What’s the Difference? As marketers, we can get into a rut with our buzz words and even use some words interchangeably. This can inadvertently affect our strategies.

For example, you’re going to tackle your Web site very differently if you’re thinking about attracting qualified leads and how to manage those leads versus trying to get the most possible “hits” to your site.

More Leads, Better Qualified, Now What? Well, if you were opening a storefront, you would make sure that everything was organized and setup properly before flipping-on the “open” sign. The same is true for your Web site. You need to make sure that you’re ready to handle those online leads once they’re in your “door.” Make sure your sales funnel structure is ready to handle the leads properly – or you can loose that prospect forever.

Also, I can’t say it enough – INTEGRATION. To get the most out of your Web site and online marketing, you need to integrate across all of the channels that touch your customer – both online and offline.

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.

Our MarketSmart Technology Suite was able to provide this client with advantages in two distinct areas:

First, our technology platform was able to provide clients with a start up advantage.  Our “object-oriented” approach leverages pre-built modules of functionality.   While we completely customize the application around the unique business processes, our development approach allows us to build solutions for a fraction of the cost, in a fraction of the time of a traditional new build, and with more advanced features right out of the gate.

While startup advantages are critical, the real eye-opener for many clients is the ongoing administrative advantages of today’s technology solutions.  Through the typical lifecycle of marketing programs, ongoing efficiencies will pay even greater dividend for clients:

• Clients can now have direct access to real-time reports right from their desktop — versus having to make a call, connecting with a coordinator and having a report run.  This takes time and the client will likely be charged for the processing.
• Questions and issues can be quickly resolved via administrative access to the system
• Communications can be structured to clients or participants via email versus traditional print and mail communications
• Updates and alerts can be built into the application to notify you when key issues develop
• Customer Fulfillment activity can be electronically managed … saving you hours of administrative logistics (and expense)

While we will see if we win this business, this is another perfect client situation where we can really change the business model for the marketing organization.  Through advanced, data-driven technology, we can reinvent administrative processes … allowing our customers to become more efficient, more productive, and more cost-competitive for their clients.  And similar repeat business will become even more profitable.

Today’s marketing technology solutions directly translate into lower costs and higher customer satisfaction.  If you are still working in an outdated legacy system environment, you may have an uphill battle long-term. And you are likely battling with competitors who have already made the transition.

The biggest increase in Internet use since 2005 can be seen in the 70-75 year-old age group. While just over one-fourth (26%) of 70-75 year olds were online in 2005, 45% of that age group is currently online.

While admittedly, this percentage isn’t as great as the 18-24 year olds (at 89% Internet usage), this does represent a major shift in our thinking as marketers.  No longer can we look at the older generation as ones that cannot be reached through online channels.   Experts told us we had to market through traditional media (with large type fonts, I might add) to reach the generation.   

Today, 60% of those age 60-69 use the Internet, and for those age 70-75, over 45%.   Also, note what they like to do online.  Top activities include:

• 79% use email
• 70% use search engines
• 67% research health information
• 65% make travel arrangements
• And 60% use the Internet to research products

The overall study was very insightful and I would encourage you to take a look at the details.  You might also find it noteworthy that email has lost some ground among teens … with the rise of instant messaging and social networking (I sure could have told you that from the habits of my household).   Here is the link to the full study:  http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1093/generations-online. 

Clearly, our mature market online habits are changing … and the marketing stereotypes and approaches will need to change as well.

While I am sure the economic climate is an element here (isn’t it the blame for everything these days?), I think the “trends toward the use of electronic mail” are an even greater longer-term issue for the USPS.  And as they are forced to raise prices, it will not make matters any better.

Clearly, companies are having to look at every dollar these days.  Utilizing the most customer-effective and cost-effective communications is certainly an area that nearly all companies are reviewing.   And as most things go, technology continues to bring new solutions to the table that enable the small- to mid-sized companies to do what only the larger companies could do in years past.

What do you look for if you are one of those companies evaluating your customer communications?  

• Likely you will want a partner to help navigate the increasing complex data management issues that come with multi-channel marketing integration
• The organization should also have deep expertise across traditional and digital channels (both technical and strategic)

We see the continuation of these trends (lower mail volumes, stronger use of electronic communcations) for the forseeable future.  And yes, a continuation of the increases from USPS.

I asked Joe Ford, our strategic partner from NetVantage Marketing, to pull together a few of the basic things you need to think about.  He actually came up with several items for you to evaluate.  Here are Joe’s thoughts:

Like any marketing initiative, it is always important that your online marketing campaign get off to a good start. The pre-launch work that goes into a campaign can pay large dividends, and it can also save a lot money and headaches in the long run.

The following is a set of questions that can serve as a checklist when you’re looking to get a paid search campaign off the ground.  These are broad questions, in many cases you will want to dig deeper to properly investigate the value points of each area depending on the campaign objectives. You should be getting asked similar questions by your online marketing firm, or asking yourself these questions if managing your campaigns in-house.

1. What is the overall background and mission of the company?

2. What are the goals of your online campaign in relation to:

a. Brand positioning

b. Building awareness

c. Increasing leads

d. Increasing revenue via direct sales/ecommerce

e. Are there any offline/traditional campaign efforts that should be coordinated with the paid search campaign?

3. Has there been past work done in the online marketing arena?  If so, what were the metrics for success, and is there data that we can use to investigate?

4. Has there been web analytics in place to detail the performance of the current website?

5. How long has the website been in its current state? If there has been current changes, was the results tracked through web analytics?

6. Is there a greater emphasis on certain products or services than  others? Should we be marketing and driving traffic to certain products and services that are better sellers or represent higher margin?

7. What is the target audience profile, and what are the different personas throughout the buying cycle (this can have a profound effect on keyword selection)?  Are there any new audiences that we are trying to target with this campaign?

8. Either from current web traffic reports, or from a qualitative business standpoint, what are the keywords that your target audiences are utilizing to find your site?

9. What are the initial keywords that you feel you want to be ranked highly on for your business?

10. Are there any online channels that you deem necessary to be placed on?

11. What is the testing strategy?  What variables will be evaluated, and what is the cause/effect frequency that you or your firm has in place.  (This will be especially important early on in your campaign)

These examples represent a basic foundation of questions to gain the right information to form a strong campaign that hits target audiences and meets your online marketing goals. As you can see, there is a combination of qualitative and quantitative information that needs to be gathered. Keep in mind that these initiatives should be treated with the same processes and standards as any marketing campaign you conduct.

As you can imagine, starting a pay per click campaign without answering these above questions can lead to major trouble and a lot of reactive work post campaign launch.  It is important that this foundation is created as comprehensively as possible.  This will allow your testing platform and refinement strategy to have the best chance for success!

Well, my informal poll is really inconclusive.  Some still use Yellow Pages, some exclusively use the Internet and some use a mix of both depending on what their need is.   I searched the Internet for some more statistical backing in this area.  The reports I found were a little dated and one can only believe that today’s stats would point to an even greater share of consumers using the Internet:

•  –In June 2007, comScore Networks reported that 60% of local consumers now go online to search for local businesses, as opposed to 33% that go first to the printed Yellow Pages.
• –Almost 40% of local shoppers say that a presence on the Internet – or lack of presence – will affect their decision about who they do business with. [Source: Web.com, 2007]
• Nearly 137 billion searches were conducted at the five U.S. core search engines in 2008, representing an increase of
  21 % versus the previous year.  [Source: comScore Networks,  2009]
• Search query growth was driven largely by an increase in searches per searcher, which rose 16% from the previous year, while number of unique searchers grew 6% .   [Source: comScore Networks,  2009]
• Google Sites, which generated nearly 85 billion searches in 2008, accounted for nearly 90 percent of the total growth in
  search query volume during the year.  [Source: comScore Networks,  2009]

Clearly, every business needs to think through how they establish their electronic presence … as it is an increasing part of every company’s marketing efforts.

They were leveraging enticing promotional sweepstakes as a way to drive email activation from customers who had not previously provided email addresses.  Clearly, they understand the communications savings of the email channel and current customer marketing trends in this area.   Take a look below, according to a recent industry channel preference white paper, over 70% of consumers would prefer the email channel for communications from companies they have granted permission to send ongoing communications:

Customer preferences are continuing to evolve … becoming more understanding when email communications is the most effective for their lives.  Clearly, marketers understand the cost efficiencies and speed of the communications.

For marketers, the use of a well designed sweepstakes can be a great way to increase your customer email coverage … ultimately allowing you to lower your customer communications costs and speed to market.