email Jumps the Shark

I am absolutely amazed at the rapid expansion of junk mail being sent. And what is more concerning is it seems to be increasing. And that increase is actually a self fulfilling prophecy that we marketers have created. We send more and more email to make up for the decrease in response rates. Thus, we just keep expanding the target list to meet past results. And I would imagine we “loosen up” that tight list criteria we started out with. 

However, I believe we’re at the “jump the shark” moment as it relates to email as an effective tactic for  lead generation. Many of you might have thought that moment came years ago and perhaps it did.   Check out these statistics compiled by SpamLaws

• 14.5 billion messages globally per day are spam. That’s 45%... so nearly half of all email is junk
• Advertising spam makes up 36% of junk email
• And if you thought that was bad… estimates of 58 billion junk emails sent per daywill be the norm in the next four years. That landslide of junk email is estimated to cost businesses $198 billion per year

And guess what – we’re the culprits. Yep, go to the mirror and look at that face and realize you are guilty as charged.

So what kind of things should Marketers do over the next 4 years?

• Stop looking at your % of unsubscribes you get per campaign. It is a false indicator. Junk filters distort the number.
• Use direct mail – no one sends great mail anymore (if any mail at all) and if done properly you’ll cut through the clutter.
• Give your content away via social networks and communities – and let customers “find” the content in the appropriate areas.
• Tighten your list criteria back up
• Drive customers to your website to get content or interact with your brand
• Use more mass advertising and search to drive more top of the funnel leads
• Use associations and partners to help spread your message
• 3rd party PR – get out in front of the press, be an expert that companies look too
• Use social channels to promote valuable content back to your web site
• Focus on those who actually want to receive your emails
• Hold customer events or tradeshows to promote the brand and feed the sales funnel
• Just reduce the amount of email you send – sounds simple enough, but when you need to push sales quickly everyone seems to pull email out of the marketing tool kit first
• Get creative – start being marketers again!

These are just a few ideas I’m sure you have more. Look we need to get off of email crack. Remember, the road to recovery is to admit you have a problem.

Scott

Part 2 – Building the Perfect Beast – The Ecosystem

As a continuation of my earlier blog post on how to build the perfect marketing beast, this post will focus on the overall ecosystem – from the center of the ecosystem to outer edges. 

Before we start, don’t kid yourself, building this ecosystem takes time, effort, support, vision, financial and human capital.  Most companies start the journey with good intentions but discontinue the effort quickly based on changes in strategy, financial constraints, lack of IT support, patience or the lack of substantial results prior to the completion of major milestones.

Step 1:             Determine the center point of the ecosystem – this is absolutely the most critical aspect of designing the technology ecosystem.   Why?  It’s the point where all other platforms or activities hang off from.   I like to refer to this as the “home” of tracking and customer data.  This system can be:  a CRM system, ERP system, marketing automation platform, relational or inverted database, etc.  Each has its own unique positive and negative traits.   You’ll need to work with your IT department to determine which system might work best for your circumstances and overall goals.

I’ve used SQL, Oracle and a host of other databases, ERP and marketing automation systems during my career.  My preference is a true “marketing system” more specifically a Marketing Automation System (MAS).  And I’ve used both of the two major players Eloqua and Marketo. 

For me, Marketo seems to be easier to implement and not taking as many IT resources to maintain or expand. MAS’s allow marketers to store specific campaign, tactic and customer data in a format which the non-technical marketer can use and understand.   In addition, it creates the needed “memory” of activities and behavior which came from all marketing activities.  It also allows for a database which has the ability to stand alone or integrate with other internal or new systems.   The use of metrics and graphical representation of data is very intuitive and provides real data which can be acted upon. 

I’m a big believer in simple is better.    

I’ve bought the systems which were sold on the premise they could almost launch a space shuttle – but most times I’ve never had to launch the space shuttle.

Stay tuned for the next post where I’ll discuss the “core” types of platforms or technology which should surround your center point.

Scott

TV Commercials - The Cost Keeps Getting Higher

First, if you haven’t gotten ahold of the “Marketing Fact Pack 2016” produced by Advertising Age, it’s worth your time and money to get one.  The piece is one of the better information resources to help make decisions and comparisons.

Second, in reviewing the information specific to the cost of a 30 second TV spot, I nearly feel out of my chair — wait, I actually did fall out of my chair.  The lowest cost of a :30 second weekly network spot was $14,309 for the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, running Friday at 9:00 p.m.  Now sit down because the high end weekly network spot was Sunday Night Football at $673,664.

And as usual football was priced at a high premium across the entire week:

NBC Sunday Night Football — $673,664

CBS Thursday Night Football — $522,910

NBC Thursday Night Football — $485,695

Running a single :30 second spot to reach the male demo in each of the above football programs would cost you a mere $1,682,269 per week.  Naturally, that cost is un-negotiated.  If you’re one of the big boys you could easily spend $2,500,000 a week on TV advertising.

Even bulking up a TV schedule with lower rated and lower cost TV while utilizing remnant TV with the goal to get the CPP down would be tough to do.  

Now taking into account all of the other media channels $3,300,000 a week for a medium GRP media schedule would not be out of the ballpark.

My preference is to run an 80/8 schedule (hit 80% of the target audience at least 8 times).  And while I’d love to see if that is still doable with the increased pricing I’m not even sure reaching 50% of the target 5 times is achievable.

How the times have changed.

Scott

Leadership vs. Management

An old business acquaintance caught up with me this past month and had an interesting question for me. What’s the difference between leadership and management. It’s a question which I’ve heard before. Here’s my definition at the simplest level… 

Leadership is setting a goal and getting others to believe they can achieve it.  

Management is identifying how to reach the goal and helping everyone successfully reach it.

Some food for thought.

Scott

CMO Dashboards

Having a marketing dashboard is an absolute must in today’s ultra competitive marketplace.  Everyone has their favorite areas to track.  Some of the areas I’m keen on include:

1. Lead Funnel
2. Lead Conversion 
3. Sales Velocity
4. Marketing Revenue Contribution
5. eCommerce Platform Revenue and Performance
6. Channel Performance
7. Campaign Summary
8. Web Property Performance Social Property Performance
9. Marketing Costs vs. Budget
10. Financials — Fixed vs. Variable Marketing Costs, Future Run Rate Budget, Category Budgets
11. Media
12. PR
13. Segment and Customer Value Performance
14. New Customers Acquisition
15. Cross Sell and Up Sales Ratio 
16. Staff Performance Against Yearly Goals

There are many more which could be added, but the above tend to be the areas which allow me to quickly understand what’s going on.

Scott