Advertising wars – TV v/s digital media

One of my favorite blogs is Mitch Joel’s “Six pixels of Separation“. Couple of months ago, he spoke about the premature obituaries being written about traditional media in his blog about “What type of advertising has the most influence?”. Death of the 30 sec. TVC, print declines dramatically, etc. have been common refrains from multiple marketing experts. A Deloitte survey in the US showed that Television was still rated as having the most impact on their buying decisions. While this might get some digital/new media evangelists up in arms, a neutral observer might not be surprised or alarmed.

Let’s agree on a fact – digital has taken over our imagination like nothing else in the last 50 years. The explosion of the digital ecosystem has gotten many of us carried away in its wake. To be still supporting the primacy of traditional media in a marketing set-up can be seen as Jurassic.

But a more essential question to ask is – is the choice between traditional & new media really a zero sum game, where one can win only if the other loses?  Reality seems to suggest otherwise.

• The sheer volume of TV channels (and print titles and radio stations and OOH touch points) has exploded in the same period that the Internet has
• Content is migrating across media channels like never before, with benefits being shared between the consumer & the producer – though magazine & (paid) online publishers might disagree
• Ideas & technology have cross-pollinated from digital to offline media (and vice versa) helping both to deliver exciting communication opportunities

What stuck with me was the point Mitch makes about consumers multi-tasking (surfing, tweeting, chatting) while watching television; this is now seen as reinforcing the power of TV and not disrupting it. I am sure there’ll be a lot of skepticism around this theory, but keeping an open mind is essential.

As marketers, we are always told that marketing is not advertising. Today, the same needs to applied to digital enthusiasts as well. Digital advertising is probably the most exciting part of being in this business today. Engaging consumers using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. is allowing us to time our messages & design mechanics based on true consumer listening, behavior & preferences. But it’s effectiveness is in complementing the overall communications & engagement task, by plugging holes that traditional media cannot.

PR nightmares on the Social media scene

Of brand Hijacks & PR nightmares – a very interesting article I came across on how big brands get it wrong in managing the social media space. Knee jerk reactions, couched under company policy or misguided actions can only dig a deeper hole for brands. Thanks Angela Natividad for this.

Death of display advertising

Or should I say, the decline of display advertising (especially in online), to a step-child position. Over the past couple of years, the din of “measurable marketing” has overwhelmed us all. The success of search-based advertising & the proliferation of click-based ad networks/affiliates/publishers means anyone wanting to do a campaign not based on clicks is laughed out of the building. As tracking tools get more sophisticated, and gurus develop ever-more complicated models to measure anything that can (not necessarily should) be measured, the clamour to join the bandwagon has grown. In all this, the poor display ads (read banners that purely exposed you to a message, but didn’t demand an action or engagement or involvement) has been vilified & pushed into a corner. Lesser & lesser media plans actively promote display per se, and probably none with displays that don’t have a gimmick (click here, play a game on the banner, watch a video, etc).

Recently, Josh Chasin passionately argued to not allow the “Click wagging the Dog“. He held forth on the 8/86 rule (8% of the universe generated 86% of the clicks), as shown by a comScore report on clickthroughs & how it was skewing the spend mix as budgets shifted increasingly to search & affiliates/ad networks following the pay per action pricing model. As online agencies fight to draw more budgets from the offline world,  this works as the “sweet spot” with most clients fighting to showcase some sanity in how they spend their marketing dollars.  Also interesting is to read Kathryn Koegel who has been consistently defending the display world & its role in the media/marketing mix. Multiple studies have been done by the IAB & the OPA in the US to show how display leads to repeat visitors, who then go on to act as both buyers & advocates for a brand that maintains it’s focus on building the brand story even during tough times.

The question, as always comes down to a choice – how do you balance the need to instantly demonstrate results versus the need to sustain brand-consumer engagement. Pat LaPointe makes a cogent case on the Cost of Not Branding, and how difficult it is to avoid being short sighted in these tough economic times.

The decline of display advertising is an indicator to a broader dilemma – how does one balance the long term health of a brand with the short pressures of the market.

Cost Per Lead – a case for widening the metrics basket

The Cost Per Lead metric is as old as the discipline of measurable marketing. And for most marketers today, especially SMEs, the only source of assurance that marketing dollars seem to be doing something. Over & over again, lead generation efforts are optimized for Cost Per Lead (CPL) – through search analytics, email response rates, online tracking tools; each by the way costing thousands of dollars by themselves to put in place. The pressure to be ruthless in identifying the best performing CPL vehicles & killing off the laggards is immense, even when intuition barks at the back about the “intangibles” that are not being or cannot be factored into the decision.

But often times, as we graduate up the scale of sophistication in our lead generation activities, the need to move beyond CPL introduces the world of more complicated metrics – Cost per Unit Sale, Revenue Per Spend, Conversion Metrics; the list has grown endless. And the methodologies to compute these have grown ever more complex & expensive to implement, thus retaining CPL’s position as the most preferred & most used metric to date.

Here’s an interesting article where Tom Scearce argues on what else can and should be used, alongwith CPL, to have a more holistic approach to lead generation – one that allows the utilisation of a wider arsenal of activites & thus enable reaching out to audiences in different phases on the buying cycle. In the B2B space, the search & buy phases are stretched over time. Also personal vendor relationships, extended credit periods & technology compatibility play a key role in final decision making on who to align with. Hence, multiple message combinations & buyer triggers need to be addressed before a prospect becomes a lead. A wider basket of metrics is not just advisable, but also the responsible course of action.

9 common Email Marketing mistakes to avoid

Over time, we all get complacent. Whether it is in our work or otherwise, any work that’s repetitive tends to get boring & we tend to overlook the obvious. Email marketers, or marketers in general, are more prone to this as we run the “optimization” treadmill on a daily basis. Here is a list of the “obvious” that we need to be wary of, and avoid – thanks to the generous flocks at ClickMail Marketing. Highlights

a) Sloppy Copy – spelling mistakes, incorrect punctuations or grammar, poor sentence structure

b) Crummy Coding – keep content within most screen sizes, prepare for image suppression, etc

c) Call to Action – keep it in text, put above the fold

d) Poor subject lines – too many characters, words that sound suspiciously spam

e) Obscure “From” label – must be relevant & recognizable, else will get filtered out

f) Floating address or domain – very important to keep the “From” label consistent to build credibility

g) Lazy Lists – keep growing your list, respect an “unsubscribe” request & act ASAP

h) Competing Links – unless it’s a newsletter, keep each mail to one subject & one call to action

i) Unfair Unsubscribe – make it easy for possible to unsubscribe, any “fine print” here is bad for your rep

The great part about this list is that most, if not all, mistakes can be fixed quite easily. Phew!

7 steps to a winning lead management program

One of the most detailed papers I read recently was by the folks at Silverpop on the above topic. The article can be downloaded here.

Lead generation & management is the overriding concern for many marketers, especially in the B2B space today. The struggle for demonstrating marketing effectiveness in every dollar spent has necessitated this shift towards leads as the acceptable metric across organisations (including the sales & the finance teams).  With the proliferation of marketing automation tools available, and the wealth of information/learning that is being generated by vendors of such tools, marketers today are able to deliver dramatic improvements in ROI than at any time in the past. But these improvements come as a result of implementing a holistic lead-management process with due consideration being given to understanding the prospect, evaluating the current relationship, benchmarking the future potential of that relationship, designing the lead generation process & tracking the milestones so as to deliver on the agreed metrics. And in doing so, one must carry the sales/service teams together through each step to cross-leverage customer understanding & past program implementation learnings.

The 7 steps are

a) Start with a benchmark – Identify your key objectives, figure out the holes in the current process & how to plug them

b) Broaden your mindset – Lead generation is the start, don’t forget the entire “lifecycle of  opportunity”

c) Measure the metrics that matter most – metrics that resonate across organisation functions have the most acceptance, and hence also impact

d) Develop a lead scoring process – this makes the process more efficient, as we focus marketing dollars on the most profitable customers or the most probable convert

e) Cultivate a dialogue to engage prospects – Buying cycles are longer for B2B segments, hence sales requires multiple interactions to convert a prospect

f) Nurturing prospects through the pipeline – continuous communication & engagement is essential in maintaining awareness & building confidence in your product/service.

g) Track, Measure, Modify, Repeat – refine the approach & tactics based on feedback from the program.

Happy winning!!

5 Ways Banks Are Using Social Media – some US examples

Read this article on Mashable regarding how banks in the US, especially the smaller/community banks, have embraced the best of the available social media tools. In doing so, they’ve also figured out how to combine multiple properties (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.) to amplify their reach & thus, leverage people’s online social networks.

1. Community Building – When we think of banks, we often think of impersonal bankers in pinstriped suits denying customers their request for a car loan or a mortgage. The world is changing, though, and even banks are trying to foster community. Focusing on customer service and adopting the personality of the people they serve, community banks and credit unions remind us of what it means to be close to customers.
2. Product Research – Social media was a big part of formulating a new and popular type of checking account at 1st Mariner Bank. The company’s marketing department used social media tools to take a look at their customer’s needs and used that to build new products and services.
3. Customer Service – Bank of America sees many of the same questions on Twitter that they get on typical channels like via telephone or in person, according to David Knapp, who runs the bank’s Twitter account, but they are starting to see social spaces as a potential channel of choice for customers to get the information they need.
4. Marketing & Promotion – Banks that are using social media to brand themselves or to market a specific product or service have found success by integrating social tools into their existing campaigns or creating new ones that capitalize on the spirit of the community. Whether it’s by making the bank synonymous with solid financial advice or giving people the power to do some good in the world, banks have been finding that immersive marketing techniques using social media tools have brought solid results.
5. Transparency – Nicolet National Bank has used social media in order to be more transparent, said Jeff Gahnz. The President of their bank answers questions directly on their blog, for example, and they have helped people with mortgage questions, business loan queries, and general finance questions. They have also blogged their thoughts on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), where the money has gone, and why their bank participated.

Reading this has already given me a few ideas on what to test in some of the categories I work on. Will share them once they’re implemented. Please share yours too. Many thanks.

Online Sources on Email marketing

A collection of sources I’ve referred to online, since I started working in the “email marketing” space -

• http://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/library/17/email-marketing – this is a website that aggregates marketing-related content on a variety of topics
• http://email.about.com/ – a section within the about.com network. They focus on email in the broad sense, including email service providers, email technology, spam stoppers, privacy, etc.
• http://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/library/17/email-marketing – this too is a section within the dmnews.com network, which focuses on the overall DM marketing space.
• http://www.emarketer.com/Welcome.aspx – no list on any segment of online marketing is complete without this one. Here, you will find more content on industry wide benchmarks, trends, syndicated studies, etc.
• http://www.clickz.com/ – one of the oldest & most respected sources for anything related to internet marketing
• http://www.marketingsherpa.com/ – they focus on research into what works in the marketing world
• http://www.emailstatcenter.com/ - anything related to email stats, aggregated from various sources
• http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/ – Articles, reviews & links on email marketing
• Don’t forget the websites of email marketing companies like ExactTarget, MailChimp, Epsilon, etc

This list is endless, so please leave your comments & let me know your favourites/recommendations.

9th Sept update: couple of more links from other bloggers

• http://www.emailmoxie.com/ – Jordan Lane’s blog
• www.theidm.com – the Institute of Direct Marketing, has some handy guides & case studies

Nine Strategies for Email Marketing

One of the first pieces I read online on Email marketing was by Heinz Tschabitsche. The 9 strategies he highlighted were -

• Attention requires permission
• Know your subscribers as individuals
• Personalize
• Get your timing right
• Use Subject & Sender wisely
• Create a clear Call to Action
• Make purchasing easy
• Measure, Test, measure, test….
• Be brave

For experience marketers, these might seem like stating the obvious. But to be reminded of them in different contexts always helps apply them without fail, and hence not fail in ones objectives

Women power – in Indian advertising/media

I was reading about the Forbes ranking of the top 100 most powerful women in the world.  Sonia Gandhi at 13th, Chanda Kochhar at 20th & Kiran Mazumdar Shaw at 92 were the only Indians featured there. And I started thinking about the time I joined advertising, when the media space in India was dominated by women – Ketaki Gupte, Kalpana Rao, Ambika Srivastav, Apurva Purohit, Jasmine Sorabhji, Meenakshi Madhvani. And all wonderful examples of breaking the corporate glass ceiling the old fashioned way – they just went & earned it.

Advertising has always been labeled the “great equalizer” of an industry – the great melting pot where failed doctors mixed with literature majors who worked  with art school grads who didn’t want to work with Chemistry buffs. All thrown together by chance, but thrived in an environment of crackling innovativeness fueled by attitude, self-belief & sheer audacity – we dare to think & be different.

The advertising scene was (& probably still is) about male creative stars like Piyush Pandey, Balki, Prasoon Joshi, Ravi Deshpande, et al, with Indian advertising’s Larry King (Alyque Padamsee) always in the background. But the media departments in most (if not all) major ad agencies were headed by women. And it was a scenario that didn’t raise either sexist or feminist eyebrows; it was just a “matter of fact” situation. The timing might have been just fortuitous, for all of them to be in their respective positions at the same time. The advertising business seemed ahead of its time to me then, for it indicated a triumph of “ability” over the prevalent prejudices & the ubiquitous “glass ceiling”. And considering the media monies they managed, they sure were the most powerful individuals in probably the entire marketing space.

I am not sure how balanced the gender equation is in advertising today, and don’t know if it even matters that much. But whilst reading the Forbes list, I couldn’t help but wonder how it’d be if there were other industries went through a period of time where the power balance stood so clearly in favour of the “fairer sex”.