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
Showing posts with label Direct Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Direct Marketing. Show all posts
04 July 2010
28 May 2010
Generating leads from your site
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.
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
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.
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.
05 April 2010
Home brands and marketing
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
09 March 2010
Targeting refresher - what does targeting really mean?
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.
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
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/
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/
31 January 2010
Seven social media terms you'll be hearing more often
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/
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/
01 December 2009
5 tips for B-to-B search marketing
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.
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
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.
Putting a value on email subscribers
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.
28 September 2009
Agency briefs on the nose
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.
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.
Direct Response TV - why not Australia?
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.
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.
31 July 2009
Four keys to optimsation
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
30 June 2009
If you are doing direct mail, you can cut costs
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.
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
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.
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.
04 May 2009
Email marketers not measuring up
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.
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.
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