Foxboro Consulting developed and led implementation of an integrated marketing campaign for Chief Executive Magazine’s recent CEO2CEO Leadership Summit event, resulting in record attendance and profitability. Watch me with the clients as they open trading 12.13.2011.
This campaign included email , direct mail, telemarketing and online banners.
Tidal Change in Marketing Fundamentals
We’ve all noted the 2012 Trend forecasts:
Undeniably, the convergence of digital content, mobile applications and social sites is:
The strategic by-product of these trends is a tidal change in two fundamental marketing constructs of the last 25yrs. — the Sales Funnel and the Customer Lifecycle. Each concept has to be redefined to function as a framework for formulating tactics and budgets, because it’s pretty clear companies and brands, no matter the industry, are not leading customers through the purchase decision process any longer.
Sales Funnel or Whirlwind? 
The interplay of digital communications in email, social and mobile channels, means vocal, networked customers share brand experiences immediately and broadly to their Facebook friends and on services like Baazarvoice. Prospects compare products, read reviews and seek recommendations on the web long before they ever seek any brand communications – digital or face to face. Perhaps the historical sales funnel, where the majority of sales and marketing resources were once invested in generating quantities of leads resulting in a fraction converted to customers, should be upended. Email Service Provider (ESP) Constant Contact recommends shifting sales and marketing budgets and resources away from Lead Gen into engagement with current customers to generate:
Reconfiguring the funnel into a branching tree seems appropriate as lines between Sales, Marketing and Customer Service blur further by the incorporation of marketing automation tools like Net-Results, SilverPOP or Eloqua into the drive for profits. Triggering messages and incentives to individuals based on their online behavior will speed the realignment of Sales, Marketing and Customer Service for greater ROI. In sum, “lead nurturing tracks that take a common inquiry through several stages of qualification across the buying cycle—instant email acknowledgement, 24-hour human contact, and rapid escalation of hot revenue opportunities to sales teams and partners for fulfillment. This sort of approach will become the norm in the not-too-distant future. Revenue will depend on it.” –Kristin Hambelton, Vice President of Marketing, Neolane.
Customer Lifecycle…Interrupted
“Customer loyalty has been identified as the top non-financial challenge facing companies in 2012” stated a report by Loyalty 360, the loyalty marketing association. Perhaps the customer lifecycle – the heart of CRM- hasn’t been obliterated by daily deal sites, its added new dimensions. Recently, Joe Cordo, CMO for Extraprise , a leader in database marketing, described the new customer lifecycle as different levels, such as the engaged stage, where the customer raises his or her hand to say they’re interested becoming a Facebook fan, and interacting with the brand and people by sharing their experiences and soliciting opinions before making a decision.
Marketers are adapting by deepening new and existing relationships through more direct, one-to-one communications of relevant content, like the Kraft’s iFood app that gives users access to Kraft recipes, building shopping lists from recipes and scanned pantry bar codes,sharing recipes on Facebook, and linking mobile coupons to their grocery loyalty cards. Sephora’s mobile app integrates customer product reviews, product demos and e-Commerce. Other tactics that reflect marketers focus on relationships in broader terms than trial and repeat are:
Next Steps
To re-evaluate how we use the Sales Funnel and Customer Lifecycles concepts to plan and budget we should:
What Now?
You’ve seen and used QR codes even if you haven’t decoded one. Used by a number of industries, not just avant-garde communicators, QR codes are:
Who Cares?
Research indicates swelling customer trial/use of QR codes. ComScore released a study in August 2011 on mobile QR code scanning that found:
Since the format of communication continues morphing to digital and interactive, and smart phones have become a preferred method to communicate and transact – Marketing, Sales and Customer Service need to understand QR codes to effectively employ them as an engagement tool.
How 2?
To date the US Marketing cognoscenti have mixed reviews on QR codes, because results lag when this tactical tool is used as “techy” eye-candy and not integrated into a well-planned multi-channel strategy. These four rules and one example will safeguard your communications from “next-shiny-tactic” syndrome:
1. The Code is Not the Thing
When your team insists on QR codes in your communications, like tweets and Facebook posts, be sure they’ve woven it into your communication plan with a committed mobile strategy so that the execution delivers both customer traffic and engagement.
2. Mobilize the Landing Page
Make sure your QR code is deployed with a strong call to action and resolves to a mobile web site which provides engaging interactivity tied to the goal of your ad – whether it is to demonstrate brand benefits, or capture customer information through a promotion.
3. Keep the URL short
Offer an alternative URL for those without a smartphone, or who don’t wish to scan. Keep the QR URL short because the more information packed into a code the more sensitive the scanning application required, and the greater risk of decoding errors.
4. Make the Content Valuable
Focus on the experience you want to give the customer who’s taken the time to decode your QR. The linked content should be valuable, original and persuade the customer to do more – as in provide their contact information, download a coupon, or make a purchase.
Best Practices Example
Roger Marquis’ detailed review of a Trevis tumbler holiday campaign, in his article Best Mobile Barcode Campaign 2011, demonstrates the QR best practices of mobile strategy, proper deployment, and valuable customer engagement.
Summary
Business managers and their teams are usually skeptical of “free trials”, and reputed free goods or services. In the past free offers frequently disguised a hard-sell pitch. Fortunately, the Internet, entrepreneurial spirit and technical brilliance have coalesced to create a vast array of quality, free information products and services that can keep business teams informed, sharing, collaborating, and organized at no cost to the organization, and little impact on IT*.
Is it Worth It?
If you get what you pay for, what do you get when you don’t pay? “Nothing” or not much is the response that may have popped into your mind, it did mine. Direct marketing core tenets have held that people perceive items that are “free” of low or no value, so don’t devalue your product by giving it away. But the Internet has broken this rule, along with so many other aspects of doing business. Free trials have become the ubiquitous norm. A thirty day free trial is nice, but are there any quality products or services out there that are truly “free”? To my surprise there are, and I’d like to share some that I use. Whether you’re a Sales or Marketing director for a F500, a middle-market CFO, or a small business owner, these are options worth investigating to improve productivity, encourage internal and external knowledge sharing and collaboration, and to keep yourself and your team better informed. These services don’t cost anything, and may require little or no IT involvement to use*. For example, corporate sales people, spread out across the country may be reluctant to schedule conference calls using the company ”call-in”service, or online collaboration using an expensive corporate tool, to request information or help. Most smaller businesses can’t afford these enterprise tools. Knowledge sharing, and simple demos can support remote teams, or external vendors and partners to shorten project and sales cycles. Access to and use of the tools below may be a quick way to encourage frequent interaction and information sharing at all levels of an organization.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
In the spirit of April’s Earth Day, and the “reduce, reuse, recycle” adage, here is a short list of free services which can enhance business and personal productivity, with no impact on project or department budgets. I can personally testify to using all the services listed regularly without complications, or endangering the performance of my laptop or my office network. Managers well versed in all things digital may have already discovered these resources If you are among the digital cognoscenti please comment, and suggest your own personal favorites.
Foxboro’s Free Stuff Links
Productivity
Free Desktop and Screen Sharing – no need for WebEx or Go2Meeting
http://www.crossloop.com/mktg/learnmore_free?affid=xl&src=hp
Free Conference Calls
http://www.freeconference.com/
Free File Sharing – great for really large files, multiple project team members
For demos, training and howtos -Instant screenshots, screencasts with audio
Free Meeting Request Service with Conference Call-in – no Exchange server required
Free ToDolists, Project Organization, Productivity
http://www.basecamp.com (30-day free trial)
Free Email campaigns and newsletters – for 12,000 addresses or less
http://www.mailchimp.com/pricing/
Information
Free Research, How-tos, White Papers, Case Studies, Webinars
http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-studies/
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/freestuff.html
http://www.shoutlet.com/library/
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/
http://www.mediapost.com/publications
Website Analysis Tools
Let me know if you have any free products or services that can be added to the list, and be sure to share this list with your friends in start-ups!
*Note: Company firewalls, mail server and web restrictions are unique to the company, may prevent access to the sites listed from within the company’s network, or require special permissions. Ask your IT help desk for information if you are accessing the internet from inside your company network.
Summary
Holiday season parties with family, friends and business associates offer real opportunities to share and receive information, expertise and ideas that connect us with each other, and help us toward our goals. We can embrace these opportunities proactively without putting people off by adapting marketing strategy to prepare how we present ourselves and our communications. With simple preparation you’ll gain more from every event than a few extra pounds and a hangover.
Party On
Tis’ the season for holiday gatherings, both personal and professional. Whether they excite, bore or stress you out, these events offer real opportunities for personal gain. Both social and business events create an opportunity to share and receive information, expertise and ideas that can move you toward a goal or help make life easier – whether you’re prospecting for clients, a detox method that really works or the best dentist in town. Combining the terms profit, networking and holiday party in the same sentence might put a damper on anyone’s attitude about holiday events. So let’s put a perspective on embracing the opportunity that meeting relatives, friends and colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere affords. Here are a few steps adapting good marketing strategy to help make you positive, prepared and proactive at personal or professional parties:
Who –Objective- clarify an objective, need or intention for your party presence. You are there for food, fun and a realistic expectation of discovering or learning something – perhaps where neighbors work and what they’re working on, where to complain about a monster pot hole, or an insight on your child’s teacher. The party isn’t your end objective; it’s a step in the process to connect you to your goal.
Who – Target Audience– demystify the people you’ll be with. Find out who is attending the event through casual inquiries to the host, or among family, friends and colleagues. There are real “cognoscenti” in every group so identify a few people who could be helpful to you and find out something about them. Perform an Internet search, or check LinkedIn, Facebook, or perhaps a mutual friend, and use these “insight bites” to start a conversation and to create or strengthen a connection.
What – Strategy – Have your story clear in your own mind. You are there in a role or story. The story connects you, your objective and the event– whether you are a sales pro looking for leads, community activist, or concerned parent. What are the parts of your role that will resonate with the people you meet? What in your story can people share a common experience with, or information about, or want to help you with?
Where and When– Execution – Be present to yourself and dial into the energy of the room. Be present with the ideas formed in the first three steps. Slow down and replace nervous or aggressive energy with alive, positive energy. Use your ideas and insights to begin listening to the key people you want to connect with, then sharing questions and experience.
Shakespeare said all life is a stage, so why not embrace a role with these strategies and use upcoming holiday festivities to discover something helpful, create or strengthen a connection and party on.
Summary
Traditional media partners – Newspaper, Radio and Yellow Pages– often the only media for local and regional businesses – have added forms of social couponing and promotion to their online sites to expand options for advertisers and sponsors. While local and regional businesses may not be able to access or afford the volume of discounts on big social couponing sites like Groupon and Living Social, in-market newspaper, radio and Yellow Pages vehicles may provide an affordable way to test traffic building social promotion offers.
Promotions Get Social, Local With Deal Sharing Consumers
Social couponing sites like Groupon, a 2008 start-up, now in major metros across the US, offer their members a deal-of-the day, a large discount coupon (50-90% off) on products or services sponsored by a local business. Site members purchase the deal and are encouraged to share it via their social networks – an endorsed referral for the “deal” business. On Groupon, the deal becomes valid if a certain number are sold before an expiration time. Other social couponing sites may have a deal expiration, but do not require a minimum number of purchases, or email enrollment, to take advantage of a deal. These coupon delivery platforms have become phenomenally successful with the weak economy, consumer captivation with online “sharing”, and geo and behavioral targeting. Participation provides the featured business with exclusive (deal-of-the –day only) online advertising, links and traffic to its site and access to “qualified” new customers from the social couponing site’s large database of members/subscribers.
Local Media Fighting For Every Local Ad Dollar
Local print, radio and directories have been struggling against Internet advertising options for over a decade to maintain relevance and value to their audience and advertisers. With everyone from Internet giants, to mobile media companies trying to grab a share of local marketing budgets, many traditional media companies have introduced online promotion and couponing to add lead and sales generation and tracking clout to their advertising packages. Large market daily papers like The Los Angeles Times have partnered with the biggest social couponing platforms. Medium and small market papers and radio stations have found smaller, flexible coupon service platforms like Savings.com or are creating a “daily deal” area on their own sites, with sharing features. Deals are announced in the paper, on the web sites and announced on air by the radio station.
Local Fights May Make Testing Affordable
Local and regional businesses from retailers to auto dealerships, to pre-schools and camps have an opportunity to evaluate the many options to target new customers in their local geography from large Internet players like Google, Yahoo, and AOL as well as their local traditional media partners. Ask your ad reps for details on the online couponing and promotion options that can be tested alone or in combination with an ad schedule. Negotiate hard for value-added since the local market has become the battlefield for Internet and mobile companies offering many forms of geo-targeting and hyper-local tactics at competitive prices to help build business on the local and community level. Test time-sensitive promotions to see if you can increase web and store traffic to certain week nights or day-parts , or to move “loss leader” inventory in a short timeframe to bring in new customers who can be introduced to your entire product line and cross-sold or up-sold to additional items.
Tips For Social Promotion Success
Make Sure You Can Afford Success - prepare for high redemptions by doing the math. Calculate your gross margin on the discounted sales price of the good or service, and any revenue share on the coupon sold or media cost. If the social discount results in a loss on the sale be sure the cost is comparable to what you are willing to spend to acquire a new customer and that staff is prepared to cross-sell “deal” shoppers on additional items.
Make The Offer Close-Ended – make sure your promotion is close-ended with an expiration time to the deal and to the redemption period to control your liability. Make sure you can handle the increase in business—push for a cap on the number of coupons to be sold. You want to make sure your current customers can still get their regular appointment as well as accommodating new customers. If you know you have a strong loss leader – say a branded item, like the latest Vera Bradley pattern coin purses, be conservative. Do not let your media partner pressure you into terms that will overwhelm your service or financial well-being.
Make It Last- make sure you capture the email and postal mailing address of everyone redeeming the “deal”, for future marketing initiatives. Also, have staff and service people prepared to upsell or cross-sell “deal shoppers”, who may be focused exclusively on the discount. Try to structure your deal to provide genuine value, with an affordable step up that both customers and you profit from.
Summary
Effective direct marketing through email or direct mail requires that your communication gets opened. You don’t need a genie to improve open rates and response with careful attention to four details.
4 Ways to Get Read and Get More Response
In direct marketing, whether email or US postal service mail, one of the keys to increasing your response rate is increasing your open rates and getting your offer read. Let’s assume whether you’re using email or direct mail, you’ve got a good list with correct addresses, so the communication will be received. But whether you’re using high tech or low tech delivery, response rates have fallen dramatically. The inundation of everyone’s inbox and mailbox with junk messages – from unknown senders with unrequested offers, has depressed open rates. But you don’t need magic to make sure the resources put into your promotion and edgy creative yield a positive return. Check these simple but often overlooked details improve your open rates before anything gets sent.
1. Make the message seem important, urgent if possible – when the recipient sees your communication their first reaction should be that it’s important, valuable, relevant, fun/unique or entertaining to them. If you can register one of these assessments with your outer envelope or your subject line you’re on your way to getting opened and read. With traditional letters this means attention to the envelope or postcard stock and size, as well as using a meter or stamp for postage. Many direct marketers include a time sensitive, target specific or brand message on the envelope or in the subject line such as, “Dated Material, Last Day to Receive 40% off Nike Air, Skier’s Resort Discounts.” Email recipients will register the subject line and “From” address, so be sure to include brands or companies they have some relationship with.
2. Use an involvement device - Once the message is opened, engaging the recipient immediately gets the offer and benefits understood and keeps them reading the “call to action”, in other words – response. Printed mail has a variety of creative options from an offer summary positioned in a call-out or “Johnson Box” at the top of the page, to color, pictures and three dimensional post-it notes, stickers and other inclusions. Photos make benefits and offers of intangibles like service and information more “real” and motivating. In addition to color and photos, email marketers have animation as well as many interactive devices such as polls, surveys, links that open new windows, and scroll or mouse- over apps that change the messages appearance, all of which will increase readership and potential response.
3. Sell benefits, conversationally, concisely – The first paragraph and the post-script (PS) of any message get the most attention after pictures, captions and headlines. Make sure your copy starts with the offer, and delivers it like you’re speaking to your best friend. Restate or expand on the offer in your close and in a PS to motivate immediate response.
4. Use a time sensitive call to action–In direct marketing its essential that the reader understands why you’ve written, what’s in it for them and how to respond at a glance. Add an expiration date, or limit to the volume of participants to your offer as in, “The first 100 customers to respond,” or “special midday sale today from 11am – 2pm et” to stimulate response in a set timeframe and create a sense of urgency for the reader.
Foxboro Consulting recently completed a mini PR campaign for CONNECT Computer, a middle-market IT solutions provider, to celebrate the company’s 25th Anniversary and launch its new web site. The resulting Fairfield County, CT press exposure, along with online media outlets including Forbes, The Street and Tech Insider, helped propel web traffic to the CONNECT site to 100 unique visits recently. In addition to writing the release, Foxboro used a combination of wire service distribution and direct media relations to obtain broad exposure and many unexpected “Tweets”.
To read the release, click here.
The social media guru is you.
Remember when social media was phone calls, appointments, trade shows and fund raisers? The touch-points identified and noted among clients and prospects in traditional social interactions are still the lynchpins to lasting relationships. Social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Hi5, provide rapid access, expedited data collection and comment on touch points like key dates – birthdays and anniversaries; interests, personal achievements and life changes among clients and prospects. These touch points can help you open dialogs, establish common ground, and forge trusting relationships. Start your discovery by looking up a prospect, organizing touch points and looking in the mirror – the social media guru is you.
You wouldn’t walk into a dark cave without a lantern so why fly into another marketing campaign blind?
Fear of falling or running into something unpleasant prompts you to have a light and proceed with caution on new turf. To keep your marketing and sales campaigns from turning into dangerous black holes, start by defining success metrics and your tracking and analysis plan up front. Without metrics and measurement, you are staggering around wasting time and money. If you have reliable measurement and analysis you have the basis for determining progress on objectives, a real plan and common agreement among management on what constitutes success. Operating without metrics and measurement is sales and marketing with the lights out. Just say No!