Seems like I'm running across a lot of people suggesting that advertising has changed and doesn't work anymore given the realities of the new world.
A few weeks ago, I read an interesting interview with Al Ries (of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding Fame) He was pimping his book, The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR.
Today, I'm pointed to a presentation by Joseph Jaffe called A World without Advertising. I couldn't get a good read on what he thinks is going to replace it. He mentions consumer generated content a lot, and consumer control -- real Clue Train Manifesto type stuff.
I decry Big Content (like the music labels) who refuse to recognize that their business model is broken, and that rather than trying desperately to hold onto the past, they need to find a new way to thrive in the new reality.
I find it harder to do that with Advertising though. I guess it's different when it's your background you're being asked to reevaluate.
I don't know that Ries or Jaffe have the answers. I don't even know if they're right. It may just be that I'm primed for that because the marketing for my new business isn't working the way I'd planned that it would.
Still, it feels to me though like everybody is saying there's an iceberg up there you'd better turn, but nobody seems to know where the steering wheel is. I need to work on finding that. I don't know how to make consumer generated content work for distributing a message. I understand a bit better about how PR might work, but I'm not a PR guy. I've never been a PR guy, so I don't know how to function in that kind of a world.
Here's a very interesting O'Reilly post about advertisers buying page rank instead of impressions. I hate SEO's if only because the bastards caused me to shut down my comment sections with all their damned comment spam. O'Reilly brings up some really intriguing points though, and ultimately, I think it's something that the search engines have to fix.
This interview with FedEx logo creator, Lindon Leader is pretty interesting.
I had noticed the arrow in the FedEx Logo before. Strangely though (and completely unrelated), I had never noticed the arrow in the Amazon.com logo that went from A to Z until somebody pointed it out to me. I guess it's funny what you pick up on.
Robert Scoble has some Interesting Thoughts on Persuasion.
I'm half tempted to get Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion which is linked in the comments. Except I know it would sit on a shelf collecting dust while I read everything but that. I want to read those kinds of books. I've even purchased several of those kinds of books. Somehow, I'm never in the mood when I'm putting one book away and starting another though.
I was all ready to dismiss James Hering's column, No More "Visits," Please!. I could see where he was going, and I was pretty sure he was wrong (or just desperate for a column idea to fill inches). But, by the time I got to the end of the piece, I have to say, he's probably right. We probably do need stronger call to actions.
A bunch of e-mail clients are changing the way they handle image display. A newsletter redesign may be in order. I'm pretty sure our newsletters are readable even if you can't see any pictures, but I should be 100 percent sure (and then some).
ClickZ has an interesting case study on how Cisco's sales force is using a template based e-mail system to be able to send e-mails to their clients.
I have mixed feelings about this. As a marketer, I'd certainly like to have the ability to track messages/effectiveness as they're going out through the sales force. I also really like a templating approach since it makes it easier and more consistent for the sales force while still providing message flexibility. Still, it seems remarkably complex to implement. And, once you implement it, then you need to convince your sales force to adopt it and train them on the best uses. It's too much to consider on a dim, Monday morning.
So then excessive bounces will get you blacklisted? I had no idea. We're well below 60% (a number which seems improbable to begin with), but still...
From ClickZ: E-Mail: A Job for Professionals
This clickz article on acquisition strategies says that piggybacking on somebody else's relationship seems to produce one of the best results when looking at list growth.
That's obvious, and we've looked at newsletter sponsorships with various levels of success. But, they mention this company was able to take the placement out in trade. That's interesting. I want to think about that for a while....
There are a few interesting tidbits in this ClickZ story, but mostly I'm just setting an anchor in case I ever want to find it again.
Gold Boxes, Share the Love viral marketing, and now triva questions with micro-payments for getting the answer right F'ing brilliant in so many ways it hurts me to think about it. It costs them like nothing to do this, but do you think it's going to get people interested in learning more about what they have to offer? You bet it is.
ClickZ's article about using outsourced telemarketing for permission based e-mail list growth is very interesting for a number of reasons. Interesting to me anyway. Hmmm.. I need a dark corner in which to think for a while...
We aren't currently doing much in the way of creating case histories as a marketing tool. Still, I suspect that I'll eventually want to find and refer to this marketingprofs.com story again at some point (if only for the Work section of my own site which has promised that case studies and portfolio samples would be "coming soon" for about 2 years now...)
ClickZ is running an interesting article on optimizing e-mail list growth. The focus is on minimizing the abandon rate. We aren't currently tracking this number, but I know it's a lot higher on Direct Source than I'd like it to be.
Part of this is that we're strongly inferring that registration is required prior to proving our value. I'm tempted to back out of that -- I never really liked that approach. But, as soon as we started doing that the # of registrations shot way up. Only 15% of the ones who said, yeah it's OK to send me stuff seem to be garbage addresses. I'd like that to be lower, but I would have expected it to be higher. I guess the real question is how many qualified leads are we turning away with this approach. That's pretty hard to test -- if anybody's ever figured out how to test that, I'm all ears.
Is it possible to address multiple buyers/personality types with a single copy message? The ClickZ article, The Way Customers Want to Buy, seems to be saying yes. I came of age steeped in the tradition of one audience, one message. If you have two audiences, then you need two messages. It makes sense, if you try to hit everything, you're likely to hit nothing. I've gotten to be good at projecting myself into the mind of a hypothetical buyer - even a buyer who thinks and interacts radically different than I do. I'm less comfortable trying to speak to several buyers with the same message. Would my message be diluted or strengthened by trying to work through that? I'm not sure. I need to think about this more.
Marketing Sherpa put out a call for lessons learned in 2002 and got back replies from over 600 marketers. Collected here as a free PDF download. 136 pages that I haven't even glanced at yet, but it looks like a solid resource.
According to ClickZ, AOL version 8 is going to default to a white list for Spam filtering. That's probably a good move for them. It does present some interesting challenges for people doing legitimate e-mail newsletters and marketing though. Excuse me while I put on my thinking cap for a bit.
No time or focus to read This today. I do want to spend some time thinking about it later though, so...
G.M. O'Connel has been engaged in interactive marketing since 1987. Joseph Jaffe Interviews him for imediaconnection and O'Connel has some interesting things to say:
What I'm saying is that the creative hasn't worked for the most part. What we tend to do from an industry perspective is that we want to make it bigger, louder and more intrusive. Those are the wrong answers. The right answer is how we can make things more complementary to what someone is trying to get done. And once we figure that out, we'll be in business. That's the problem with Advertising on the Internet. [link]
ClickZ is running an article with basic (but worth thinking about) information about what to put on a subscribe page. It also covers setting goals, and finding sources for content. [link]
I've been wanting to find a list like this:
EmailSherpa's List of Words That Will Get You Filtered
Some of these seem amazingly random.
The horribly named, Why Your E-Newsletter Doesn't Deliver Like You Hoped actually offers a pretty good checklist of things your e-newsletter should include.
I think we're just about ready to launch a couple of new newsletters (our first venture into the realm of e-mail). If you are an employer/hiring manager, or if you have a job - particularly a clerical or accounting job, then you should think about Subscribing (depending on when you click by, it may still need a few coats of paint, so please don't mind the mess - it works even if it looks like crap).
There's a nice, sort of generic Article on E-mail Newsletters over on ClickZ today. The emphasis is lightly on B-to-B.
It's interesting to see a ClickZ columnist apologizing for recommending double opt-in. Generally the tone is you absolutely, positively have to do it. Here it's more like: I know almost nobody does it anymore, but you should maybe sort of consider it. It's also interesting that she claims double opt-in only culls about 20% of subscribers. I would have expected that to be higher.
Interesting ... I need to give this story some deep thought:
E-mail marketing works differently. People tend to read e-mail messages -- even those formatted in HTML -- from top to bottom in a linear fashion. This linearity actually works to an advertiser's advantage because it provides more control over recipient behavior. However, cramming the material from a traditional direct marketing campaign into one e-mail message (as advertisers often do) results in an overly long message more likely to confuse rather than persuade.From Serial Storytelling: Email Marketing's Missing Link
Sherpa has a cute little Torture a Spammer Game. The game play won't hold up to more than 2 or 3 plays, but it's OK the first time round. I particularly like that they are trying to use it to boost the reputation of opt-in mailers (or at least disassociate them from the more nefarious spammers). Oh, and it's funny in a semi-ironic sort of way that they try to get you to sign up for their mail list.
Good Stuff - It's almost psychic how these things come into my inbox right when I need to see them.
When I saw the story headline Give Away Giveaways, I thought yes. Let's get rid of all that cheap crap. It's not really effective is it? It can't be. But, the story is just wrong on so many levels.
Not long ago, I was sitting in a cafe when I noticed the ring tone on another patron's cell phone. The tone played a simple but well-known melody: "Always Coca-Cola." [...] Now that's digital branding. Not only will the phone's owner hear the Coke jingle several times a day, so will everyone around him. That brand's signature tune is a highly effective piece of merchandising.Well, sure, but how many millions of dollars did Coke have to spend to create so much brand affinity that somebody would consider (even just to be kitsch or ironic) putting Coke's jingle on their phone? This isn't something that Paul's Print Palace down the street is going to be able to manage. The idea that you can drop giveaways, not because they suck, but because you can replace them with cheap digital products is insane.
Should I be concerned that, even after reading this 4 times:
STEP #3: OPT FOR TRUE RESPONSE LISTS WHEN YOU CANI still have absolutely know idea what a True Response List is. Time to hit google. link
Just as traditional mailers know that response lists normally outpull compiled lists significantly, smart marketers use true response lists in their e-mail campaigns. That's why the cost of the mass opt-in files has dropped precipitously -- they are just not performing. In the b-t-b arena, controlled circ publication e-mail files (not just traditional files with e-mail appends) are working very well. Obviously, as a consumer marketer, if you can rent online respondents to magazine or catalog offers, or even to insurance and financial lead-generation offers, you'll want to test them.
Well, there's a nice tip:
Scrub your lists. Suppress suspicious "spamflag" addresses such as "abuse@" or "marketerspam@."Link
A very sharp article over on MarketingProfs.com.
Problems tend to perk up the ears of your target audience. Once you've achieved that you then give them the solution (sometimes one crafted specially to their needs), and they understand the concept and respond to it.
Of course we're planning to do all of These Things. We've been planning this for a while. I need a way to get past the planning and onto the doing. Hmm... Maybe I'll draw up a plan for that later today.
Marketingprofs.com has a fascinating read about the problems with Database Segmentation for marketing and customer analysis. We're finally starting to get access do a trickle of data (which truly makes me tingle with joy at the possibilities). It's a little discouraging to see that as more data rolls in, your ability to grok it all diminishes on pretty much the same curve. Anyway, I'm sure I'll want to refer to this article again at some point.
ClickZ has an extremely interesting article suggesting that major ISPs like AOL are (or are about to start) charging direct marketers for the right to mail into their networks.
I walk both sides of this fence on stuff like this. I am a marketer and I need to be able to get messages to people who want to receive them. I am a user of e-mail, and I jealously guard most of my e-mail addresses to reduce the amount of Spam I get. Even as a marketer, I hate, HATE, HATE Spammers because their bad behavior casts a negative light legitimate marketing efforts. If we can reverse the cost structures, then maybe we can make it uneconomically feasible for Spammers to Spam. Still, I am scared to hell and beyond about the idea that ISPs are going to start becoming gatekeepers to e-mail. That just reeks of negative consequences.
I want to read Click Z story later when I'm not also trying to watch The Royal Tenenbaums. Although I can easilly surf and even write while watching a movie, I really can't sort through dense statistical topics like this.
Click Z is running a story about the interactive advertising industries new campaign to rehab their image and convince people to stop looking at click through rates and start paying attention to other factors as a metric of success. Color me unimpressed.
It's probably not good that as a marketing professional, I have such little faith in the ability of most marketing activities to generate any kind of results. I want to be convinced. I really do. I mean I bought a Bowflex based almost exclusively on the success of their ad campaign (and the fact that in my reasoned opinion it looked like a pretty good product that would do what I wanted it to do). I know it can work, but most of the time it doesn't.
I know it's a poor workman who blames his tools, but there you go. And, this isn't likely overcome those feelings one little bit. Maybe what we need are better tools to gather information. I'll be the first to complain that our systems can't give me the data I need to measure effectiveness, but what they do show me suggests that our fledgling on-line promotional activities don't do much.
Haven't really looked at this site yet, but the title on their home page certainly speaks to my pain point. So I'm bookmarking Discover Which Marketing Programs Really Work for later consideration.
I don't know. The suggestions in Direct Response Email 101 seem designed as a step by step checklist to make sure your messages look like Spam. Since the prevailing wisdom is that nobody opens Spam anymore, I'm not sure why you'd what to do that.
This is the problem. There are so many "experts" out there, and none of them seem to agree on what works. Of course this is why you have to test, but I want a roadmap to ensure success - at least a hint as to the right way to go. I'm afraid that my marketing brothers and sisters have already poisoned the well on this stuff.
A B-to-B case study regarding Matrix Groups e-mail efforst offers something to think about over here
MindArrow has an excellent White Paper [pdf] on optimizing an e-mail program. I can tell, the learning curve on this is going to be steep, and I feel like we're coming in a little too late to the party. We will have to be very careful going forward. We do have budget approval for a messaging platform, so we're on our way. Anybody with tips or experiences is more than welcome to comment.
Does Your E-Newsletter Have a Content Formula?
The idea of putting out an email newsletter may seem like a no-brainer, but executing that idea -- and keeping the publication going over time -- is another thing entirely.Without a doubt, this is my chief concern going forward with an e-newsletter strategy. I've seen content development in our off-line newsletters disentegrate in exactly this way. I will have to think more about this.
I don't know that I'm ready to drink the cool aid on this one yet, but I am intrigued by the idea of: user, we know you're busy with a task and don't want to click through our ad, so why don't you mark the ad and view it later? The method offered by the company in This Article seems questionable, but it is interesting, and I want to think about it more. Their method is thus:
"Check ad later" pops open a daughter window containing a thumbnail version of the ad and offers other functionality, such as "add to bookmarks." This allows the user to continue with whatever she was doing when the ad appeared and to return later.
Interview: The Customer Share is Always Right
Customer Share Group CEO Tom Osenton thinks priorities are all wrong. He believes that competing for market share is a thing of the past, and aggressively pursuing customer share (e.g., cross-selling and upselling to your existing customers) will be the key to prosperity in the coming years.
No permalinks over at SherpaBlog, but this is worth thinking about:
Posted 1:56 PM by anne holland HTML newsletter lay-out tip -- does it print out? If the person designing your email newsletter is more used to Web sites than newsletters, they may make the mistake of designing your letter for screen readability versus printed readability. Thing is, many, many people print your newsletter out either to read it, or to file it, or to pass it on to someone who prefers printed copies. One problem I see occasionally are newsletters (and web pages too) with a left hand navigation column so wide that when you print them out, the right side is cut off. There's nothing more annoying than printing off a letter to read later, and then finding that the last two words at the end of each line are cut off.
Press Releases are a Colossal Waste of Time
I haven't sent out a traditional press release in the last 10 years. But I have placed stories about my clients in The Wall St. Journal, New York Times, ABC News, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and just about any other major media outlet on the planet.
Increase Your Click-Through Rate by 50 Percent?
Dear Reader, You won't want to miss today's column -- we talk about how one email newsletter increased its click-through rate by 50 percent overnight.
Quoted Text:
Testing has been on our minds lately here at the office. We are talking to more and more people who are reaching a major milestone in their email efforts. Now that they've gotten up and running with their email newsletters and marketing, they are ready to start focusing on increasing revenues and decreasing costs. That means its time to start testing.
Boy, I wish I was in that boat. Maybe soon, but for now I'll just bookmark this little nugget.
Fatburger seems to be trying a new marketing message. At least it was new to me. For those not in California, it's a burger joint, a little more upscale than most of the fast food chains. I don’t get there very often. As those types of places go, I think they’re one of the best. There just aren’t any close enough to me that I get there very often.
Anyway, I did have lunch there today, and their in-store signage was along the lines of in a land of tofu and wheatgrass juice Fatburger is an oasis of taste. A few years ago, all their in-store work was working overtime trying to distance the Fatburger name from any anti-health connotations. They were playing off the whole nostalgia angle. You know back when we started our humble little hamburger stands, fat meant cool or whatever fat was supposed to mean back in the day. Then they’d go on to talk about how their burgers are actually very lean and healthy, and how they only use vegetable oil for their fries.
Obviously the idea that fries could be healthy is a pretty silly message when you think about it, but in the context of somebody who has already made the decision to go for an indulgence, it was pretty sharp and effective.
This new message just didn’t seem to work for me. I know some SUV’s have made some hay off the indulgence angle, but I just don’t see it playing very well in food. At least not in Southern California. It may play in the Midwest, but even then it seems pretty iffy to me. People will indulge – obviously. I just don’t think most people really want to have to confront that. They’d rather not think about it since thinking about it brings guilt. Maybe I’m projecting my own feelings here, but I don’t think so.
I’d love to talk to their marketing folks and find out what they’re thinking. In and Out’s radio campaign with John Goodman lampooning the whole diet shake angle seemed to work fairly well, so maybe they figure that is what people are looking for. And, I hear that in recession and times of fear (look around right?) people tend to turn to comfort foods, so maybe it’s just that their ear is closer to the ground on the whole what people want to eat thing.
I’d love to see their numbers though, because even with all that, I think it’s the wrong direction for them.
Ten Tasks for Tailoring Email Newsletter Content Pretty self-evident advice, but worth thinking about all the same.
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