June « 2009 « VLG Dialog Marketing

Archive for June 2009

Our Goal: 100 Fans

June 30 2009

Scratching your head to figure out how to measure social media’s revenue impact? You’re not alone. High-level stats may look like this:

Twitter: Following 46/Followers 153
Facebook Group: Fans 80**
LinkedIn Group: Members 68
SMS Subscribers: 24
Newsletter Subscribers: 623

What do they really mean? Our numbers (above) compare favorable to others our size, I think. Actually, I don’t really know what the competition is doing, or if that’s the right measuring stick for our efforts. We don’t approach this in a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses way. Our measure so far is on quality. People that follow us, are fans, are members or subscribers appear to be really, really smart.

As a small organization we can follow a prospect through our social media pipeline through to sale, but we have a harder time quantifying the sunk costs of getting them there. We can only imagine the complexity of a larger organization’s social media efforts. It seems obvious to us that social media is about small, highly interactive groups. So maybe corporate marketing shouldn’t only the social media face of the company. Maybe it’s the local franchisee, the product manager, or the field marketer. I don’t think anyone has all the answers yet. If you come across someone that does, be suspicious, very suspicious.

We’ve taken a goal-based approach that walks the line between strategy and necessity. Much of our social media experience/experiment seeks to prove out different strategies before we suggest solutions to our clients. We practice what we preach. We also need to be in the space out of necessity. Each day social media encroaches on marketing budgets and spend, taking time and attention away from quantifiable marketing efforts.

You can do both and should. Pull together a strategy that closes the loop from direct outbound to social media inbound to quantifiable results. Pull together small teams and micro-campaigns to leverage social media, because the life-cycle of a advertising campaign is shrinking.

(We’ll take a closer look at the public’s attention span next week after the holiday, because people have shorter attention spans going into a three-day holiday.)

**Finally, we need 20 more fans to reach a 100 in Facebook. Why is this important? It takes one hundred fans to earn your way into a vanity URL for your group. Vanity URLs, custom tabs and fb applications are another reason we should be excitedly cautious about the evolved Internet today. Thanks for that little bit of advice @alexrudloff.

The Whole Enchilada

June 26 2009

Branding agencies are good at what they do, packaged goods at what they do, marketing consultants at what they do, and interactive shops at what they do. So, why would a customer go to one agency for the whole enchilada, for everything.

A whole plate of enchiladas is not what the client is asking for today. They want Fajitas; they want the sizzle. With our customers’ best interests in mind, let’s focus on complementing product and service solutions with something that gets seared into the minds of the consumers without bogging down the brand. We suggest micro-campaigns, because they are less expensive to execute, high impact, memorable, viral, sticky. But they are not permanent. As the life cycle of a marketing campaign shortens, so does the need to shorten the sales cycle.

In the crazy, mixed-up world that is marketing and advertising today there appears to be a trend that has fractured the idea and execution of marketing campaigns across all media. Once you have a brand the need for marketing support evaporates. Companies bring maintenance of the brand in-house and the agency loses. Once you build a website with a CMS the need for design and development services dwindles. I could go on, but you get it.

Down economies only increase a company’s desire to keep money in-house by sacrificing good-to-great advertising for good-enough advertising. And so the advertising industry finds itself in a period of transformation. As an agency we can’t put a retainer in front of a customer, because they don’t want to sign an annual contract and won’t. They want point solutions and better control of their budgets, which is fine with us.

The agency of the future, which we like to think we are, should prepare itself for this new customer/agency relationship. When your customer can take a power point presentation, convert it to Flash, add voice over and click “Go”, it’s time to think about your business model. Self-serve marketing has arrived. The question for our agency becomes, “How do I empower my customer?”, not “How do I trap them into a longer-term contract?”

Why Traditional Could Work

June 24 2009

The chorus line seems committed to using social media to do something, push out news, provide consumer alerts, deliver content to loyal customers, fish for new business, establish a thought leadership role in your industry—all that. It’s a great social experiment and shakes the foundation of an industry wedded to tradition, high margins and the intrinsic value of creative.

Nobody should draw any conclusions yet about social media’s impact on the bottom line. It’s too soon to tell. So, we’re going to table social media and focus on something old and familiar.

You might not be talking about traditional media during budget talks, but you should be.

Traditional media, direct mail, radio, outdoor, t.v., etc, should evolve as the industry evolves. Attention should be paid to teaching these old dogs new tricks.

I recently moved into a new home and I’m new to the neighborhood. Lucky for me local retailers were quick to realize I’d made the move and were kind enough to send me loads of junk mail for this service or that. Those went straight to the recycling bin. The only company that didn’t hit me with any “new” neighbor offers was Lowe’s. I guess they figured I didn’t need an incentive to visit their store. They were right.

While driving in the car last week a local radio station listed the top 10 most memorable radio jingles in the local market. I knew six of them by heart, but there is no way I’d consider buying a car based on a jingle. I’m not even sure a jingle would get me to the dealership. I pass 10 of them on my way home, so why not start my car buying experience at one of those?

Next to newspapers, television as a vehicle to deliver advertising is taking a beating in the press. Numbers are off and with good reason. I get a kick out of ads, but in this economy I’m brand neutral and buy on price. When I see a cartoon bear using toilet paper in the woods, I think, “Does a bear shit in the woods?” Yes, yes it does.

Outdoor is prevalent here in Texas, more so than in other parts of the world. It’s fascinating to see what and how outdoor is used to promote events, products, service and the like. My favorite are the signs that have an 800 number in 12 point font. What were they thinking? I’m already sending and text and talking on the phone. How in the world am I going to pull out a pin and write down the number.

Most traditional media fails to hit its mark. Media buyers and sellers will obviously disagree, but it’s true. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Direct mail needs to be relevant, personal and drive the recipient into a call to action. We happen to recommend the web be the destination. Television needs to go shorter or longer. Give me a 10 or 15 second spot, or a 2 minute short. Either hit me over the head or tell me a story, but don’t have two birds talk to me for 30 seconds. Radio could be in trouble. Any ideas on how to help them? Finally, outdoor. Just put a unique URL up there, like www.GetBackToHere.com. To where? I don’t know, but I’ll find out. Or, you could just use plastic cows that can write, they just can’t write well.

We don’t have all the answers. Heck, we may only have a few. That’s the point. In the euphoria of social media, let’s not forget that traditional media can deliver value. We just need to reinvent how and what we deliver.

Right Place, Right Time

June 23 2009

We want to be in the right place at the right time. All marketers, business developers, people that play bingo or the lottery want to be there when good things happen.

If you’re top-of-mind you’re already there. If you’re not, how do you get there? Some argue brand awareness. We think differently.

The costs of raw data, including demographics and contact information, continues to drop. With volume comes noise. More data means we need better filters and the ability to cut that information into smaller, relatable buckets. With better defined buckets of consumers your message can be made more relevant and more effective by extension.

Being in the right place at the right time requires brand participation, not brand recognition. It’s the relevance of the brand community that drives consumer behavior, not a mark or logo. The brand has always been holistic. Brand equity as a measure of brand value could be misleading in today’s environment.

This idea of a brand community is difficult to wrap your arms around, but it sure sounds good. Social media is one option and loyalty programs another. Self-identification with a brand, yet another.

At the end of the day, we want people to buy. We want revenue. We want to be there when they are ready to make that buy-decision.

The marketing funnel becomes the engine that drives not just brand awareness, but more importantly self-identification and the construction of a brand community. If you can organize specific brand communities (and there will be lots of them) and deliver a relevant messaging, you will find yourself in the right place at the right time.

Schooner Tuna

June 22 2009

The parallels between 1983’s Mr. Mom and today’s automotive woes are scary. Jack Butler (Michael Keaton) loses his auto plant job due to layoffs. Caroline (Teri Garr) is forced to return to advertising to support the family.

Hijinks ensue. Jack can’t handle the kids. Caroline handles a sexist boss. Jack is hit on by his wife’s friend. Caroline strikes gold with one of the best tag lines in movie history. “Schooner Tuna, the tuna with a heart.” Classic. [If you have the full transcript of this commercial, please share.]

The point of the commercial shouldn’t be lost on marketers today. It is really easy to turn to price drops to increase demand for products and services in a down economy, but at what cost? If you positioned your brand as the high-end, quality solution, a price cut may do more harm than good.

Car makers, phone companies, clothing stores and more have turned to the Schooner Tuna approach. Schooner dropped prices, temporarily, to lend a hand to working moms (and dads) with the promise that it would raise prices when the economy turned upwards. America was coming out of the 1970s slump at the time, so the movie made sense.

Virgin offers pink-slip protection, Saturn, Hyundai and others have car payment assurance plans. If you get fired no worries they say, we’ll take the car back or let you keep it. What are dealers going to do with inventory on the lot anyway?

Will this approach work? Only time will tell.

As for VLG, our customers and prospects continue to ask us to slash prices citing tighter budgets. We positioned ourselves as a quality alternative to HTML landing pages and junk mail. We offer ourselves as much margin as makes sense in this ecoomy, but can’t go giving away the store to win or keep business. Instead we’ve chosen to vary our offering.

Multiple branches, custom actionscript, .Net manipulation of our application used in the past give way to smaller sites that deliver the slightly less functionality. This way we get to focus on delivering the best creative. Steady development and execution keep us from losing money on smaller deals where our margins are thin.

We obviously believe it does make sense for some of our clients to build robust sites. If you’re going to extend this program to your channel partners it makes sense to build a larger, more complicated microsite. Our quality, even on a small scale, beats the pants of traditional junk mail and static lead qual, form submit landing pages.

VLG stands for quality and effectiveness. We offer creative solutions to blunt the impact of this economy and recommend our customers do the same. Don’t sacrifice yourself on the alter of low prices. It could have far reaching consequences.

Selling to the C-Suite

June 19 2009

Selling to a CEO is different than selling to middle or lower-level management. No news here. How it differs is debatable, and should be, but Geoffrey James at BNET put together a piece that offers some good advice.

His article is more of a brush up on what to do than a revelation.

Don’t probe the CEO for new information about his/her company. You should know that going into the meeting. Research and prep goes a long way in the C-Suite.

If you’ve traveled so far through the marketing funnel and sales pipeline that you’re talking to C-level leadership you better have you shit together. That’s another way to say it.

Internal management is going to heavily influence the CEO’s decision, if the final decision rests with the CEO. So you can’t ignore the pitch to them. In fact, you should tailor you pitch and let them help you sell the CEO before you ever step foot in the lush confines of a C-Suite boardroom.

We’re really not an advocate of heavy slide presentations to the C-level, but you need something to show them. Hey, the CEO may not read it, but it’ll illustrate the fact that you care and that you’ve done your homework.

Follow this rule of thumb when it comes to presentations: 10 slides, 20 point font (or bigger), and 30 minutes. 10-20-30. We actually think this should be applied to just about any presentation you build for any audience.

Get biographical information so your chit chat as everyone settles in their seats doesn’t fall back to the weather. Boring. “You like base jumping,” you say. “Me, too.” That may be over the top, but you get the point.

Focus on pain points and objectives. You’ve already identified the CEO’s pain points and objectives in your discussions with the lower-rung folks. Give it to them straight.

Don’t forget a summary slide at the end, a closing. The middle of your presentation may sound like this to the busy CEO. “Blah, blah, blah, blah, Revenue, blah, blah, blah, Cost Savings. Be sure you finish strong.

Courtesy: Delphi

“Look eye, always look eye.” -Mr. Miyagi, The Karate Kid.

[Monday: What does the movie Mr. Mom have to do with the economic downturn?]

MySpace Life Cycle

June 18 2009

Does news that MySpace plans to layoff 30% of its workforce signal the beginning of the end for the once-popular social media platform? The layoffs come on the heels of lost ad revenue and market share to Facebook. Some say MySpace has become the new booty call online–not a great tagline when trying to attract big brands. Lost ad revenue sounds a lot like old media, not new.

MySpace was up and running in August 2003, enjoyed strong growth and became the bellwether social media platform. It’s not a stretch to say that Friendster and the more effective MySpace platform really kicked off the social media movement.

In July 2005, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation legitimized MySpace and spurred the growth of countless imitators. Facebook, an imitator, may very well be the dagger that kills MySpace, or best case forces it into obscurity. Who knows, it might become an attractive acquisition target for Ted Turner.

MySpace celebrates its 6th birthday in August. It feels like an eternity in Internet years. LinkedIn is 6. Facebook is just over 5 years old. Twitter is 3. Marketers are spending loads of time trying to figure out how to monetize, utilize, and justify social media in the marketing mix. Old media, t.v., radio, newspapers, etc., have been around for years. Can we expect the same from social media?

Consider your ability to measure the impact of your social media spend before you go hog wild. If you aren’t tying your work into a platform that captures metrics, you might be flushing money down the drain. Something to think about.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

June 17 2009

If you are in marketing, advertising, the last 9 to 12 months have been brutal. Concerns about budget cuts and layoffs loom around every corner. This made me think of Bobby McFerrin for some reason and now I can’t get his song out of my head. Weird, huh?

This morning I came across something equally inspiring.

Whether you smile-and-move or juke-and-jive take a quick inventory this morning. Re-focus on the important things in life. Have fun.

Go here to learn more about joining the smovement.

Don’t forget the VLG open house this Friday, June 19th. Mingle and meet people that do the same thing you do. Meet people that don’t do anything that you do. Talk about cool things you can do together that will make the world a brighter place. Find out more and RSVP here:

www.BigCouchSession.com

My Back Button

June 16 2009

We really dig Flash microsites. However, Flash navigation confuses some. Unless we plant a back button on the site, you can easily lose a viewer that clicks the browser’s back button.

The VLG labs implemented a test project allowing users to click the back button in the browser and navigate as you would a boring, HTML website. This new feature comes online next week.

Our customers targeting a less-than-web-savvy audience will be able to deliver the intrigue and sophistication of Flash without losing folks married to a back button.

Why tell you all this? It’s another techie item you don’t have to worry about when running a Dialog Marketing program with VLG. We’re constantly evolving our products and services to meet marketing demands. We believe in this stuff and have the numbers to prove it.

Interactive marketing is awesome. It’s the convergence of media with benefits. You can quickly tweak, change and build whatever. It’s not like old-school media, because once you go to press, finish the photo shoot, cut the voice-over track, or drop it in the mail the deal is done. Mulligans are expensive.

Our goal is to keep your eyes on the site as long as possible. It’s not quite as simple as that, but interactive is simple in many ways. Blink if you must, but those that stay and play are more likely buyers. (Try this random staring contest with Jessica Alba.)

Mailman Bitten, Suspected

June 15 2009

Good news from the economy suggests that the Consumer Price Index rose slightly, but fell overall vs. April 2008. Direct marketers rejoice.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) raised postage rates in May 2009. Since 2001 the rates have slowly crept upwards from $0.34 to $0.44, but there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. Despite record losses the USPS remains duty bound by regulatory law to hold market-dominant postage rates as-is for the remainder of 2009. Market-dominant is a nice way of saying government monopoly.

Postage rates are pegged to the CPI, so the 0.7% year-over-year drop means we pay $0.44 until 2010. There is a catch. USPS can ask Congress for a waiver just in case there’s an emergency rate hike needed. Hey, what are the odds Congress would allow the post office to raise rates?

Americans aren’t using the Postal Service as much as they used to. But that doesn’t mean it will be allowed to scale back easily. —Kathy Chen, The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal tackled the issue yesterday. Ms Chen makes her point. Read her article here. I’ll take and spin it to our advantage. We see rate hikes and cringe, but behind every cloud is a silver lining. With a little help from Uncle Sam, we’ll keep our costs under control.

Don’t get me wrong. We don’t like rate hikes. Worse still it looks like the government could move to a five-day delivery cycle and shut down a few branches to save money, but hasn’t for some reason. We all know that as costs continue to eat through USPS capital it’ll be the customer that pays for mismanagement.

We Americans are not alone. Check out this piece on the impending Royal Mail strike. Dude, what is this world coming to?

Dialog Marketing advice:
B2B direct marketers should scrub, clean, slash and hone in on only the best targets for any direct marketing campaign. We make money on a per mailer basis, but we want a better response rate (22%) and better ROI. Stop sending junk mail. Start sending the good stuff. Take the post office out of the equation with a Dialog Marketing campaign.

VLG Dialog Marketing