By: Justin Jackson, Donnelley Marketing
For many years the direct marketing industry has accepted the fact
that when converting incoming files from one layout to another only
a certain percentage of the information will be successfully
captured. It may be the result of a human error when entering the
data to begin with or it may be a result of an error when
processing the data at its source. Even with today's modern
technology, the 90-10 rule still holds true. Many companies that
receive files the blame the provider, some go the extra mile to
make corrections, and some fall in between. This portion of the
overall solution is not glamorous and does not appear significant
but upon further review the impact of a proper conversion is
exponential. Moving data from one layout to another is mostly a
manual process, dependant on human examination of the layout
generated from the source company providing the list. But even the
cleanest lists have instances where data doesn't match the layout
exactly; street directionals can easily be omitted, titles can be
misidentified, and personal names and business names can be
transposed. Small inaccuracies may not seem unimportant on the
surface but a deeper look at traditional processing exposes the
truth.
Inaccurate information at the source affects all aspects of
traditional data preparation. Data that is not in the proper field
or is missing completely affects the match rates to postal and
proprietary hygiene services. The National Change of Address file
is strictly supervised, the matching logic utilized follows rigid
regulations. A small deviation will cause a record to be
classified as a NIXIE, a "likely" but unconfirmed match to the NCOA
database. Most companies drop NIXIE's from their prospecting
efforts. If an NCOA match had been returned the record could have
been mailed.
Additionally, these inaccuracies will impact how the mail files
match each other in a merge purge environment and how they match
demographic databases in append processes. Mailing duplicates or
not properly recognizing a household can damage response rates.
Without proper demographics, model scoring can be impacted and
basic targeting decisions are made without proper information.
Finally, postal savings are lost when records cannot be sorted to
the proper levels due to missing or inaccurate information.
Carrier route walk sequence discounts or saturation discounts can
be lost as a result. These costs along with the loss in revenue
from lower response rates are much greater than any additional cost
for properly loading and converting a file. Furthermore, this
attitude cuts against the spirit of one to one marketing. If a
mailer doesn't care enough to properly identify who they are
mailing at the outset, the financial impact can be significant.
However, the psychological impact can be much greater if a customer
or prospect doesn't feel the company is invested in a one to one
marketing strategy. Taking this first step at the beginning of a
project is more significant that many businesses realize.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
SEO, SEO, SEO – Is that the Answer?
SEO, SEO, SEO… is repeating a key term within the copy of content a good way for getting ranked in the search engines? Over the years I have worked on and off on SEO efforts and it has always been a challenge. I have been to enough search conferences and read enough SEO articles to get the main points, but there is still a good degree of art added to the science that makes this a little more of an unknown than most direct marketing efforts.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is defined by Wikipedia as “…the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion.” SEO sounds great right. Free traffic! That would be great, and is, when you can make it work, but often times you are paying an SEO consultant a lot of money for this “free traffic”.
If you are new to the SEO field you can find a slew of articles to help you get started and most will revolve around Google, which really is the most important search engine to optimize your site/content for. I do not have access to your web stats, but I will guess that over 70% of your search traffic is coming from Google. At the very least, Google should be where you start your SEO efforts. I would recommend reading up on SEO, whether you decide to go with a consultant or not. Being conversant in the SEO language will be very beneficial when working with a consultant.
I am not going to go into much detail here, but if you find a good article on SEO it will mention refreshing your content, making it relevant and keyword rich, using keyword rich links and link building with other sites. I have found that making the titles of my pages and articles keyword rich has boosted my SEO results as well.
When adding content to my blog, site or a newsletter I will always keep SEO in mind, but readability should be the number one goal of any content provider. If the content is not interesting, relevant and enjoyable to read then you may get some traffic, but they will not be coming back again. SEO is a great tool for driving traffic when successful, but just as important is engaging the visitors by providing them with information that will make them want to come back for more. Keep this in mind when you are working on SEO projects or you will not realize much of the return that can come from this traffic.
Good luck, and for those of you counting, I have now used the SEO acronym 21 times. Only time will tell if it helps in the rankings. I was somewhat overdoing it on this one since it was the topic of the post, but I hope you still find it readable and relevant. Let me know.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is defined by Wikipedia as “…the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion.” SEO sounds great right. Free traffic! That would be great, and is, when you can make it work, but often times you are paying an SEO consultant a lot of money for this “free traffic”.
If you are new to the SEO field you can find a slew of articles to help you get started and most will revolve around Google, which really is the most important search engine to optimize your site/content for. I do not have access to your web stats, but I will guess that over 70% of your search traffic is coming from Google. At the very least, Google should be where you start your SEO efforts. I would recommend reading up on SEO, whether you decide to go with a consultant or not. Being conversant in the SEO language will be very beneficial when working with a consultant.
I am not going to go into much detail here, but if you find a good article on SEO it will mention refreshing your content, making it relevant and keyword rich, using keyword rich links and link building with other sites. I have found that making the titles of my pages and articles keyword rich has boosted my SEO results as well.
When adding content to my blog, site or a newsletter I will always keep SEO in mind, but readability should be the number one goal of any content provider. If the content is not interesting, relevant and enjoyable to read then you may get some traffic, but they will not be coming back again. SEO is a great tool for driving traffic when successful, but just as important is engaging the visitors by providing them with information that will make them want to come back for more. Keep this in mind when you are working on SEO projects or you will not realize much of the return that can come from this traffic.
Good luck, and for those of you counting, I have now used the SEO acronym 21 times. Only time will tell if it helps in the rankings. I was somewhat overdoing it on this one since it was the topic of the post, but I hope you still find it readable and relevant. Let me know.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Don't Lose Sight of the Long Term Plan
I find myself drawn to yet another headline announcing the record setting pace at which we are amassing debt. Don’t worry, I have no plans of straying too far into political commentary, this is a marketing blog after all. I was struck, however, by the similarities I see between the government and individual budget decisions that landed us in this mess and decisions that business owners are making on a daily basis.
What got us in this predicament? I am sure there are enough opinions for me to fill this page with… and probably a couple more pages, but when it comes right down to it there has been a serious lack of long term planning and well thought out budgetary decisions. The lack of long term planning is actually pretty understandable. For our elected officials this is their job and like the rest of us they would like to have as much job security as possible. They make decisions every day knowing that these decisions will be the basis for which we decide whether they should continue representing us.
This inherently inspires them to make decisions that are short sighted. What will get them elected to a next term? A decision that will bring positive results in the short term (before the next election) but have potentially catastrophic results in the long term or a decision that will bring negative results in the short term, but will make us a stronger country in the long term? I know which answer they feel will be better received and it’s not the long term decision designed to make us a stronger country into the future.
As business owners or business managers we are dealing with these same types of decisions every day, and like with the government, they have become much more pronounced during the faltering economy. It is sometimes easier to make decisions that don’t have the negative short term impact when times are tough. How much should I be investing in new technology, R&D, marketing, CRM and the list could go on forever.
As a manager, you may feel pressured to make decisions that will result in increased revenue at the end of a quarter, but you know is not a strong decision for the future of the company.
There are also cases where the short term decision is the best, so don’t take this as a catch all answer to tough decisions, but I just wanted to make sure business owners and managers are keeping this in mind when they are going through the decision making process. You don’t want to survive the recession only to find that your company is not well enough to compete or grow as your competitors take off.
What got us in this predicament? I am sure there are enough opinions for me to fill this page with… and probably a couple more pages, but when it comes right down to it there has been a serious lack of long term planning and well thought out budgetary decisions. The lack of long term planning is actually pretty understandable. For our elected officials this is their job and like the rest of us they would like to have as much job security as possible. They make decisions every day knowing that these decisions will be the basis for which we decide whether they should continue representing us.
This inherently inspires them to make decisions that are short sighted. What will get them elected to a next term? A decision that will bring positive results in the short term (before the next election) but have potentially catastrophic results in the long term or a decision that will bring negative results in the short term, but will make us a stronger country in the long term? I know which answer they feel will be better received and it’s not the long term decision designed to make us a stronger country into the future.
As business owners or business managers we are dealing with these same types of decisions every day, and like with the government, they have become much more pronounced during the faltering economy. It is sometimes easier to make decisions that don’t have the negative short term impact when times are tough. How much should I be investing in new technology, R&D, marketing, CRM and the list could go on forever.
As a manager, you may feel pressured to make decisions that will result in increased revenue at the end of a quarter, but you know is not a strong decision for the future of the company.
There are also cases where the short term decision is the best, so don’t take this as a catch all answer to tough decisions, but I just wanted to make sure business owners and managers are keeping this in mind when they are going through the decision making process. You don’t want to survive the recession only to find that your company is not well enough to compete or grow as your competitors take off.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Changing Style of Marketing
By: Justin Jackson, Donnelley Marketing
Combining data feeds from the online and offline worlds, listening to consumers and thinking outside the box when planning marketing strategies can all help improve response and elevate brand awareness. Technology has created and continues to create new channels for communication and new ways for companies to listen to their consumers. Each new channel brings new benefits and new hurdles in creating the best applications. An interesting change has also occurred in the way that marketers begin to think outside the box. Making a connection with a consumer and allowing them to connect with their friends or co-workers as they complete the buying cycle has become very popular.
One example of a company making a connection, while using the latest technology, and sharing that connection in the office, is with the Dunkin Donuts Dunkin Run program. The Dunkin run combines an online order by an individual that is forwarded via email to your friends in the office asking them if they’d like to add anything to your order when you make a Dunkin Run. Their orders are sent directly to the nearest location and you are able to pay and pick it up. Payment can also be made directly from your Dunkin Card to make pick up that much simpler. So now you look like a hero to your office, Dunkin Donuts has cross sold and upsold your business, and the office is stuffed or wired from eating donuts and drinking great coffee. The end result is a win for all parties.
Another example of a company making a connection comes from Itickets.com. Acquiring tickets online and picking them on at the event is a nice feature, but after collecting an email address in the process Itickets.com takes the next step by continuing the relationship in a very personal way. Following the event an email is sent out requesting photo’s taken at the event, and if you don’t have any you are invited you to view other photos that are donated by fans at the show. Iticket.com can now add you as a friend on Facebook or Flickr, depending on the distribution channel, you look like a hero to your family for collecting these memories and the event get additional exposure and publicity. Again, everyone wins.
Finally, a Las Vegas golf course wanted to grow it’s Facebook fan club and promote more amenities via social media. They determined that since many golfers were not bringing clubs they could offer a free rental if you signed up as a Facebook fan and booked your tee time on line. Since Facebook allows you to share specials easily with your friends, you look like a hero for finding a great deal, the golf course gets players that may have stayed in the casino instead, and Facebook is able to help show more compelling reasons to choose one course over another.
The stories depicted here are just the tip of the iceberg but represent the change in thinking and the different factors that should be used when putting together a marketing strategy. The elements of technology, multi-channel communication, and social media are all utilized to make each effort better. Following this roadmap can boost your business as well.
Combining data feeds from the online and offline worlds, listening to consumers and thinking outside the box when planning marketing strategies can all help improve response and elevate brand awareness. Technology has created and continues to create new channels for communication and new ways for companies to listen to their consumers. Each new channel brings new benefits and new hurdles in creating the best applications. An interesting change has also occurred in the way that marketers begin to think outside the box. Making a connection with a consumer and allowing them to connect with their friends or co-workers as they complete the buying cycle has become very popular.
One example of a company making a connection, while using the latest technology, and sharing that connection in the office, is with the Dunkin Donuts Dunkin Run program. The Dunkin run combines an online order by an individual that is forwarded via email to your friends in the office asking them if they’d like to add anything to your order when you make a Dunkin Run. Their orders are sent directly to the nearest location and you are able to pay and pick it up. Payment can also be made directly from your Dunkin Card to make pick up that much simpler. So now you look like a hero to your office, Dunkin Donuts has cross sold and upsold your business, and the office is stuffed or wired from eating donuts and drinking great coffee. The end result is a win for all parties.
Another example of a company making a connection comes from Itickets.com. Acquiring tickets online and picking them on at the event is a nice feature, but after collecting an email address in the process Itickets.com takes the next step by continuing the relationship in a very personal way. Following the event an email is sent out requesting photo’s taken at the event, and if you don’t have any you are invited you to view other photos that are donated by fans at the show. Iticket.com can now add you as a friend on Facebook or Flickr, depending on the distribution channel, you look like a hero to your family for collecting these memories and the event get additional exposure and publicity. Again, everyone wins.
Finally, a Las Vegas golf course wanted to grow it’s Facebook fan club and promote more amenities via social media. They determined that since many golfers were not bringing clubs they could offer a free rental if you signed up as a Facebook fan and booked your tee time on line. Since Facebook allows you to share specials easily with your friends, you look like a hero for finding a great deal, the golf course gets players that may have stayed in the casino instead, and Facebook is able to help show more compelling reasons to choose one course over another.
The stories depicted here are just the tip of the iceberg but represent the change in thinking and the different factors that should be used when putting together a marketing strategy. The elements of technology, multi-channel communication, and social media are all utilized to make each effort better. Following this roadmap can boost your business as well.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Disclosure is the currency of human interaction
By: Justin Jackson, Donnelley Marketing
Trying to make a connection with customers can be difficult. Creating a targeting “strategy of one” means putting the many layers of credible information you have on an individual to the test. Are they prone to on-line activity? Do they frequently visit your website? Are they more traditional in their buying habits, using the 800 number to place orders? Do they interact via communities, sharing ideas with peers about your products and services or serving as an advocate providing strong testimonials? Do you have reliable demographics, lifestyle information, and transactional data to include when answering the questions above?
It’s most likely that a marketer today will have a piece of the equation solved, perhaps certain elements can be used to improve response by timing an offer or by sending the proper media or combination of multi channel communiqué. This is fine for executing the communication, the other side of the equation is relating to the person targeted. Personalization in marketing is about making the customer feel like you know them. Targeting to an “audience of one” means you care enough to approach someone with products they want to buy with a message that will appeal to them.
Making a connection to the human element is made easier with proper disclosure. Disclosure of a companies motive will make it easier to trust their marketing message. Disclosure of companies’ environmental practices will make it easier to buy from them. Disclosure of companies’ employment and production practices will make it easier close the sale.
If customers will begin to disclose in return, companies can make the most of it. User generated content is widely accepted as the future of influencing marketing trends. Through viral marketing campaigns executed through social media networks, small to mid-sized businesses can make a big splash without a big expense. But these campaigns won’t get credibility, they won’t be explored and tested if the content used in making decisions isn’t reliable. If consumers hide their motives for a purchase behind security concerns or accept only minimal communication channels because of privacy concerns, companies will have no alternative but to continue mass marketing with minor screening and targeting with little effectiveness.
Disclosure is required on both sides and as it grows both sides should benefit. Consumers will get the best deals from companies that value their business, they will be partners in enhancing a businesses reputation, they will help create new products and solve problems with existing products. Businesses will be able to reduce marketing efforts to those less likely to respond and will be able to focus on producing quality services to customers that they maintain a lasting relationship with over time. Who wouldn’t want to participate in that kind of interaction?
Trying to make a connection with customers can be difficult. Creating a targeting “strategy of one” means putting the many layers of credible information you have on an individual to the test. Are they prone to on-line activity? Do they frequently visit your website? Are they more traditional in their buying habits, using the 800 number to place orders? Do they interact via communities, sharing ideas with peers about your products and services or serving as an advocate providing strong testimonials? Do you have reliable demographics, lifestyle information, and transactional data to include when answering the questions above?
It’s most likely that a marketer today will have a piece of the equation solved, perhaps certain elements can be used to improve response by timing an offer or by sending the proper media or combination of multi channel communiqué. This is fine for executing the communication, the other side of the equation is relating to the person targeted. Personalization in marketing is about making the customer feel like you know them. Targeting to an “audience of one” means you care enough to approach someone with products they want to buy with a message that will appeal to them.
Making a connection to the human element is made easier with proper disclosure. Disclosure of a companies motive will make it easier to trust their marketing message. Disclosure of companies’ environmental practices will make it easier to buy from them. Disclosure of companies’ employment and production practices will make it easier close the sale.
If customers will begin to disclose in return, companies can make the most of it. User generated content is widely accepted as the future of influencing marketing trends. Through viral marketing campaigns executed through social media networks, small to mid-sized businesses can make a big splash without a big expense. But these campaigns won’t get credibility, they won’t be explored and tested if the content used in making decisions isn’t reliable. If consumers hide their motives for a purchase behind security concerns or accept only minimal communication channels because of privacy concerns, companies will have no alternative but to continue mass marketing with minor screening and targeting with little effectiveness.
Disclosure is required on both sides and as it grows both sides should benefit. Consumers will get the best deals from companies that value their business, they will be partners in enhancing a businesses reputation, they will help create new products and solve problems with existing products. Businesses will be able to reduce marketing efforts to those less likely to respond and will be able to focus on producing quality services to customers that they maintain a lasting relationship with over time. Who wouldn’t want to participate in that kind of interaction?
Monday, November 9, 2009
A PPC Tracking Mistake to Avoid
By: Joseph Kiefer, ASM
I hesitate to write about this for fear of talking down to my audience, but since I made the mistake first I feel I should at least throw it out there. I will keep it brief. PPC has become a pretty standard marketing term over the course of the last 5 years and without looking up statistics I would venture to say the vast majority of companies are either using it or have used it.
As with all valid marketing methods, testing and tracking are the keys to long term success. Just starting a Google account and bidding on a couple of words you think describe your product will not bring success. PPC is a time intensive effort and constitutes a lot of research, testing, tracking, tweaking and starting from step one again. For many companies who do not have the expertise in PPC this is an exercise that may be best outsourced to a company specializing in PPC campaigns.
We first started testing PPC campaigns in 2003 and although I thought we did a lot of things well, we made a major error in the tracking we set up for our PPC campaigns. In general, the tracking was there, but it was at a very high level. At the time, the company of choice was Overture and we had tracking tied to Overture overall, but not to each individual keyword or at least groups of keywords.
So, overall, our PPC testing was showing a great ROI, but we were missing the detail. As we progressed with our testing we added more detailed tracking and soon realized that a lot of our success was coming from our own branded keywords. More likely than not these are search terms that we would have shown at the top for organically as well, but we decided to bid on them to make sure we were easy to find when those searches were made and the cost was so low.
Once we separated these terms out we found that the majority of our conversions were coming from those branded terms and they only accounted for a small percentage of the PPC costs. We were quickly able to make adjustments to the non-branded keywords that lowered our overall PPC costs, raised the ROI and started us on the way to much more successful PPC campaigns in the future. At this point our tracking has become much more detailed, but the fundamentals remain the same.
I hesitate to write about this for fear of talking down to my audience, but since I made the mistake first I feel I should at least throw it out there. I will keep it brief. PPC has become a pretty standard marketing term over the course of the last 5 years and without looking up statistics I would venture to say the vast majority of companies are either using it or have used it.
As with all valid marketing methods, testing and tracking are the keys to long term success. Just starting a Google account and bidding on a couple of words you think describe your product will not bring success. PPC is a time intensive effort and constitutes a lot of research, testing, tracking, tweaking and starting from step one again. For many companies who do not have the expertise in PPC this is an exercise that may be best outsourced to a company specializing in PPC campaigns.
We first started testing PPC campaigns in 2003 and although I thought we did a lot of things well, we made a major error in the tracking we set up for our PPC campaigns. In general, the tracking was there, but it was at a very high level. At the time, the company of choice was Overture and we had tracking tied to Overture overall, but not to each individual keyword or at least groups of keywords.
So, overall, our PPC testing was showing a great ROI, but we were missing the detail. As we progressed with our testing we added more detailed tracking and soon realized that a lot of our success was coming from our own branded keywords. More likely than not these are search terms that we would have shown at the top for organically as well, but we decided to bid on them to make sure we were easy to find when those searches were made and the cost was so low.
Once we separated these terms out we found that the majority of our conversions were coming from those branded terms and they only accounted for a small percentage of the PPC costs. We were quickly able to make adjustments to the non-branded keywords that lowered our overall PPC costs, raised the ROI and started us on the way to much more successful PPC campaigns in the future. At this point our tracking has become much more detailed, but the fundamentals remain the same.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Testing in a Down Economy
By: Joseph Kiefer, ASM
I was lucky enough to have a marketing focused CEO for much of my tenure on the Marketing Management team. Expectations were always high and we were under close scrutiny, but we were given a lot of autonomy, which I think goes a long way towards job satisfaction in the marketing field. One primary goal our CEO had for our team was to have a constant stream of marketing tests going on at all times.
I truly believe this is the reason we have continued to get good results from our marketing efforts. This probably means different things to different companies, but in general, if you are not testing you are slowly declining.
In the direct marketing world there are a million things to test so there should never be a lack of opportunity. Creative, lists, offer, delivery, subject lines... and the list could literally go on forever. Which one can have the biggest impact on your bottom line? Shoot big!
These tests should be results driven and watching the results come in will be motivating to you and your staff. You will get to watch changes you are making have a positive impact on your company. Even for the tests that do not outperform the control you will be continually learning and adjusting for the next test.
Of course, this is only true if you set up good measurement devices for your marketing tests, so always be sure to have this in place before implementing the test. There is nothing worse then going through a test and not being able to measure the results at the end. An unmeasured test is typically a waste of effort and money. Even a marketing friendly CEO will not like the sounds of that.
I was lucky enough to have a marketing focused CEO for much of my tenure on the Marketing Management team. Expectations were always high and we were under close scrutiny, but we were given a lot of autonomy, which I think goes a long way towards job satisfaction in the marketing field. One primary goal our CEO had for our team was to have a constant stream of marketing tests going on at all times.
I truly believe this is the reason we have continued to get good results from our marketing efforts. This probably means different things to different companies, but in general, if you are not testing you are slowly declining.
In the direct marketing world there are a million things to test so there should never be a lack of opportunity. Creative, lists, offer, delivery, subject lines... and the list could literally go on forever. Which one can have the biggest impact on your bottom line? Shoot big!
These tests should be results driven and watching the results come in will be motivating to you and your staff. You will get to watch changes you are making have a positive impact on your company. Even for the tests that do not outperform the control you will be continually learning and adjusting for the next test.
Of course, this is only true if you set up good measurement devices for your marketing tests, so always be sure to have this in place before implementing the test. There is nothing worse then going through a test and not being able to measure the results at the end. An unmeasured test is typically a waste of effort and money. Even a marketing friendly CEO will not like the sounds of that.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Joe's Blog: Postal Pricing, Part II
You can find Joe's blog at http://www.qg.com/rss/joesblog.asp
In response to my recent post on budgeting for a postal increase, I received an email from USPS Sr. VP of Customer Relations, Steve Kearney. Steve was responding to my mention of the possibility that the USPS could "tinker" with prices within a class of mail, as long as any changes did not increase the class more than the equivalent allowance under CPI.
I'm pleased to say that Steve said the USPS will not make any changes to the pricing for Market Dominant products. Thanks to him for clarifying and clearing up any thoughts of it happening in 2010.
Written by: Joseph E. Schick
Director, Postal Affairs
Quad/Graphics
In response to my recent post on budgeting for a postal increase, I received an email from USPS Sr. VP of Customer Relations, Steve Kearney. Steve was responding to my mention of the possibility that the USPS could "tinker" with prices within a class of mail, as long as any changes did not increase the class more than the equivalent allowance under CPI.
I'm pleased to say that Steve said the USPS will not make any changes to the pricing for Market Dominant products. Thanks to him for clarifying and clearing up any thoughts of it happening in 2010.
Written by: Joseph E. Schick
Director, Postal Affairs
Quad/Graphics
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