MarketingAdvisor

INTRODUCTION

In an article in The New York Times, E-Commerce Report columnist, Bob Tedeschi discusses the trend of e-commerce companies toward Direct Mail and away from email marketing (both are forms of direct response marketing).  This fact, however, is no surprise to technology companies that understand and use Direct Mail regularly. According to Forrester Research, at least 20-40% of email recipients, depending upon how long they have been using the Internet, simply ignore e-mail marketing.  Furthermore, a report conducted by the Peppers and Rogers Group indicates that 34% of email campaign recipients are willing to establish a relationship with a company because of a Direct Mail piece, while only 4% because of an email message.  

The reasons for the growing trend are simple. Direct Mail works; it enables marketing professionals to acquire and mature leads as well as test messaging and pricing strategies. Direct Mail also integrates with other marketing initiatives to extend the impact of awareness and demand to new potential purchasers, thus providing the most effective process for acquiring leads. Combined with other marketing vehicles, for example, e-mail or print media campaigns, Direct Mail delivers an entirely new set of  benefits and prospects. Examples of products and services that can benefit from Direct Mail marketing include software and peripherals products, professional services and complex enterprise applications.

Moreover, success in Direct Mail doesn’t require a Ph.D. to execute; it does, however, require a solid understanding of market segmentation and customer profiling as well as a lot of not so common “common sense.” although it does call for common sense. Therefore, the advice given here is to stick to the basics. The Direct Mail fundamentals, which will be delineated in this document, are: defining the market, selecting the offer, becoming a list expert, working with copy, knowing what and how to test, using the appropriate packaging, understanding lead maturation, and finally, measuring program results and ROI.

1.1 DEFINING THE MARKET

Defining the market is the primary rule in all marketing, but especially in Direct Mail. Even the most compelling offer doesn’t produce the desired response rate if it’s targeting the wrong prospects. So, stick with marketing basics and certainly invest the time and budget dollars in market segmentation and customer profiling research.

Basics for Market Assessment
In order to succeed in Direct Mail, a marketing executive must first ascertain the market. This is a marketing fundamental, but it’s surprising how many executives and marketing professionals at technology companies neglect to do this with accuracy. In order to assess the market for your product or services offering, think of the entire cosmos you want to target, the size of that universe, and the title of the individual in that space (Or the type of consumer, if targeting B2C.). All of the above will limit the size of the market and help in the targeting of the right prospects for your products and services. In short, it’s imperative to know the market, and know it in great detail.
Another aspect of defining the market is to know the competition. Are competitors using Direct Mail? If so, what are they offering? For example, are they offering seminars, reduced prices, or premiums such as books, white papers, or trial software versions? Another component to look for in a competitors’s Direct Mail piece is the number of times an executive, colleague or friend of yours has received the particular piece. For example, if it’s a successful piece, it’s probable that it’s been received more than once by the same person.

1.2 SELECTING THE OFFER

Another element of a successful Direct Mail campaign is the “offer.” The offer may include a seminar, free services, reduced prices or a premium such as a book, white paper or gift. It is necessary to align the offer with the target prospect. For example, consumers tend to respond to reduced prices and rebates while c-level executives are inclined to swap their name and address for more informational items, such as a free book or white paper. In short, avoid assumptions about what offer your target will respond to. Invest in some research for talking to existing or prospective customers that accurately fit your target.

1.3 BECOMING A LIST EXPERT

Acquiring and using lists entails more than merely “buying some names”. Included below are some list basics, which should help even a junior marketing professional become a list expert. In addition, remember, the list(s) does account for about half of the success of a Direct Mail campaign so it’s important to follow these basics as much as possible to ensure a successful outcome for the overall Direct Mail program.

Following are critical pointers on selecting, acquiring and using lists:

• Think logically about who has the list that you need, e.g., is it a CPU manufacturer, a competitor, an association, a vertical trade publication?
• Rent publication lists that represent your company’s vertical market. NOTE: these may not be the traditional computer or technology trade magazines so don’t neglect doing your homework.
• If you participate in print or online advertising, you should negotiate media credits from the publications you’re advertising in–for names to include in the Direct Mail campaign.
• Don’t be afraid to mail to good lists more than once. The second or third mailing to the same profitable lists will generally achieve a 30-40% increase over your initial response rate.
• Add “Direct Mail sold names” as a primary select when choosing lists, and exclude names from retailers and television advertising; for Direct Mail names tend to work best in Direct Mail.
• Use recent names (not older than 1-3-months), which will usually perform the best.
• When negotiating lists, ask who’s recently used the list(s) and what were the results? In addition, ask when the list was last updated.
• If doing a 50,000 or more names mailing, do a merge and purge to exclude duplicates; if the amount is less than that, the cost may not be worth it.
• Bear in mind that house lists (from your company’s internal SFA software or marketing database) generally perform poorly compared to good rented lists.
• Always aim for lists with a high frequency and “recentcy” rate, which means that the name has purchased or responded to Direct Mail in the recent past.
• If offering a reduced price, it’s useful to suppress the internal “house” or customer list against the other lists so existing customers aren’t offered the same products or services–that they’ve just purchased at a higher price–at a lesser price.
• Respect all privacy laws.
• If doing regular Direct Mail campaigns of 100, 000 or more, test as many lists as possible.
• Always test how each list performed against the internal (“house”) list.
• Have your internal “house” lists updated regularly because the data in business contacts changes about 60% annually and consumer names changes about 15%.
• Try to secure first usage on lists that competitors might go after as well, e.g., if selling SCM (Supply Chain Management) services or applications, try to secure first usage on lists at iSource, Supply Chain Management or other related publications.
• In enterprise (B2B) Direct Mail, include SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) codes; however, bear in mind that magazines don’t always gather user information or sort user data according to SIC codes.
• Reuse lists that rendered a high response rates 1-2 months later.
• Only test lists over 15,000 names; it’s a waste of budget dollars to test smaller lists.
• Avoid over selecting lists, which can eliminate many good prospects.

Knowing how to work with lists allows marketing professionals to increase the effectiveness of their Direct Mail campaigns. The knowledge can help sales as well, by keeping the SFA system updated and useful by ensuring that sales teams are made aware of invalid and out-of-date prospect information regularly.

1.4 WORKING WITH COPY

Expert copy enables an effective Direct Mail campaign because it compels the prospect to take action. As an example, we recently heard of two design firms who had  worked with a client of ours. One creative agency had touted copywriting services to the extent of including them on their invoices to clients; as it turned out, though, when it came down to refining copy or proofreading, the firm demonstrated a considerable lack of attention to detail and consistent poor writing skills. On the other hand, an advertising or creative agency that has exceptional copywriters can save you substantial time, headaches and yes, embarrassment.

Market4Demand’s pointers on copy:
• Revise copy at least three times and subject it to the read aloud test.
• Remember that technology sales requires meaty copy.
• Include a  “why-to-buy” that answers the following question: Why are you offering this “offer” to this prospect at this time? Make them feel unique and special.
• Follow copyright laws and always reference sources.

Writing effective copy is painstaking, hard work and a job that can’t be taken lightly. If your company is short on copywriting expertise, you should look for a firm with solid writing skills and outsource the work. The small investment will return to you tenfold.

1.5 USING THE APPROPRIATE PACKAGING

A compelling Direct Mail package is a creative marketing arrangement geared toward driving the prospect to open the piece and respond to the offer. The packaging of a Direct Mail program is a well-established art, and the first thing marketing professionals need to know is that different packaging is required for different targets and offers; for example, seminars require different packaging than do premiums or software.

Now a few thoughts on specific packaging. The post card is overused and ineffective for technology marketing unless a firm has a well established brand (for example, IBM or Microsoft) and it is a tradeshow party invite with no need to track the attendees. The postcard conitnues to remain popular for the single reason that it’s both cheaper to create and to mail. The use of postcards is not advisable,  unless your company has a strong, well-established brand that can withstand the “cheap” connotation.

A close relative of the post card is the self-mailer. Self-mailers are also popular because they are cheaper to produce. And they tend to look cheap as well. The other challenge with the self-mailer is that it never seems to have the real estate on it that technology marketing necessitates. If a company must use a self mailer, it should use self-mailers with its internal lists only, that is, with existing customers who already have created a first impression of your company.

Examples of targets that respond to a compelling personalized offer letter (and attending “offer” brochure, etc.) include c-level executives, consumers and middle managers. In fact, most prospects respond to compelling, personalized offer letters. We generally advise clients to use them.

Unique, personalized and effective Direct Mail packaging allows marketing professionals to achieve better results and better ROI because prospects repond to it.

1.6 MEASURING PROGRAM RESULTS AND ROI

Program measurement allows a marketing professional to monitor the results of a program and the quality of the leads through the entire process. If an unexpected response occurs during this process–for example, certain unlikely prospects respond–measurement processes notify marketing with the appropriate details. Marketing can then handle the response(s) in an appropriate manner, for example, they can, with the data to back up their argument, communicate to other members of the executive or marketing team the need to expand the company’s customer profile, market, etc. Program measurement manages the response process through the entire Direct Mail campagin, assuring that all responses are tracked properly.

Measuring performance is critical in today’s technology market. More and more board members and shareholders are demanding accountability in marketing expenditures, and measuring performance also allows marketing executives to learn which marketing vehicles are successful and allot the dollars accordingly.

Keys to measuring a Direct Mail program’s performance include the following:

• Ensure beforehand that your company’s sales team or lead maturation program can follow up or act on the leads promptly.
• Monitor when mail pieces arrive to verify drop dates.
• Always measure ROI (return on investment) by knowing exactly what you’ve spent and setting up a protocol or putting a process in place with sales to get updated information on deals that have closed.
• Synchronize the web site with Direct Mail activities, as it will help the marketing group measure responses.  For example, in a recent enterprise Direct Mail campaign, it was discovered that 50% of the respondents responded on the web, while the other half responded via BRCs (business reply cards). One interesting caveat: virtually no one responded via a toll-free number. Hence, the marketing team was able to work the data into future DirectMail plans. This type of information–many corporate executives prefer to respond to Direct Mail through the Internet or through the US mail–would never have been discovered without building the micro site.

In order to save budget constraints, fulfil 50,000 and under names mailings internally, not through a fulfillment house. As a side note, in order to maximize ROI, establish budgets before kicking off the project, not half-way through. In addtion, use source codes to help measure ROI; it is critical to know what lists to buy for the next mailing as well as those not to buy.

If you want to achieve a high ROI, measure your Direct Mail program diligently. Measurement involves the measuring of performance (the response rate), the measuring of costs against the number of leads and especially, the number of qualified leads, and eventually, in the longer term, the number of converted leads.

1.7 KNOWING WHAT AND HOW TO TEST

Testing is a marketing tool that provides a simple, cost-effective way to test lists, “offers” and concepts. Its simple rules complement the achievement of high ROI, giving marketing professionals another way to increase the impact of their Direct Mail campaigns by allowing them to test the critical components.

Some rules for testing are:

• Avoid testing too much. For example, if testing a software application bundle, compare what the test costs with what can be earned on the test–using the worse case scenario in terms of response rates–for example, less than one half of one percent.
• Test the important elements only, e.g., software trial versions, guarantees, single vs. multiple products or services, and premiums.
• Don’t test price.
• Always ask the key question: Could this increase my response rate by at least 30-40%? Note: It takes a BIG change in the piece to make a BIG change in response rates.
• When testing, never change more than one component at a time.
• Test each change only once because if it does not pull the first time, then it likely won’t pull the second time.
• If you decide to test lists, you should double check list tests measurement results to avoid inaccuracies.
• Choose to test lists with a “rollout potential” over and against lists without such potential; in other words, always choose to test the list that offers more names over the list that offers fewer .

1.8 UNDERSTANDING LEAD MATURATION

The leading companies that are successful with Direct Mail and other demand generation campaigns rely on the Web to mature leads. The Internet is a powerful medium for lead maturation and excellent firms are available that specialize in this area.

Since e-mail marketing is the cheapest form of marketing, if a firm is going to capture anything, they should at least capture email addresses, as it offers the opportunity to build a markting database for lead maturation.

In order to build a pre-sales relationship marketing infrastructure, mail every couple of months to the internal database, excluding the summer months. Direct Mail is still the primary way to acquire new customers and can help mature leads by assisting you in building a pre-sales, one-to-one, informational releationship with prospects that need to be moved to the “qualified lead” status.

CONCLUSION

Direct Mail provides the most accurate way to acquire leads, mature them and deliver them to Sales. Direct Mail is also an accurate way to verify customer profiles and learn more about your target market. This white paper, written by Market4Demand and generated from the real world success and failures of marketing technology products and services over the last decade, is meant to be a useful tool for marketing executives who are familiar with Direct Mail, but require key particulars in order to reap the top line benefits. This document is not intended to be a how-to. Direct Mail can be an effective, high-ROI marketing tool for lead generation. However, successful campaigns require expertise; otherwise expenditures get out of control and small, costly mistakes abound.

Sarah Autrand
Founder & CEO
Market4Demand, Inc.

As an executive marketing practitioner who oversees PR, it’s been my experience that finding a public relations firm that delivers results is a real challenge (especially in the last decade or so) for entrepreneurs and midrange companies because very few media and analyst relations best practices are supported much these days, and many PR firms have moved to the ad agency or attorney business model of billing expensive monthly retainers along with expenses such as fax or FedEx charges. In addition, many of these larger firms throw junior people on client projects and then fail to check their work before it is delivered to the client. Add to this fact that strong journalism and writing skills have fallen by the wayside over the last 15 years so what most clients are getting is cut and paste press releases from the Net or from older versions with little strategic input or creative thinking.

In fact, in most cases, you’re lucky to get a few hours of strategic thinking for around $20,000 a month. In addition, the feet on the street these days seem to be public relations neophytes (what editors refer to endearingly as “flacks” who might look good, but may have left some of their gray matter at the mall…or in cleaning out the horse barn).  First of all, public relations is critical to a marketing strategy. Nothing in marketing today can replace good media, blogger and analyst coverage. Solid product reviews and customer endorsements are by far more valuable than advertising. Third-party endorsements carry much more credibility than other forms of marketing.

In addition, what many are not yet aware of is that public relations supports search engine optimization (SEO), Online Reputation Management and Word of Mouth Advertising.   So how do you bridge the gap between poor PR firms or independent service providers and the benefits of public relations?  You find yourself the right firm. Then, you work with them appropriately. Getting the right firm and knowing how to work with them in order to achieve your coverage objectives is the biggest challenge, though, and it is my hope to share some of my closely-guarded (well…until now) secrets with you.

Rule 1, bag the big public relations firm in lieu of a smaller boutique firm with a track record of coverage. Forget who their clients are; look to what they have achieved for clients.

Rule 2, this does not mean that you should run to independent PR consultants working from their home either; in my experience, many of these folks are just looking to supplement their household income and fail to display the required passion and comprehensive know-how for their work. You’ll know you have one of these public relations “professionals” when all you’re getting for the most part are lackluster press releases for the website that require a lot of redline edits and a couple analyst or press meetings set up. The real red flag, though, is when they admit that they don’t read much news or push byline article ideas and proposed speaking topics back on you (because they are tactical, individual contributors who don’t want to bother learning the product or keeping up with your industry). Avoid these types of folks at all costs. Most startups or midrange enterprise executives don’t have the budget or time to support them and the public relations results they produce, if any, are insignificant.

Rule 3, when researching a boutique firm, though, ensure they have strong relationships with both local and national editors and have a proven track record in your industry, whether it be high-tech, green tech, nonprofit, entertainment, etc.

Rule 4, work with the firm on setting up media and analyst coverage goals for the next 12 months, but agree that the plan will be flexible to allow for unexpected opportunities.

Rule 5, nail down your product and corporate messaging before you meet with the firm; nothing wastes more time, marketing dollars and ink than fuzzy or constantly changing messaging and positioning.

Rule 6, work with the firm to setup up a realistic public relations strategy based on your current budget.

Rule 7, ensure you obtain commitments from other executives in the company so that they know that they must also support your selected firm in any way requested in order to meet media, blogger, or analyst requirements and deadlines.

Rule 8, if you find yourself needing to manage your public relations “professional” or firm with constant ideas for byline articles, interviews, possible executive speaking engagements, etc., drop them ASAP. They are tactical practitioners with no skin in the game and passion for their job. A good PR person or firm should be managing YOU, not the other way around. How, you ask? For example, they should be coming up with ideas, demands, meetings, byline article synopses, and yes, interviews. In other words, they should be doing their job. Public relations is more than taking client messaging held within press releases and sending out an email blast on your company’s behalf to their media list. And your job should be supporting them in every possible way as an organization and getting them what they require.

Rule 9, brainstorm with your firm as to what’s possible for your budget and agree on a timeline for at least some major milestones.

Rule 10, let them do the work and always respond ASAP when an interview or meeting is set up; never, never keep someone who earns their money by pen and ink waiting or with constant schedule changes…the pen is indeed mightier than the sword–especially in the age of the Net.

Rule 11, finally, you have to give your PR firm stuff with which to work. Do you have ideas? Share them. For example, will a survey to potential or existing customers help obtain primary data critical for market adoption or product launches? In other words, don’t sit around in the ivory tower of executive staff meetings and expect them to get amazing coverage for you if no one’s willing to buy your product, your new version has little, if any, significant enhancements, and you aren’t willing to go half way with them as content or domain experts. Successful public relations efforts are a two-way street and we always encourage our Market4Demand CEO clients to follow the example of industry luminary CEOs who know how to court (and respect) the press. Follow the example of Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Marc Benioff, and Philippe Kahn who know the power of good public relations in helping to shape the success of a company.

In closing, Media Relations and Social Media is one of the first things I budget in client go-to-market strategies and fiscal budgets. And, btw, if you’re ever looking for an excellent public relations firm in or around Silicon Valley, I highly recommend Ignite PR. You can find out more about them at www.ignitepr.com.

Sarah Autrand
Founder & CEO
Market4Demand, Inc.

As I watched the Phillies play the Rays in the World Series, it reminded me of my days in junior high school when I played on a basketball team. During the 3 years we worked together as a team, it was ingrained in me that one of the biggest strategic advantages in team sports is position. Not only the position you play but also the position you’re in relative to your competition during each and every game. This must have been sound advice because our team went on to win our division and head into the championships. In one of the championship games, I scored 21 points as a starting point guard. (For those of you who know basketball, this is unusual since the typical point guard’s role, i.e., position, is to get the ball to a shooting guard, forward or center who will ideally hit a jump shot, lay-up or slam dunk.)

However, what the competitive teams weren’t aware of is that I had the unique ability of dribbling both left- and right-handed with ease and had a knack for getting past my opponent for easy lay-ups. So, my point guard role was the official “position” I played, but the coach saw to it that my “positioning” in games was relative to the guard’s skills and expectations on the opposing teams. Most point guards handed off the ball and could only dribble right-handed. These were competitive disadvantages of which our coach took advantage. She leveraged the unique skills I offered as a guard, i.e., position, with the twist of having me attack the basket from either left or right of the key and placed the rest of our team in better offensive and defensive “positions.” This is how we did it. We didn’t ultimately win the championship, but I learned a valuable lesson about positioning and strategic competitive thinking that has served our clients well in numerous situations.

Position, Position, Position.

In marketing, we call it positioning but it’s the same principle at work. You may be familiar with the term made popular by Al Reis and Jack Trout in Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.

What’s the principle? You must stake out a position in the market and that position must be carved out relative to your competitive landscape and market requirements. If you don’t take the time to carve out your position, you risk having your offering positioned for you. This is not a good thing. For example, let’s dip into the past, shall we? If you offer what some would regard as an online version of a traditional personal information management (PIM) software, e.g., pre-Net contact management information management software such as ACT!, Polaris, GoldMine, and you’re the CEO of Salesforce.com, how do you position your product? Well, for starters, you do some research to find out that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) seems to be all the rage with analysts and then you do, what CEO Mark Benioff did, and position yourself according to the new emerging category…with a twist. Salesforce.com was initially positioned as the poor man’s CRM. Beautiful. This is a fine example of good positioning since Siebel, the category leader at the time, had positioned itself around CRM and were too expensive for most small and mid-range businesses. See the beauty here? Benioff positioned his online version of PIM software as CRM for everyone, i.e., the poor man’s CRM.  Now that’s good positioning.

Following are some tips on how to position your services, products or company:

First, conduct a thorough competitive analysis of your product, service and company.  As always, be brutally honest with what your offering can and cannot do. For example, perhaps one of your product’s strengths is ease-of-use, but your competitor has a superior product in terms of functionality. Well, that’s definitely something to put into your competitive matrix.

Second, do some primary and secondary (if existing category) research and discover what the top 5 market requirements are. For example, is ease-of use a “must have” feature? Do prospective users keep asking for reporting and alerts functionality? If so, then these would be included as part of your top 5 market requirements.

Third, taking into account your product’s strengths and the competition’s weaknesses relative to market requirements, position your offering around a problem your product solves that no other product can. You should be able to find this problem using the top 2 out of 5 market requirements, which will then serve as X and Y coordinates for the next step.

Fourth, try to “box” the competition using the Harvard Quadrant. Put each competitor into a position relative to your product and category. For example, if I were positioning dogs against other types of animals in a category called “pets,” I’d indicate in my box that cats and fish are wonderful pets for people who like animals but don’t have a lot of time. Then, I’d position dogs as ideal pets for people who like more interaction, have time to walk, like the beach, and don’t travel much.

Fifth, draft one sentence about your product. This will be your positioning statement, which is an internal statement to help guide all the messaging about your offering. The one sentence should position your competitors and your offering all together. My preference is to start with something like, “Unlike most other common household pets that tend not to be that social, dogs best meet the need for interaction and companionship required by most singles and the elderly. (Since they are social animals, horses make great pets, too, but if I were positioning dogs as perfect for the average elderly or single person, I’d position against horses by stressing all the time and financial resources required for care and maintenance.)

Final Note. Never, ever obviously trounce the competition. The best way to beat a competitor is to put them into a separate category as much as possible by implying that their products or services solve different problems than yours.

Best of luck in your positioning!

Sarah Autrand
CEO, Market4Demand, Inc.

Last week I was strolling through Fry’s munching on a handful of Reduced Fat Wheat Thins and nearly choked. Right there at the end of the software aisle were a couple of software products on an endcap that broke every rule in marcom and channel marketing. It doesn’t take a psychic to figure out that in about 90 days, the distributor would be requesting a Return Authorization (RA) number and most of the boxes, most likely still in the store after the 90 day contract expired, would be returned to the vendor.

Since I mentioned it, let’s talk Wheat Thins and consumer packaged goods (CPG) in general. This industry spends billions of dollars on packaging so we might as well take advantage of all that knowledge and research. What does this industry know that high-tech sometimes forget? It’s this: Your box is the best sales person you will ever have in the store and the only guaranteed sales vehicle you have at retail. The box needs to sell itself off the shelf and, preferably, fast. Given that, it’s wise to invest time, research and money to get it right.

If you plan to distribute your technology product through retailers like CompUSA, online and mail order, it’s important to understand that packaging is a critical component in your marketing efforts.

So, what type of packaging sells? Try these simple steps and you won’t be sorry.

Step One. Take a visit to Target and check out the laundry detergent aisle, the shampoo aisle and, of course, the cracker and cookie aisles. There are dozens and dozens of products in each category, but some grab your attention more than the others. Note those brands and ask why? Then, head over to the Apple store in your area and note the packaging. (Apple is so wonderful at packaging that I still keep all the boxes for my various iPods.)

Apple gets it.

Step Two. Visit a bookstore and stand in the middle of any aisle and note the books that jump out at you. Again, jot down why.

Step Three. Nail down the following items about your product because these will need to be on your packaging: First, you’ll need to draft clear and concise benefit statements or phrases. For example, what will your target customers receive if they buy your product? A good number of statements is around 3-6, depending on the complexity of the product, as most purchasers will not take the time to read more. Second, finalize a clear positioning statement. Strong positioning is the effect of researching both competitors and potential buyers and it is critical for success. Unfortunately, many technology companies skip this step because they make assumptions based on what they think or arrived at in an internal meeting. Nothing compares to the hard work of careful research. Third, create a “why-to-buy” statement, which is sometimes called a value proposition. In this statement, you will communicate why the potential customer should buy your product. Why is it of value to him or her? Does it reduce time? Save money? Try to be as specific as possible and leverage your competitive research to be unique.

Step Four. Throw all these statement into a Word document and hand it over, along with your top 3 competitors’ boxes, to a graphic designer with experience in channel marketing. Tell him/her that your packaging needs to stand out against the 3. As you work with the designer, strive for graphics that clearly support the selling message and don’t overwhelm it. In addition to a compelling copy, the graphics need to be simple to understand and easy to follow. Aiming at the lowest common denominator is a good rule of thumb. As we are ever fond of saying in Marketing…K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

Good luck!

Sarah Autrand, CEO, Market4Demand, Inc.

It’s 4:00p.m. on a Friday and you’ve just released an email blast in Constant Contact or Vertical Response. You call your spouse to let him/her know you’ll be home later than usual. An office affair? Gosh, no. You’re excited about the response rates of this email blast and want to hang around a bit longer to monitor response rates! It’s almost as fun as watching your favorite stocks increase. Almost. Well, maybe not almost since the market is doing so poorly. But you get what I mean.

Email Direct Marketing (EDM). It’s addicting.

As a marketer, I’ve been practicing it since the first Internet browser launched in 1995. Besides being witness to falling response rates over the last 13 years, I’ve also taught on the topic repeatedly, addressing audiences at Internet World (remember that?), the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association, San Jose State University, and the San Jose Cisco Entrepreneur Center.

What’s the secret? What’s the trick to reaching your audience via this medium?

A lot…and a little. It’s a lot of careful planning but a little 4 critical pieces. Also, it’s a lot like success in direct mail, but a little not like direct mail in terms of the cost. That is, cheaper.

The success of your email direct marketing campaigns revolves around four critical components: the list, the subject line, the offer, and relevancy of message to your audience. If you get these four things right, you’re on your way to a successful campaign.

List. First of all, the list must be selected based on careful demographics and segmentation. Second, the list must be of high quality and used recently. Rented lists are the best source, especially subscriber lists.

Subject Line. For goodness sakes, pick something original, provocative and intriguing. No one likes to be bored. The subject line works similar to the envelope of a direct mail campaign. If someone doesn’t feel compelled to open it, they won’t. Plain and simple, no matter what you’re offering.

Offer. The offer ensures action is taken, i.e., it’s a call to action. Given such, choose an offer that appeals to your target market, or constituents if you are in the nonprofit sector. If you’re marketing to Gen Y, maybe it’s a phone with advanced texting capabilities. (It was my 18-year old nephew who informed me that phone conversations and email were for old people.) If you’re targeting marketing executives, for example, maybe it’s some wonderful tool that makes budgeting easier. (Probably nothing exists, but one can hope!) If you’re targeting large retail buyers, on the other hand, maybe a faster way to track inventory. In other words, think carefully about whom your audience is in terms of demographics and psychographics and what will appeal the most to them. As my business partner, Diane Robinette, is fond of saying, “Why should I care?” This is the question that needs to be answered. You have to make your audience care.

Relevancy.  Similar to the Offer, successful campaigns communicate in the language relevant to their audience. When talking to physicians, would you use high-tech jargon such as ODBC, J2EE? Of course not. That’s silly. Successful campaigns take the time to research, write and test the messaging to ensure it resonates with their target audience.

Best of luck in all your EDM efforts!

Sarah Autrand
CEO, Market4Demand, Inc.

 The conference room was small, hot and stuffy and the entrepreneur was soft-spoken and long-winded. Over a table full of untouched bottled waters, he presented a slide deck with the most detailed product architecture diagram I’ve ever seen. Toward the end, he unveiled a lengthy list of all the markets the company planned to target within the next 6 months…vastly different markets but all to be reached with the same highly technical message.

Code Red.

After working with more than 50 startups and large enterprises in the technology sector, I’ve noticed that many entrepreneurs seem to face a similar challenge. What’s the challenge, you might ask? Is it lack of good programmers, a business plan, a full sales pipeline, reference customers, financing, awareness, or a full management team? No, it’s much more complicated than that, but impacts all of the above. The challenge is, simply, a lack of good messaging. What is “good messaging”? Good messaging is nothing but the direct consequence of careful positioning. Good messaging will resonate with your customer in a way that they immediately see themselves as needing your product or service and want to know where to get it. Good messaging also attracts partners, analyst coverage, employees, and investors because they can easily understand what problem your solution solves and why it’s so important.  How do you create good messaging? Below are some guidelines to help ensure your messaging is effective toward your marketing objectives:

• For starters, find no more than 3 core target markets and craft unique messages for each market, using the language and leveraging the motivators unique to them. For example, if you have a mobile application aimed at Generation Y consumers, you would use language appropriate to that age demographic. Similarly, if you had a service for CIOs in the automotive industry, you would discover the motivators, pains and language of the that particular segment.
• Next, ask yourself “Why would my audience care about my product/service?”
• The messaging must also include what you think the most important things are for your audience to know. For example, is your product the only one that can offer consumers an iPod docking station with built in robotics so it can follow users everywhere in their home or office like a puppy?
• It’s also important to ask yourself how you want your audience to feel after they have read your message. For example, do you want them to be afraid, uncertain, doubtful, outdated, unhealthy, vigorous, young, smart, or powerful?
• Next, you’ll need to determine what you want your target audience to do after they have read your message. In other words, give them a call-to-action.
• Finally, use these final messages in all your outbound marketing communications and sales interactions.  Don’t forget to be consistent! Good marketing messages must be repeated until they almost become subliminal in order to be effective. Compare this to the Middle Ages. People today have to process more information in five minutes than the average person living in the Middle Ages did in a lifetime. Repetition, across multiple channels, of the same message will help your message rise above the noise.

Having a messaging challenge? Feel free to submit your question and I’ll do my best to help you out.

Sarah Autrand
CEO, Market4Demand, Inc.