davidpoulos.com

Category: Marketing Cures

  • E-Mail Effectiveness Boosted by Data Availability

    E-Mail Effectiveness Boosted by Data Availability

    How many e-mail messages do you get every day? How many do you really read? How many get discarded based on the sender alone? Note how the numbers indicate a trend?

    I receive at least 100 on most days, 80+ get discarded based on who sent them, even if it’s something I’ve signed up to receive! I just don’t have time . . . The other 20 go to the preview screen for a quick glance, and the top 10 of those get read and responded to that day at some point. Here’s 5 tips for making it to that Top 10:

    5) Make Sure Your Subject Line Has Some Relevance To Me. Aside from what the excellent spam filter dumps off, subject lines with words like NOW, FREE, TODAY float through here and the urgency is not as desperate as the author would like. Worse are the ones who feel that I need their software so badly and that it’s so present and ubiquitous in my mind space that you can open up with the inside jargon and terms you’ve coined in your dorm room right at the get-go, and I’ll know what you’re talking about – NOT RELEVANT.

    4) DON’T Waste My Time. If your subject line is intriguing enough for me to open in preview, be sure you’ve got something to say that I can understand at a glance – if I have to go to five links to get the info I need, we’re both wasting time – you by writing e-mails that are more complicated than they need to be, you might just as well send me the series of links with no text – the result is the same: DELETE.

    3) If You’ve Got a Good Headline, Don’t Bury it in the Image Art, Because I’ll Never See It. Thanks to the preview screen and firewall software, along with Microsoft’s inherent wisdom, anything with an image is held back until I purposely ask for it, to save me from intrusion and overuse of bandwidth. If you put your headline in the image, I see a blank white box – DELETE! Any hope you had of that long-worked-over and clever headline grabbing me are immediately gone.

    2)If You Can’t Use the Data You Have Correctly and Clean Your List Completely, DON’T USE IT! I get mail addressed to one of the many websites I have currently live, about various things, but they assume that putting the web address in the subject line will peak my interest, but the subject or offer have nothing to do with the website they’re using to “get to me”. My favorite is the Chinese granite counter top purveyors sending me offers of cheap product, thinking I’m a contractor or granite wholesaler, based on the name. The did a search for the word Granite and scattergunned an e-mail out to the whole results list – the Doctor says: DELETE

    1) If You Have My Name on Your List, Use it Correctly – Get Your Technology Act Together. I can’t tell you how many e-mails I get with the wrong gender, the use of both names in the wrong order “Dear Poulos, David” and other idiocy of technological laziness. Don’t let the ‘chines ruin your marketing program, proofread your list! Some simple data processing, at roughly $1 a name, all told, will avoid all this and make your list much more useful, to boot. Be a professional, spend a little money, and watch your response rates skyrocket! It’s my name, I’ve had it for decades, you don’t think I’m going to find it first and check that you’re legitimate by it’s use? DELETE!

    Now you know what it takes to get past my barriers. Now it’s up to you to produce technologically savvy, legal and smart e-mail messages if you want to reach me effectively and make me a customer – Good Luck!

    If you found this valuable and would like to read more like this, pick up a copy of “The Marketing Doctor’s Survival Notes”

     

  • Old-School Marketing Can Still Be Effective – If the Math Is Right . . .

    Old-School Marketing Can Still Be Effective – If the Math Is Right . . .

    I just received a living anachronism in my mailbox today – a local vendor card deck.

    This format used to be much more popular, and was often used for B-to-B lead generation 20-40 years ago. If you’re younger and aren’t familiar with these, they are a package of roughly 3″x5″ lightweight cards, printed front and back, packaged up in shrink wrap like a candy bar, with one card acting as the “host” or sponsor and carrying the address block. Each card is a two-sided ad for a different local business, often themed around a group of industries or services pitched to a specific target group. For instance, if I were a deck publisher, and I was creating a deck to send to a list of recently changed addresses, I would likely target new movers by including paid ad cards from a roofer, a cleaning service, a painting company, a landscaper, paving contractor, pool company, lawn service, gutter sales and cleaning, chimney sweeps and other services that people moving into a new home or a new neighborhood might need.

    This one appeared to be pitched not to new movers, but homeowners in general, as it is addressed to me or “Current Occupant” and contained cards from a fence contractor, a counter top company, a landscaper, a pool company, and several others surrounding home ownership and renovation.

    I picked out maybe three vendors that were relevant to my life and my needs, and pitched the rest. The Host card offered a packaged up bundle of prizes by combining offers from three of the vendors, including a restaurant, a pool builder and an interior design firm. The offer isn’t very explicit, but the slug line offers FREE dinner for two, and drives you to a website that will inevitably explain how these three go together to help me win a free dinner for two at the restaurant.

    This format has lost popularity over the years, but at one time was quite lucrative. I know of direct mail publishers who churned out an industry-specific B-to-B deck every quarter, and went on vacation for two months until the next one needed to be put together. Once the ads are sold on a long-term one- or two-year contract, it’s just assemble, print, package, mail. Pretty simple, but the list maintenance was pretty high, in order to keep response levels up and advertisers happy and coming back, and the level of detail to get a larger deck produced correctly is pretty high – it’s like printing a magazine with no editorial and no binding.

    With the advent of local look-up directories on the Internet, such decks as the one in my hand are anachronistic at best, but they must pull and make economic sense to the advertiser, or they wouldn’t exist. Kudos to the publisher for making the math work for them and for keeping this format alive.

    If you’ve seen something in your mailbox that was unexpected, let us know, we’d love to hear about it . . .

    Don’t forget to pick up your copy of “The Marketing Doctor’s Survival Notes”

  • E-Mail Makes A Comeback!

    E-Mail Makes A Comeback!

    There was a time, not too long ago, where marketing pundits and other “experts” were saying that E-mail had run it’s course as a marketing media vehicle, that it was stale, that it’s open rate was too low, that the spam filters and firewalls had made it nearly impossible to get good results with e-mail marketing.

    Now those same pundits (of whom I was not one) are having to eat their words as major marketers are singing the praises of a well-crafted, simple e-mail to your hottest, most worked on lists. As usual, it’s the message, not the medium that counts, and a well-crafted effective anything will always beat the schlocky, hacky, abusive e-mail campaigns that desensitized audiences and killed response rates based on misuse and abuse of the medium and therefore the audience.

    As always, it comes down to personal approaches, real, workmanlike copy, free of typos, grammatical redundancy, slang and other silliness that kill credibility. E-mail is still mail, and it’s still sent to a single address, which means there’s a person on the other end. Simply write with that person in mind, on a one-to-one basis, and suddenly watch open rates soar, response rates double or triple, and sales shoot skyward.

    Never mind all the gimmicks, bells and whistles. I know of one marketer that sends out plain text stuff that nets him phenomenal response rates – not a photo to be seen, not even a logo, just good effective copy, real headlines that resonate with the audience – his secret? He writes to his Grandmother in his mind – if the offer is clear enough for her to understand, if the copy clean enough that she won’t cringe (Grandma was a Jr. High English teacher), if the intent clear enough and the benefits plain enough for her to like it, he’s got a winner. Yes, he primarily markets to an older audience – but these days unless you work for Disney, who doesn’t? Not a bad acid test – can your latest missive pass it?

    Keep it simple and keep it direct – speak to a specific person – if you personalize, be sure to get their name and gender correct, otherwise don’t bother. Nothing will kill response quicker than the feeling that you didn’t even care enough to send the right message – it’s like reading someone else’s mail, and it creeps people out.

    Keep the file small, keep the message simple – huge files still give viewers trouble, big images still get caught in spam filters and firewall screeners. The trend in design these days is to make the whole e-mail an image or series of images – and my browser is set to make me actually request these image files in order to view them – why make me work to see your information? It would have to be a heck of a headline to make me click three more times and wait for them to load, when I can simply hit “delete”.

    A well-researched list is still the key to success with E-mail. Most rented lists under perform, as e-mail addresses change more frequently than physical addresses. A self-selected list is best – based on a web login, or a previous response, or an inquiry, something you can verify and be sure is “opt-in” work very well – permission marketing is still king!

    Frequency is something you can debate all day, but suffice to say if you irritate your audience, your response will drop, and often less is more. I’d rather hear from you 4 times a year with relevant info than 8 or 12 times with fluff and nonsense. Save it for the good stuff, if you’re going to go to all the trouble to put together the mechanics of an e-mail, it might as well be a good one . . .

    Send me a copy of the worst e-mail you’ve received recently, and I’ll send it back to you with an analysis – FREE.

    If you found this useful and valuable, share it with your colleagues, and be sure and let me know by subscribing to this blog, above. Also, don’t forget to pick up your copy of “The Marketing Doctor’s Survival Notes”

  • The Devil’s In The Details

    The Devil’s In The Details

    Sometimes it’s the little things that make a difference in the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. I’m not talking about typos, color shifts, production problems etc. Those can be controlled and at some point there are enough eyes on the material that they will likely be found and corrected before too much damage is done, at least in the old days, before instant campaigns online became possible.

    Today it’s a little different, in that with speed comes a greater margin for error, often born of impatience. Get it out there, get it out there, no matter what the cost in accuracy or efficacy. The number of eyes on the materials has been greatly reduced, as the influence and assistance of outside vendors, editors, production artists, printers, mail shop workers, shippers, packagers, truck drivers, etc have been greatly reduced or eliminated. You can now “do it all yourself” and when the mistakes surface, you have only yourself to blame.

    The little things I’m talking about are those small details in the offer, those small production details like proportion and size relationships, and typography, and color selection, and all the other little elements that make up a successful mail campaign. Promo codes that work, addresses that are postal validated or permit numbers that are correct, phone numbers and web addresses that are accurate and that function correctly. And more importantly, concepts that actually sell the right product! You might think I’m exaggerating or embellishing for effect, but I kid you not, I’ve seen marketing pieces that appear to sell the wrong product. I mean wrong compared to the intent of the sponsoring organization. If you are a large manufacturer, and your product contains a licensed product or another branded ingredient under an specific arrangement, (like Laundry detergent with Fabreeze), you can stop reading here. That’s not what I mean.

    I’m talking about when the marketing team gets so involved in the details required to produce the piece, nobody has taken a step back and asked the critical question “What are we selling here?” Those little elements I mentioned above can indeed have a huge impact on the outcome of the campaign (think what could happen if you’ve got 4-5 sponsors or tests and each has a different promo code, and somehow the codes get shifted mid-way or they all lead the same place and don’t differentiate – your metrics are shot, you have no idea how to assign revenue, and your test is inconclusive and invalid – not a good day to be working in the marketing department). But if your focus of the campaign is off, you’ve fundamentally misdirected the audience’s attention, diluted the impact of your campaign, and wasted potentially a lot of money. When reading the copy, those first clues that the focus has shifted will likely emerge. If you get to the end of reading the raw copy, no images, no production, just words on paper, and you don’t feel motivated to find out how to get ahold of that product, start over.

    Laser-like focus is required for maximum results. Each word, phrase, image, element or choice should be selected and added because it enhances the power of the message, clarifies the intent of the piece, or aids functionality for the end-user to facilitate a sale. Editing is a subtractive technology. Good editors take the mass of information presented in the first or second draft, and selectively remove anything that doesn’t force the sale forward. What’s left should be crystal clear, high-impact, high-return marketing madness that drives sales through the roof.

    Once that’s achieved, test it, and mail, mail, mail!If you’ve thought it all through thoroughly, tracked all the leads, attended to every detail, checked every phone number, web address, promo code and list parameter, success is inevitable.

    The Devil’s in the details, so bold marketers, go forth and dance with the devil, knowing that solid preparation, pin-point focus, and data-driven logic are the weapons that help you control the dance!

    Write in your biggest snafu due to missing a small detail, we’d all love to hear about it and commiserate with you – hopefully it was long enough ago that you can now share a good laugh with all of us.

    If you found this valuable and would like to read more, pick up a copy of “The Marketing Doctor’s Survival Notes“

  • Change Is Good

    Change Is Good

    Change is generally good, for a majority of the people, a majority of the time. However fear of the unknown often retards the advance of change, and after a few surprises, it’s easy to become change-averse and fearful of the outcome of any change in our lives.

    Many people have experienced a change in the last couple of years that can be the most disruptive of nearly all events in our lives – the loss of a job. This has been ranked up there with a death in the family in terms of negative feelings, depressive influence and life interruption. Those who’s livelihoods and lifestyle was most dependant upon that weekly income are those most profoundly affected, and those who were the least prepared, i.e. having no savings or cushion, were the one’s that felt the pinch most severely.

    Those that embraced the change, reassessed their situation in a realistic, fearless way, were able to use their strengths, and send their lives in a new, positive direction. Many started their own businesses, gaining control over their income, their lives and their schedule. Some found new careers through retraining, additional education or volunteering through other organizations that lead to a new position. Change managed and channeled is change for the better, activity takes away the fear and returns you to a position of control.

    In business, change has to be carefully managed through frequent, relevant communication, strong leadership, and transparent planning. The less employees fear, the more likely they are to embrace the new order and get with the program in a positive way.

    The economy has forced changes on virtually every business out there, and some have managed those changes with the least damage to employees and their bottom line, and come out stronger at the other end as a result. Other have employed a more drastic slash-and-burn tactics, and are now hunting for talent, hurting for cash, and have lost market share to their competitors who were ready to gear up for growth.

    Marketing is often the promoter and enactor, a catalyst for change – how our company looks to the world affects how we work internally, which drives process change. New marketing programs bring changes in business processes, like customer service, order fulfillment, purchasing, invoicing, vendor selection, even physical plant management and HR. That kind of broad ranging change can bring some heat to the marketing department, but if managed correctly, can lead to a stronger, more visible, more progressive company in the long-run.

    Communicate often, make it relevant, tell workers what’s going to be coming down the pike, give them time to process and absorb it, react to it, vent about it, and accept and embrace it – once people get comfortable with the new order, they’ll wonder how they did things any other way . . .

    Tell us your most fear inducing change story, and let us know how it turned out in the long run, what your company did badly, what it did well to manage the change. We’d love to hear from you . . .

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  • Cure Found for Commonplace Marketing Campaigns . . .

    Cure Found for Commonplace Marketing Campaigns . . .

    Everybody Can “Do” Marketing, Right?

    When you need answers about your health, you consult a professional, trained physician. When you need marketing expertise, you should consult the professionals, too. The Marketing Doctor has a diagnosis for a full range of marketing ills, and has a prescription in mind to help you build a healthy, robust, marketing organization. Now, you can consult the Marketing Doctor any time, in “The Marketing Doctor’s Survival Notes”.

    With over thirty years of marketing experience to draw upon, author Dave Poulos puts a wide range of strategies and tactics into perspective, covering philosophy of marketing, use of research, customer service as a marketing tool, and a host of tactical executions, including direct mail, e-mail, sponsorships, social media, promotions, tradeshows, web traffic and more.

    Useful as classroom guide, marketing primer for new hires, career-changing introduction, or refresher for marketing veterans, this volume is a must-have for your professional library.

    Get “The Marketing Doctor’s Survival Notes” today »