Increasing the Effectiveness of E-Marketing Campaigns

It's been a while since we've written about e-marketing -- and more specifically, the way that you construct the message. If you're one of our valuable clients or partners, you've probably noticed that we've really embraced this channel lately!

Hopefully, our messages are compelling enough to not only gain and hold your interest -- but also to make you either seek more information or contact us. So far, our results have been pretty darn good -- if we say so ourselves. Because of that, we thought that we'd share our tips for creating a compelling -- and responsive -- e-mail message. It's our responsibility as true bloggers -- and direct marketers -- to share our success stories with our favorite people -- our blog readers.

With e-mail marketing, we are all competing for the attention span of the receiver in an increasingly overcrowded landscape. So, in our humble opinion, we have to pay special attention to a few basic elements in order to take full advantage this this very effective direct marketing channel.

Your "From" address: I know it seems simple but we think this is extremely critical. It's just like anything else -- from the direct mail piece to the caller ID on our telephones -- we pay attention and respond to those who we trust and with whom we have a relationship. The From address needs to be consistent whenever you send out an e-marketing message. It creates recognition with your audience and adds credibility to your message. Research has demonstrated that not keeping the From address consistent will definitely lower your response and click-through rates.

Your "Subject" Line: Again, you'd think this would be a no-brainer . . . but some of the Subject Lines that we've seen look like they were almost made up on a whim -- or worse still, they don't have anything to do with the main message of the e-mail. Here's the thing, a well-written Subject Line can actually determine whether a person will open your message or not. Your Subject Line must be very concise and descriptive, and it must resonate with the recipient. I know it isn't easy to determine what is going to resonate with every single person on your e-mail list, however, spend some time to figure out the best Subject Line that will elicit a positive response from pretty much anyone. Your efforts here will be rewarded. Make your Subject Line a "Call-to-Action" -- again, one that is very specific and appeals to some basic emotional level of your recipients.

Your "Preview Pane" Opportunity: For those of us who are convinced that we can more effectively manage our Inbox via a Preview Pane, this is one really important piece of e-mail real estate. If you manage this space well, it will actually draw the reader into your message, making sure that they open the message and read it. We've seen some really poorly written Preview Panes -- where the e-marketer is obviously not paying attention to the pane and/or simply doesn't edit it from a previous message. This is just bad e-mail etiquette. Not only that, it causes confusion to the reader and would-be respondent! Grab that recipient's attention with a well-designed Preview Pane that features your company logo, navigation bar and offer-- right up front. This way, whether or not your recipient blocks images (as most do), your readers will see these elements in the Preview Pane as text.

We know that if you use these three elements effectively -- and well-orchestrated together -- that they will build on your overall message to create a more compelling, relevant and responsive e-marketing campaign.


We'd love to hear your experiences on how you've created e-marketing campaigns that have knocked it out of the ballpark. What else works for you?

Where do you buy your music?

I remember when I was a teenager. Each Saturday morning my friends and I would walk downtown to the local music store. We'd spend hours looking through the racks of vinyl records dreaming about having enough money to buy every single album we wanted. Several hours later, we'd leave the store with a couple of 45s. And, once we got home, we'd play those 45s over and over and over. Our poor parents...

Now, while I can look back fondly on those times, I think that today's teens have it WAY better! They're exposed to so much diverse music. They can sample much for free. They can watch videos whenever they want. The easy access to music and bands is a great accomplishment of the Internet, I think.

And, there's been a lot of news about the music industry lately. I'm sure you heard last week that Apple has topped Walmart, and has become the leading seller of music in this country. See their press release for full details: iTunes Store Top Music Retailer in the US.

In only five years, i-Tunes has acquired over 50 million customers; iTunes has sold over four billion songs and features the world’s largest music catalog of over six million songs. Wow. How times have changed.

And, then, this news about MySpace competing with iTunes: MySpace music partnerships take on Apple iTunes.

Yes, MySpace wants a piece of online music sales. From the article: "According to the plan, the records labels will be posting their entire digital music catalogs to MySpace's music site, where visitors can preview and download songs. It is expected to go live later this year."

You know, this is one area where I think that using MySpace for direct music sales makes sense. Most bands already use MySpace to communicate with fans. Why not allow for music sales, while you have a captive audience of fans visiting your MySpace site?

So, why the discussion today, on this Direct Marketing Blog, about the music industry?

Well, here's the thing, I'm just fascinated by how markets evolve, and how the sales process changes accordingly. iTune becoming the biggest seller of music just shows that sales (for this industry) have moved, in large part, from a retail experience to a direct sales experience.

And, that's the trend, I think for many industries. Sales are moving closer to the customer. The Web has enabled customer-generated product research, putting the customer more in control of the information we digest.

I see direct marketing (in its purest form) becoming even more important in commerce. Knowing how to communicate with your customers in a one-on-one fashion isn't going away anytime soon. In fact, it's growing in importance, if the music example is a good barometer of how commerce continues to evolve.

All good news for us Direct Marketers!

Case Study Monday: Imago Digital

Welcome to another edition of Case Study Monday. Today, we'd like to highlight a very forward-thinking direct marketing firm, Imago Digital, a division of MMI. We were lucky enough to meet these folks at a recent trade show and subsequent plant tour last week. They are a very impressive company indeed!

The reason why we really like this company is that they are extremely customer-focused. They have refined and tweaked their capabilities over time in order to help their clients continually create success through every direct marketing campaign -- and do it as business needs continually evolve.

Here is an example of some success that they were able to create for Olympic College, a two-year public college located in Bremerton, Washington.

Business Need: Olympic College needed to increase their enrollment. They knew they needed to do it via direct marketing, but they needed a vehicle that would be faster than traditional "reply" cards, and they needed to target the specific needs of their "high-tech" audience.

Strategy: Olympic brought in the experts from Imago Digital to create a direct marketing strategy that would communicate to each prospect individually through variable data direct mail. In addition, they added a personalized url (purl) as a response channel for this highly web-savvy audience.

They utilized a blueprint that included a colorful introductory postcard that was personalized on both the front and the back, and included the purl. Once the respondent went to their web page, they landed on a "VIP Welcome Page" personalized just for them. They were then able to answer a short survey regarding their educational needs, update a personal profile, and were immediately sent a thank you email for their interest. As the follow-up emails were sent out thanking the respondent, the information was also sent out to the Olympic College sales team for an immediate sales touch.

Through this process, Olympic was able to provide the most relevant information for each prospective student while at the same time building a great -- and clean -- opted in database for their direct marketing use. You really need to visit imago's website so that you can see the entire case study with the postcard and web page views. It's very well done!

Results: Olympic College sent out 3,226 pieces to high school students. Out of that number:

• 90 (2.79% visit rate) students visited their personalized landing pages
• 70 (2.36% response rate) students completed the survey
• Of the 70 respondents, 34 enrolled for classes at Olympic College!

How about the ROI?

• The cost of the campaign was about $5,000
• Each student who enrolled spent $5,500 on average
• Total of $187,000 in revenues generated from this campaign
  

Wow! What a great success story. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Have a great week!

Marketing Links!

Ah, another good week for bloggers!

We loved this post, titled It's the Data, Stupid from Robert Rosenthal's Freaking Marketing for two reasons: 1) It's a milestone for him--his 200th post. Congratulations, Robert! 2) He mentions RRW's new turnkey customer profiling service, and says some nice things about us, too. We really appreciate it.

Another fellow DMer, Dan Smolen, has just introduced a brand new blog, called Sturdy Roots. Dan is an executive recruiter for our industry. He had the good idea that there was a need out there for environmentally-conscious marketers to find like-minded companies to work for. Hence, he's started a blog with a focus on green marketing. It's a great idea and we personally love the fact that direct marketers ARE looking seriously at environmental concerns.

This post, called "Digital" does not equal "interactive" marketing, from the Forrester Marketing Blog got me thinking. The author relays her experience at a party she recently attended while in Shanghai. It sounded like a fabulous party, but the authors' point was that she (and the other guests) never had the opportunity to interact with the host of the party, Adidas, and in fact she kinda forgot that they were, indeed, the event sponsor. The question raised was--was this a success for Adidas? The author says: "It made me realize that "digital marketing" and "interactive marketing" are not at all the same thing." Check out the post and decide for yourself!

And, for all of you e-mail marketers out there, you'll need to visit the E-Mail Marketing Reports Blog, and specifically check out this post, loaded with tips on things you might change in your e-mail campaigns to boost results. I love how the author has backed his examples with actual numbers and very specific results. Great ideas, here!

Another week has passed (where the heck do they go???). Have a fabulous weekend!

From the House of the Mouse: Customer Experience Excellence

It's been a while since we posted on customer service excellence, and we're happy to report that this week we were able to sit in on an American Marketing Association webcast featuring Disney and Maritz Research. The webcast was entitled, "Delivering the Ultimate Experience: The Power of Connecting With Customers Through Your Front-line Employees." During the presentation, Maritz talked about how they partnered with Disney to support them in creating the ultimate customer experience at their theme parks.

Through this process, Disney created a value equation that benefits both customers and shareholders:

Leadership Excellence + Cast (their employees) Excellence + Guest Satisfaction = Financial Results and Repeat Business

To most effectively improve customer satisfaction, they first sought to really understand their customers by creating customer profiles, looking at both the demographic and psychographic attributes of their customer base. Once this was accomplished, they sought to identify their customers true needs and wants. They looked at this through an emotional response as well, to really get to the root of what their valued guests needed and wanted to experience every time they visited a Disney theme park.

They didn't stop with the customers . . . they knew that they needed to create a successful customer-centric culture from within their company. They emphasized a care philosophy that encouraged employees to treat each other as well as they treated the guests. Then, they educated all employees on the difference between their individual tasks and their overall purpose.

To explain this difference, they gave the example of a Main Street street-cleaner at the Anaheim theme park. His task was to ensure that Main Street was kept pristine throughout the day and this was a task that this employee definitely took to heart. However, his task never out-shined his purpose . . . which was the same purpose as every other Disney Cast Member: to create happiness. Therefore, this individual could be seen doing things like stopping his work to assist people who were taking pictures, and offering to snap the photo himself so that there wouldn't be a missing family member when they returned home and were looking at their vacation photos. And that's just one example. There were many other real Cast Member stories shared during the webcast where employees went above and beyond to ensure an excellent Guest experence.

The idea that everyone's purpose at Disney is to create happiness is the reason that Disneyland is truly the Happiest Place on Earth. By concentrating on both their customers and their employees, they have created an environment where people love to go with their families to happily spend their hard-earned dollars. And, most go back time and again. Remember that Disney value equation? Obviously, it's working!

For more on the importance of creating customer excellence and how the customer experience itself is one of the major tenets in the actual definition of marketing , take a look at this AskDirectMarketers.com question and answer from earlier today.

And, next time you need a break in the action, go to the happiest place on earth for a positive attitude adjustment. Rest assured that your friends at Disney will ensure that your experience is excellent!

We love the Mouse!

The shift from Push to Pull Marketing

As direct marketers who have quite a bit of experience in developing and executing new customer acquisition campaigns, we've become pretty proficient in the art of "push" advertising. We know how to get those prospects to react to our campaigns. Yes, we can get them to open the envelope (or the e-mail) and respond.

But, that's not enough anymore.

I firmly believe that the only way that we'll be effective marketers in the future (the very near future) is if we become really good at getting our prospects to come to us. We need to become so interesting; our products need to be so great, our story so compelling that prospective buyers will seek us out as they shop for our products/services.

And, apparently, this piece of research from the DMA agrees with me. From a very interesting U Talk Marketing article:

"Published today, the DMA Participation Media Report, sponsored by Experian, explores the consumer’s actual experience of direct marketing using an innovative diary approach.

The report shows that consumers are actively getting involved in the marketing process in an attempt to filter out the information that they need marking a shift from “push” to “pull” marketing.

This increased consumer empowerment is clear when gathering information before making a purchase – the research shows that the majority of consumers prefer to be in control of how and when they gather information, rating talking to the retailer and word of mouth as being the preferred method."

It's pretty clear that consumers will trust their own research (research that they've initiated) much more than they'll trust something sent to them, regardless of how timely the offering may be.

Does this mean that "push" marketing is dead? I don't think so. However, it may be time to strategize about how you can make your prospects come to you.

Perhaps it's time to:

• Revamp your website. Have you thought about incorporating interaction on your site? Is shopping fun? Can prospects easily find what they're looking for?
• Consider social marketing ventures. Hang out where your prospects hang out. Participate. Don't sell. Just by being there, trust me, word about you and your products will get out.
• Think about sponsoring a charitable or sporting event. Only do this, however, if it makes sense for your business. Does your target market participate in a particular event? If so, this type of exposure may make a lot of sense.

We'd love to hear more ideas about ways to get your prospects to seek you out.

The Increasing Importance of Mobile Marketing

After a few years of a lot of hype, mobile marketing is finally taking off. According to BizReport Online, mobile marketing spend will reach $19 billion (with a B) in just 4 years from now -- 2012. Just to level set, mobile marketing spend in 2007 reached just under $3 billion.

According to the article, the real growth will come from the US market due to the increasing availability of wireless phones with cheaper service plans. Also, text messaging will continue to generate the bulk of the spend due to those countries who cannot support video and display ads on their phones. Check out the response rate of text messaging ad campaigns in 2007 . . . a whopping 10%!

How can we as direct marketers integrate mobile marketing into our marketing strategies? I mean, 10% is a response rate that is too good to pass up, right?

In our opinion, it all comes back to targeting and intelligent marketing strategy. More folks have jumped on the mobility bandwagon. We know that kids and young adults are very much into messaging and that their mobile phones have become like an additional appendage. However, adults can also be accused of the same behavior. Just drive on any freeway and you can be reminded of how tied we are to our mobile phones.

When you are looking to bring mobile marketing into your direct marketing toolkit, start out with a comprehensive look at your customer base. It may be helpful to append attributes such as profession, income level, lifestyle and number of children (who will be calling their parents a zillion times per day -- and vice versa).

From this profiling exercise, you'll gain a better understanding of who may more responsive to mobile marketing. Once you've completed this profiling, you will be armed to do some intelligent testing on your customer base to determine if your scientifically-based hunches are right on. The simple beauty of testing is that it allows you to test those hunches prior to rolling out the campaign to your entire customer base. In addition, you can then look for prospects that fit your customer profile, too. This will make them much more likely to response to your mobile marketing campaigns, too. By the way, if you'd like to read more about customer profiling, take a look at our other blog that is specifically focused on analytics.

Meanwhile, we'll be keeping our eyes out for mobile marketing success stories to share with you. Keep in mind that it's all about customer preference. The more you learn about your customer base, their likes and dislikes, how they prefer to communicate with you, etc., the more targeted and precise your marketing campaigns will become. And, i think that's how you can get to that 10% response rate.

If you have any success stories to share with us on this topic, please do!