Multichannel Magic

Generating a strong return on investment requires marketing campaigns that deliver more revenue than costs, new customers that become lifetime buyers, and messages that motivate the current customer base. Specialized campaigns may focus on acquisition or retention but every successful marketing investment needs to include a plan for generating revenue.

The promise of future benefits from engagement activities is alluring but fiscal responsibility demands specific plans for revenue generation. How much money was wasted over the last few years on marketing campaigns that didn’t deliver tangible results? If the truth were told, it was probably the most wasteful time in marketing history. New channels created a competitive frenzy of one-upmanship to see who could deliver the most viral content with little regard to bottom line management. Proven strategies were left behind in the search for the most fans, followers, and views. In theory the increased exposure would deliver more results at less cost, but it didn’t work for most companies because their marketing team forgot the fundamentals.

The purpose of marketing is to motivate people to spend their money with your company. It’s that simple. If your marketing isn’t moving your customers and prospects closer to buying your products and services it is a waste of resources. When new channels and opportunities appear, it is hard to know if they will work for your business. Creating well-defined tests to measure cause and effect is part of an effective strategy. Asking the following questions before running any campaign will significantly reduce risk and insure success.

Does it benefit our customers?

The best campaigns have customer benefits that are easy to understand and define. Itemize the benefits so everyone in your company has a clear understanding of them. This makes it easier for team members to share the information with customers and partners.

Will it make money, reduce costs, and/or improve service?

Notice that this question doesn’t include “increase sales”. More revenue doesn’t always translate into bigger profits. Anticipating a return increases the likelihood you’ll receive it. Projecting a specific amount creates a goal and vested interest in achieving it.

Are the corporate benefits long-term, short-term, or non-existent?

Too many campaigns are planned today with fingers crossed hoping for a miracle. Requiring tangible corporate benefits is good business. Creating a timeline is solid planning.

How do our success metrics affect the bottom line?

Fans, followers, and video views make great cocktail conversation but how do they really affect your business? If the people participating in your community come from your customer database, social activity will benefit your company. But, if they are from the general population, odds are against a profitable outcome.

What happens if we don’t run the campaign?

Asking this question removes the stardust from most marketers’ eyes. If there isn’t a significant reason to run the campaign, why do it? Your resources would be better spent creating one that will make a difference.

Test campaigns are the exception. There may be so many unknowns that the questions can’t be answered well enough to justify running them. Run some tests anyway because failing to include testing in your marketing strategy reduces innovation. The best strategies find the right balance between proven tactics and new opportunities. Invest your marketing dollars wisely and your company will prosper.

If you would like to discuss how this applies to your business, please email me at dellis@wilsonellisconsulting.com.

There is a fatal flaw in how we measure the success of marketing campaigns. We celebrate the acquisition of new customers, cheer incremental increases in average orders and response rates, and pass around high fives when website traffic hits a new high. But, what happens when an established customer places another order?

Nothing.

When customers do what is expected, it doesn’t seem like a cause for celebration. After all, isn’t providing quality products and service enough? In days gone by, it was. Once customers found your business, they became customers for life as long as you delivered on the promise. If your product or service line was unique, you didn’t even have to do that. You were operating “Hotel California”. Once people checked in, they didn’t leave. Customer loyalty was almost automatic.

Customer acquisition was the top priority. Retention was taken for granted. Marketing could neglect the people most likely to buy without losing them. This changed when the Internet started shrinking the world. Those special customers found through word of mouth, rented lists, and advertising now have the ability to find your competitors online. And, your competition has access to them through their friends, online behavior, and the same traditional tools you used. There has to be a shift towards retention or the best customers will leave, taking profits and market share with them.

Loyalty programs are supposed to make people stay, but they aren’t working. A survey by ACI Worldwide, Inc. found that 75% of Americans were members of at least one retail loyalty card program. Unfortunately, the programs are missing the mark because 81% of members don’t understand how they work and two out of five have had a negative experience.

It doesn’t take much to make customers happy.

It takes more to make them loyal. Delivering on the promise is a no-brainer. Customers are happy when they receive what they were promised. It’s expected. Loyalty comes when customers trust that the company will resolve issues and anticipate needs. Trust is earned. The most loyal people are those who have had problems resolved satisfactorily. They know, by experience, how the company responds to challenges. But, what about the folks who haven’t had a problem? How do you keep them from straying?

The best method is two-fold: Make it easy for them to stay and let them know that you value them. When it is easier to stay than leave, people continue to buy from your company. They won’t even think about leaving. Throw in a little appreciation and they’ll be customers for life. Here are some tips for keeping customers around:

Know your numbers and check them regularly. Customer attrition hides behind acquisition and sales. Find it before it’s too late. Watch it so there aren’t any surprises.

Make your best customers offers they can’t refuse. The promotions for them should be better than the ones for prospects. Your customers know what you are offering to newbies. When those offers are better, it implies that you like the new people better than the ones who are already supporting you.

Put customer retention at the top of the “things we must do to succeed” list. Until it has a priority position in your organization, it won’t get the focus it needs. Retaining customers adds more to profitability than any other marketing action.

Contact your best customers outside of your regular marketing cycle. Send them special emails, invite them to members’ only events, and say “thank you.” Email is an economical and effective way to stay in touch.

Make it easy for them to use your website, reorder consumable products, and access customer care. Providing specialized service to your best customers will keep them loyal. After all, who wants to shift from personalized customer care to a competitor’s phone tree?

If you want to discuss how this applies to your business, please email me at dellis@wilsonellisconsulting.com.

Gmail’s change from one inbox to automatically sorting emails into tabs continues to capture media attention and concern marketers. New articles filled with ideas on how to game the interface are appearing daily. Email marketers have resorted to begging subscribers to move incoming emails to the primary tab hoping that will give them priority viewing. All of this effort does nothing to address the real elephant in the room.

The Gmail interface is not the problem. It is a solution to email user frustration with an overwhelming inbox. Email is the most economical and effective marketing tool available today. It is easy to implement an email marketing program that consistently generates revenue. The tool works so well that marketers could put their marketing strategy on auto-pilot. And, they did.

Templates were created and populated with the deal of the day. Some marketers were a bit more ambitious. They created several templates so the incoming messages had a touch of freshness but the process was the same – create templates, fill in the blanks, and blanket the subscriber list with the emails. It’s little wonder that people are tired of filtering through massive amounts of similar content.

Before Gmail changed its interface, frustrated subscribers had few options. They could create rules within their email management service to sort the messages. They could manually manage the ever increasing flow. Or, they could opt out by unsubscribing.

Creating rules requires computer skills that are lacking in many households. Manually managing messages is time consuming and frustrating. Unsubscribing could make them miss the messages they want to receive. It was a no win scenario until Gmail stepped in and automated the management process.

The good news is that unsubscribes due to email fatigue should drop for Gmail users. The bad news is that messages that once captured attention with a good subject line won’t be seen until the recipient clicks on the correct tab. What’s an email marketer to do?

Searching for a way around the Gmail tabs isn’t the answer. The email marketing strategies that continue to deliver solid results have one thing in common – relevance. Content that solves problems for subscribers will be found and read. And, if it is really good, the recipients will move it to the primary tab without being asked.

There are other advantages to changing strategies from global promotions to targeted content:

It improves relevancy to all subscribers. Gmail was the first to make email management easier. Other services are bound to follow.

Customer loyalty is improved. Consistently solving problems for subscribers makes it very hard for competitors to steal customers.

Marketing messages receive better responses. The trust that is built by providing targeted messages makes subscribers more receptive to promotional emails.

You get to know your customers better. Studying customer preferences to create targeted messages helps identify product and service needs too.

Your active subscribers want to hear from your company. Even with massive amounts of emails arriving daily, they haven’t opted out. The question that has to be asked and answered on an individual level is “What does this person want or need from our company?” Finding the answer and delivering what people want is the key to long-term corporate success.

For specific ways to improve your connection with subscribers, check out 31 Ways to Supercharge Your Email Marketing.

People opt out of email campaigns long before they hit the unsubscribe button. Relationships that began with anticipation for the promised goodies start to wane over time. In some cases, people leave because of natural attrition or limited needs. If your subscribers match your customer profile, this accounts for 10-15% of your unsubscribes. The rest leave because they were bored or overwhelmed.

Email volume continues to increase at a double digit rate. According to Experian Marketing Services’ Quarterly Email Benchmark Study for second quarter, 2013, the overall increase over 2012 is 17.9%. The breakdown by industry is more interesting than the global volume metric. Two segments, Business Products and Media had double digit decreases in the emails sent. Catalogers, Multichannel Retailers, and Consumer Products had the highest increases coming in at over 22% each.

Source: Experian Marketing Services

In a nutshell, B2B companies just got extra room in the inbox while B2C businesses can expect a highly competitive holiday season.

Information overload is an even bigger challenge for consumer companies than the crowded inboxes. People check out mentally when they are overwhelmed with marketing messages. Emails are unread months before people pull the trigger to unsubscribe.

Gmail’s automated sorting interface has received positive reactions because it creates an easier process for users to manage their inbox. The full effect on email marketing campaigns won’t be known until after holiday 2013. Marketers need to refine their analytics so they’ll have early warning about pending problems. Creating a contingency plan now shortens the time between issue and resolution.

There is some good news for companies marketing to Gmail users. The new inbox features reduces email fatigue because the sea of incoming messages are hidden. If they visit the promotions tab, they may not be as brain dead as people without the tabs.

Email fatigue is magnified by high volumes of similar messages. A review of promotional emails from 100 retailers found that they were essentially the same template with different branding. The experience was similar to reviewing combination apparel and home décor catalogs in the early 1990’s. Companies used the same layouts with similar product lines. Covering the logo made brand identification virtually impossible.

Marketers have a dilemma. If the marketing message is too different from the norm, people are hesitant about accepting it. If it is too similar, brand identity is lost. Relationships require brand recognition.

Creating emails that people want to read is the antidote to email fatigue. Your customers and prospects will seek the messages they want to read. Building that relationship takes time and effort but the reward is a strong connection that supersedes changes in the marketplace. To keep email fatigue from setting in:

Mix it up. Send a combination of promotional and educational emails to keep people interested in the content.

Target well. Identify people’s preferences so you can speak directly to their needs and wants.

Be too good to ignore. If your emails solve problems or make life better, your recipients won’t want to miss one. EVER.

Pay attention to the details. Make sure emails are deliverable and your brand is easily recognized.

Monitor and measure. Email fatigue shows up in open and click rates before it affects conversion.

You don’t have to be a marketing guru to deliver great email results. Follow the tips in 31 Ways to Supercharge Your Email Marketing to increased sales and profitability.