven and much-loved brands like Kraft or Kellogg’s will actually disappear.

But we kept hearing the spin. It was all about reducing inventory, improving margins and, we are told, offering the consumer a ‘better shopping experience’ (their words not mine).

Surely the best brands will always maintain their market share? Maybe the emergence of home brands makes building your brand even more important.

And then there’s the often forgotten question of the consumer. When the supermarket buyer in your household gets to the local store and finds the household’s favourite brand of breakfast cereal or jam or pasta is not available, what’s the next step?

The power of the big two supermarkets in Australia is such that, up to now at least, it seems that the consumer has been the last person considered.

Well, things may be changing.

The world’s biggest retailer has just done something against the home brands trend.

Yes, Walmart has just restored some 300 items to the shelves after a wave of consumer complaints. (Of course, that’s one area where Australian consumers are pathetic. We never complain. But in the US, consumers speak up. When you stand in a queue in the US, almost always you get invigorated when you hear a local sounding off, letting the attendant know what’s wrong!)

Walmart was obviously listening, for the decision makers there began realising that the culling actually ‘aggravated’ consumers. And so what is it doing? Restocking hundreds of brands and products eliminated or curtailed over the last twelve months, and also taking a new look at other categories where it has streamlined choice.

Of course, apart from listening to the consumer, you can probably guess what brought this on. During the last quarter of 2009 Walmart's traffic declined and sales actually fell for the first time in the retailer's history.

Walmart relies on low prices for branded products and a large assortment to differentiate itself. Sad to say, it lacks individual shopper figures that would show how decisions about store range have impacted its most-valued customers.

Social media - supporting your retention strategy

2010-04-05T23:46:00.000-07:00

In so many situations, the soft option is to win loyalty by discounting.

Of course, we all know that retailers have trained Australians to look always for discounts and now they have to live with that. But for the rest of us, social media is here to stay and waiting for us to sweep up the opportunity.

But it’s certainly not a soft option. It’s not straightforward for most of us.

Probably no one knows where social media will play out, but the important thing right now is to get into the space. You’ll be a long way behind if you wait for a full answer to every question before you make your grand entrance into this all-embracing channel.

Relevance is the factor that drives customer loyalty today, and provides differentiation in a crowded market.

Many (maybe ‘most’) businesses are still struggling with how to engage customers in a social media-driven world. One viable solution is to use social media to change the marketing thought process. It can help you to think like a customer. For example, the growth of the internet has created a 'right now' society, so brands must recognise and respond to this change, both quickly and appropriately.

Customers demand easy access to information, whether you are Telstra or AXA or a boutique beer. When something is advertised, it's not acceptable to run out of stock or to have call centre representatives who don’t know about it. The correct, updated information has to be instantly available through any channel that the prospect chooses to use.

This process is all about convenience and adapting to customer desires to enhance their experience. Brands that are able to successfully answer questions and target the consumer in their time of need will be best positioned for growth and will be the most likely to maintain a loyal following.

Social media offers brands an excellent opportunity to connect with customers directly to handle complaints, as customers are actually much more likely to express their dissatisfaction online than in a store.

When problems arise, why not Tweet your way back into the hearts of customers? Although brands strive for positive feedback and customer recommendations, they must also be equipped to handle the bad exposure.

Participating in an online discussion to show customers that the brand is accessible and listens to what they are saying can reap tremendous benefits. A simple validation that customer suggestions are appreciated and acknowledged will earn their respect — and often their future business.

Adopting such tactics will also help to confirm that the brand really does aim to enhance the customer's experience.

Making personalisation more personal

2010-04-05T23:44:00.000-07:00

In the olden days of direct marketing, maybe the 1980s, personalisation began and ended with putting a recipient’s name at the top of the letter and sprinkling it throughout.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

But today, personalisation must go much further. We have to take into consideration consumer behaviors and interests.The real key to personalisation is understanding your audience and providing relevant offers.

In fulfillment — whether it’s an e-commerce transaction or a request for event registration or a white paper download — the ability to use fulfillment to tease out the next level of interest is possible and it’s something we should all be aiming to do.

A truly personalised message contains relevant content for each individual recipient. Ideally, you take into account the recipient’s past interaction behaviours — whether that be pages browsed on a website, white papers downloaded, items purchased.

You should be able to leverage what a person’s online behaviour tells you. What the individual is interested in. Is it case studies, technical specifications, or something else?

Online behaviour gives you so much more insight than any sort of demographics. After all, it is based on actual movements.

Let’s use a security software company as an example, where a recipient has registered for an event.

Instead of just saying, “OK, here’s what you requested; call us if you’d like anything more”, the fulfillment registration information should give the registrant more offers.

Take the case of a person who registers for an event on ‘global security threats’. Here’s what you could do:

You could check the person’s web activity – maybe it indicates that he looked at information on how to encrypt the hard drive on a computer and also auditing employees for security.

Then, in fulfilment, you send this person the requested registration details. But you also send some teasers about the next webinars on encrypting hard drives and auditing employees for security.

In this way, you can tease out where that person is in the buying journey. Fulfillment becomes a vital link in the sales chain.

Targeting refresher - what does targeting really mean?

2010-03-09T10:50:00.000-08:00

To effectively target customers, and connect with them successfully, you must gain in-depth customer knowledge. From that point, you then must use that knowledge appropriately across all channels.

1. See – and capture – the whole picture

Through your website analytics, you need to gain a holistic view of visitor performance. You need to track every touch point visitors use on your website –every click, conversion, abandonment, where they came from, where they went. All this information is available, so you need to be geared to use it.

As your store of data builds over time, you can better understand not only your online customer, but your customers in general.

You must be working towards turning one-way marketing initiatives into two-way dialogue.

Ideally, you create a customised experience for each customer. The benefit is that you can keep that customer coming back. Then you can devise relevant offers and personalised messages, and these should give you a higher likelihood of conversion.

2. Get deeper insights with time

Rome wasn’t built in a day. You need to continuously capture visitor behaviour – what they click, what videos they watch, what content they view – and analyse that behavior over time.

If you link current behavior to previous sessions, you may be able to unearth how likely customers are to buy or engage with you.

3. Maintain a cross-channel view

Customers interact with brands online and offline. Incorporate offline data with online data to get a more accurate, well-rounded view of customers.

Where you combine data, it’s easier to optimise the customer experience. For retailers, how does the average sale online compare with the average sale in store? Why are sales at a particular time heavier online and poorer in store? As you delve into these sorts of questions you are all the time learning about your customers.

4. Use key performance indicators to enhance paid search initiatives

Develop keywords and ads that meet your objectives. Most visitors don’t convert with a single visit. Because of this, you need to track how paid search campaigns perform on their own and how they help drive other marketing goals.

5. Make every message compelling

Use customer data to place highly relevant product and service recommendations across your site and throughout email campaigns. Such tactics help you increase cross-sell opportunities and keep customers engaged.

Getting closer to the affluent market

2010-03-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

Who are the heaviest users of loyalty programs?

The affluent, according to Rick Ferguson, editorial director of COLLOQUY, a provider of loyalty marketing services based in the US.

Ferguson defines ‘affluent’ as households earning $125,000 or more per year in disposable income.

But marketers can't serve up the same loyalty program features to this customer segment as they do to other program members and expect to keep their business.

So what will the affluent segment value in a loyalty program?

1. Offer value and experiences that they can't get anywhere else.

Affluent people tend to be financially savvy and they crave value.

Let’s take the case of an affluent customer who enjoys golf and who buys some unrelated goods: a good offer may be "spend $200 with us during the next month, and we'll double your points and give you the opportunity to redeem those points for a three-day golfing holiday on the Gold Coast”.

Such an offer can work on many different levels. It's an opportunity the customer can't get anywhere else, and it will be a memorable one. Plus, they'll seek to repeat the behaviour that created that experience.

Of course, not every offer has to end with a golfing holiday. It can be something as simple as a discount to a local restaurant. That can be equally powerful. It's just got to create a memorable experience, and it's got to be the right experience.

2. Demonstrate your loyalty, rather than trying to gain theirs.

A loyalty program, no matter how well it's run, is not going to make a customer more loyal to a company. The purpose of the program is to demonstrate the company’s loyalty to a good customer. That's why extra value in the form of economic value can work so well.

3. Improve the emotional connection

Equally important is the emotional element. Your promotion must say to the customer, “We value you as a customer and as a person, so we’re offering you some special pricing or a special event that will make you feel more emotionally connected to the company”.

Usually, the combination of economic and emotional benefits is a very powerful and effective one.More than anything else, in the affluent sector, it's all about experiences. The idea is to use data to enable you to understand your customer and to enable you to make offers that are appealing.

For details about how the Action Words team can help you with all kinds of copywriting, please go to:
http://www.actionwords.com.au/home/

Google getting into display

2010-01-31T20:26:00.000-08:00

With all the talk about Google withdrawing from China, you may not have noticed that Google’s CEO has said that he expects the next big thing in search will be the emergence of display and mobile advertising.

"Our display business will give advertisers the opportunity to reach people with visual stories and narratives that they couldn't with search-ad text," said Google CEO, Eric Schmidt.

He went on to say that one of the stories that has yet to come out is how successful Google has been at display.

He cited the recent sell-out of YouTube's home page – specifically, Fox's campaign for "Avatar" – as evidence that marketers are taking Google seriously as a display medium.

The president of global sales at Google, Nikesh Arora, said display advertising has moved from being "nice" to an "essential part of any campaign”.

Google has moved so rapidly on new initiatives over the last couple of years, it’s probably important to keep an eye on display and mobile developments.

Would you look at using Google display in your AdWords advertising?

For details about how the Action Words team can help you with all kinds of copywriting, please go to:
http://www.actionwords.com.au/home/

Seven social media terms you'll be hearing more often

2010-01-31T20:25:00.000-08:00

You will no doubt recognise some of these increasingly common buzzwords, sourced from Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services in the US:

Mobilenecking: The alarming tendency to have our necks tilted down or shifted sideways – ever glued to our mobile device. This anywhere, anyplace epidemic is increasingly evident in cars, airplanes and city streets.

Wiki Wart: A bad piece of news or an embarrassing brand episode that just won't go away in a brand's Wikipedia description (e.g., an activist protest or a social-media campaign that backfired). PR pros often give brands false hope of removing the warts, but relentless Wikipedia editors put them right back.

Faux Post: When you are talking to someone on the phone and he/she notices an unrelated tweet or Facebook status update from you showing up in real-time. Now that’s embarrassing.

Conversational Divide: The huge gap between what marketers preach about social media "conversations" and the brand's actual customer service or call centre operations.

Buck Sucked: The condition that typically slaps you in the face when reading your credit card bill and you see dozens of "dollar" charges for music and "what the heck" iPhone or mobile apps. Expect much more of this as it gets easier and more convenient to pay for online content.

Runway Rebel: That person who keeps the "electronic device" going well past the airline warnings and prohibitions. We see them everywhere, and few of us are totally innocent.

Blog Dodger: Someone who has abandoned his or her blog for Twitter or some other lower-hassle social media substitute. This was big in 2009, and we'll likely see much more of it in 2010.

Please let us know about any other social media terms that you think all marketers should be aware of!

For details about the Action Words one-day workshop that will immediately improve your team's business writing, please go to http://www.actionwords.com.au/business-writing-course/

What marketers need to know

2010-01-31T20:23:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you can’t help wondering what marketers are doing.

A recent US survey reported by the global customer experience specialist company Right Now (1900 global clients) found that only 46% of senior marketers have good insight into customer retention rates, lifetime value, and profitability.

Let’s just tease this out a little. What this survey result seems to say is that more than half of the marketers questioned:

> did not know the retention rate for their customers – in other words, when they won 10 new customers, they did not know how many on average would still be with them in 12 months;

> did not know how much profit they obtained from a typical customer over the lifetime that the customer stayed with them; and

> did not have a clear handle on how much profit an average transaction provided for the company.

All this obviously relates to fundamental data that marketers must have, to do their job properly.

If you plan to run a campaign, you have to know about profitability in order to gauge whether your proposed initiative is worthwhile.

If you launch a blog or an e-newsletter for nurturing clients in order to keep them, you have to know about lifetime value. What’s the point of spending to keep them if their profitability does not justify such expenditure?

If you acquire customers by, say, advertising, you have to know the retention rate. You might think the advertising is effective, but if the customers walk out the door as quickly as they walk in, then it may well be that the advertising is only marginally profitable – or not profitable at all. You may be attracting the wrong people, or promising too much, or causing brand confusion, or whatever.

As a marketer, do you have access to the information you need? What is the information that you find most valuable for your decision making?

For details about how the Action Words team can help you with all kinds of copywriting, please go to: http://www.actionwords.com.au/home/

Update on Sorrento

2010-01-31T20:21:00.000-08:00

Some readers of The Scoop may remember my comments around this time last year about the traders in the Victorian holiday town of Sorrento and their extraordinary lack of customer service. Well, I can give you an update: nothing has changed.

Around 6pm on Monday 28 December, we went to a place called “The Baths” to order take away fish and chips for four. And what were we told? “There’s a wait of 90 minutes on fish and chips.”

While the town is packed with holiday makers, most of the shops still close at 5pm! I went to the main street supermarket “Stringers” on one occasion, and stood in a queue of 17 people waiting to buy milk and a newspaper.

People put up with a main street of traders who are mostly living in a different century because everyone is there to take it easy. The traders in Sorrento have their way of doing things. If you want to buy from them, you do business their way, and when it suits them.

Did you have an interesting marketing or customer service experience from your time away over the holiday period?

For details about the Action Words one-day workshop that will immediately improve your team's business writing, please go to: http://www.actionwords.com.au/business-writing-course/

5 tips for B-to-B search marketing

2009-12-01T14:22:00.000-08:00

More and more organisations are investing in paid search marketing, or pay-per-click advertising, as it is more commonly referred to.

In Australia, because of the dominance of Google, paid search marketing is normally Google AdWords advertising.

The following tips may help you get better value for your investment.

1. Pre-qualify

In mainstream advertising, when you want to reach Chief Executives and you choose to advertise in the Financial Review, you are pre-qualifying.

Well, you have to do exactly the same online. And you mainly do it with key phrases and keywords. You can hardly spend too much time getting your keywords right and regularly reviewing them.

The keywords should make it clear exactly what people will find when they click through to your site. If they click on ‘house and contents’ you’d better make sure that’s where you take them – and that when they get there, you explain your ‘house and contents’ policy. You may reduce the volume of clickthroughs, but that’s what qualifying involves.

2. Focus on what the user needs

If you truly understand the buying steps that your prospects typically go through, you are more likely to know exactly what it is that they need.

What is most likely to influence purchase? If it's a complex sale with multiple buyers and influencers, then you need to provide the type of detail that buyers require.

Landing pages, in particular, should highlight exactly what buyers need.

3. Hot leads go cold quickly, so nurture them

In most B-to-B sales, getting leads to your site is just the beginning.

You need to have an agreed system in place for ‘working’ your leads, and that begins with an opt-in from the prospects for regular email.

How are you going to keep in touch? Is there something of value that you can offer on an ongoing basis?

If the lead has to be passed to your technical people or to sales, then there needs to be an efficient way of doing this that you stick to every time.

4. Track all conversion points

What’s the conversion point that is usually most telling? Maybe it’s the completion of an online form by a prospect.

It’s important to know what this critical point is, but it’s also important to monitor the impact of your paid search campaign on all your sales metrics.

Only then can you be sure of the impact your investment is having.

5. Detail tells the story

Search Engine Marketing is very much a detail business. If you are going to do it effectively over time, you need to have the time to continually check it.

Maybe it’s identifying different ads that work, maybe it’s advertising on different days or at different times. Whatever the case, there are savings to be made if you can identify exactly what is going on.

For example, if you uncover that a certain ad is producing most of your response and that other ads are doing nothing, then you can improve your results significantly by dropping the ones that don’t work and putting all your budget into the one that does.

Consumer attitudes and a good cause

2009-12-01T14:20:00.000-08:00

It seems that despite the GFC, consumers are still spending with companies and brands that have a clear social purpose.

A 2009 global study reported last month in The Wise Marketer (www.thewisemarketer.com) has some interesting stats about consumer attitudes.

Surveying 6000 people in 10 countries, the study particularly looked at whether consumers will swap brands where a brand supports a good cause. Countries surveyed include USA, UK, France, Italy, Japan, China, India and Brazil.

Some of the most interesting results were:

> 67% of consumers say they would switch brands if another brand of similar quality supported a good cause.
> 83% of consumers are willing to change their consumption habits if it can help make the world a better place to live in.
> 70% said they would prefer to live in an 'eco-friendly house' rather than a 'big house'.
> 69% of consumers would rather use a brand that supports the livelihood of local producers than a designer brand.
> 71% think brands and companies spend too much on advertising and marketing and should put more into good causes.
> 64% would recommend a brand that supports a good cause, up from 52% in 2008.
> 64% expect all brands to support a good cause.
63% are looking toward brands and companies to make it easier for them to make a difference in the world.

With the survey covering so many countries, the challenge for us is to assess how relevant these figures are for Australia in general, and for our own specific target audiences in particular.

Putting a value on email subscribers

2009-12-01T14:16:00.000-08:00

Arthur Hughes is an American marketing guru who has been around for a long time. He’s been to Australia, and some readers of The Scoop may have been lucky enough to hear him.

Hughes wrote the book on database marketing many years ago, but since the rise of the internet and the new media, he has reinvented himself.

Today, Arthur Hughes is senior strategist for the email marketing services provider e-Dialog, which is based in the small town of Burlington, near Boston, in the state of Massachusetts.

At a recent presentation, Hughes put forward some thoughtful ideas on acquiring email subscribers, including the following.

1. The first step is to find out what your email subscribers are worth. Without knowing their value, you don’t know whether the effort to acquire more is worthwhile.

2. For putting a value on subscribers, there are four important metrics that you need to be specific about:

•The value of online and offline orders generated from email;
•The costs of your email program;
•Gross profit generated from email subscribers; and
•Individual subscriber lifetime value.

These numbers are fundamental before you proceed.

3. Once you’ve decided that getting new email subscribers benefits the business, then Arthur Hughes suggests you consider the following:

> Promote email registration prominently throughout your site, including the checkout page.
> Explain why consumers should subscribe. Is it for free shipping on their next order, for the chance to receive ‘thought-leader’ white papers, express checkout, or what?
> Send triggered, personalised welcome messages as soon as consumers sign up for your email program.
> Reward your employees for email addresses collected.
> Reward your subscribers. Offer subscribers incentives such as special prices for them only, discount coupons, premiums, white papers and continuing benefits such as free shipping.
> If appropriate, upgrade your point-of-sale system to capture email addresses.
> Use surveys to solicit email addresses. The surveys can be about any subject — e.g. politics, economics, products, etc. — and are a good way to get email addresses in return for survey results.

Changing your mood

2009-12-01T14:14:00.000-08:00

We’re talking about changing your mood in writing, here, not your mood first thing in the morning or when you’re disturbed after watching an exciting movie at home!

Writers need to be aware of mood changes.

You need to alert the reader as soon as possible to any change in mood from the previous sentence. Words to use for changing the mood include: but, yet, however, nevertheless, still, instead, meanwhile.

Shareholders were obviously delighted to get the overall picture from the Chair, but when the CEO began to speak . . .

In this example, the mood obviously changed when the CEO began to speak, and the word that signals that mood change most clearly to the reader is ‘but’.

It’s much easier for readers to process a sentence if you start with ‘but’ when you are shifting direction. It is much harder if they must wait until the end of the sentence to realise that you have shifted.

Many of us were taught that no sentence should start with ‘but’. If that’s what you learned, then it’s time to unlearn it.

There is no stronger word at the start of a sentence when you want to change the mood.

Agency briefs on the nose

2009-09-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

If you’ve been in marketing for more than five minutes you know about the importance of agency briefs.

If you want the best work you need the best agency, but even the best agency can’t deliver without a clear and detailed brief.

Yet it seems that many marketing departments don’t have a clue about briefs!

Well, that’s the conclusion coming out of a US survey reported recently in Advertising Age. The survey covered more than 250 senior US executives at a variety of top agencies.

The agency executives reported that at least 30% of staff time is ineffective or wasted due to poor communication from clients.

More than half of the survey respondents said fewer than 40% of client briefs give them a clear indication of what's expected.
Some 30% of agency respondents said only 1% to 10% of briefs provide clear performance expectations.

The survey results reflect an insight also gleaned from the experience of the person who commissioned the survey: Casey Jones, former VP-global marketing at Dell, who now runs a marketing consultancy called Jones & Bonevac that counts among its clients Microsoft and Walmart.

Mr. Jones said the study was prompted by observations from his time at Dell. "A lack of commitment to tight and coherent input to the agency was a major contributing factor to the struggles between Dell and the agency," he said.

There is obviously a real need for marketers to learn how to write a brief. But there’s even more to it than that. There’s the whole issue of clear thinking and a commitment to a strategic direction.

The survey highlighted a major problem about strategic thinking relating to the way briefs change along the way.

A massive 75% of agency respondents reported that client briefs go through an average of up to five significant revisions. This is AFTER the project is underway!

Maybe even more amazing, 8% said they've seen briefs go through upwards of 45 iterations.

Clearly, this is unforgivable. The marketing managers and directors responsible in these cases are obviously totally out of their depth. You have to feel sorry for the people working under them.

How to overcome writer's block

2009-09-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

So you know all about it? You start writing and it’s going OK. Then you dry up. You can’t go on. And then you call it ‘writer’s block’.

Giving it a name seems to legitimise it.

Well, here’s my take on writer’s block, and you can run with it or ignore it.

The first thing is to be very clear that it is not actually real. Writer’s block does not exist. I absolutely do not believe in it. Sometimes I am slow, yes. Sometimes getting thoughts on paper is tedious, yes. But writer’s block? No. There is no such thing.

When you’re at a roadblock and finding progress tough, you can dig yourself into a hole. And then things get worse. And any thoughts you have about not being able to progress, become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

To avoid all that, you have to take action. The action I take is to leave the keyboard and pull out a writing pad and pen. That simple change usually solves the problem and I return to the keyboard after a few minutes.

If it’s still not working, I leave my office and take a two minute break. The change of scenery normally does the trick. Finally, if all else fails, I take 15 minutes to walk around the block. And then I am right back into it.

Essentially, with all these tricks, what I am doing is changing things to give the mind a chance to refocus. Mostly, these simple techniques are not necessary. Few hold ups occur when you are solid about the key truth: that you don’t believe in writer’s block. Believe me. It does not exist.

Direct Response TV - why not Australia?

2009-09-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

Direct Response TV has been huge in the US for decades, but it has never done so well in Australia. It’s hard to know why.

There are a few truths that marketers who embrace DRTV innately understand, but maybe many others still find elusive.

• People from every socio economic grouping watch DRTV. Children, business people, factory workers, the wealthy – they all watch sometimes. DRTV is not a demographic profile. It’s a successful sales channel that has specific benefits, just like other channels have their benefits.

• Direct response is a proven approach to brand building. Beautiful imagery or clever slogans are great and agencies love creating these, but when you build a brand what you really want is prospect acceptance. You want the people you are targeting to accept that your product or service can solve a problem for them.

• DRTV is all about sales. Of course, it fails sometimes with some products, but for the most part, DRTV sells. And if you do it properly you get a very rapid, measurable result. You are not left wondering. With reasonably limited budgets you can test it. In Australia, World Vision has used it very successfully.

• People like benefits. Sometimes brand advertising puts too much effort into being impactful or beautiful or politically correct. Direct response advertisers show the product and they show what it does. The benefits are demonstrated. People can see what they are getting and if it is right for them, they respond.

• Research is all very well. Obviously, professionally conducted research plays a vital role in marketing, but DRTV is all about actual sales. You know what focus groups are like. People can say anything. They can be influenced by others. But DRTV sells to individuals in the privacy of their homes. And actual sales don’t lie.

Engaging professionals makes sense

2009-09-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

One of these does not fit in. Please guess which one:

1. Need printing done – call a printer
2. Need your accounts reviewed – call an auditor
3. Need computer help – call an IT specialist
4. Need quality copy written – do it yourself

If you feel that one, two or three don’t fit in, you may be right. But you must be thinking of something that’s far too deep for me.

Obviously, there are no prizes for guessing, the answer I am looking for is number 4.

And why people do this never ceases to amaze me. After all, writing is a craft, just like carpentry.

Marketing people, and business people generally, are constantly involved in scores of different activities. They have little chance to improve their writing. Whereas the full-time writer, just like the full-time carpenter, is enhancing his or her craft every day.

Take websites, for example. People spend thousands of dollars on website design and then write the copy themselves.

Yet isn’t the message conveyed through words? Good design supports the message, of course. And I am all for excellent design.

But it’s the copy that provides the message. People come to your site looking for information. Contained in the copy.

By doing the writing themselves, managers very often sell their company short. And worse, they damage their brand. Here are a few horrible examples of copy that has come unstuck:
> This week I take a look at one viewers site and what they can do to make it rank better for their key phrases.
> If your only now thinking about tax, your late.
> With enhanced productivity during the downturn our efficient and flexible processes show a convergence towards performance indicators that are heading north.
All of these (presumably) went through the approval process. Yet, to everyone’s embarrassment, they slipped through. And in the rush of day-to-day activities, it can happen. (Corrected versions appear below)

I am not for a moment suggesting you should call for a copywriter every time you need to communicate anything. But when it is an important client letter, brochure, website, report or other article, the investment will pay for itself many times over.

If you want a particular response, it’s worth paying a professional to give yourself the best possible chance of success.

And now for the corrected versions (which I am sure, if you have read this far, you will be well aware of):
Ø This week I take a look at one viewer’s site and what needs to be done to make it rank better for key phrases.
Ø If you’re only now thinking about tax, you’re late.
Ø This could mean anything! It’s a sentence some politicians might get away with, but it has no place in a business communication.

Is your green policy right for 2009, 2010, 2011?

2009-08-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

In 2009, probably not a day has gone by without some mention of the environment, climate change, green initiatives or emissions trading policy.

At the 2007 Federal election, when Labor came to power, the climate change attitudes of the main parties were all important. Most people had a point of view on the topic.

As marketers, what we have to be careful about is that this has turned out to be a moveable feast. If you decided company policy or tactics on climate change at the time of the election, maybe you need to think again. Things have moved on.

Recently, I put the following into Google:

“Saving the planet, one . . . at a time”.

There were 45,200,000 responses.

The top response was: “Saving the planet, one bag at a time.” The next was “saving the planet, one computer at a time.”

High up on page one of Google were also one “burger”, one “flush” one “water bottle”.

The obvious thing coming out of this little experiment is that the environment is an issue for business. And not just for the few who happen to be manufacturing plastic bags or plastic bottles. It’s an issue for every business.

Almost certainly, in your business, you have already addressed environmental issues in one way or another. My point is that things are moving. What you may have decided on and agreed last year, needs to be revisited.

And you need to study the “green consumer”. Green consumers are not all the same. If you think they’re all “young lefties”, think again. A survey by the American Association of Retired Persons found that 62% of people 55 and over buy green products.

Green consumers include people who are passionate, people who are sometimes green and people who are only now moving in that direction:

Passionate: An increasing number of people are seriously passionate about the environment. They are willing to pay more for the products they see as green. These people have negative attitudes towards products that pollute the environment and incorporate green practices on a regular basis.

Sometimes green: These people are thinking green more and more, but they don’t necessarily act green all the time.

Coming soon: These are consumers who don't behave or think along environmentally-conscious lines right now, but remain on the fence about key green issues. The strong trend for the last couple of years has been for members of this group to migrate to one of the above groups.

Of course, there are also people who are not thinking green at all, and you need to know how many of these are among your customers and prospects.

At the global and national level, it seems that people are tired of talk on climate change. They want action, and many are getting irritated by political groups who are not delivering.

In your business, you need to deliver. On the green issues relevant to your business, it’s important to be in tune with where people are at right now.

So what do you expect?

2009-08-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

In all marketing, and especially in any online initiative, it is important to manage expectations.

One sure way to lose people is to tell them one thing, and then do something else.

“Managing expectations” tends to be one of those terms that people pay lip service to. Everyone is in favour, but what is actually being done to make it happen?

If you have a newsletter, you need to let subscribers know exactly what they can expect from you BEFORE they opt in to your program:

> tell subscribers exactly what will happen;
> explain the timing;
> give step by step instructions on what they need to do to get what they want; and
> tell them exactly what you will do with their data.

Immediate contact: It can be a confirmation email, a thank you or a welcome, but whatever it is and whatever you call it, it’s essential. It should be triggered automatically as soon as someone opts in.

Briefly, in positive, clear terms, it has to give subscribers all the details they need, including:

· what is expected of them; and
· what you will do.

More and more in the online space, users expect to be treated as individuals. So if it is possible, offer multiple communication channels and different message frequencies as well as different email formats.

Warning: Don’t ask for information you know you’ll never use. If you ask for it, people will expect you to use it. If you ask for my favourite holiday destination, I expect to receive something about it.

Not new, but important: When managing expectations, it’s also a good idea to under-promise and over-deliver.

Of course, you’ve heard this before. It falls into the category of “attention to detail”. What is the promise you are making? Check it now. Then make sure you deliver that, and more.

Looking at value into the future

2009-08-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

In cities all around Tuscany over the past month, retailers everywhere have been closed for at least two weeks. In most cases three weeks. It’s the summer holidays and everyone heads to the beach.

The exception is the tourist section of Florence. With seven million visitors a year, that part of Florence is different. But for the rest of the retail sector, July was ‘sale’ time and August was (mostly) closed.

During the sales, figures like “50% off” have been commonplace. And 70%. And 80%. You can’t help wondering how far they will go. Yet, despite the discounts, sales have been poor.

As unhappy economic conditions persist throughout Italy, retail is suffering here. But, for some of us, it is difficult to feel sorry for retailers. Customer service is rock bottom. There are exceptions, of course, but the general standard is much worse than in Australia.

It seems so crazy to have a sign on the window screaming “70% off” and then ignore people when they walk in. Or just keep talking to a girlfriend on the phone. But that’s how it works around Tuscany.

In view of that, it is no surprise that turning to the internet to find the best deal is becoming ever more popular.

Research within the last few months by the global research consultancy, Penn, Schoen & Berland, identifies what the researchers call “recession shoppers” or “online value hunters”.

In the study, these types of consumers claimed that as economic situations worsened, they increasingly looked to the internet to find the best deals. Now, as the Italian economy seems to be in an ongoing downward spiral, online shoppers are focusing on value — in quality, price, convenience and time — making “value” the new core theme among online consumers.

The research uncovered these five interesting statistics:

> 72% of value hunters look for the best value regardless of brand;
> 51% of value hunters look for incentives when making online purchases;
> 63% of value hunters have purchased something online they wouldn’t have normally because of a special offer;
> 68% of online shoppers search for value in the form of coupons and special promotions; and
> 45% of value hunters purchase something online once a week or more.

What all this says for your business and your marketing is for you and your colleagues to work out.

No doubt you have already been building value into your offering. But one thing we can say for sure: the focus on value is not going away.

As well as giving attention to the short term, you may as well start thinking now about what you can do in the longer term to build more value into your product and/or service.

What you consider as “good value” today will almost certainly not excite buyers in the future. If you don’t start to think outside the square on this one, your competitors surely will.

Are the marketers in your team good writers?

2009-08-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

All marketers do lots of writing.

And the better you are as a writer, the more impact your work will have. Plus, becoming a better writer is vital to career prospects.

Your image as a clear thinker and a good communicator — and the image of your organisation as professional and accurate — is profoundly affected by the way you write.

Most people can fairly quickly make a significant improvement in their standard of writing by addressing the following:

> Wordiness – every word you use should be necessary.
> Sentence structure – keep sentences as simple as possible.
> Sentence length – get rid of extra long sentences.
> Jargon – avoid jargon that might confuse people.

If you head up a team of marketers, look at how they write. If your team is made up of people who mostly don’t write that well, your team will be held back.

The Action Words one-day course “Writing skills to make your team more professional” is designed to help your people dramatically improve their writing. For a four-page outline, email now: vikki@actionwords.com.au

Four keys to optimsation

2009-07-31T20:44:00.000-07:00

Getting conflicting advice from consultants about SEO can be very off-putting.

Of course, it’s a new science (is it a science?) and so it’s probably not too surprising that people are still learning.

‘Gut instinct’ is not likely to be quite good enough in an activity that has so much new detail to learn. But when the specialists you consult don’t agree, the whole thing certainly becomes challenging.

Some consultants are very specific with requirements about text. “Use your keywords in a subhead between the third and fourth paragraph,” they say. “Be sure to use your keywords at the end of the last sentence on the page.”

Well, such instructions do not sound right to me. They are far too restrictive. If you follow them, the chances are your copy will become distorted. As a writer, my feeling is that you should always write for readers, not search engines.

Based on our own considerable experience at Action Words, here’s our four-step guide to writing for the web:

1 Identify keywords

The first step relates to research. You have to find out what your keywords are. What are the words or phrases that most prospects use when they are looking for your type of business? And you might get a surprise. If you are in the tourism sector, you may consider you offer ‘discount accommodation’, but people actually search for ‘cheap hotels’.

2 Produce impactful text

When you write, it is best to put the keywords to one side. Write in your normal way. Produce the best possible text with your audience in mind. You are communicating personally with an individual site visitor.

3 Insert keywords as appropriate

With your draft text completed, go back to your keywords and see where you can fit them in comfortably. But you need to be careful here. It’s not a matter of forcing them in, no matter what. Just slip them in where they fit nicely. Don’t spoil the natural flow of what you have written.

4 Your page tags should feature your keywords

For your page descriptions and page titles, keywords are essential. Your site visitors see the title tags at the top of their browser windows when they visit your site. The description tag is what the user sees on the search engine results page, so obviously it needs to include a clear statement about what you offer. In all tags you need to use your keywords.

There’s way more than this involved in search marketing, of course, but if you follow these four steps when you are writing your online copy you will be setting yourself up for success.

Interruption advertising on the outer: Cannes

2009-07-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

At long last, it’s official.

Interruption advertising is over.

Television is not the future.

That’s the conclusion many marketers are taking from the 56th International Advertising Festival at Cannes in the south of France, where some 6000 advertising specialists gathered for the week of 21–27 June 2009.

Commenting on the trends seen at Cannes, the chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO North America and president of the film and press juries, David Lubars said, "the way the world is heading is towards voluntary engagement". In other words, we are moving away from interruption.

The long list of award winners at Cannes was dominated by innovative attempts to engage consumers and deeply involve them in brands. Not blast them.

The most coveted prize at the festival went to an ad that wasn't made for TV.

Plus, as if to ram home the point, a PR campaign broke the record for winning the most awards at any one festival.

The expert jury at Cannes bestowed the festival’s Grand Prix Award to the Philips interactive film "Carousel", created in Amsterdam by the global agency, Tribal DDB. With a three day shoot and five weeks of post production, the film promotes the latest entrant into the television market from Philips, the CINEMA 21:9.

In PR, it was a simple campaign for Tourism Queensland – which became a worldwide story – that grabbed the festival's first PR Grand Prix Award, as well as the top prizes in the direct marketing and cyber categories.

Probably every reader of The Scoop became aware of the “Best job in the world” campaign that was created by the Brisbane agency, Cummins Nitro. This PR effort began with world-wide classified advertising seeking applicants for an "island caretaker".

The Cummins Nitro campaign attracted tens of thousands of candidates who uploaded video applications saying why they should get the job.

Tourism Queensland claims that the campaign generated the equivalent of more than $80m worth of media advertising. (BTW the job went to "ostrich-riding, bungee-jumping" charity worker Ben Southall, from Hampshire in the UK.)

"The idea had so much scalability to be a global idea that all the judges had seen and heard of it, no matter where they came from," said one of the judges, MaryLee Sachs. Sachs is US chairman and worldwide director of marketing communications at Hill & Knowlton.

Target precisely. But with care.

2009-07-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

Regular readers of The Scoop will know that precise targeting is a theme of mine.

You need to do whatever you can to get to know your audience and to customise offers that connect with the people you want to win over.

Smart marketers want to know as much as possible about prospects in order to tailor their brand image. The more you know about the people you are trying to reach, the greater your chance of executing exactly the right message to the right audience at the right time.

However, you need to do all this with care.

Let’s say I acquire information that tells me that certain households have two dogs. I could go to these households saying “because you have two dogs, xyx dog food will suit you”. However, such an approach is likely to generate a negative reaction. “How do they know we have two dogs? Where did they get my name?”

Use the information by all means, but don’t push it into people’s faces.

Today, marketers and their data collection practices are under the spotlight like never before. For companies with brands to protect, the scrutiny can be uncomfortable.

There is a real balancing act going on. On the one hand, you don’t want to be the next negative headline in the popular press. But equally, you don’t want to be so reluctant to embrace new marketing intelligence that your competitors gain an advantage.

As you are trying to get the balance right, one of the questions to look at is, would they be shocked? If there was full disclosure of all the facts, would your prospects be upset?

Calculate how shocked your average consumer would be to learn what information is being collected about his/her behavior and how you plan to use it in a campaign.

To help yourself here, use only a reputable data provider. And be sure that you understand what the provider does to create a profile or segment to which you advertise.

Pay special attention to highly sensitive areas of information, including medical, financial and details about children.

Follow this issue in the news, and watch for practices that are widely criticised. These are the ones that will raise your shock rating if you are using them.

If your promotion is online, providing an easy opt out is also an obvious way to give people an added level of confidence.

Does your job involve writing for the web?

2009-07-31T20:31:00.000-07:00

Lots of questions arise about writing for the web.

The one rule that matters most in online writing is this: keep your audience in mind.

If you're writing web copy for a life insurance company your approach will be very different from writing for the world's coolest bungee jumping site.

You must ensure that the words on your site resonate with your audience and inspire loyalty and trust.

It's not about you. It's about them.

When visiting a website, users want to know how the business can help them. So before creating web content, you should:

> Identify likely users and the benefits they're looking for.

> Identify how you deliver those benefits. Provide tangible support for the benefits you promise, including product/service features, competitive advantages, case studies and testimonials.

> Prioritise benefits. Ensure that the benefits you're highlighting are the most important ones for site visitors.

The Action Words one-day course “Web writing that works” is designed to help your people overcome the key challenges of writing in the online world.
For a four-page outline, email now: vikki@actionwords.com.au

Getting better all the time

2009-06-30T04:04:00.000-07:00

Let’s not kid ourselves.

The downturn is real. Most of us know someone who has been thrown out of work. In our own marketing departments, we all know how tough it has been to make budget.

But we need to be informed and accurate.

There are concrete signs that recovery is on the way. Just look at this selection of news pieces that have appeared in Australian media since 9 June 2009.

Property market on the up and up
Chris Vedelago 21 June 2009

“MELBOURNE'S property market appears to be headed towards a strong recovery as conditions begin to mirror the heady days of the 2007 property boom.

The auction clearance rate surged to 86 per cent this past week to hit its second highest level on record, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria.

The volume of private sale transactions has also risen to a record high, with 15,354 properties selling this year to date compared to 15,060 in the boom year of 2007.”

Recovery hopes get big boost
Angela Monaghan 14 June 2009

“BETTER than expected economic data from China is likely to raise hopes that the world's largest emerging economy could help to drag the rest of the world out of recession.

China's National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday that industrial output jumped 8.9 per cent last month, compared with a 7.3 per cent rise in April, and higher than a median forecast of 7.5 per cent growth.

Retail sales in China rose 15.2 per cent in the year to May, following a 14.8 per cent increase in April, which was also ahead of forecasts.

They were the latest signs to suggest that the Government's $585 billion stimulus was working.”

Consumer confidence records 22-year bounce
By Online business reporter Michael Janda - 10 June 2009

“Consumer confidence has recorded its largest bounce in 22 years after the news last week that Australia had avoided a technical recession - two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.

The widely watched Westpac - Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index surged 12.7 per cent between May and June and now stands at 100 - meaning there are as many optimists as there are pessimists.

The bank's chief economist, Bill Evans, says the size of the increase is surprising and is the second largest bounce in the survey's 35 year history.”

Worst of financial crisis over, says bank
Peter Martin 9 June 2009

“THE only international organisation to foresee the global financial crisis says the worst of it has probably passed.

The Swiss-based Bank for International Settlements says "glimmers of hope" are sparking a "rebound of risk appetite among investors", pushing up borrowing by more than a quarter so far this year.

"The key economic indicators remain at depressed levels," the bank says in its latest quarterly report. "But investors are focused instead on incipient signs that economic conditions are deteriorating less rapidly than before, while intensified policy actions to counter the crisis have helped bolster confidence."

In Australia, the latest Dun & Bradstreet survey found businesses more positive with expected sales, profits and employment all improving from a low base.”

Business confidence back on the up and up
Glenn Dyer 9 June 2009 - Crikey

“Australian business confidence has surged to its highest level in well over a year, thanks, it seems, to the effects of the free-spending federal budget, the stockmarket and commodity rally and last week's better than expected growth figures.

The ANZ's job ads series for May fell 0.2%, the lowest fall for months. And several major international financial oversight groups have expressed cautious optimism that the worst of the global crunch is over.

The better business confidence came in the latest monthly survey of business conditions and confidence from the National Australian Bank.”

If you are doing direct mail, you can cut costs

2009-06-30T04:01:00.000-07:00

So you’d very much like to cut your mailing costs, if possible?

But you don’t want to drop revenue. You don’t want to lose market share. And you certainly don’t want to negatively impact your customer relationships.

Well, there are a few things worth considering.

1. Think again about email

OK, it’s true, email is not always ideal for initial prospecting. But that does not mean it should not be used at all.

For follow-up communications, email can be the best choice.

In conjunction with an initial direct mail piece, email can work well – say, for a reminder contact.

For renewals, maybe try email first and only invest in mail for the people on your database who are very slow to renew.

2. Provide a PURL for response

Personal URLs are likely to increase your response rate and therefore cut the cost of your follow-up mailing. And PURLs also make it easier for people to refer a friend.

3. Let them choose the channel

Can you introduce a ‘preference centre’ on your website? If so, customers and members will then find it easy to let you know how they want to be communicated with. Every time anyone chooses email or SMS, you save heaps.

4. Make sure you are ‘spot on’ with your list cleaning

Prior to mailing, you need to be full bottle with the latest tools for making your list 100% up-to-date. Your mail house should be able to advise. And watch the timing on this. If you clean your list two weeks before mailing, almost certainly changes will happen in the intervening time. You’ll end up annoying people (and wasting money) by mailing to them when they have only just unsubscribed.

5. Work harder at identifying segments that won’t respond

It’s terribly obvious, but a great way to save is to avoid mailing people who are not going to respond! Ongoing testing is essential. Be diligent in continually testing segments and sub segments. If you are not testing, you are not really doing direct marketing. And if your management won’t allow you to test, maybe it’s better for them to drop direct and invest money in something else. Perhaps solariums.

Getting started in mobile

2009-06-30T03:58:00.000-07:00

When, as presidential candidate, Barack Obama used text messaging to announce his selection of a running mate, Direct Marketers throughout the US, took note.

Many suggested that finally SMS had arrived.

What Obama or his minders were obviously aiming to do was build an opt-in mobile database. And they were successful. Reports at the time indicated that some 3 million Americans jumped on board.

The Obama campaign machine then had 3 million pairs of ears and eyes to speak with, via their mobile phones, for the rest of the presidential campaign.

It sounds simple enough. And it actually is a perfect example of using an interesting promotion to create an opt-in list. A list that can then be ‘worked’ via email very cost effectively.

With 3 billion SMS users globally, SMS text messaging is used by more than twice the number of people who use the internet. That’s quite an opportunity!

So let’s get into mobile marketing as quickly as possible, you might say. Fair enough. But there are pitfalls.

The proven Direct Marketing principles need to be followed here, just as in every other channel.
And the first principle to think about is opting in. The ongoing Obama use of SMS worked for it was opt in.

You can integrate mobile into your communications stream most effectively by getting consent.
If your database is up-to-date, you need to go to your existing people and encourage them to opt in. And this is where your creativity is needed. There are lots of offers out there, so you need to choose something enticing that shows your prospects/customers/supporters that there is something in it for them.

There is a great deal more to mobile than this. But if you start out right, you give yourself the best chance to succeed.

6 words that people confuse

2009-06-30T03:55:00.000-07:00

Here are six examples of words you hear or see misused quite often.

Continual, Continuous

Continual means repeated many times. Continuous means
going on without a break. I am continually being interrupted
by phone calls. People waiting for the bus formed a
continuous queue for 50 metres.

Fewer, Less

Fewer refers to number, less to amount. There have been fewer crashes on the roads this year. Children are buying less fatty foods from school canteens.

Anticipate, Expect

Anticipate means to be aware of a future event
and to prepare for it. Expect means to regard
something as likely to happen. The team members
are anticipating their next match with
confidence because they expect to win.

Imply, Infer

The following sentences illustrate the correct
usage of these words: The Minister implied that the
policy would be changed, although she did not
say so outright. The audience inferred that the
policy would be changed.

Advise, Inform

You can advise a person to apply for a position, but you inform or tell a person that he/she is eligible to apply. To some extent, when you advise, you are giving an opinion. Informing someone about something relates to established facts.

Affect, Effect

Affect means ‘make a difference to’ (verb), whereas effect means ‘a result’ (noun or verb) or ‘bring about (a result)’. The attitude of the staff was affected by the continual changes. The effect was low morale.

These sets of words are taken from the Action Words one-day workshop entitled:
“Writing Skills to Influence Decision Makers”. For an outline of the workshop, please email us: vikki@actionwords.com.au

Downturn set to leave us - sooner than you think

2009-05-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

Despite what some politicians are saying, there is now plenty of strong evidence that Australia is turning around.

We all know the economy was in great shape before this downturn. Now it seems, we are leading the way out of it.

The Reserve Bank Governor, Glenn Stevens, says that China’s economic recovery is "real" and could bring an Australian recovery within months.

In the strongest sign yet that officials believe the economic tide is turning, Stevens said on 19 May 2009 that developments in China and Australia were "consistent with the view that a recovery will get under way towards the end of the year".

Backing this view, here are two quotes from the latest board minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia (26 May 2009):

· “In the case of the Australian economy ... there are signs that the economic stimulus is supporting demand.”
· “Overall, the Australian economy is likely to record better outcomes than most other advanced economies in 2009 and 2010, reflecting the healthy state of the domestic banking system and effectiveness of the macroeconomic policy stimulus to date."

It seems that the very conservative Reserve Bank is becoming increasingly bullish.

Also on 26 May, an international business confidence survey of some 7500 business people in 24 nations announced that Australia was rated as the number one country for coming out of the downturn in good shape.

The survey conducted in April was aimed at gauging business sentiment and what impact the economic downturn has had on businesses globally.

Australian businesspeople appeared relatively unaffected, according to the poll conducted for Servcorp, a provider of virtual and serviced offices that operates in 61 nations. Interestingly, the survey found that it was pessimistic media reports that were named as the number one concern among Australian businesses.

"I think the doom and gloom reports that Australians hear every day are harmful to Australian businesses and hold them back from seeing opportunities,” said Servcorp executive director Taine Moufarrige.

And there is good news from the US too. On 26 May, Associated Press in New York reported that consumer confidence rebounded in May – soaring to the highest level since last September – as more shoppers are feeling the worst of the recession is behind them.

The US “Consumer Confidence Index”, which had dramatically increased in April, zoomed past economists' expectations to 54.9 from a revised 40.8 in April.

The reading marks the highest point in eight months when the level was 61.4. The levels are also closer to the year-ago reading of 58.1.

In addition, the “Present Situation Index”, which measures how shoppers feel now about the economy, rose to 28.9 from 25.5 last month. But the “Expectations Index”, which measures shoppers' outlook over the next six months, climbed to 72.3 from 51.0 in April.

Should your advertising be more aggressive?

2009-05-31T21:39:00.000-07:00

Advertising Age in the US is reporting (25 May 2009) that “attack dog” ads have become far more commonplace over the last year or so.

In competitive advertising, advertisers name their chief competitor and say “we are better than them”.

Is there any evidence to suggest that Australia is going the same way?

It’s probably hard to know where Australia sits on the “soft sell” versus “hard sell” pendulum, but it’s interesting to think about where you believe your company should be.

According to Advertising Age, comparisons in advertising in the US are getting sharper, responses are growing testier, and an increasing number of ad battles are ending up in court.

So why is this happening?

Obviously, the point of comparative advertising is to set yourself apart.

If you can find a strong point of difference that is important to a sufficient number of prospects, then the advertising is most likely going to be very effective.

With the economic downturn, marketers have been under so much pressure to improve their market share, it’s probably not surprising that this trend has appeared.

Of course, the evaluation you have to make is whether you get more for your promotional investment with an aggressive approach compared with a more conventional advertisement.

With comparative advertising, clearly you can be on a winner, but equally you can risk getting sued or alienating consumers. In our laid back way, it seems that at least some Australians don’t like to see you “going after” a competitor.

Some points to consider:

If you want to avoid ending up in court, don’t name your target rival. A more general term such as "some of our competitors" is less likely to get you into trouble.

If you are negative, you can reduce sales in the overall category! Which is hardly likely to be your objective. So stay positive. Highlight the benefits you offer. And the more specific the benefits, the better.

If you say it, consumers will doubt it. So only make a claim if you can back it up. Ideally, have facts and figures or an authority to support you. “The Reserve Bank supports this type of loan in its report on . . .”

Keep your advertising original. Avoid “me too” claims. If a competitor can prove that you are using a claim that they made previously, you may be in hot water.

Tips for online writing

2009-05-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

If your job requires you to tackle some online writing, here are two tips to help:

1. Reading versus scanning

When you are writing for the web, one of the first things to think about is that your readers are not really readers. They are scanners. Because the eye reacts badly to reading text on a computer screen and because the online experience fosters impatience, users tend not to read streams of text. Instead, they scan. As a web writer, you have to write for scanners.
It is critically important to focus on headlines, keep paragraphs short and highlight keywords, phrases and sentences. You need to make the important bits stand out.

2. Think about “you”

Using “you” and “your” will make your writing more inviting. And more personal.
You can convey serious and important messages – even legal rules and notices – using “you”. In fact people are much more likely to take in those messages because they can see themselves in the text.
On the web, it’s also good to show that you are a person and that your organisation includes people.
The more you do to make your visitors feel that you are in conversation with them on all your web pages, the more comfortable most people feel.

There are numerous other practical tips for online writing presented in the Action Words one-day workshop “Web writing that works”. For an outline of the workshop, please email us: vikki@actionwords.com.au

Last Saturday at Auschwitz

2009-05-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

We all know about the horror of cruelty and death at Auschwitz. There is nothing new I can add that you have not heard before.

Today, the site is green and serene. Strangely, it is not horrible to look at. We saw it on a grey day. But our mood was sombre, for you can’t go there without focusing very acutely on what it represents.

I was especially hit by the fact that so many people could have been so cruel for so long. The one million plus deaths were not the act of one mad dictator. It was not a small group of fanatics. The Nazi SS who managed the camp numbered more than 8000 operatives.

The killings lasted day after day for two years. And it was not just the SS that was involved. It included the engineering companies like the one that manufactured the ovens and confirmed that those ovens could burn some 3500 corpses a day. It was the other companies that supplied gas – refined especially for the purpose. It included the doctors who carried out shocking experiments on young girls. And there were hundreds of other organisations involved to keep the dreadful place going.

The size of the camp site is something no film had ever conveyed to me – 191 hectares (Melbourne Zoo is about 20 hectares and Werribee Zoo about120).
At many points, the double lines of wicked electric fence stretch as far as the eye can see.

It was a major life experience to be there. It will remain vivid. I am sure of that.

More than anything else, this horrible death camp stands today as a reminder for us all to be wary of Nazi-type regimes wherever they may arise.

Special offer for one-day marketing conference

2009-05-31T21:32:00.000-07:00

The Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI), is staging a one-day Sales and Marketing Conference on Thursday 25 June 2009 at ZINC, Federation Square, Melbourne.

This conference promises to provide practical and insightful information for business. Discover the latest trends in sales, marketing, media and online from an outstanding line-up of expert presenters from companies such as GEEK IT Group, JUST Magazines, Leo Burnett, Huthwaite, Keep Left PR and more.

VECCI has a limited exclusive offer. All bookings made before Friday June 5 will receive $100 off each individual ticket, PLUS a $100 training voucher per attendee.
Who should attend?Sales and Marketing Managers, Marketing Communications Managers, Business Development Managers, Small to Medium Business Owners, Retailers, Not-for-profit Organisations.

VECCI Members - $499 ($399); Non-Members - $589 ($489)
Interested?T. 03 8662 5333.E. events@vecci.org.au Or click on this link: http://www.vecci.org.au/vecci/events+and+training/event+item1.asp?code=CME9015&fcode=MAIN

Swine flu here again - will we learn the lessons of 1976?

2009-05-04T07:47:00.000-07:00

The media has proved that it loves the threat of a disaster. Panic sells newspapers.

Malaria kills 3,000 people every day, yet it is considered ‘a health problem’ and not worthy of media coverage generally. At time of writing, there are ten confirmed deaths from H1N1 (popularly known as ‘swine flu’).

The warnings coming through now may be justified. And it is possible we have a very serious health issue facing the global community.

However, it was only in 1976 that the US Government very sternly warned that one million Americans were likely to die of swine flu.

In fact, the Great Swine Flu Epidemic of 1976 never took place. The 1976 to 1977 flu season in the US was the most flu-free since records had been kept. The President at the time, Gerald Ford, attempted to gain credit for keeping America safe. But the people knew better. He was kicked out of office.

Worse, countless people suffered paralysis from the vaccine, some ended up as paraplegics and the vaccine itself was blamed for 25 deaths.

More recently than President Ford, in 2005 our dear friend President Bush said two million Americans would die as a result of bird flu!

Now, as fears of swine flu spread, US companies ranging from soap and hand-sanitiser manufacturers to makers of designer face masks are ramping up their marketing efforts. Mostly these companies are pitching prevention messages starring their products.

At the same time, in Sydney, a box of 40 simple surgical masks was selling last week for a cool $130. Apparently, way above above the pre panic price.

Most consumers would say there is something particularly distasteful about price gouging with medical supplies.

In the US, the soap makers, whose ads don’t explicitly mention swine flu, but focus more broadly on germ-fighting, already have a key endorsement. “Frequent hand-washing” is put forward by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention as the best tip for preventing the spread of swine flu.

However, marketers have to act with care and thoughtfulness.

It’s OK to promote a product during a public-health emergency. But it is how you do it that’s important. It will come across as sleazy and opportunistic if you try to capitalise on fear. If you go out of your way to inform, then that’s a different thing.

The renowned New York branding consultant, Dean Crutchfield, says instead of increasing their ad budgets, marketers should be donating resources to schools and hospitals and creating an aura of goodwill around their brands.

Such an approach would certainly build a better brand image and would more than likely prove to be effective over the longer term.

Cutting is the soft option

2009-05-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

It is not that difficult to cut budgets.

It is not difficult at all to cut a marketing budget. You just use a pen. You rule a line through items.

Any fool can do it. And before long, it’s all over. Fifty percent of marketing initiatives are off the agenda.

The speed and ease of the cutting operation may give you the clue as to what is really happening. Cutting items out of marketing is actually the soft option.

It is much more challenging to carry out a thoughtful review of activities and to decide how best you can achieve the results you need with less marketing investment.

Instead of cutting the initiatives that the manager does not like – or maybe does not understand – what professional marketers do is re-evaluate the marketing plan and analyse what is working and what's not.

Doing the job for long term benefit means exploring new options of marketing that cost less, but can still deliver the results you are looking for. It means checking the relevance of popular no-cost or low-cost marketing tips that you can begin implementing today.

When you recognise the need to be resourceful, obviously, social media is an option. This may be the perfect time to give social media marketing a try. We can be fairly certain that it won’t be the complete answer, but depending on your target market and how much time you are prepared to put in, it may be effective for you.

Using networking tools such as Facebook, the business-oriented LinkedIn or the rapidly growing Twitter, you can connect with a huge, diverse population. Of course, you have to make an effort in building your online network. You have to reach out and build relationships with those you have something in common with.

And remember, things are moving rapidly. If you looked at Facebook, for example, six months ago and decided it was just for kids, that’s history. Today, the demographic of Facebook continues to broaden.

Not sure about that?

Just look at these figures provided by O’Reilly Media. Between September 2008 and February 2009:

> The number of Facebook users between the ages of 35 and 44 increased by 51%
> Facebook users among the ages 45-54 grew by 47%
> Facebook users aged 26-34 increased by 26%
> More than half of the 140 million Facebook users are out of college.

With, apparently, some 600 million searches and more than 30 billion page views a month, the volumes alone justify a second look.

And, maybe surprisingly, the picture is similar with Twitter. According to an eMarketer report, Twitter drew 4 million unique visitors from home, work and college/university locations in February 2009, up from 340,000 a year earlier – a 1,086 percent increase. After months of double-digit growth, traffic to Twitter accelerated 131 percent to 9.3 million visitors for the month of March 2009.

Social networking may or may not have a future, and it may or may not be an opportunity for your business. Who knows? But one thing is sure. You should be monitoring it.

Email marketers not measuring up

2009-05-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

On 15 April 2009, Target Marketing magazine in the US uncovered some amazing findings about email marketers.

Despite the vast array of statistics available, numerous email marketers in the US are not measuring the effectiveness of their promotions. Let’s hope this is not the case in Aus.

According to the Target Marketing report, some 500 email marketers were surveyed and the results showed that more than 18% of email marketers don't track their campaigns at all. Of those who do, marketers chose, in order of importance, open, click through and open-to-click rates as the most important metrics.

But it gets worse. The email marketers surveyed did not recognise the importance of sector statistics. Respondents rated sector specific metrics as the least important metric of all!

Reality check: If you don’t measure your results by sector you are forfeiting the chance to gain precious insights about your target market.

In my own experience, there have been campaigns where I have received a 5% response overall, but a 25% response from one or more segments. If you don’t know that’s happening, you move to your next campaign with very incomplete knowledge.

Let’s say you are selling a new health plan. Overall response is 5%, but response from people over 55 years is 25%. Clearly, you have a plan that is attractive to an older market – but you can only discover that with sector specific metrics. That’s essential information for your next campaign. And it is critical for your product development team as well.

Sampling is as powerful as ever

2009-03-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

The walls around the Tuscan City of Prato are not actually ancient.

They were completed in 1600.

Today they enclose the old city with its narrow streets and bustling lifestyle. The walls also enclose the Monash Prato Centre and, from now until September, the Action Words office and my home.

As everyone who has travelled to Europe would know, the centre of the city is the main Piazza. That’s where people meet every day. Where every day the locals communicate in the most low tech of ways. By standing and talking or by walking together.

Last Sunday morning we arrived at the Piazza around 11am. A large crowd had gathered. We wondered what was on. There did not seem to be anything special.

Then we noticed it was nearly all men. Nearly all over 50.

And then the penny dropped.

The duomo (major church) in Prato is adjacent to the Piazza. The men were waiting outside while their wives were in church for Sunday Mass. It was a very social time for the men. Comparing notes. Exchanging stories. Arguing over the Italian football team (which is in a transition phase leading up to the 2010 World Cup).

Soon afterwards we came across a lone trestle table set up in the middle of the Piazza. An aroma of coffee attracted us to it. “Everything is free, come and try,” a young woman called to us. We were even more attracted.

The cakes and delicacies were beautifully presented. “Please try,” she said, and we needed no further coaxing.

“So what are you on about?” we asked, and we soon discovered that the trestle table was part of a promotion by the Tatawelo Group.

Tatawelo, in operation since 2003, supports impoverished people in the Chiapas region of Mexico. The Chiapas people grow the coffee and the Tatawelo Group trades with them to give them a livelihood. It works. And now the Tatawelo Group can point to a whole range of community improvements that have been achieved over the last five years.

Well, call us suckers if you want, but we tried the superb coffee, we tried the cheese and we tried the pastries. And then we started to spend. And the pack horse, yours truly, was well and truly weighed down when we walked away.

And since then we have told quite a few friends about Tatawello coffee.

Sampling not only produced sales but two new advocates as well.

How good is that?

If you have to go, US toilet paper supplier helps

2009-03-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought that the possible new applications for your mobile phone might soon run out, now a leading toilet paper brand has come up with a very helpful innovation.

Everyone who has travelled overseas knows about the challenges relating to public bathrooms.

Well, thanks to major US toilet paper supplier, Charmin, now you can search for clean public rest rooms on your phone.

As of February 2009, some 52,000 toilets in 10 countries had been logged. There had been more than half a million unique visitors and more than 1,600 downloads of this mobile app. And apparently, those numbers are growing rapidly,

Charmin has teamed up with a free mobile social-networking utility, SitOrSquat.com, to help you locate clean public rest rooms on your phone.

The wiki — housed on the web at SitOrSquat.com and available as a mobile application for BlackBerry and iPhone — launched in December with the goal of turning the digital masses into a mobile army of restroom reviewers. It both helps locate public restrooms and provides star ratings based on their cleanliness and other amenities (especially useful in some countries!).

Charmin can't be accused of just trying to sell toilet paper. This new app is a novel effort at non traditional branding. It’s a good example for all of us that there is always room for more innovation.

It seems to me that this initiative brings together the brand, social media, user-generated content and a savvy app in a way that responds to a very human need.

For direct mail in a downturn, a lift letter may make the difference

2009-03-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

Traditionally, most direct mail packages included a lift letter. Lift letters became common because they worked, and direct marketers proved repeatedly that they worked.

But over the years, most people doing direct mail in Australia have dropped the lift letter.

My feeling is that we should be testing lift letters again, because there is nothing to say they won’t work today.

First used in the publishing world, the "publisher's note" or "publisher's letter" as it was called, was added to a direct mail package that already included a sales letter. Usually on the small side, both in length and paper size, and signed by the publisher, it came to be known as the "lift letter" because it lifted or increased response.Look at these strong arguments for testing a lift letter.

1. The right prospects do read. Despite what some experts might tell you, consumers do read, if they are interested in buying. Think of yourself as a consumer. If you are really interested in buying something, you are happy to read about it.

2. The lift letter has to be different. The lift letter is an opportunity to approach the prospect from a different angle. To change voice. To shift perspective. To be most effective, the lift letter must be different from the rest of the package. It should come from a different person, perhaps someone outside the organisation.

3. The lift letter doesn't need to be a "letter." The lift letter can take different forms and operate on a different level from the mailer. For example, it can be used as a testimonial. It can address buying objections. Or it can feature relevant facts and figures.

4. Include it for impact. Lift letters are usually smaller — bite-size — in the amount of copy they provide. And frequently, they focus on one major reason (offer-driven) about why you should respond. They are easy to read in less than a minute. And they normally stand out, because they are printed on paper that is a different colour from the rest of the pack.

5. Make it strong, then test it. If you're going to test a lift letter, it should not be an afterthought. It should be a strategic test that is briefed in properly, with the copywriter giving it all the attention it needs as a critical element of the sales effort.

Shorter sentences - the way to go

2009-03-10T17:03:00.000-07:00

It might seem incredibly obvious, but the key to writing well is writing clear sentences.

And the key to writing clear sentences is to keep them short.

Now here’s a promise. If you want to improve your writing, starting right now, all you have to do is this. Write shorter sentences. It's that simple.

Much of the trouble that writers get into comes from trying to make sentences do too much work.

Readers can process only one idea at a time. If you keep your sentences short, or at least shortish, readers will find your writing easy to follow. If they find your writing easy, you'll get your message across.

And isn't that what you always want to do?

Look at this example:

Verbose sentence: “If there are any points on which you require explanation or further particulars we shall be glad to furnish such additional details as may be required by telephone.”(28 words)

How it could be: “If you have any further queries, please call us.”(9 words)

This shorter sentence is not only easier to understand, it also gets the point across more clearly.

Do yourself a favour. Write shorter sentences. They really work.

Corporate help for fire victims

2009-03-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

After the bushfires it has been heartening to see the fantastic community efforts taking place.

People everywhere have wanted to help. And not just individuals. The corporate sector has been in there as well.

At Australian Unity, teams of employees have given up free time or used their “community leave day” to help on the ground. This is one young woman’s account of her day sorting and helping distribute much-needed donated goods in Alexandria.

Nervous anticipation was building amongst the first group of Australian Unity volunteers boarding the bus en route to Alexandra. Whilst each person wanted to “make a difference” and assist the bushfire victims, we didn’t know what to expect or how we would deal with it – after the week’s build up of confronting images, stories of terror, tears and courage.

What greeted us in Alexandra was an overwhelming display of the strength of the human spirit and constant reminders that when it counts most, there are no differences between us. City types rallied with country types, interstate visitors mixed in with teenagers who had lost friends and with weathered elderly locals whose determination and grit stood as leading examples to all of us.

Whilst we were shielded from the direct impact of the fires, and our journey bypassed the central fire zones, our placement at the distribution centre reminded us we were at the hub of where the relief effort had crucial importance to the community.

Warm and heartfelt greetings were followed by serious briefings and we got down to the job of receiving and sorting essential goods. An atmosphere of common purpose and congeniality stayed throughout the day. Our brief was simple – to serve and support. So, the AU team blended in with weary locals and there was a curious mix of raucous laughter, serious quiet conversations and exchanging hugs with strangers – all at the right time, just when it was needed most.

Always present was the spirit of generosity from businesses and the public, with every imaginable food item, clothing and accessories constantly being trucked in, sorted, allocated, boxed and re-distributed. Despite the volume of goods being shifted, care was taken to ensure families and individuals could access fully stocked toiletry bags, food hampers and clothing packs.

A lunch time walk through the eerie quiet of the town, still a smoke filled environment, reinforced the scale of the relief effort taking place. The local football oval and grounds housed a sea of army tents, rows of buses transporting units to fire fronts and an immense array of army tanks, fire engines and equipment. This view was quite at odds with the otherwise peaceful tree lined streets and sleepy village.

Hearing the speeches of gratitude at the day’s end was humbling and touching for our team, who felt, as I do, that we now share a unique bond with this resilient community. We are reassured they will emerge from this disaster with a roadmap for their future, lined with support from both their oldest and newest friends.

Marita Smith
Communications Manager and volunteer
Australian Unity

Will newspapers reinvent themselves?

2009-03-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

On 8 March 2009, Ad Age in the US reported that a major newspaper company wants to give you news the way Burger King makes hamburgers: your way.

MediaNews Group, the fourth-largest newspaper chain in the US, said it would test a customised newspaper service over the next few months at The Los Angeles Daily News, one of the 54 dailies owned by the company.

The service, which allows readers to pick and choose only the stories that interest them, is among the many maneuvers that newspapers globally are making to respond to the changes the Internet has wrought on their businesses.

Of course, through automated feeds and customised Google and Yahoo pages, consumers can already tailor their news consumption to their own tastes.

But the MediaNews experiment, which it has named “individuated news” — it has trademarked the phrase — or “I-news,” for short, has an old media twist: dead trees and a new piece of hardware for your home.

The theory is that I-News will be all about choice. If it works out in reality, newspaper readers will be able to decide what they want to read and on what platform.

Apparently, MediaNews has been working with a technology company to develop an in-home printer for readers. The printer will receive and print a subscriber’s customised newspaper — with targeted advertising.

It is unclear if subscribers will pay extra for the printer, or if it will be part of the subscription fee.

But already there is skepticism. Various journalism blogs and news sites on the Web have even greeted the idea with ridicule.

At the Nieman Journalism Lab, part of Harvard’s Nieman Foundation, a blogger related it to the many failed experiments years ago to market a fax newspaper, the first of which was in 1939 in St. Louis.
However, with the amazing innovations we have seen in recent years, it makes little sense to say the new newspapers won’t happen. My feeling is that it’s better just to watch this space.

Search growth: US slowing, Aus powering ahead

2009-02-04T12:04:00.000-08:00

The figures coming out now for search marketing in 2008 may surprise you.

Everyone knows that for the last couple of years, search has been big and getting bigger all the time. Right? Well, that was not the case in the US.

Efficient Frontier, the large California-based global search consultancy, has just released some interesting figures in a report entitled U.S. Search Engine Performance Report: Q4 2008.

The report indicates that US retailers spent 9% more on search marketing in 2008 compared with the previous year. However, retail was the only growth sector.

US spending on search marketing declined overall last year by 8% compared with 2007.

For specific sectors, the 2008 declines included:

Automotive industry – down 10%
Travel and entertainment – down 24%
Financial services – down 25%

The report is based on an analysis of 92 billion search ad impressions and 600 million ad clicks.

Google in the US, however, maintained its dominant market share of 76%, while Yahoo increased its share slightly to 20%, followed by Microsoft Live Search at 4.2%.

In Australia, the Google market share is around 90%, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and it seems that the growth of Google is continuing without pause.

Highlights of Google’s December 2008 quarter results include excellent growth in paid clicks – 18% more than the previous year, and 10% up on the September quarter.

“Search query growth was strong, revenues were up in most verticals, and we successfully contained costs,” said CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt last month. At the end of 2008, Google in Australia had some 20,222 full-time employees.

A Year for Brands: 2008

2009-02-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

So what was the most talked about brand in 2008?

Well, if you count ‘Obama’ surely he must have been near the top. But the creators of the latest list, US social-media-services provider Vitrue, stuck to regular brands. This is their top 12 from the US:

1. iPhone
2. CNN
3. Apple
4. Disney
5. Xbox
6. Starbucks
7. iPod
8. MTV
9. Sony
10. Dell
11. Microsoft
12. Ford

Essentially, what they measured was online chatter. So you can certainly question the value of being on the list. They counted online mentions. Nothing more.

The ‘mentions’ may have been positive or negative.

Vitrue explains the survey by saying that they measured the conversation volume for some 2,000 brands on a variety of social-networking, blogging and micro-blogging sites.

If you accept that it’s a good list to be on, there’s a fair chance the guys at Apple had a celebratory drink when the list was announced last week. Having your name or products coming in at positions 1, 3 and 7 would surely indicate they are doing something right.

Maybe the list finds the brands that are active in social media and continually reaching out to consumers via social-media tools. Or maybe this list highlights the brands that offer an incredibly useful, well designed or great value product. You be the judge.

Holiday town misses the boat

2009-02-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

Probably all Victorians know Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. Unfortunately, sleepy Sorrento – affluent as it is – knows little about marketing.

Over the holiday period, my wife and I escaped to Sorrento for some time out and to catch up with friends. The place was buzzing with crowds, traffic and fun. The tiny local population was overwhelmed with people from the well-to-do southern and eastern suburbs.

You might expect the traders to look forward to a profitable ‘harvest time’ with equipment primed, staff trained, product ready and systems going. But not in Sorrento.

In the afternoons, with hordes of potential spenders in the main street, most shops close at 5pm right through the holidays. As a visitor, you get the feeling you are not wanted.

In bold letters at the top of its menu, one coffee shop states “no variations to orders allowed”. (Maybe they don’t know that 48% of orders at McDonalds ask for a ‘variation’.)

One of the food outlets on the main drag at Sorrento is Just Fine Food, which is apparently renowned for its vanilla slice. We visited there on a sunny afternoon just before New Year with some dear friends.

As we gave the order we were sternly told, “there’s a twenty minute wait on all coffees”. We were not in a hurry, so that was OK. Seeing the size of the vanilla slice, my wife timidly asked, ”could we have it cut in two, please”.

“We don’t do slices,” the swift reply came back.

OK, we’ll manage. After all, we are on holidays.

Some 45 minutes went by. Suddenly the coffees appeared. One of our group asked, “could you tell us which one is the extra hot one that we ordered?” The reply: “I don’t know, I just bring them out, I don’t make them”.

We were all amused. Nothing was going to spoil our afternoon. But as each day went by and a stream of friends continued through our house, we advised them all to avoid that place.

Maybe next year, the Sorrento traders should take themselves to Queensland for the holiday period. The town would then probably feel more welcoming.

What's your attitude towards a downturn?

2008-11-30T11:43:00.000-08:00

In a major downturn, not everyone has to suffer.

Already there are lots of mixed messages. The media reports that sales are up at the Victoria Market, while lots of other retailers are down. Yet retail plant nurseries have reportedly had a great Springtime.

Even in residential property the picture is not clear. All year prices in many areas have not reached the dizzy heights of late 2007. And since September the fall off in prices has been more dramatic. Yet on 20 November it was reported that sales in October had taken a jump. And builders have reported an increase in sales of new homes of between 30% and 50%.

In addition to all this, many mums and dads who are in work are finding things OK so far. The cost of running their car has dropped slightly and their mortgage is easier.

Clearly, we are looking at a variable picture with winners and losers.

In your business it is important to get your attitude right. Are you going to head for cover and hope it passes quickly? Or are you going to take the initiative and make good things happen? There is nothing that says you must take part in the downturn.

If your target market is feeling the pinch, this is a very good time for you to review your methods. It is almost certainly not good enough to just keep doing what you have been doing. There may be a very good case for more business investment in advertising or promotion or corporate gifts – or whatever is appropriate in your case. But whatever it is, think about it carefully beforehand and try to make yourself standout.

In moving to be successful during a downturn, my guess is that fortune will favour the brave.

Action Words writing tip

2008-11-30T11:39:00.000-08:00

Clutter in writing is a major problem.
We seem compelled to add. Even in this piece on ‘clutter’ I started out with a first sentence that read: ‘Clutter in writing is a major problem for writers everywhere today.’ When I reviewed it, and cut it, the sentence became stronger.

Writing improves when you keep things out that don’t need to be there. Clutter is so much part of our writing today, we often don’t notice it. But I promise you, it’s there.

“It is interesting to note . . .”
“At this point in time . . .”
“It’s my personal opinion . . .”
“As has been pointed out earlier . . .”

If you are writing something that’s important to you, check each word and ask yourself, “is this needed?” If you can remove clutter, your readers will be pleased. You will communicate more easily.

Will your brand die any time soon?

2008-11-30T11:37:00.000-08:00

Three leading academics at Monash University have produced an innovative approach to the lifespan of brands that will be featured very soon in the renowned Journal of Business Research.

The academics have put forward the idea that it is normal for brands to die!

Professor Mike Ewing, Dr Colin Jevons and Associate Professor Elias Khalil say that the idea of brands being invincible is a myth. Their study argues that brands have a finite life span, and companies that expect them to last forever are just not being realistic.

The Monash study argues that every brand moves through stages: from birth, through growth, to maturity. The final stage, death, should be seen as a natural part of this life cycle. And every brand, no matter how big, is vulnerable. Remember Ansett, Oldsmobile, Atari?

According to the researchers, consumers drive the rise and fall of brands. They say two factors influence people’s decision to buy: firstly, the product’s use value, or ‘constitutive utility’ (basically, what it does for them); but more importantly, its ‘symbolic utility’ – what it means to them.

Brands are driven largely by this symbolic utility: people buy them primarily to feel good about themselves. The power of symbolic utility depends on two elements: the ‘boredom effect’ (meaning the product’s novelty starts to wear off after purchase), and the ‘status effect’ (which relates to who else buys it).

The status effect packs the most punch – and this can be both positive and negative. If people you count as part of your social circle (‘reference group’) buy the brand, its appeal will increase. But if people outside that circle (‘trespassers’ or ‘social climbers’) start buying it too, the shine will quickly start to wear off. This ‘trespassing’ effect is a major cause of brand demise. As more outsiders lay claim to a brand, its status falls. Once its appeal drops, demand also dwindles.

The researchers suggest that brand extinction can be stalled by clever revitalisation and repositioning strategies, but in the long run, this is just delaying the inevitable. While it’s impossible to accurately predict exactly when and how a brand will kick the bucket, it’s only a matter of time.

For marketers, planning ahead is better than living in denial.

Etihad coup

2008-10-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

For Telstra to spend many millions of dollars on naming a sporting facility was always a complete waste of money. One company that does not have a brand recognition problem in Australia is Telstra.

But for the marketers at Etihad Airways, the story is very different. The company’s brand in Australia is about as unknown as Kevin Rudd’s mum's maiden name. But not any longer. When the first Etihad flight to these parts touches down in Melbourne in March, it will coincide with the unveiling of the new name at Docklands.

In one brilliant move, the stadium name change (announced on 22 October) will take Etihad from almost zero to a strong brand recognition position in no time.

Well done Etihad! I like you already!

Prices are falling for online ad space

2008-10-26T17:10:00.000-07:00

The New York Times reported on 16 October that the price of ad space online is down 27% this year.

Web sites about technology were the only category that didn’t see ad prices fall in the last twelve months.

Prices for ad space online vary widely. On social networking sites, rates are usually very low. On smaller niche sites, much higher rates can be achieved.

Ads on small web sites – those that get fewer than 1 million page views per month – sell for about three times as much as space on big sites with more than 100 million page views per month.

The price difference relates to the fact that small sites have niche content, which means that advertisers can reach a more targeted audience. For example, a teenager in the United States and an elderly person in India can both use Facebook. Advertisers don’t know who is seeing their ad. By contrast, a small site dedicated to restaurant reviews in inner Melbourne would have a more defined set of readers.

Of course, the question of readership remains: do people look at display ads on the net?

If I was thinking of investing in display advertising online, I would certainly do a small test first. (OK, I know, regular readers will have guessed that’s what I would say!)

Why set yourself up for a possible loss? Do a small test and the worst case scenario is that you’ll lose a small amount. But you’ll also gain specific information relating to your product or business that could be invaluable.

US direct marketing expenditure reaches 53% of all advertising

2008-10-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

On October 13 the Direct Marketing Association in the US unveiled important figures about direct marketing. These figures indicate that despite the generally bleak economic outlook, direct marketers should continue to do well.

“In 2008 and 2009, direct marketing spend will again outpace general advertising by a slight margin,” said the Association’s Vice President, Strategy, Analysis, and Planning, Peter Johnson PhD.

“In 2009, direct marketing will capture 53% of total advertising expenditures, continuing the long-term movement in advertising dollars to direct marketing and away from general advertising.”

Despite the desperate economic times in the US, direct marketing is expected to grow by 3.7% this year and 4.5% next year.

Sales through direct marketing reached $171 billion in 2007 and are expected to top $183 in 2009. Looking at spend by channel, the Association’s analysis reveals that the big winners will be commercial email and internet marketing. Both of these will enjoy double-digit spending growth as businesses take advantage of the continued move toward electronic purchasing.

Several broad sectors in the US are expected to achieve above-average direct marketing sales growth in 2009, including:

• Financial Services
• Information
• Transportation
• Services
• Wholesale Trade.

Higher Return on Investment: For 2008, an investment of $1 in direct marketing is predicted to return, on average, $11.63 in incremental revenue across all industries. This exceeds the $11.56 achieved in 2007. Further improvement, to $11.74, is expected in 2009.

Growth for Interactive Marketing: Expenditures in the newer online media will maintain significant growth in the coming year. Commercial email will continue to claim the top growth ranking for 2009, while internet advertising will claim over 15% of all direct marketing advertising dollars.

There is much more detail in The Power of Direct Marketing Report which you can purchase from the Association for a non-member price of $US595.

Quotation marks, brackets and other punctuation

2008-10-26T17:01:00.001-07:00

The exact position of some punctuation can be confusing. Let’s look at these examples:

"Good morning", said Lucy.

"Good morning," said Lucy.

"Good morning", she said. "How are you feeling?"

The comma after the word ‘morning’ can appear before or after the quotation marks. Placing it before the quotation marks is my preference and I feel it looks right. However, some people argue that it is not really part of what Lucy said and therefore it should go after the quotation marks. They would argue that the comma is simply a device that the writer uses to keep the sentence clear.

The question mark after the word ‘feeling’ is different. It seems to me fairly obvious that the question mark is actually part of what Lucy said. Presumably her intonation indicated that the words ‘how are you feeling’ were a question.

Brackets are a different case again. In the example that follows, the bracket should appear before the full stop - as in (a). I can’t think of any situation where (b) would be correct.

(a) The model was just right (albeit slightly large).
(b) The model was just right (albeit slightly large.)

You can be pedantic about these nuances in English, but I get a distinct feeling that very few people notice.

In business writing, our objective is to communicate with impact. It’s good to get these things right, but I suggest you spend most of your time focusing on more important things.

On customer service, where are we?

2008-09-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

After recently spending 30-days in France and Italy, I am wondering about Australian customer service.

Let’s begin with France and let’s begin by putting to bed, once and for all, that old fallacy about the French being rude.

In 2005 I spent a week in Paris and had nothing but positive experiences everywhere I went. I put that down to good luck. I had been indoctrinated to believe that the French were not a welcoming people.

Now the same thing has happened again. Last month I spent a week in Paris and a week driving around the French countryside visiting cities like Dijon, Lyons, Avignon and Nice. Everywhere and on every occasion French traders helped us. They went out of their way to explain, to show and to make things easier.

In Dijon a middle aged woman, noticing my map, ran across the street offering to help. When she realised my French was so abysmal, immediately spoke in broken English and did not go on her way until she was sure we were clear about where we were heading.

But that was not the full story in France. The piece-de-resistance in customer service terms happened on our second day in Paris. At HSBC.

We were about to use an ATM to withdraw money and suddenly got nervous about losing our card. (We’d had a bad experience overseas once before.) We went inside the HSBC branch. The teller was immediately helpful. He explained the steps. Then without hesitation, he offered to come outside and talk us through the process. So there on the streets of central Paris there was an amazing sight: a young male teller, standing with us at an ATM while we completed the transaction.

By contrast, in Australia, before we left, we dutifully informed our bank, Westpac, that we were going to be in France and Italy for a month. They did not bother to tell us that in Europe today, to use a credit card you need a PIN. We found ourselves 15,000 klms from home and not able to use our VISA card. Thanks for nothing Westpac.

In Italy our customer service experience was just as excellent.

In the beautiful ancient northern town of Bergamo, the hotel manager printed train timetables for us, gave us detailed directions and every day had time to share his local knowledge. In big cities like Milan and in smaller towns, traders everywhere went out of their way to answer our questions and help us along the way.

However, it was when we arrived at Prato an authentic Tuscan town near Florence that we experienced a new level of customer service.

We stayed at Ma. Gi. Co., a 200 year old family home that is now a B&B adjacent to the main piazza in this non-tourist walled city.

The owner and manager at Ma. Gi. Co. is a vibrant young mum named Simona Cozzi who makes your stay personal and pleasurable with attention to detail that’s second to none.

When we arrived in Prato we were lost. We parked the car and walked the last kilometre through narrow streets. When Simona heard our story, she immediately walked back to the car with us and guided us in to the town. What a great way to start!

From there, the treatment we received just got better and better.

The breakfast Simona prepared each day was fit for a king.
When we were planning a short train trip, Simona immediately phoned for the train times.
When we chose a restaurant for dinner, Simona went to the restaurant to make the booking and stressed that she expected excellence for her guests. The dinner and the service were superb.
When we talked about buying a coffee machine to bring back to Australia, Simona found out the freight cost for us.

Every day in countless little ways we were treated like royalty. I have never experienced or heard of such customer service in Australia.

A gold medal to HSBC (www.hsbc.com.au) and platinum to Ma. Gi. Co. Remember this B&B for your next Tuscan adventure (www.bbmagico.it)

Macy’s and the US downturn

2008-09-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

The US subprime crisis which so far has only mildly touched our economy, has already been very severe in the US. Doom and gloom is everywhere in retail. But, despite the downturn, one major retailer --Macy's -- is still looking to increase its advertising.

On 13 August, Macy's cut its full-year earnings outlook dramatically, but said it will continue to make investments in marketing.

In Australia, retailers generally, with their emphasis on discounting, seem to know very little about marketing. But it’s a different story in the US. In fact, despite the difficult times, Macy’s looks to be expanding its marketing budget.

The retailer is developing a new relationship with the globally renowned customer focus specialist consultancy, Dunnhumby. Macy’s says that over the next twelve months, its marketing plans will be very visible.

As a consumer-insights firm, Dunnhumby has earned a reputation as an expert at accelerating sales through its work with retailers such as Home Depot. For Macy’s, Dunnhumby will be charged with developing customer segmentation models to be applied across the retailer's business.

The stated aim at Macy's is for the company to continue to build a sustainable competitive advantage by having a more complete understanding of customers. The management at Macy’s wants to mould the Macy offering to satisfy each customer's specific needs.

If you are in financial services or professional services marketing, this may not seem very profound. But in a non-marketing organisation, this type of thinking would represent a major step forward.

Four guidelines for making your writing more succinct

2008-09-03T15:59:00.000-07:00

Your writing will be more succinct and you will be more likely to win people over, if you remember the following four guidelines:

Think about your audience and what you want to achieve. The better you understand them, the more chance you have of communicating successfully.
Delete unnecessary information. Everyone is busy. Your readers do not want to waste time reading stuff from you that they do not need.
Delete unnecessary words. Look at the following sentence and see how many words you can cut. You might improve your writing somewhat if you sometimes try to follow this suggestion.
Replace complex words with simple words. An airline pilot recently referred to the chance of ‘precipitation’. Why would he use that word?

And be sure to avoid things like this:

'The consultants recommend integrated asset flexibility.'
'Our exploratory research points to global third-generation mobility.'

Do we sound like the Olympic commentators?

2008-09-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

Most people who watched the Channel 7 coverage of the Olympics for more than 30 seconds were amused or bemused by the bias of the Australian commentators.

In rowing, in the Final of the men’s eight, the Australian crew appeared to begin falling behind within the first 25 metres. But the commentators did not notice.

By the half way mark in the race, the Australians were well and truly at the back of the field. No doubt they were giving it their best shot but were being outclassed. There’s no disgrace there. After all, they reached the final six teams.

But the commentators continued to talk up Australia as a medal chance when it was obviously not going to happen. If you had listened only, without viewing, you would have been on the edge of your seat. You would have heard that the Australian surge was just about to leave the rest of the competitors for dead.

In fact nothing like this happened. The exhausted Australian team was well beaten.

As marketers, we must wonder, why do the commentators do this?

Equally, as advertisers, we have to ask, ‘do we annoy people?’ Do we lose credibility by the silliness of the things we say in our promotions?

There is no way of knowing the true answer to these questions while you sit at a desk. But you can get a feel for how people are likely to react by using carefully put together focus groups. Or one-to-one interviews.

As things get tougher in the economy, marketers need to be that much more targeted. In a buoyant economy, if 10% of your communication is being wasted, then you probably don’t notice. But in a contracting economy, where you have to make every post a winner, that 10% of wastage could drop you into the red.

For direct marketers, testing is always essential to ensure we learn from every campaign. But in a slowing economy, research, before you go to market, can save you from making statements or claims that don’t connect with people. Checking before you go to market can save you from losing sales.

Channel 7 had a monopoly on Olympics coverage (well almost) and maybe that’s why they did not care how silly the commentators were. But not too many of us are in that sort of market.
We want every promotion that we invest in to build the brand.

To build a brand in a challenging economy, you can’t afford to waste a dollar. Research is an invaluable investment to ensure that you are connecting with your chosen target markets. It can confirm for you that you are giving yourself the best chance of success.

If you are looking for a quality business writing course you have just found one

2008-08-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

“Writing Skills to make your team more professional”

from Action Words

A one-day program designed to make your people more effective communicators

Almost all of us have to do a certain amount of writing just to get through the day. Even if it is simply writing a few emails. Strange as it may seem, very few of us give much thought to the structure of our writing. And as for persuasive business writing, most people never have any training in it at all.

That’s why this workshop is so useful.

This course will provide your team with proven techniques for using words with more impact.

What You Receive

A customised, interactive one-day program for up to 15 people
A 40-page workbook for your team to use during the session and as a valuable reference long after.
The opportunity to contact Action Words - at no cost - for ongoing feedback and advice on your written materials for12 months after the workshop.

Our Guarantee: If you feel your people do not get value from the day, you don’t have to pay.

“We have had Action Words present their writing course three times for different groups and the attendees are always very enthusiastic. We plan to engage the company again and we are certainly happy to recommend this course.”
Wendy Hillman,Training & Development Manager, Management and Research Centre (MARC)

“All the members of our team got real value from the day we had with Action Words. We began using some of the practical tips the very next day."
Anastasia Kailis, Melbourne Business School

Contact Action Words

To find out more or to secure your booking.

Simply call or email Frank Chamberlin or Vikki Maver

Frank: frank@actionwords.com.au or 0408 359 039
Vikki: vikki@actionwords.com.au or 0413 005 808

Or visit the Action Words website for more information.

Customer Value

2008-08-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

Everyone stresses the importance of ROI. And there is no argument. It is important. But there is something more important to have at the front of your mind.

And this concept is dead simple. Customer value.

More than anything else, it is customer value that should be behind every marketing decision you make.

If each customer on average gives you a profit of $10,000, your marketing decisions can be very different from the case where each customer gives you average profit of $200.

Mercedes, for example, can no doubt do a successful acquisition campaign where the response is very low. A few good hits will give them sufficient profit to well and truly pay for the campaign. It’s obviously not like that for everyone.

When it’s time for decisions about the investment you are prepared to make, the value of the offer and the amount you can spend on fulfillment, customer value should be your guide.

Where the profit per customer is very high, it does not make sense to quibble over an extra few dollars for faster fulfillment. But if the customer value is low, you have to look more carefully at every cent you spend on acquisition.

There are many important metrics in marketing but no metric is more important than customer value.

Writing Tip - Get rid of clutter

2008-08-03T22:20:00.000-07:00

A huge problem in writing today is clutter

If you can get rid of clutter, you will improve your writing enormously.

An excellent piece on clutter and its negative impact appears in a book by the renowned writer, editor and teacher, William Zinsser entitled “On Writing Well” (Harper Collins 2001 – ISBN 0-06-000664-1). I can do no better than quote these few lines from what Zinsser presents so well:

“Consider all the prepositions that are routinely draped onto verbs that don't need any help. Head up. Free up. Face up to. We no longer head committees. We head them up. We don't face problems anymore. We face up to them when we can free up a few minutes.

Then, take the adjective ‘personal’, as in ‘a personal friend of mine’, ‘his personal feeling’ or ‘her personal physician’.

‘Personal’ is typical of the words that can be eliminated nine times out of ten.

Clutter is the ponderous euphemism that turns a slum into a depressed socioeconomic area, a salesman into a marketing representative and garbage collectors into waste disposal personnel.

Clutter is the official language used by the modern corporation—in news releases and annual reports — to hide mistakes. When a big company recently announced that it was ‘decentralising its organisational structure into major profit-centered businesses’ and that ‘corporate staff services will be realigned under two senior vice-presidents’ it meant that it had had a lousy year.”

And the winner is: Barack Obama

2008-08-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

By Frank Chamberlin

I don’t know any more than you about the race to be President. But have you had a chance to look at the Obama site?

It’s absolutely worth a visit. I promise. www.barackobama.com

If you have ever wondered what a perfect online marketing campaign looks like, maybe this is it.

The Obama online marketing team is implementing every online marketing strategy available, including social networking, search engine optimisation, pay per click advertising, email marketing and mobile marketing.

But that’s not all. As far as I can see, the implementation is flawless.

OK, I know, they have a huge budget and maybe you don’t. But this is a site that you can learn from.

If you are looking at ways to improve your website’s conversion rate, look at how the Obama website is designed. If you are looking at ways to implement social networking, check out the profile pages on MySpace or Facebook.

Let’s look at just a few of the specifics that make this such an excellent site.

The first time you visit the site you are asked to join his mailing list. Before you can view any part of Obama’s site you are taken to a page where you are asked to subscribe – but it is an easy subscribe and if you don’t want to be in it, you don’t have to.
Every web page furthers the primary action to ‘Donate Now’. No matter what page you are visiting on the Barack Obama website, the red ‘donate now’ button grabs your attention. It is essentially the only red image on a blue, grey and white website.
Clear layout. The way that the information is laid out and presented makes it easy to use and, more importantly, to scan. As we all know, website visitors have the shortest attention span of any mode of communication, quickly jumping between pages and leaving sites when they cannot quickly find what they are looking for.

On the Obama home page, the information draws you in. You can quickly find what you are looking for, and it is easy to take action to learn more.
A blog is used to communicate messages. It seems that posts are added to the blog multiple times per day to communicate with supporters on a daily basis, as well as providing a channel for supporters to keep up to date.
Social networking is used to maximise exposure. Social networking is growing so fast and Obama is there. If you scroll down to the bottom of Obama’s site you will see that he has an account with virtually every high traffic social networking site on the Internet. They are all active accounts and they all drive traffic to the main site.
Mobile marketing is used to further his message
Barack Obama includes a mobile subscription section on his website where you can join his SMS mailing list.

Your site may not be as good as you would like it to be. By spending some time on the Obama site, maybe you’ll see how much better it could be.

CRM for better businss

2008-08-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

The next dm Forum will be held on Tuesday 27 October beginning at 6pm.

The speaker is:

Phil Wickenden
Vice President – CRM
GE Capital

Topic:“Using CRM for better business strategies”

Presenter: Vice President CRM at GE Capital: Phil Wickenden
Great door prizes
MC: the Editor of Marketing magazine, Kylie Flavell
Venue: Monash Centre, Level 7, 30 Collins Street

Sponsors: Veda Advantage, the Department of Marketing, Monash Uni., Aim Your Promos, and Revium.

Any profits from the night go to the Cancer Council.

Presenter: As the Vice President of CRM at GE Capital, Phil Wickenden is at the coalface working with data everyday. His focus is to use customer analytics and CRM capabilities to produce better business strategies in a changing environment.

Phil has been with GE a total of 10 years with previous experience at ANZ, Pacific Micro Marketing and Experian.

If you want to know more about using the data you have available for driving better business outcomes, this will be a very valuable session. Phil is committed to using data for making better decisions, achieving better business outcomes and enjoying more productive contacts with customers.

Bookings essential, please reply now: frank@actionwords.com.au
Entrance fee: $20 at the door by cash or cheque (receipts supplied)

Sponsors:
· Veda Advantage – business intelligent specialists – see below.
· The Department of Marketing, Monash University
· Top door prize is supplied by Mia De Rose of ‘Aim Your Promos’
· The renowned internet specialist company, Revium will supply a FREE brilliant website package for one lucky attendee.

Event details:Starting time 6pm with snacks and drinksTuesday 27 October 2009

Venue: Monash Centre, Level 7, 30 Collins Street.

Any profits from the evening go to the Cancer Council.

After the presentation and questions, the function continues with drinks and more eats.

Bookings essential: By email to: frank@actionwords.com.au

Enquiries: Phone (03) 9481 1410.

Frank Chamberlin

Proudly sponsored by Veda Advantage

“At Veda Advantage, we provide you with access to the largest and most sophisticated single source of business intelligence in Australia today.

We combine our skills in marketing, data, statistics, and information technology to create customised solutions that can help you attract and retain profitable customers.

We can help you establish a sound basis for many business improvement initiatives by first analysing your customer data.”

The venue for the dm Forum is the Monash Conference Centre, Level 7, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne.

“It is great to have a regular forum to attend that I know will provide me with relevant and up-to-date information, with real life examples, in a friendly and relaxed environment”
Sally Johnson - Global Direct Marketing Manager, Intrepid Travel

“The dm Forums I’ve attended have been a great opportunity to share ideas with like minded colleagues and hear practical examples from expert speakers.
”David Bain - Marketing Manager, Sofitel Melbourne

Enquiries: frank@actionwords.com.au

Writing Tip - Business Proposals

2008-07-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

If you are called on to write a business proposal these five points will help.

5 key elements of winning business proposals• Solutions: After you have written a lead paragraph on the company's needs and problems, follow up with a solid presentation of how your business can provide solutions. The key here is to promise solutions you can deliver.

Benefits: All winning business proposals clearly outline for the company the benefits to be gained from doing business with you. If your business can offer complete confidentiality and meet tight deadlines, state this in your benefits section.
Credibility: This is often the overlooked portion of a business proposal, but all winning proposals glow with credibility. If you have worked with clients in the same field or have an award-winning business, then third-party endorsements will build credibility.
Samples: A business proposal with samples and evidence of your ability to deliver is vital to gaining the winning bid. A small sample of your work can show your ability to do the job.
Targeting: A winning business proposal is all about communication. Speak in the language spoken by your intended audience. If the proposal evaluators are from an engineering background or financial department use the appropriate jargon.

Seven Principles of direct marketing announced

2008-07-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

For many years Ian Kennedy OAM has been known as the Father of Direct Marketing in Australia.

There was a time when Ian presented his insights at the annual direct marketing conference nearly every year. And no one ever got tired of him. He always offered something new.

He has not been at the annual conference for some years now. However, with his background of amazing success, it was not surprising that the Australian Direct Marketing Association turned to Ian Kennedy for the launch in Sydney last Thursday of the Association’s Seven Foundation Principles.

Yes, the highlight of the 3-day direct marketing talkfest at Darling Harbour was the announcement of the Principles that are the result of expansive and careful research over the last twelve months.

Principle 1: Plan your strategy. This is the thinking before you get started. Your direct marketing strategy is driven by broader business and marketing strategies. As well, your strategy has to take into account your direct marketing history, the performance drivers of the business, an innate instinct for how people will behave and an understanding of the role of technology.

Principle 2: Crunch the numbers. Accountability and analysis lie at the heart of direct marketing. You have to know how much the activity is going to cost and how much you are likely to gain from it.
Principle 3: Work through the key components of your campaigns. There are numerous components, but the most critical ones to focus on are the audience, the offer and the creative idea.

Principle 4: Test, test and test again. Continuous testing minimises risk, refines and optimises results, strengthens customer relationships and maximises profit. If you are not testing you are not doing true direct marketing.

Principle 5: Focus on share of customer over share of market. Both these strategies have their place, but share of customer normally provides a higher return on investment.

Principle 6: Don’t forget it’s all about the customer. In 2008 probably the only sustainable competitive advantage is superior knowledge. To do direct marketing effectively you need to continually listen, learn and respond to customer feedback and behaviour throughout the customer lifecycle.

Principle 7: Never overlook privacy, choice and security concerns. Customers today understand that their data is as valuable as their dollars to a business. They demand the right to know the contractual terms of the relationship.

You can get a FREE copy of a 12-page PDF on “Direct Marketing Foundations”, written by Frank Chamberlin.

“How to Lie with Statistics”

2008-06-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

The famous old book “How to Lie with Statistics” had a profound impact on me when I read it as a student, so we would not want to rely on statistics alone. However, the following figures regarding the online channel are worth reflecting on:

Australians are currently spending 13.7 hours a week surfing the net compared with 13.3 hours watching TV. (Nielsen)
In 2007, advertisers spent $1.34b on the net which was a 34% increase on 2006. But the spend on TV was $3.8b and in newspapers $3.1b. (Internet Advertising Bureau)
In March 08, Aussie Homes Loans spent 100% of the company’s media budget on digital advertising. Maybe this is the first such example of a major advertiser going all the way with digital. (Amnesia Group)
In 2008, 4% of consumers say they trust blogs. In 2007 this was 15%. (Grey)
42% of Gen Y use social networking sites. (Grey)
26% of Gen Y spend two hours or more a day online. The equivalent figure for people over 63 years is 38%. (Grey)
While Google might appear to be the only search engine in Australia, in the US, the Google share is about 67%. Yahoo has about 20% of the market and MSN, 6%. (Hitwise)
Just two weeks ago, Hitwise reported that the launch of Freesat, the free satellite TV service provided by the BBC and ITV in the UK, proved popular with online consumers during its launch week in May. UK Internet traffic to www.freesat.co.uk, the service's online homepage, increased by 627% during the week ending 10 May 2008.

Note: “How to Lie with Statistics” by Darrell Huff first appeared in 1954. It is one of the most widely read statistics books in history, with over one and a half million copies sold in the English-language edition. It is a brief, breezy, illustrated volume outlining the common errors associated with the interpretation of statistics, and how these errors can lead to biased or inaccurate conclusions.

Writing Tip - Activate your writing

2008-06-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

To engage people with your words, you need to activate your writing.

Whenever you write the words "is," "was," "are," or "to be," train yourself to stop and change them to something more active.

"The meeting is tonight" sounds fairly dead. But the following is far more alive and effective:

"The meeting starts tonight at 7pm sharp."

"Suzy Bloggs is the finest promoter in the country" doesn't convey much excitement. But this is more impactful:

"Suzy Bloggs creates corporate events better than anyone else on the planet."

To make your words work harder for you takes time. When you do your first draft leave it for a while, preferably overnight. And remember: Rewriting is the essence of all good writing.

Your marketing role and the cost of petrol

2008-06-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

It’s a sad comment on our political leaders that the debate on petrol pricing has been so woeful.

However, that’s just my opinion and that is not important. The critical thing is that consumers are concerned about petrol. And how will that affect us as marketers?

We all know there is lots of whining going on. And for good reason. For many people, petrol at $1.60 per litre, is lifestyle-changing. (Not to mention what $2.50 might do in a year’s time).

As marketers, we have to be alert to what petrol prices mean for consumer buying habits? And how will the agencies that market consumer products be impacted?

Whenever consumers are feeling the finch, that’s important for marketers.All the information to hand seems to be indicating that consumers on tight budgets are being forced to make cuts.

Many readers of The Scoop will have already noticed that in the US last Friday Sears, Roebuck reported a $56 million loss for the quarter ended 3 May. That was surprisingly bad, even taking into account the steep drop in earnings that had already been forecast.

In Australia, last Saturday The Age reported that new applications for consumer loans have all but dried up. Whether that’s because of higher interest rates or petrol prices, who knows?

From anecdotal evidence everywhere, it seems that in mid 2008, people are:

Eating out at restaurants less often.
Buying less clothing, or shopping at discount retailers to save money.
Taking public transportation more often or riding or walking to work/school.
Developing an overall mentality to cut spending.\

This sort of behaviour has to very soon trigger an impact on marketers.

For consumer brands, more advertising dollars will be refocused on value brands. In many sectors, the price points on products from airfares to chemicals will soar as a result of higher energy costs. And lower profits will mean every vendor relationship will come under greater scrutiny.

Marketers and ad agencies of all sizes need to be more proactive in understanding the changing consumer mindset.

Marketing communications messages that motivated buyers even six months ago may need to be different today. Increasingly, people are becoming more worried about feeding their families, getting to work and paying their rising bills.

Agencies must empathise with consumers and appeal to their immediate needs. Marketers need to be out there talking to people and pouring through current research and interpreting it carefully.
Higher petrol prices seem set to be a way of life now for as long as oil supplies last. That does not make anyone happy. But, as marketers, we can do something about it, in our own little way. Time to listen more carefully to consumers and clients. Time to innovate more often. Maybe it’s time to ride a bike to work.

You can get a FREE copy of a 12-page PDF on “Direct Marketing Foundations”, written by Frank Chamberlin.

DM course: ‘Introduction to Direct and Digital Marketing.’

2008-05-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

In two-days this course contains numerous proven techniques that can be implemented in the workplace immediately. And so much of it is relevant to all marketing.

“I found this course informative, practical and inspiring. When it finished, I was very keen to get back to the workplace to start implementing the good ideas I learnt.” Nikki Aspropotamitis, Marketing & Events Coordinator, DaimlerChrysler.

Dates: 13, 14 August 2008

Presented by Frank Chamberlin for the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA)

Venue: Clifton’s – 440 Collins Street

Course description: The course looks at all the pillars of dm including targeting, offers, media options, the digital scene, data, measurement, planning for dm, understanding customers, testing, building brands with dm and creative techniques. There’s even a session on DM copywriting! In two days delegates walk away with an overview of everything related to direct and digital marketing.

Price for two days of practical content that you can use at work: $913 (inc GST); reduced to $759 (inc GST) if your company is an ADMA member.

For more information and to enrol:

Email: patrice.fowler@adma.com.au
Phone: 02.9368 0366
Book online: http://www.adma.com.au/asp/index.asp?pgid=30691

Writing Tip - Writing for the Web

2008-05-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

When writing for the web, don't write for readers, but write for scanners. Make sure you are as concise as possible.

Make sentences short and to the point
Avoid long blocks of text.
Each paragraph should be about a specific idea
Use headers and sub-heads so that scanners can navigate information easily
Use bulleted/numbered copy whenever possible

\Make headers meaningful

Headers and sub-heads are where eyes go first. Your headlines must:

Make sense as stand-alone elements
Meaningfully convey the content of the text that follows
Be dynamic in plain English.

Two tips for making email campaigns more effective

2008-05-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

Relevance is key. We all know that. Letting recipients see that what you are offering is relevant, can be challenging but it is of the utmost importance.

1. Refine your segmentation. And how do you do that?

Base your segmentation on your client behaviour, not just demographic
information.
Identify an increased number of sub segments and personalise more relevant
offers to each.
Create different versions of your messages.
Continually test.

2. Improve transactional messaging. Transactional emails are highly relevant and very likely to be opened and read. Therefore, they should offer the customer something, furthering his or her relationship with you. Recommend additional products or services the customer might want or need; offer a subscription to your newsletter; and send transactional messages in HTML format to reinforce your brand.

Better Subject Lines

2008-04-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a five practical tips for better subject lines in email marketing:

Leverage your company brand. A subject line that says ‘70% off from Acme Bananas’ is going to have a far better response than one that simply says ‘70% off.’
Think segmentation. It’s important to test different subject lines for different customer segments.
Question almost everything. Subject lines that pose a question, such as ‘Is it time for you to find a better copywriter?’ tend to work very well.
Make it about them, not you. ‘We’re having a sale’ won’t cut it as a subject line but ‘You can save money’ interests the reader more.
Inform before you sell. If you describe what’s in the email in the subject line, a recipient will be much more likely to open it rather than if you try to sell too early.

Writing Tip - the Ellipsis

2008-04-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

The ellipsis is a series of three -- and only three -- full stops used to mark missing words, an uncertain pause, or an abrupt interruption.

Avoid the temptation to use more than three dots -- it looks amateurish. For example, we write:
We asked Miss Savage her age but there was no answer . . .

But we do not write:

We asked Miss Savage her age but there was no answer . . . . . . .

Similarly, the same thing applies with excessive punctuation: Only one exclamation mark or question mark should be used at a time. Consider the following over-punctuated examples:

Buy now!!!
Great bargains!!!!!!!!!!

Excessive punctuation looks too much like hysteria and detracts from your credibility. Professional writers avoid it.

Making email marketing work better

2008-04-10T21:04:00.000-07:00

Probably all marketers are now aware that there are very effective web analytics tools to optimise web site sales.

However, Jupiter Research suggests that few marketers are integrating their web analytics into their email marketing programs. As email newsletters are mostly geared towards driving customers to web sites, there is obviously an opportunity that marketers may be missing.

By integrating your site analytics data into your email platform you can make your email marketing program more profitable. Analytics data is especially useful to create segments based on how your customers are behaving on your web site.

And remember, it is not just a matter of monitoring what has been purchased. You can gather valuable insights by knowing what was not purchased. For example, analytics can help marketers understand which products and categories are frequently abandoned. These non-completed purchases can be followed up with email.

Of course, it is imperative to keep privacy issues in mind. Customers are uncomfortable if they feel they are being followed.

One simple but effective technique is to note what product a customer has abandoned, then include that product as one of several “featured products” in a future email. With this sort of tactic, customers are likely to find such an email relevant without feeling like they have been followed.

Apart from making better use of analytics, there is still the troubling issue of how often to send emails.

Taking a one-size-fits-all approach, might seem like the easy way out of this one, but it is unlikely to be the best answer.

One proven approach to getting frequency right is to ask customers when they sign up how frequently they would like to receive your newsletters. Be sure to include a sample version so they understand the full value of the publication and have an idea of what to expect.

But there is a more sophisticated way. You can analyse your email response data and segment it using customer behaviour methods such as RFM, or other profitability metrics, to determine the optimal number of contacts for each segment.

Of course, there is nothing better than testing. Ideally, you should segment your list and run tests around frequency. There have been many cases where marketers have found that they can increase their frequency provided the communications are relevant and offer appropriate value with each interaction.

You can get a FREE copy of a 12-page PDF on “Direct Marketing Foundations”, written by Frank Chamberlin.

Response Rate Trends Report

2008-03-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

The latest “Response Rate Trends Report” released by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) in the US includes data from more than 1,600 campaigns covering 19 different business sectors.

The results indicate that some US Direct Marketers are surviving on some very low response rates.
Six media channels are explored:

Direct mail
Catalogues
Email
Inserts
Outbound telephone
Newspapers and magazines.

The report not only looks at the channels but also the types of lists used, e.g. house files vs. prospect files. While it covers US campaigns exclusively, the data can be used by Australian direct marketers for benchmarking.

Four direct marketing objectives are isolated and reported on separately:

Direct orders
Lead generation
Traffic building
Fundraising.

Among the findings contained in the latest report:

In financial services lead generation, email house files achieved an average response rate of 3.94%.
In traffic building, the majority of campaigns were in the B-to-C sector with direct mail achieving an average response of 5.46%

The report is very detailed and for best value needs to be studied carefully. The full report, “Response Rate Trends Report” released in October 2007 at the annual Direct Marketing Association’s annual conference sells for $US 445. See: www.the-dma.org/bookstore

Writing Tip - It's not about you. It's about them.

2008-03-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

It's not about you. It's about them.

When people come to your site, they want to know how your business can help them. Before you start writing web text you have to focus on WIIFM – that’s the question they will be asking: What’s In It For Me?

The writer needs to:

Identify likely visitors
Clarify what benefits are important to visitors; and
Explain in simple terms how the site visitor can obtain those benefits.

If you use that sort of framework for your site text, your writing will connect with prospects and you will build your business.

Online mistakes you don’t want to know about

2008-03-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

For most businesses, the website has taken on huge importance. Yet, we continue to see some fundamental mistakes being made over and over again.

Forgetting the user or visitor is probably the biggest mistake of all. When you are building a site you have to ask, what will the prospect want? If you are not clear, then it is better to stop. And don’t proceed until you have a clear answer.

The whole point of having a site in the first place is for the benefit of the visitor. So why not develop it from the point of view of that same visitor?

And developing the site is not the end. Just the beginning. How many sites do you find that are out-of-date. If your site does not carry accurate, up-to-the-minute information, you lose credibility.

Beyond that, some other classic, and all too common, mistakes include:

Launching into the creation of a site, or redevelopment of one, without a clear idea of what you actually want to do. Is your website going to be used to sell products online, drive leads to your sales team, provide support or self-service, provide information or deliver online content? All these objectives are valid options. But you better know which one is right for you because they each require a different design focus and a different method of measurement.
Still in 2008, there remain many organisations with a 'build it and they will come' approach. For most businesses, you can’t overestimate the importance of Search Engine Optimisation. And you should not ignore the opportunities offered by Pay-Per-Click campaigns. If you don’t, at least, have a high level understanding of how you can benefit from search engines, you need to give yourself a good talking to.
Packing too much in is another mistake that you see every day. How many times have you left a site because the busy-ness and over-design has overwhelmed you? If you must include everything, package it carefully in lots of separate pages and bite size chunks. Make it easy on the reader.There’s lots of other serious mistakes online, but at least if you avoid these, you’ll be giving yourself a reasonable chance to fulfill the needs that are important to your site visitors.

Email marketing advances

2008-02-10T23:14:00.000-08:00

Predictions coming out of the US indicate that during 2008 email marketers will make a strong move into highly individualised marketing.

As marketers pursue high relevance and high ROI, email campaigns will evolve beyond basic targeting and even demographic-based dynamic content. Top marketers will begin using behavioural data both from previous email campaigns as well as other sources such as web sites and ecommerce.

A trend in email is likely to be increased integration across marketing products such as web analytics, content management and email.

The increasing linkage and seamless integration between these tools comes about because marketers are more convinced than ever that understanding customer and prospect multi channel behaviour, enhances relevance. And after all, relevance is the key to strong relationships and ROI.

In 2008, B-to-B email marketing is likely to emerge from the shadows. Finally, marketers are beginning to recognise the high ROI potential of a well-executed B-to-B email marketing program.

Writing Tip: When should you use “that” and “which”?

2008-02-10T23:08:00.000-08:00

It is often a matter of judgement, but mostly you use “that” when you are differentiating one thing from others like it. By contrast, you use “which” with a comma before it, when you are talking about one specific item.

Hopefully, these examples will help:

Example A: I will show you the cakes that arrived from grandma.(I'm differentiating grandma’s cakes from the ones that were made by other people.)

Example B: The cakes, which are in the basket, are from grandma.(I'm referring to a specific lot of cakes.)

Another way to approach these words is to think about what is essential and what is non essential.

The word “that” begins an essential clause - it is essential to the sentence. (Check Example A)

In Example B, the part of the sentence starting with “which” is non essential. You could remove the words “which are in the basket” without changing the meaning of the sentence.

Where is DM heading in 08

2008-02-10T23:02:00.000-08:00

While there is no Direct Marketing crystal ball, the annual DM Conference in Chicago last October provided some clues for the year ahead.

In the US, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes due to the subprime phenomenon, the Direct Marketing world looks very positive.

Recent Direct Marketing gains in the US, have been fuelled not only by email and mobile marketing but also by Direct Response TV (always a greatly underutilised channel in our part of the world). There has even been modest growth in the old fashioned channels of direct mail and telemarketing. (Remember them?)

Of course, the big drama is online. Marketers from nearly all sectors are exploring the social media landscape. It is all part of an effort by astute direct marketers to be where their prospects and customers are when their audience is ready to engage.

US Direct Marketing spending growth - 07 (actual) versus 08 (projected)

% Growth in 07% Growth in 08
Catalogues 4.0 4.2
Mail 5.2 5.2
Internet 23.1 21.3
TV 7.0 7.3
Total 6.1 6.3
(includes some channels
not listed)

Total advertising in the US this year is expected to go up by 7.5% to $528 billion with the Olympics and the US elections creating a spike. At the same time, DM is expected to grow by 6.3% to $114 billion.

Regarding direct response TV, US forecasts are suggesting:

That while long-form direct response television spots have traditionally been used to sell household items,
Other industries, such as the insurance and reverse mortgage fields, are now embracing longer spots, and
They are taking advantage of its ability to provide more information than a 30-second commercial.

With the move to online, agencies and marketers need to understand digital media options and how to design for the medium.

The Mobile Marketing Association in the US says that by the end of 2008, some 89% of brands will use text and multimedia messaging to reach their audiences. Nearly one third of advertisers are planning to spend more than 10% of their marketing budgets online.

In B-to-B, the prediction is that there will be much more integration across the customer buying process. Integration may not sound new, but during the year ahead it may well get the attention it deserves in business markets.

In the past, the problem has been siloed management of the customer relationship throughout the life cycle. This is how it has worked:

‘Corporate Communications’ conducts its awareness campaign
Direct marketers generate leads
The call centre nurtures the leads
The sales force takes over and the marketers lose complete touch
All the while, brand value is eroded due to the whole experience being disjointed for the customer.

Now, due to a more heightened awareness of the importance of a seamless customer experience, business marketers are moving towards more effective management of the customer relationship. And my reaction to that is: ‘it’s about time’.