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.
28 May 2010
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/
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