Email and Snail Mail

I’ll admit it. I’ve willingly given out my email address in order to subscribe to an electronic newsletter and found myself the victim of the rapid gun-fire spray of one-sided product pitching emails, similar to all that direct mail that I religiously pull from my mail box.

I know that used effectively email marketing can be cost-efficient especially when compared to its senior counterpart, direct mail. (Look Mom, no paper, no printing, no stamps!). But just like direct mail, it is also a great way to lose our shirts when it doesn’t get delivered or fails to elicit a response.

Another factor I keep in mind is in the implementation. Email marketing while an effective business channel, is still maturing. Technology, audience expectations and legislation governing commercial email communication (CAN-SPAM) are constantly changing the rules of engagement. Direct mail is more mature with fewer surprises.

But irregardless of whether it’s paper or electronic, the reasons for failure are the same - poor audience definition, bad mailing lists, dull content or an unclear call to action and also don’t forget, the lack of a customer relationship. So keep these areas in mind, and remember that the secret to success is test, test, test.

Cartoon from weblogcartoons.com

Yesterday's Marketing versus Today's

Yesterday’s Marketing	Today’s Truth
Remarkable advertising sells	Remarkable products are brought
You can target consumers	Consumers can target you
Seduce the market	Honesty invites and wins customers
Marketing is about control	You never have control
Your time, your place, your message	Consumer’s time, place & content
Push your message	Engage to get their pull through

Your Online Reflection - Or - Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Over the weekend, a friend asked me what actions I'd use in checking my company's online presence and reputation. And although I'm sure you'll think of more , I came up with this short list.

I'd secure my URL to protect my name and I'd make sure my company was in the top ten listed in Google search. To see if yours is indexed on Google (or Yahoo or MSN) you can type in the search box - site: your domain name.com. For instance, with my site, I typed in site: marionguthrie.com. The reason why is that your company's site should be built and indexed to accommodate high search rankings otherwise you won't appear as credible to your prospects and peers. This will give you a starting point, a "you are here" perspective. Then to raise your search ranking, before you utilize the talents of a consultant, check out Wikipedia, skim through Peter Kent's Search Engine Optimization for Dummies and give me a shout.

Next I'd set up a Google Alert for my company. Simple enough to do and it will tell you what is being said about you (as well as companies or people with similar names), where your reputation stands and insights into flaws in your service or delivery that should be corrected. If your customers are complaining, this alert will help you find out.

Just like having a corporate brochure or a business card, I'd create a company presence on LinkedIn so that interested prospects could look up your company and find a description and a mission statement. Also, depending on your offering, you might consider establishing a group for clients so that when they use your service, they are encouraged to join that group and post your company's logo on their personal site. Within that group you (and they) will be able to post questions and responses (for example, on your service and how they are using it successfully) which will encourage customer dialog and build credibility with prospects. Build your own profile on LinkedIn and join a group so you can see how this works.

If you're thinking about putting your company on Facebook, I'd be cautious as it has a non-professional feel. Let's face it rock stars and families use Facebook to stay in touch and build fans. Coke uses it because 2 loyal fans decided to start a group which was sanctioned, much later, by the company. If I was a cereal, a baby product, an automobile or a movie, I'd probably be on Facebook but especially as a service business I'd be careful because I want you to believe that I'm intelligent and serious about helping you make money. Check out what some of your competitors are doing.... are they on Facebook?

Most importantly, don't think first about the technology -- think first about your target customers. Do you know who your new business prospect is and where they're looking, reading, and interacting? Once you have this nailed down, the rest (objectives, strategy and tactics) will come naturally and you won't be, for example, on Twitter just for the sake of being on Twitter. If you use it, it will be a technology tactic that is part of an overall business and identity development strategy.

For My Single Female Friends - With Love from HARO!

Started by Peter Shankman, Help A Reporter Out, HARO, is an online service that hooks journalists up with resources. You can join HARO too, it's free. You'll receive topics that journalists are working on and you have the opportunity to help them out with your contacts. So if you're in marketing and PR, as I am, it's another way to get your clients in front of the appropriate source. Less often there are casting calls like this one for an ABC reality show. Read on....

Summary: Casting Single, Successful, Beautiful Women for TV Show
Name: Alexis Diamond
Category: General
Email: adiamond@me.com
Title: Casting Director
Media Outlet: Television
Specific Geographic Region: N
Region:
Deadline: 01:06am PACIFIC - 20 June
Query: ABC MEDIA PRODUCTIONS is NOW CASTING SINGLE WOMEN who are LOOKING FOR LOVE anywhere but here!!! Casting real women ages 25 to 40 who are successful in every aspect of life except one…finding love. You're climbing your way up the corporate ladder, just put a down payment on your own condo... you have everything except the right guy to share it with.

"Holidate" is similar to the movie "The Holiday" with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet; single women seeking true love in another city. We provide the new city, the new digs, the new guys… even the plane ticket. The girls just have to believe in love…and get on board!

This is NOT A COMPETITION SHOW, no eliminations, catches or surprises… just a genuine search for love! The time commitment is about 5 days this summer.

If you are interested or would like to nominate someone, email the info below to adiamond@me.com: 1. Recent photo (face and full body) 2. Full name, age, occupation, city of residence 3. Phone number(s) 4. Tell us a little about yourself.

Direct Vs. Online Marketing, Closer than You Think!

Since my frame of reference is direct marketing I’ve been thinking about what similarities exist between direct marketing and marketing in a Web 2.0 world. Here's what I've come up with so far.

Search engine optimization to my direct response eyes looks like the list business. People who respond to snippet copy in search results are similar to responders on a rented list of names that share an affinity. Maybe it’s cooking. Maybe it’s national parks. When people express their interests by subscribing to a certain group or magazine, those list procurers are harvesting that information and putting those individuals on certain lists. It’s similar to when people search online using “key words” (like national parks or cooking utensils). They are looking for information, or items or services of interest to them and that interest defines them as desirable or undesirable customers.

The Johnson Box, that's the copy block and offer at the top of a sales letter - Direct Mail’s “Johnson Box” lives in email snuggled up against many people’s preview panes. Some research shows more people are using preview panes, and some even read their entire email within the preview pane and never open the email to full screen. Long live the Johnson Box.

Measurement is another similarity. Thanks to analytics, we can measure a customer’s activities like click-throughs and time spent on the site and where they drop off in the shopping process. All this is comparable to direct mail or DRTV where we’re measuring responses, eligibility and actual products purchased.

Testing is also on the list. Real direct marketers never stop testing. So it isn’t a surprise that when confronted with an online campaign we seek ways to test one approach over another. Especially with email, we test subject headers, different offers and the same offer but with different copy. Online, we test one video against another like we do off line or one landing page against another. And even when we launch the best of all the testing, we’re probably running some type of small test inside that launch. It’s obsessive, but we’re direct marketers after all.

The challenge for me right now is getting my head around, when and how to effectively utilize these new technology channels like Twitter and YouTube, for example. But again I am reminded that in direct we’re always charting the customer’s activity, from the time and place they become interested in our offer through the sale. So the solution lies in focusing on the customer’s activities and their level of online sophistication. 

We need to first know our customers and look for ways that they want to be engaged by us … online.  The answer is in the customer experience and part of that in today’s world means building a conversation that turns into a trusted relationship.  Anyway, that’s my two cents. Have you thought of other similarities? Let me know!

Television Viewing Redefined?

As television starts to morph with your computer, could it be that the familiar call to action, "Stay Tuned" is now becoming "Stay Connected"?

P.S. - check out this post too - More People Are Using PCs to Time-Shift TV, Skip Ads by
Mike Vorhaus on Digital Communications, May 04, 2009, http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=136391