• §  Data is King:  OK, I know this isn’t a revelation, but I am continued to be amazed at how few marketers have really thought through how this impacts their marketing efforts.
• §  A recent IDC study found that digital information is doubling every two years.   This is not only true about the data you keep on your customers, it is also true on prospects we are looking for.   No longer can we assume that the best and most relevant prospecting sources are from brand name compiled lists.   Often, the best prospecting sources are from new internet-based sources that may not have even been around a few years ago.  

How has increased data insight changed your marketing strategies?  2012 Action Item:   Develop performance-based data source testing plans for your recruitment efforts.   

Marketing Technology – Increasing capabilities while decreasing costs:   Today’s marketing technology brings capability to the small and medium-sized companies that could only be afforded by the big companies 5 years ago.   Significant advances have been made in key areas:

• §  Marketing Automation / Triggered Email:  New toolsdrive industry-best performance in multi-channel lead management … and is “always on”. 
• §  Real Time Metrics:  You don’t have to wait to evaluate marketing performance.   Know now!
• §  Multi-channel Marketing Data Warehouses:  Increase your marketing success through increased customer Intelligence.   Good news; Today’s technology doesn’t make this a multi-million dollar effort.  

Where does your company stand in leveraging today’s capabilities?  2012 Action Item:   Audit where you are at with your technology position.   Dedicate time to explore options in weak areas.

Multi-channel Integration increases your marketing performance:   However, smart approaches in this area have to be thought through and “performance-based”.

How are you using Integrated Marketing in your marketing plans for customer and prospect lead generation?   2012 Action Item:   Evaluate how your marketing plans leverage Integrated Marketing.   Develop testing strategies in this area and compare results to your current marketing efforts.

If you Google the term, you find different results ranging from company names, book titles to people who attempt to define it… including Biz Stone, Co-Founder of Twitter, who says what it means to him in more than 140 characters.

At this year’s DMA Conference in Boston, Stone was one of the Keynote Speakers. His presentation, titled: Open, Informed & Engaged: A Changing Communication Landscape, covered what he believes is the “Meaningful Market.”

In a time when consumers’ expectations are higher than ever before, it is important for brands and companies to be human. 

This means “Dropping the PR shield,” as Stone noted, and using social media to interact with consumers. The Meaningful Market happens when you invite consumers to be a part of a conversation by asking them what they want to see or hear, creating calls-to-action and deepening the relationship that a consumer has with a brand or company online.

This also involves listening in social media networks.  Find out who is talking about your brand, or just as importantly your brand’s competitors, and reach out to them.

Create two-way communication. Social media isn’t just a way to reach out to more consumers.  It’s also a way for more consumers to reach you. In the Meaningful Market, the terms B2B or B2C Marketing are irrelevant.

We are entering the age of B↔B and B↔C Marketing. Because in the end, the Meaningful Market is all about being thoughtful, meaningful and creating a unique experience for your consumer.

Check out Stone’s entire speech and the Q&A afterwards, or jump to the 10:30 mark to hear Stone talk about the Meaningful Market.

What an inspiration to reinvigorate our own blog and our LinkedIn page!  Please share your thoughts with us, so we can make our conversation more meaningful to you and your business.

Tell us what’s important to you and what challenges you’re facing.  Tell us what you need to know to make your marketing job easier and more profitable. 

We can even give you examples – via the blog and INTouch, our quarterly newsletter – of how to integrate and apply traditional and digital marketing tools. 

When we hit on something meaningful to you, share it with a friend.  No matter how experienced, every marketer could use a little help in growing their business!

We’re even growing within the automotive sector.  In fact, I’m on my way to an auto OEM client meeting right now relating to large-scale, nationwide event marketing programs. 

Toward the end of the news release, Ken talks about how we’re integrating various marketing tools to create our new approach to event marketing which increases sales while reducing cost and complexity of these programs .  (More details to come in the future, so stay tuned to my blog.)

This news release will go out this week to select media, plus seperate big “thank you” to our team.  So, if you see any coverage on ICS in the news in coming weeks, let me know!  And if you’re a client or team member reading this post, thanks for getting us on the list yet again.  We could not have done this without you!

Inc. Magazine Names ICS as One of the Fastest-Growing Companies – 4 Years Running

Lansing, MI – September 30, 2010 – Inc. magazine named ICS Marketing Support Services on its 5000 Growth Companies List of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies for the fourth year-in-a-row.    

 “Fast growth at any time is a big achievement; fast growth during the past few years is just short of miraculous,” said Inc. editor Jane Berentson.

 Out of the 139 Michigan companies to make the list, Inc. ranked ICS as 129^th and published the company’s three-year growth rate at 6%.  Nine of the Michigan companies were listed in the advertising and marketing sector, among which ICS ranked eighth. 

 To qualify, companies must be U.S.-based, privately held and independent – not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies – as of December 31, 2009, and have had at least $80,000 in revenue in 2006 and $2 million in 2009.

 Ken Orr, President of ICS Marketing Support Services, gives four reasons why ICS has consistently grown during a down economy – and especially in Michigan, one of the hardest-hit states.  

 A Diversified Product and Service Offering – Several Eggs in Several Baskets
“Our clients are marketing agencies, as well as marketers from many industries.  ICS saw changes coming in the marketing world, such as the need for integrating data, direct marketing, email, paid search, mobile messaging and other marketing tools.  We successfully capitalized on this trend because of the range and type of products and services we offer.”
 

Clients Changed The Way They Do Business – And ICS Was Ready
“Clients have streamlined their operations – including marketing – and want streamlined solutions to their business challenges.  They also want direct relationships with those creating the solution and making it happen in the real world.  Consequently, we’re included earlier in the process – even as a partner to large agencies – to develop the up-front strategy.  This new approach drives down costs, time and complexity while making sure that every marketing dollar that the client spends truly impacts the bottom line.”        

The Marketing World Keeps Changing, But Data Remains King
“While the Internet and mobile devices are giving marketers new, exciting ways to reach prospects, data is still at the heart of all great marketing.  So, it’s not just our integrated approach and diverse offerings.  It’s also our access to the best data and our expertise in analytics that keeps ICS on Inc. magazine’s list.”   

Future Growth:  Internet Marketing, Mobile Messaging and Bundling the Right Pieces Together
“We see SEM (Search Engine Marketing), Mobile Messaging, Paid Search and so on as evolving tools in our offering mix.  We’re also careful about how we apply new marketing tools.  For example, Mobile Messaging is fraught with privacy issues just by the intrusive nature of it.  But, we’ve found select situations where it’s an effective tool to build customer loyalty for our clients. 

“So while we work hard to keep our products and services cutting-edge, we’re also smart about how we bundle them to meet each client’s needs.  For example, Event Marketing is a perfect scenario where we’re bundling our services in data, paid search, online registration portals, email, direct mail and Web analytics.  It’s the way we’re bundling these services that makes it a total game changer.”

I like Target Marketing Magazine’s research summary overviewing the growth factors in SEM, SEO, online advertising (a.k.a., Pay-Per-Click) and Email Marketing which are among the listed 16 online marketing trends.

More than 80% of marketers are using paid search and SEO and plan to expand search into more segments. As consumers search more online, Google’s AdWord inventory continues to grow.  All music to marketers’ ears as you expand your paid search and SEO efforts. 

Online advertising, “performance-based” media buys and integrated email marketing are also slated for substantial growth through 2014.

These four trends are what ICS is all about and what we’ve been preaching for increased sales lift, better Marketing ROI and overall business growth.  Now, direct marketers across the country are finally starting to see these four tenets as "hot trends for 2010" according to Deliver Magazine.   

Targeting — With our advanced analytics, data management tools and direct marketing experience, you can target on a one-to-one level with specific customers and prospects using a tailored offer at the right time in the customer’s preferred channel.  Plus, you can focus your marketing dollars on targeting your most valuable prospects. 

Measurement/Analysis – Data not only gives you the clearest view of your customers for targeted marketing, but collecting and analyzing data is critical in matching-back sales to specific marketing efforts.  Now more than ever, marketers are on the hook to prove that every dollar you spend is growing the business. 

Integration –  Marketers who execute cross channel campaigns experience a 50 – 400% better response rate than singularly focused campaigns.  To learn about integration trends and what leading companies are doing in multichannel integration, view our on-demand webinar:  "Transforming Practices in Integrated Marketing Communications."

Prospecting — I like the quote in this article, "Today, everybody at every stage of life is open to marketing."  However, you can’t have great sales lead generation without well-honed targeting AND channel integration.  Lead generation is where it all comes together… in my opinion, this is where this article misses the 2010 mark BIG TIME.  Plus, online lead generation didn’t even get a mention!   SEO, SEM and paid search (where customers are actively searching your product/service) are only getting hotter in 2010 and beyond.

So, here’s a timely gift to all of my in-house marketing executive friends that will boost your department’s status in your organization.  This article, "Make the C-Suite Believe", from chiefmarketer.com breaks-down the marketing planning process into simple terms that will not only bring cheer to your CFO, but maybe even get the accounting department to sing your praises on growing the company’s business.

For both in-house and agency marketing friends alike, you will find the “test” section of this article most important for any marketing plan or stand-alone program. Here’s to more measurable marketing ROI in 2010!

Whether or not you choose ICS for your next email marketing project, I want to make sure that your investment and reputation are protected. 

So as you’re putting those finishing touches on your 2010 marketing plans, here are few critical points to consider when choosing an email marketing partner.  And while this article focuses on email lists, the same cautionary tips can apply to almost any direct marketing area.

Sometimes the most targeted campaign is still missing something.

By: Adam Henige

While more and more organizations have at least begun to dip their toes into the world of search marketing, some still fail to see how it will fit into a traditional marketing campaign or precisely how it supplements more traditional methods.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have this discussion in-person with a variety of audiences. It’s been well documented how successful email marketing and direct marketing campaigns can be, particularly when built on excellent lists.

Add onto your mail/email marketing with traditional media buys in print/radio/television with highly targeted demographic ads and you’ve really covered your bases, right? Well, from a push marketing perspective, you sure have (and we’re not even getting into newer media like blogs, Twitter, and Facebook). 

But, what about those people whom you just can’t seem to target?

There will always be a group of people who want what you’re selling, but either don’t know they can get it, or don’t know that you provide it. But when they finally decide to look for a solution, how will they find you?

Well, think about it yourself. How do you find things? Conservative studies have shown that from a retail perspective over 42% of people find Web sites by using search engines. More importantly, compared to the other forms of advertising, a Web site provides you with a stationary audience.

The more complex, innovative or differentiated your product is, the more important it is to provide a detailed and immersive Web experience. Companies who get this have integrated their marketing strategies - using traditional media as a vehicle that often supports a strategic Web experience that captures and maintains the interest of potential customers, hopefully for multiple visits.

So while traditional media can certainly be an effective tool to finding your target audience and generating leads and sales, online search helps widen the net.

Especially in this day and age — it’s just not an option to leave money on the table by missing customers who may literally be heading to Google and asking for your product, which is why digital marketing makes more and more sense as a piece of the marketing mix.

Adam Henige is Managing Partner of Netvantage Marketing, a Strategic Partner of ICS located in East Lansing, Michigan.

While email response rates are continuing to be challenged, Triggered Communications are a key component to adding relevancy to the communications.   And just like any form of communications, the more relevant and engaging, the more likely it is that you will get your message not only opened, but responded to.

A new conversation can be triggered from almost any customer touch point:

• External factors – website forms, shopping cart abandonment, customer service, etc.
• Messages – email activity (opens, clicks, unsubscribe, etc.), address change, etc.
• List – subscribe, profile update, and address change
• Link – specific link in email message

Once the “customer or prospect event” is captured, you can set a communications cadence around the key attributes of this event.  These campaigns allow you to communicate with each subscriber individually based on his or her behavior or response.  Because the messages are related to the specific action taken by the recipient, the conversations are natural and progressive, not sporadic and interruptive. 

For example, a prospect clicked on an email to find out more information on your product, but did not take advantage of the offer.  In the case of triggered communications, we can capture all “like prospects” and design communications cadences specific to this marketing situation. 

These automated campaigns can be structured to follow up in a period of time after their initial response, or even so many days before the offer expires.   Content can be specific to the link they clicked, or specific to the fact that they opened the email and didn’t click on a link.  Testing strategies can be easily incorporated into the process as well.

According to Forrester Research’s US Interactive Marketing Forecast 2009-2014, marketers are taking on a more strategic leadership role in organizations because of their close connections to customers and prospects.   Transactional, triggered email communications are on the rise because they improve open, click and conversion rates dramatically.  

This builds off from the marketing foundation that a “handraiser” is one of your most effective prospect segments (from a percentage basis).  Adding relevant and engaging follow-up communications will nuture leads through the sales cycles to drive more sales.  

Give one of our account managers (or myself) a call to discuss triggered communications in more detail.  

2009 Direct Marketing Association's Annual Conference Oct. 17-21

I can’t remember a year where we have had as much change in our marketing world.  With the economy struggling, this alone has had significant impact.  Add onto this the evolution of new digital tools such as Search, Social Media and Mobile and this year’s Direct Marketing Association’s national convention is bound to be interesting. 

Yet my initial day at the conference reinforces much of what I thought.  While  new tools and mediums evolve, much of the foundation for targeted marketing remains the same:

• Test, test, test:   Continues to be the foundation for targeted media.  With today’s powerful analytics, you can set up your testing strategies to optimize your marketing efforts whether it is your direct marketing acquisition effort, search or your web site. 
• Permission-based:  Permission-based marketing comes in the form of many names now (i.e. opt-in, preference centers, social media invitations), but a constant thread has been forming in marketing for over a decade.  Today’s marketers realize that putting the consumer in the driver’s seat of their communications is the key in today’s world.  Now there are just more targeted consumer options to opt-into than ever before.
• Technology Centric:  Technology continues to drive our advances on many fronts.  More user friendly tools to use without tapping the IT department.  Increased abilities to personalize the medium to known customer attributes, easier and lower cost tools to manage all these efforts.
• Integration:  A couple of decades ago, it was integrating targeted marketing with mass media to deliver improved performance.  Today, these integration points are still important, but can be taken much further.  Web site integration, retail point of sale, digital targeted media campaigns are now all thrown into the mix as well. 

My point in all this is that while times are changing, likely 99.9+ percent of what we see at this year’s DMA will be based on the foundation already set.   Should be an interesting time to see how the industry is doing and where the experts see it all going.  From my first day in attendance, what is being touted as “new” looks very familiar.