Consider these facts (as sourced from the DMA Statistical Fact Book):

• Consumers receive on average 25 pieces of promotional mail each and every day!
• The USPS estimates the volume of direct mail in a typical year to be 100 million pieces.

The sheer volume of mail is making it harder and harder for mailers to break through the clutter. On top of volume, consumers continue to complain about intrusive marketing (such as outbound telemarketing and unsolicited e-mail marketing), as evidenced by the Do Not Call initiative, the CAN-SPAM Act and other privacy legislation.

So, as direct marketers, how do we continue to generate responses, leads and revenues? We believe that one important tool in our arsenal is the effective use of multi-channel marketing.

It is key to integrate all of your marketing efforts in order to maximize your marketing investment. If done correctly, a multi-channel approach should reap more profits than the sum of each program deployed alone. It's critical to understand the correct communications 'path'. For example, should you send a direct mail piece, followed up with a phone call? Should you then e-mail? And, how do you control for the other offers out there in print or on TV?

Finally, it's imperative to understand channel preferences. Do you know which customer prefers to receive a catalog, which likes e-mail, and which simply wants to be left alone–they'll contact you when they're ready to buy?

There are some tactical methods that can maximize your overall marketing investment through the successful implementation of multi-channel marketing. RRW uses an analytical, test-and-learn approach that allows us to identify the communications mix that generates the most profit. We also offer tools to help get a handle on channel preferences.

Let us know if you'd like a copy of our White Paper featuring leading Multi-Channel Marketing practices. Or, if you'd like to chat about your program - just call us at (503) 206-5255, or visit our website: www.rrwconsulting.com.

What a great time to be a marketer! We have so many options in terms of reaching and communicating with our customers and prospects. We can take advantage of the immediacy and cost-effectiveness of e-mail marketing. We can WOW the marketplace with our brilliant TV ad, and even target that message through strategic placement on the variety of networks now available to us. Or, we can use direct mail, print, event marketing—our choices are infinite!

The challenge, of course, is to figure out how to make the right choices—the choices that will result in increased sales and profit — and happy customers. Unfortunately, when a multi-channel marketing program isn’t well integrated, it’s very easy to do just the opposite — upset good customers. Have you ever purchased a product or service through a retail channel, only to find that you could have purchased the same item from the same provider cheaper online? Or, have you seen prospects receive a better offer than loyal customers? What a great way to annoy your good customers.

It’s key to integrate all of your marketing efforts in order to maximize the marketing investment. If done correctly, a multi-channel marketing approach should reap more profits than the sum of the programs deployed alone. It’s critical to understand the correct communications ‘path’. For example, should you send a direct mail piece, followed up with a phone call? Should you also e-mail? And, how do you control for the other offers out there in print or on TV?

Finally, it’s imperative to understand channel preferences. Do you know which customer prefers to receive a catalog, which likes e-mail, and which simply wants to be left alone—they’ll contact you when they’re ready to buy?

You’re right — it’s not easy! However, there are some tactical methodologies that can truly maximize your overall marketing investment. RRW Consulting can help you develop successful multi-channel marketing strategies. We use an analytical, test and learn approach that allows us to identify the communications mix that generates the most profit. We also offer tools to help get a handle on channel preferences.

Let us know if you'd like a no-charge copy of our White Paper, titled Multi-Channel Integrated Marketing which features market leading channel integration practices. We'd be happy to send it your way.

Now agencies must be careful, as Google is looking more and more like the the agency killer as it makes the basics easier and easier for clients to do themselves. This will be an interesting move in the future of agency/client relationships and where "value" resides.

As long as you are not using an affiliate model where they will drop you like bad habits as soon as they see a phone number prominently placed with a large call to action, a "call me now button" might be a good test. The call must be as close to real time as possible as people have come to expect it, but it might close a sale that would not have happened, or worse, gone to your competitor because they answered the question online.

It's not the holy grail for increasing conversion, but something worth testing again as others focus on fancy technology and flash. Let them play with exciting things that might help adn might not, and focus in on what consumers want, information the way THEY want it.

As we get ready to launch the public beta for MailHarbor v2.0, let me pose a question to the HarborBlog faithful: What marketing channels work best for your business?

We have conversations with people all of the time, and most people seem to be stuck on direct mail or email. What about SMS (text messaging) or voicemail? Anyone know how to effectively use RSS feeds as a means to send out your campaign?

So, as a primer for our release we'll be posting helpful information on these lesser used marketing channels leading up to our June 10 beta launch. This should help give you, MailHarbor users, the ability to make an educated decision when faced with what marketing channels will work best for your organization.

The interesting component is that they offer analytics through set-top box such as seconds tuned per impression and the number of people who watched the spot from beginning to end. Will be interesting to see if they look at tracking spot times and search queries in the same market to report how offline media drives people to the web for more information.

A:  What a conundrum . . . and one that we are VERY familiar with.  As small consultancy firms, this always presents a dilemma.  Here are a few things that we've done to break through and get large companies to listen to us:

1. Use your network.  If you know ANYONE who knows ANYONE within the company that you're targeting, use that person to get you an introduction in to the marketing folks.  If you're like us, once you get in and talk to the actual client, you usually get the gig or at least an opportunity down the road.  If you need to build up your network, try to figure out where your target audience hangs out and go there.  One great venue for us has always been the Direct Marketing Association's Annual Conference.  We never attend one of these conferences without ending up with some business.   In addition, look at other local association meetings where your target companies may be involved on the board -- i.e., the local DMA or AMA -- and start to attend those meetings so that you can introduce yourself and start to build the relationship.
2. Partner with other direct marketers.  One of the things that we're trying now is to partner with other direct marketers who offer services that we don't.  So, you'd be a perfect partner.  We don't do printing or creative services.  Our niche is in data and analytics.  So, work with people like us who offer complimentary services to what you offer.  Why do this? (A) the other firm may have contacts where you don't have them and vice versa and (B) you are able to present more comprehensive service offerings this way -- as opposed to just your own.
3. Practice what we preach:  We are all direct marketers, right?  Use the principles of direct marketing to make yourself appear just as professional and talented as those big guys.  Let's face it, some of the bigger agencies don't present themselves all that well.  Take a hard look at your website, your marketing materials, your blog, your e-marketing messages . . . the whole shebang.  Make certain that you are presenting a package that would appeal to any business -- regardless of size.  Use multi-channel marketing to get the word out about your superior services.  We tell our clients to do this and sometimes forget to do it ourselves!

We hope that these three ideas provide you with a framework of how to tackle that next large corporation.  Good luck!

Mediavest is the only agency to currently use this technology. The new technology is a big win for TV, since it has recently been under a lot of pressure for not being able to be measured like online.

I believe branding can be accomplished with direct response marketing, especially with the economy entering a recession. Display ads don't need to be amazing creative masterpieces, their goal is to drive a click to a landing page that the user can learn more or engage with the brand. Whats wrong with a banner saying click here to learn more from a top 20 brand? I don't see anything wrong, and think Coke Zero did a great branding job online during March Madness with 100% online promotion.

Brands can go online and push promotions and differentiating factors on a CPC buy and only buy clicks from interested individuals where a TV or two-page print add is paid upfront. The risk is greatly reduced of looked at from a media viewpoint.

Brands that are willing to take the risk and use the economies of scale that the internet has to offer might become the big winners after the economy turns around and consumers are more confident and begin spending. The other large benefit the internet has to offer brand marketers is tracking and optimization. Print and TV can be targeted by publication and site, but not much further. Online marketing allows the net to be cast wide and far and then honed back in based upon results, oh yeah, creative can be tested as well.

All of this leads me to believe that branding campaigns can be successful online. With the technology of rich media banners placing TV commercials in a banner (Coke Zero lawyer campaign) to buying on a CPC or CPM below $1, online marketing offers brand advertisers a wide variety of options to pursue. I agree it does not have the cache of a Super Bowl spot, or a 1/4 page spread in the WSJ, but I can stretch the dollar a lot further and get more eyeballs and engagement with the brand than a traditional media campaign.

Overall, brand marketers need to be media cognostic and not worry about the media that is being used, but choose the right media for the campaign objectives whatever they might be. After all, GM would not come out and say they are shifting 50% of their ad spending to online marketing if I was completely wrong.

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750

TV, radio, print, direct mail, display advertising, and all other mediums are the starting pitchers and middle relievers that do so much work to get the team in the correct place to bring in the "ace". This for marketing in may eyes is Google and Yahoo. The mass mediums drive awareness and brands through the heads of individuals and when they are ready to learn more or buy online, Google is there to save the day.

Brands must make sure they have a strong closer (search campaign) to compliment their Cy Young (traditional media). They must also utilize technology to evaluate the starting pitcher and middle relievers to see their effect on the overall success, and not just give 100% of the credit to ace Google.

The TV show should take a tip from the online world of posts and blogs and make the show more interactive. Cops 2.0 has the bottom 1/4th of the screen dedicated for viewers to comment on the show. I think shows like American Idol that are senseless entertainment should incorporate more viewer engagement so that viewers can interact with one another during the show and post comments about performances. Once again, I think TV is one step short.

1. Channel--are there channels that you should be using that you currently ignore?
2. How do generational attributes impact campaign success?

Idea 6: Test New Channels to Reach Your Customer Base

It’s key to integrate all of your marketing efforts in order to maximize the marketing investment. If done correctly, a multi-channel marketing approach should reap more profits than the sum of the programs deployed alone.

It’s critical to understand the correct communications ‘path’. For example, should you send a direct mail piece, followed up with a phone call? Should you also e-mail? And, how do you control for the other offers out there in print or on TV?

It’s also imperative to understand channel preferences. Do you know which customers prefer to receive a catalog, which like e-mail, and which customers simply want to be left alone—they’ll contact you when they’re ready to buy? There are some tactical methodologies that can maximize your overall marketing investment, including using predictive modeling that considers how your customers have interacted with you in the past to predict how they'd like to interact with you in the future.

We’ve written a White Paper that features market leading channel integration practices. Let us know (via e-mail or comment) if you’d like a copy.

Idea 7: Test to See if Generational Attributes Impact Results

Today there are five living generations. Each one interprets information differently and possesses unique buying behaviors. The generation of the future, The Millennials will be your decision-makers in 2010 and beyond. It is important to understand this generation as you are planning product and service enhancements, and as you develop future marketing strategy.

The Millennials are the largest in size of any generation and will significantly impact each of us in our marketing efforts. Consider tweaking your message and/or offer so that it resonates with each of the five generations. If done correctly, you should see improved results as you are communicating with them in a language they can understand.

By the way, we've also documented the key attributes of each of the generational groups. Let us know if you’d like this document.

Prior Test-and-Learn articles:

Idea 1: Evaluate Testing Strategies for New Customer Acquisition Programs

Idea 2: Get Your Analytical House in Order

Idea 3: Integrate Your Data to Understand Your Customer Relationships

Idea 4: Grow Your Customer Relationships

Idea 5: Evaluate Your Retention Program

Etailers have historically been slow adopters of new technology, preferring to watch for success at competitors before dipping their toe in the water. Examining the evolution of dialog in this industry, just recently simple testing scenarios were all the rage and today we're hearing this great dialog about targeting consumer needs... this is a huge shift in thought and a wonderful thing to see! In some regards, this is probably an evolution from consumer generated content, more than a shift from testing to personalization, regardless I love it!

One area I would like to elaborate upon is the forms of personalization he details:  from targeting online behaviors to physical goods. The point I would like to make is that these really shouldn't be viewed as separate efforts, rather, a continuation of a strategy to learn more about prospects and customers and start servicing their needs. That is, if you're going to manage a program for customization of physical goods, say jeans, why would you not augment that with a program to reinforce those expressed needs when a user comes back to a homepage or receives an email?

Using this example, when a consumer designs a personalized pair of jeans, how much more successful would the campaign be if the ensuing communications on the website, email, and direct mail offered a coordinated communications effort focused on: showing matching accessories and additional fabrics that fit the same genre of jean, then later, as the seasons change, offer different styles and fabric weights that are appropriate for the temperature.

Creating additional sophistication in this campaign, consider the efficiency a retailer could generate if they were to track the responses of this consumer, as they respond to the different communications channels. Over time, one could determine more than just the relevant message, but also, the preferred methods of communication.

It's the same customer. They have the same needs regardless of product or communications channel.

Yes, there is a lifespan associated with behavioral learning, relevance decays rather quickly. These types of campaigns are most successful if the retailer can generate a response in the first few weeks. However, the reality is that the rate of decay is very specific to environmental variables associated with each use-case. This decay should be a part of the measurement and analysis process so one can optimize their program over time.

Wrapping up my point, focusing on single slice of your relationship with your customers and producing a personalized communication is a great start but must be seen as the first step of a larger program. Learning from consumers that cross your path, storing that data in a central data database where future programs can consume and contribute visitor level data, is the single largest key that a marketer can build into their strategy to increase relevance.

Personalization campaigns must transcend individual contact points - web pages, emails, banners, and even physical goods.

Love to hear your thoughts -

Mark

Ads now have the ability to collect email addresses, do commerce, and promote contests that microsites used to be vital for. If a company truly needs a microsite, think about hosting on the corporate domain and dedicating a small amount of real estate on the home page to drive traffic to the "site". An average TV viewer has a better chance at remembering a corporate domain, than some randomly generated domain just for the campaign. Don't just go building a microsite because that is what was done in the past. I ask people to stop and think about what the lifespan of the microsite will be and what they will need to do to keep the campaign alive.

Instead, look at spending money on a quality rich media campaign with all the functionality of a microsite in the ad itself. Once the campaign is over, you can pull ad. You can also design pages on MySpace and Facebook if the audience is right to support the campaign, once again, much less expensive than a microsite. Marketers have so many technologies available to them now, but they must know what to use and when.

I agree that Google probably gets a relatively large conversion rate due to other advertising mediums, whether it be print, TV, display, email, word of mouth or whatever but the fact is, search is usually the last touch point before a conversion. I thought about a baseball game and thought it was a decent metaphor for the scenario. Starting pitchers cost a lot of money and can usually get through roughly 2/3 of a game, then there are several changes in the 6th-8th innings depending on score, batter, etc. Then finally the closer comes out of the bullpen and attempts to close the deal. Google/Yahoo is the closer in this scenario. Companies need to use other mediums to raise awareness and "put them in the lead" for Google to be the last touch point and close.

I still believe a multi-channel advertising campaign is best suited and technology like Atlas provides a lot of value, but Google will always be seen as the closer. I think it is important to be able to track touch points, view through conversions, and frequency before someone converts as that data leads to better multi-channel campaigns. Companies also like to piggyback competitors ad spend and advertise exclusively on search thus reducing the marketing budget and becoming more profitable than their competitors who are using offline media to drive people to the web to use who else, Google, to find out their competitor offers a better product. Some affiliate portals are making a killing off companies who use offline media to drive interest and thus people go online to search for more info. Affiliates in the education space gobble up those leads and sell them back to the company that spent so much money on TV ads.

The article was a good read about tracking and the importance, but I disagree that the model is going to change in any time soon.

One of the key values in building a powerful brand is that it conveys a message that lifts a marketers offering above the competition to provide sales inertia, acceptance and resulting revenue. Implied in this statement is the point that there are shared values, ones that people can pass along to others. A good example is the prestige that a beautiful luxury car connotes to others. The car is psychologically an extension of the buyers persona, and others who see this person in the car connote certain similar thoughts and feelings to the owner and reinforces their desire to be an owner of a similar car.

So, if one of the great powers associated with a great brand is the ability to communicate particular feelings and thoughts about consumers to future prospects, how can this be accomplished in a world where everyone receives a different message? If the brand attributes, communications, are tailored at an individual level, how can one effectively transfer the message to others?

The answer is that 1 to 1 is more suitable as a tactic within a broader consumer strategy and not a strategy in and of itself. That is, having the ability to communicate 100% customized messages to each and every customer and prospect doesn’t mean that doing so is actually better. Extending the example of the car, above, consider a prospective buyer who first expresses interest in the car by going to a dealership to test drive the car. This person has obviously bought into the brand message. In this situation, should the sales person construct a tailored follow up to the prospect, sending a personal letter or email that details their conversation and then follow up with a personal phone call? Of course!

A message that is attractive to the target audience allows others to be persuaded by the brand message; however, a 100% targeted message would be beneficial in certain instances where a marketer is trying to leverage the self expressions of a prospect who has already identified themselves as an adopter of the brand message.

Even if you disagree with my premise, you have to love this... the original script for the 1975 blockbuster, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear them.

Mark

Anyways, whether I knew the car name or not, its good to see success from mainstream media driving people to the web whether there is a strong call to action or not. I do not remember the end tags of the commercial, and barely remember the ad other than it compared to size of BMW 7 series, but it appears that it spiked interest and drove people to the site. One must note that the chart below is based on percentage and not actual visitors, I would be willing to bet a large sum of money GoDaddy.com would come out on top of that list hands down.

The Hitwise report numbers are below, some interesting numbers are present.

I saw the "beaver" ad and was a little surprised they even tried to get that ad approved, but hey, sex sells. Anyways, I think Go Daddy did a great job of using their $2 million dollar ad to drive people to the web. The numbers this year have blown away the numbers from the previous three years of Super Bowl ads. Parsons says this year has been a smash, amazing results with a fraction of the cost. Last year they had three spots and only drove 500,000 visitors.

This should be a wake up call to advertisers who say driving to the web is not a priority. Many say Super Bowl ads are only for branding, but I would argue there are only a select few brands that can place ads on the Super Bowl only for branding. Brands need to be more strategic with their media spends and make sure they now include an online component. Even my favorite ad, the Tide-to-Go talkingstain ad drove people to mytalkingstain.com.

Not only does the user have to go through the hassle of scanning the code from their phone, their phone needs to have the special software that can read the code. The article says Nokia phones has it, but to be honest, I haven't seen too many nokia phones around lately. The other issue i have with this solution, is what the hell is the value for the customer to scan this code? If its a print ad, it will have the offer, the product and most likely a url if it's driving to the web. I am much more likely to type the url in my browser on my phone than scan some small 2-D code.

It's one of those ideas that seems to make sense to solve a solution, but just won't work. Google is trying to become the everything to everyone in marketing and it appears it just isn't easy.

I give Godaddy.com an A+ for their ad about the rejected Danica Patrick ad being seen only at godaddy.com. This is a brilliant way to leverage their previous ads (racy, sexy) in previous Super Bowls to drive people to their website. The ad has a guy watching his computer while the rest of the party is watching the game, but once he gets the Danica Patrick ad loaded, they all run to his computer and the end tag has a classic "see Danica's exposure..........only at GoDaddy.com"

If you are trying to get people to buy a new house in this market, my hunch is that the twentysomethings are not who you should target. They need to speak to people who are in their 30's and 40's who have equity in their house and willing to "trade" up in this rough time. They will most likely not get the same premium on their home as they would have been able to see a couple years ago, but the exchange is they won't be paying the premium on the upgraded house either, thus equalling out (if stress of selling and buying in this market is "equalling")

So, if you are speaking to that market, don't make their eyes hurt. The site has so much information crammed above the fold its hard to read. They then use Rovion or some other site "spokesman" technology as a lady walks out and begins talking. They really should make it clear what they want the user to do, take a hint from Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think". As dumb as it sounds, its true. We are lazy when we go online. We don't want to have to work to find info, we want the site to tell us what to do next.

The site is trying to sell in a rough time, and I don't think it even does a good job at selling as the print is so small. I would love to see a clickmap overlay on this page, and a heatmap study to see where eyeballs go, as there is no clear call to action for my next action. This campaign just seems to be getting off on the wrong foot overall.

Direct response marketers that use TV, print and online need to push harder on the analytics companies to make them begin to look at the big picture. As the word interact was originally used, I see TV and print as an interactive medium when pushing to the web. If a company wants to run a Super Bowl ad, they should be able to track success from several measures. They should use vanity url's to try and capture the success, but they should also look at search volume, and traffic to a corporate site as well.  I am sure we are all guilty of forgetting a vanity url and using the corporate or submitting a query to Google.

I am glad to see people have concerns on multi-channel marketing as this will drive to better reporting, I just don't want them to sell themselves short and not demand "true" multi-channel trackability.

A:  Believe it or not, telemarketing remains a viable channel for many direct marketers.  In fact, response rates and ROI from telemarketing remain strong.  Of course, the big issue in this industry is that it's hard to come by enough phone numbers to make a campaign worthwhile.  So many people have signed up on the DNC list that quantities of phone-able records are pretty tiny.

With that said, I'd definitely consider telemarketing as part of your multi-channel mix.