Thursday, December 3, 2009

Some final thoughts on customer service and Internet Marketing

Today was the last day of class in Internet Marketing 370 at Northern Illinois. We said goodbye to our graduating seniors and three students recieved the certificate in Interactive Marketing. Good luck to them and to all those graduation this semester. It occurred to me that talking about customer service at the end of class as we did could either give the impression the topic was important or that it was not important enough to cover early in the semester. For the record, customber service can make or break an internet company, or any company seeking to use technology for better, differentiated, customer service. The Rogers and Peppers marketing model of IDIC (Identify, Differentiate, Interact and Customize/Personalize) is, I believe, replacing older persuasion models such as AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action). Older models are meant for the mass marketing world. In the interactive and direct marketing world, it is important to differentiate individual customers or groups of customers and treat different customers differently. Differentiation is meaningful for targeting and attracting the right customers but becomes critical with customer service. In class we looked at the British grocery chain Tesco's and how the company uses segmentation to send out multiple versions of its coupon offers depending upon customer needs in implementing the Tesco' loyalty program. Retention is important because of the cost of acquisition, the potential negative word-of-mouth from an unhappy customer and also because of long-term customer profitability. This discussion on customer service is a nice transition to database marketing next semester, where we will begin to see how databases can be used for targeted, segmented acquisition, service and retention. Stay tuned after a short break. Class begins again on January 12 for the Interactive Program at NIU's DeKalb campus. We will be teaching database marketing, marketing technology, IMC and direct marketing.

Getting a job in Interactive Marketing

Kelli Hanson talked about places to look for a job in interactive marketing. She and I strongly believe in networking through professional associations, such as CADM, BMA, AMA and CIMA. Joining the groups these organizations have on linkedin is usually free and an easy way to start getting involved. Since 80% of jobs are not posted or advertised, it is important to network as well as look on these job sites. Still, there are hundreds of jobs posted online in this field. It is up to the student seeking a job to figure out what type of job he or she wants and then to target that position and demonstrate his or her value to potential employers. Develop specialized skills that might be needed to get that job. There is no substitution for networking and hard work. Be prepared to send out at least 200 resumes and to be focused but also flexible.Dates to watch out for: February 18: Lynn Hazan, recruiter, 5pm, February 26, Okner Symposium, 9-4. Both events are required for 455 and 470 and will take place in Barsema Hall.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Legal and ethical issues in marketing

We learned this week that there are a number of laws that regulate internet and interactive marketing. I asked the students to consider a scenario where a company obtained a list of mobile phone numbers in its target market and whether the company could use the list for text messages or phone calls promoting its services. We identified a number of laws that related to this issue. CAN-SPAM, requires express prior permission before sending the message and applies not only to email but to text messages that reference a domain name (3122222455@wirelesscarrier.com) and consumers cannot be required to incur any costs for the authorization. The TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) also prohibits the use of automated equipment to place calls to a mobile number without prior consent. In addition, the Mobile Marketing Association as published Guidelines which do not have the force of law, but also suggest that the consumer should have prior notice and consent that the text message is coming. The Do-Not-Call List would also likely apply if the company chose to call these numbers. If the phone number were obtained from children under 13, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) would apply. This simple scenario indicates that internet marketing law is complex and evolving. From an ethical point of view, both guidelines and laws point to the simple principle of permission. Getting permission is an easy way to know that dealings with the customer are both ethically and legally correct. In addition to protecting children, we also protect consumer healthcare (HIPPA) and financial (GLBA) information. However, there is no general right to privacy of personal data in the United States as is required by the European Union, for example. We also discussed copyright law and the fact that peer-to-peer sharing of music is illegal, even though facilitated by technology. We will have to see how the music industry evolves and adapts to these technology challenges.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Dreamweaver and web design

We looked at the Dreamweaver program over the past few sessions. Dreamweaver creates cleaner HTML code as opposed to word and has a number of other advanced features. The ability to create a separate Dreamweaver 'site' has the advantage of making sure everything needed for the web site is in one place: Cascading Style Sheets knowns as CSS (preformatting for your web page), photos, images and HTML pages. In lab, we recommend putting that site on the network drive and/or backing it up on a portable drive as well. I have been able to solve some problems with website displays by reminding students to put everything in their www folder that the web site needs, including CSS's and images. Also, make sure in Dreamweaver you just have the image name and not a specific location on the desktop or network drive, otherwise the image will not display. Remember to use tables and not frames for your web page for good web design. Enjoy your web site design!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The power of viral video

We have been having so much fun with our YouTube campaign that I have almost forgotten to blog about it. We really had some wonderful results for gimmepleez.com, our Professional Sales Program and the Interactive Program. I have included the results to find the four videos for our program below. Students found that facebook, particularly creating an event, was the most successful way to get the viral effect. We jumped to the first page on google when searching for the term Interactive Marketing and are currently number two. We could never have paid for that type of search ranking in PPC! Web site traffic is also up by over 75% and enrollment in our advanced classes is up over 30%. Great job everyone and a great lesson in viral marketing. We learned that a specific landing page or micro site would have made it easier to track campaign results and that tracking results of viral campaigns is in general a challenge, particularly unique views. Students got a chance to actually report on and analyze the analytics information provided in YouTube. Overall, we are pleased with our results, learned a lot and had some fun. Students said in their papers that the learning by doing experience of running a real campaign helped them understand what Interactive Marketing was all about and what they might do in their future careers.

Have a good Thanksgiving everyone. Check out our videos below.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=interactive+marketing+niu&search_type=&aq=f

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Website analytics

We looked today at website analytics. I showed my google adwords account and google analytics account as well as the insight section of my YouTube account and we looked at the types of information available and the types of insights that might be made from that information. We also looked at some of the recent trends in online advertising. Online ad spending is smaller than last year but growing overall. Sponsorship and mobile marketing are on the upswing and most results can be attributed to search and older media rather than social media and some of the new media....analytics are lagging changes in technology. Traditional ways of looking at web analytics include number os unique visits, pages of visits and traffic source. A landing page is a good way to tie a campaign to a particiular web page to track the results. Some analytics, such as page views and time on the site, can be misleading, as people might just spend time on the site but not really be engaged on the web site. "Bounce rate" with a web site means when the user leaves the site. There are so many metrics and so many possibilities. Some good rules include, always test, look at trends, track key metrics and set goals. We also talked about the difference between data, information and knowledge and how markters want to create databases that can be used to gain customer knowledge for better offers and relationships with customers.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Web site design

Web site design is a complex subject because there are so many different approaches to an effective web site. As always in marketing, think about the target audience and corporate objectives first. We looked in class at some ecommerce sites that seemed busy but yet were successful because that layout is what the audience wanted to see. In general, it is useful to have the purpose of the website and any relevant offer in the upper left hand 'golden triangle' area of the site. Often this area is a good place to put a search function as well as the reader's eye will go to the upper left first. We get this information from tracking eyeball movements for many subjects and displaying them on a 'heat map.' The heat map shows where people click on the site, that cearly 'above the fold' is where eyes are resting and how eye movements also form an "F" shape inside the Golden Triangle. The heat map of a Google web search shows why people want to be in the top three or four searches. http://www.ahfx.net/weblog/79 We looked at ideas on web design from Mary Lou Roberts, Jan Zimmerman, Amy Africa and finally, Dr. Zahay! Some independent sources for good web design and customer service are Forrester.com and Bizrate.com. Dr. Zahay likes sites that load easily, use breadcrumbs, are easy to naviagate, use 2-3, clicks, and have easily available contact information. Trust is an important part of web site design because the user must trust the site to exchange information or do business with the site. Even so, the students said they do not look at Truste or other trust seals on the web in deciding to do business with the site. Again, for marketing, web site design and usability are strategic and not technical issues. Web site development is often iterative as companies find out what works and what doesn't in web site design and make changes accordingly.

SEO and SEM

We learned about Search Engine Optimization, the process of optimizing a site for Organic or Natural Search and about Search Engine Marketing, the process of using piad search. Both processes are designed to drive traffic to a web site. Many people are amazed that by a few adjustments to a web page can bring dramatic results in terms of natural or organic search rankings. Making use of the blue title, linking in and out to relevant pages, making page content relevant to the title and subject of the page are all great ways to improve ranking. I shared the story that when I came to NIU the Interactive Marketing web site did not rank that highly and that I followed basic SEO principles to get the page ranked highly with natural search. Often we recommend that companies use a PPC, pay per click campaign thru google adwords or yahoo to understand which search terms are most relevant. It is easy to see by how much it costs to be listed under a PPC program which terms are going to get the most exposure for the company. A combination of natural and paid search usually works well in driving traffic to the site. The students enjoyed watching Cary Pearlman set up a live Google adwords campaign for them and I will go thru my Google Analytics next week.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Email Marketing/Mobile

We had a good discussion on email marketing before I left for DMA and then learned the Email Marketing tool Exact Target. We learned the reason to use a tool like ET is the ability to get emails past potential spam filters that ISP's might set up and to manage many different emails effectively. The ability to include dynamic content for personalized offers is also a big plus of this type of system. A company such as Careerbuilder.com might send millions of emails per month and needs to effectively manage and track campaigns. Even though email marketing is a small percentage of total online advertising, its ability to target customers and be integrated within an overall multiple channel marketing campaign makes email an important and influential medium. Good emails have an effective and descriptive subject line and a clear offer or purpose. While email open rates remain higher than those of direct mail, we learned that same week at the CADM monthly luncheon program on mobile marketing that mobile emails can have an over 70% response rate! It seems as each new type of way to reach the customer comes on the scene response rates are high and then level off, but I am thinking mobile rates might remain high. People read their text messages within seconds typically instead of days or hours for email. We also learned how to identify "phishing" emails that want to get personal information for fraudulent purposes and about the CAN-SPAM act and how to remain compliant. Good email marketers want to follow the guidelines of that act and comply by having a subject line that clearly states the advertising purpose of the email and is consistent with the body of the email, a valid reply to address, a physical address and an unsubscribe provision.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Search engine marketing & Guests

We had two guest speakers in the past week and a half. One was Gimmepleez.com, relating to our project to produce a YouTube video. The other speaker was restaurant.com CEO and President Cary Chessick. Students enjoy hearing Cary's story of how restaurant.com started and how it had changed its business model over time and has evolved to the brokerage model it uses today. I refer students in the class to links to the video on these speakers. Students wishing to work on the Professional Sales Program who did not hear Dr. Weilbaker speak in class can feel free to set up a meeting with him or talk to either of us about the project.

We started SEM, Search Engine Marketing this week and will continue with the topic on the 20th and 22nd. On the 20th Cary Pearlman will teach our class in PPC (Pay Per Click) and we will have a lab on the 23rd. I introduced the area of SEM and we looked at a sample google search and pointed out the paid ads versus the natural search results. We talked about Gooogle having 70% of the search engine market and that almost fifty percent of internet advertising is in search engine advertising spending. For this reason even though online advertising spending has dropped this year Q1 09 versus Q2 09 by about ten percent, search engine spending continues to rise. We talked about SEO being the process of optimizing organic or natural search. There is a lot companies can do to optimize their organic search efforts and get high page rankings without spending money. these tactics include a descriptive title bar, text that matches the title bar and is descriptive of the subject matter, links to and from related, relevant sites and appropriate keywords (although the latter is less important now). Search engine spiders or crawlers use complicated algorithms as they search through pages to determine if a page is a good fit with a particular search term. Images need to be tagged and spiders have a hard time with flash intro pages as well. I always enjoy teaching this topic and look forward to the rest of the time we will spend on SEO and Paid Search.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Internet Advertising

We talked last week about internet advertising and the fact that much of internet advertising is concentrated on search engine marketing, which is why we will focus on search engine marketing in class. The advertising business model is difficult to sustain because most internet advertising is focused on the top ten portal sites and it is hard to attract advertisers to a specialized, smaller, web site. The focus of marketers is on push versus pull marketing and there are more and different media forms each day such as blogging, podcasts, RSS, social media, etc. The marketing job is more complicated. These tools are used even in B2B marketing, with information-based tools such as e-zines being effective in B2B. We talked about the evolution from contextual to behavioral advertising, and then ended with an overview of viral video marketing. Short, quirky, engaging, funny and shocking works! This type of advertising is in its infancy so we will all be learning together for our class project. Don't forget to check out the tips in the links I provided in the class notes.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Business Models and Social Networking

We had a discussion on business models this week. We discussed popular models such as brokerage, merchant, manufacturing, advertising, affiliate, community, utility and subscription models. A business model is nothing more than a way to make money online and if a company is not profitable offline going online is probably not going to help. We identified that companies can be Click Only or Bricks and Clicks by having a store presence. The emphasis on multichannel marketing means that Bricks and Clicks is a more popular option than Click only. Most companies want to do business with their customers across multiple channels because multi-channel customers are more profitable. Our guest speaker Dana Van Den Heuvel from Marketing Savant gave us an update on social networking applications in industry. We have talked about how marketing is becoming a conversation and social media is defined as people having conversations online, although other technology such as pictures and videos are involved as well. There is a new standard of expectations that companies will be hanging out where their customers are. Some key social media platforms are blogging, photo sharing, podcasts, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds and social media sites. Marketers should focus on what their business objectives are before engaging in a social media strategy. Many companies have a social media presence because these firms wish to have a passionate and loyal customer base. Most consumers are not creators of online content but rather consumers and most successful companies in social media target their efforts toward the majority. Some examples of successful companies in social media include P&G. By 'crowdsourcing' their new product development efforts, about half of their new product ideas are coming from customers now. Comcast provides customer support via Twitter and Dell not only engages customers but provides product promotions online. Coca Cola spreads conversations through its fans on facebook. It is important to have a good story to tell and have a sound company before engaging in a social media strategy. Micro metrics for social media include number of customer comments, referrals, issues addressed and implemented ideas. Some recent research indicates that companies that use social media well are growing at a faster rate than those who are not employing social media as part of their marketing strategies. Marketers can't ignore these media and students were encouraged to join linkedin and twitter and use these tools to participate in the conversation on marketing. By demonstrating their expertise and what they can contribute, students can become attractive to potential job seekers. Social media sites are also a great way to meet people that can help in the job search process.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Who is on the net?

We looked at social media sites in our course lab and then this week have been exploring the question of who is on the internet? The internet consumer is in general older, more college-educated and increasingly female. Seventy-five percent of adults now use the internet, with 53 percent using some form of cloud communication. Although mobile applications are increasing in the United States, especially among African-Americans, over half the population, according to the Pew Report, can be classified as more tied to stationary than mobile media. In Europe, mobile applications are more widespread. Some of our class will be attending a presentation on mobile media at a CADM meeting in October so we will learn more about it then. We looked at various models of consumer behavior, such as AIDA, Attention, Interest, Desire and Action to explain how we as marketers want to involve consumers on our web site. Attention, Acquisition, Assessment and Action explains involvement from the marketer's point of view. Once the person is on board as a customer, we want to assess their needs so we can answer them most effectively through interactive communications and offers. We also talked about new ways of finding out what the consumer is thinking, as opposed to traditinal marketing research surveys. Blog posts, customer reviews, etc. all provide insight for the marketer but are harder to control. Anyone can be responding rather than a random sample of a known population. Companies like bizrate.com use panels of consumers to solicit input and control for this problem.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Internet Marketing

We are off to a good start in Internet Marketing. We distinguished between Internet Marketing, which is using the internet to facilitate the marketing process, and true interactivity, addressing the customer, remembering what they said, and addressing them in a way that is relevant to them. We discussed the relationship between direct and interactive marketing, particularly the use of databases and the ability to measure response. We also looked at the objectives of direct marketing versus interactive marketing and added to acquisition, conversion and retention the creation of value. The idea is to use information about the customer to create relevant offers and bind the customer to the brand. We gave the example of amazon.com and the way the website remembers prior purchases and makes offers that might be of relevance. The internet marketer can use the Internet "I's" to maximize use of this powerful medium (Interactivity, Immediacy, Involvement and Information-Intensiveness). If marketers keep these unique characteristics in mind, as well as the internet's roots in direct marketing, they will be able to leverage the medium to its best advantage.

We also talked about the history of the internet and the three trends that enable interactive marketing: Communication, technology and distribution. The internet originally was developed for government, particularly defense, applications. Since the creation of early commercial web browsers, such as MOSAIC, the opening up of the internet to commerical applications. Since then, the web as a marketing medium has exploded. Internet technology has been adapted faster than any other type of technology, taking just 7-8 years to be adopted by 30% of households.

I said that I have been teaching about the evolution from mass to direct to interactive communications for ten years, but this year I added another form of communication, collaborative communication. Web 2.0 means the many-to-many versus one-to-many communications that involve customers sharing information and opinion about brands and creating their own products and applications for products. We also discussed Moore's Law about computer power increasing and the cost decreasing, Metcalf's Law about the power of networks and the concept of the "Long Tail" in marketing, selling many products to the same person and not focusing on making money through mass marketing.

We will finish up this week talking about the value chain and positioning web sites.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Multichannel Marketing Class June 11: Final Case and Wrap Up

We had a great last class with several guest evalulators from industry and Dr. Geoff Gordon from NIU. Students presented the final case which was to put together a multichannel media strategy for an insurance company. The additional challenge was to work through the agent network. The students did a fabulous job. They recognized the importance of the database as a central respository of information across channels. Several groups suggested interesting segmentation strategies. I was impressed with their creative suggestions for using social media, although with the age of the insurance agents it might be difficult to get them on board. Also, Rob Jackson pointed out with all the regulation in the insurance industry and privacy regulation and concerns it might be difficult for agents to really participate in such an open media. We learned in four weeks about all the major media channels, direct mail, email, search, internet, etc., and about databases, analytics and measurement related to multichannel marketing. I think media channels will become more and more fragmented and marketers will face more challenges in the future. Thanks again to NIU's Marketing 660 CE1 MBA Class, Special Topic: Multichannel Marketing, for a great four weeks!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Multichannel Marketing Class June 10: Measuring across channels and PPC

We talked about a number of different ways to measure responses across channels. I likened the search for the ability to measure across channels and attribute response to specific media actions to the search for the Holy Grail. There are so many new media and it is difficult to know if the response came from the last sales contact, banner ad, or search stream. Approaches vary from surveying consumers to field experiments (treating one group differently from the control to see if there is a change in sales or response rates) to building sophisticated models to simulate and measure response. I shared some research from Don Schultz at Northwestern where he has used survey data from an online panel to then determine media influence. In the example Don gave us, Auto Makers were spending too much money on television advertising and not enough on the internet, in terms of perceived influence. Industry data is useful as a starting point but many marketers want to see what the effect is on response in their particular company situation. The search will continue for the best models.

We also looked at Pay Per Click in Google and saw how expensive some keywords can be and discussed bidding strategies. It can be a good strategy to go for the third or fourth spot to save money and still be 'above the fold.'

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Multichannel Marketing Class June 8: Trends in Multichannel and SEO

Bob Arkema from Johnson & Quin led us in a lively discussion of how the direct and interactive industry is changing in a post financial-meltdown world. For the first time since data has been kept, direct mail spending decreased last year. Search and social media spending are predicted to grow but most other media are flat or declining. Companies are taking a good, hard look at what they mail and how much they mail. Mail is seen increasingly as a companion to other channels, such as online or email, which is consistent with the multichannel theme of our class. I have heard similar comments from other direct mail providers. Specialty houses that can do smaller print runs using variable digital printing for highly personalized communication so far seem to be holding their own, although there has been a lot of industry consolidation. It is my impression that we are living through an unprecedented change in the industry. Much of this change was driven by the collapse of our financial institutions, many of whom were heavy direct mailers.

The DMA (Direct Marketing Association) in New York itself has gone through several rounds of layoffs. I recently was nominated for a position on the board of CADM (Chicago Association of Direct Marketing) so I will get to help guide this organization through these troubled waters. In times of downturn, it always seems to me that basic marketing principles are key. Best Buy survives because it has a clear differentiation strategy and by the way makes great use of its customer data. Circuit City tried to play catch up but just could not distinguish itself in the marketplace.

Catching up from last week, we also talked about SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Search is divided into paid versus organic search. Keywords are the terms users employ when searching for something. Organic search is free. Search engines use algorithms to determine page rank. Web spiders or 'crawlers' search the web and analyze pages to determine page rank. In natural search, these programs are looking to see that the blue title onthe top matches web site content, that the content of the web site matches the keywords used in search and to some extent the keywords in the HTML code, and that there are sites linked to the site and that the site links to others. These crawlers cannot read pictures so it is important to 'tag' pictures with descriptions that match the keywords the company wishes to identify with the site.

We also talked about the importance of good writing in business communication. I will spot each group three and only three poorly constructed sentences, typos and/or grammar mistakes in deference to our short-class format. After that, it is a point taken for each problem noted by me. We talked about the proper use of demonstrative pronouns. Except in rare cases, pronouns such as this and they in formal writing need to be substituted for a proper noun or have some kind of additional noun used with them. Instead of saying "This is important in multichannel marketing,' for example, substitute "This trend" or "This concern." Avoid addressing the audience as 'you' except in persuasive communication.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Multichannel Marketing Class June 2: The Multichannel Database Continued

Joe Stanhope from Alterian built upon what Joe Decosmo from Allant said last night about the importance and also the difficulty of developing a database that incorporates data across functional areas and across customer touchpoints. Joe talked a little bit about Alterian, which leverages its partner relationships to help companies put all the data together and then run analytical software, campaign management software, email marketing software and web content software all using the same customer database. Joe gave an amusing example of his customer contact experiences with American Airlines. In spite of the fact that Joe is an Elite status flier and American knows a lot about him, the company still fails to make relevant offers to him using his personalized information. He has received thirty emails from the company in the last few months but offers are to where he does not fly or for benefits he does not wish to receive.

I completed our database marketing module by talking about how databases are put together. Companies typically take internal information such as customer transaction data and name and address and purchase external information, a process known as data enhancement. From this information, companies create modelled data such as RFM scores (Recency, Frequency and Monetary Value) which are usually computed in the form of deciles (ten groups), or quintiles (five groups). Customers are placed into one of the groups and marketed to accordingly. There are other ways to create modelled data and assign group scores. We talked about an alternative to RFM used by Marriott Vacation Clubs called CAP, but companies also engage in more sophisticated modelling techniques. Thus, the three types of data, modelled, internal and external, make up the basic parts of all customer databases. Types of external data might be lifestyle or psychographic data such as Claritas, PRIZM (You are where you live) which we examined in class. We also talked about how companies like Acxiom, Experian and others take data from different sources and then append that data to outside customer records to add value. These firms also use these different data sources to create their own clustering and segmentation models. Typically, a company will give an outside vendor their file to be cleaned (merge/purge, de-dup) and then records will be matched using a match code and data appended accordingly. There is a great deal of work to be done internally also to keep data clean, such as getting rid of bad records, including change of addresses, and general quality maintenance. Good data quality is a constant process. I talked a little about my research on data quality and the presentation I will make at the Marketing Science INFORMS conference on the relationship between organizational factors like a stated strategy and good teamwork and vision around customer data quality and ultimate data quality. Marketers are worried today about social media and other new marketing tools and using all channels that will be effective should be a priority for markters. However, data quality is a discipline that can reap many benefits as customer data is used across all channels.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Multichannel Marketing Class June 1: Database Marketing and the Multichannel Challenge

Joe DeCosmo, EVP from The Allant Group in Naperville, addressed us on the difficulties of developing and maintaining customer databases to support multichannel marketing. Companies want to address the customer individually with an offer that is relevant and timely, but often don't have the data structure to support that effort. Ryan underlined these problems in his presentation, where he said that his own company has a customer database but does not really use the information to market across channels or just to mine the exisitng data in stand-alone marketing campaigns. Joe outlined a mapping process that we have talked about in class whereby customers are increasingly using a multiple channel approach to purchasing and how companies can get started developing databases that integrates across all customer interactions. Joe suggested that we use the term interactions instead of classical CRM. This terminology would be consistent with our approach in this class, where we have emphasized the importance of interactive marketing from the first day. Joe also stated that the ROI on multichannel marketing is anywhere from $4-8 for every dollar spent.

We talked in my portion of the class about The Loyalty Effect and the Net Promoter score as developed by Frederick Reichheld and the eighty/twenty rule and moving customers up a value pyramid as outlined by Arthur Hughes. We then had a discussion on data privacy and security. Privacy law has been evolving in this country and the internet has made everyone more concerned about data privacy in particular. The European Union has a stricter policy and an explicit right to data privacy. In the U.S., we focus on self-regulation and guidelines, such as the FTC Guidelines, but we still have legislation in the area, such as CAN-SPAM and the Do-Not-Call legislation. Privacy is an emotional issue. Consumers are concerned about privacy but don't really want to go through the effort to select the exact offers they would receive from all their vendors. We talked about a privacy policy as a way to help consumers feel more comfortable about doing business with a company, as well as using privacy seals from a trusted organization on the web site. We also looked into what the future might hold as technology allows marketers to target ads during our private conversations and as we are entering stores and shopping malls.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Multichannel Marketing Class May 27th: Social Media

We had a great introduction to social media from expert Dana VanDen Heuvel. Dana spoke of the crisis in mass marketing as people lose trust in mass advertising and are interested in blocking advertising. He also said that advertising impact is difficult to measure but the same could be said for social media at this stage of the game. Nonetheless, the internet and digital marketing has put the customer in charge and marketers need to monitor what is going on with blogs, social networking sites, customer reviews and the like. Dana said some companies are now using these types of digital media to supplement or even replace traditional marketing research, although I think marketing research will always have a role to play. The problem with monitoring what is being said on the web is that a marketer can't know the demographics of those that are participating and only one percent of those on the web contribute to blogs, reviews, etc. The results of only monitoring web buzz can be biased.

However, there are great benefits and marketers cannot ignore what is going on in blogs and social media. Comcast Cable has a mechanism to track what is going on in Twitter for example and to respond to and fix customer problems before things get out of hand (they responded after a famous YouTube video in which a technician was photographed having fallen asleep waiting for his own company to respond to a customer service call).

The bottom line is that marketers can't afford to ignore these new forms of media. Dana also emphasized the importance of collecting and analyzing data regarding conversations about a particular brand on the web and about particular customers. We talked about using data contextually in advertising to deliver more relevant messages so the material was a nice tie-in to what we will be discussing this week: Creating databases to implement multichannel campaigns and to analyzes the responses.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Multichannel Marketing Class May 26th: Multichannel Retailing

We covered multichannel retailing using a webinar case study from Exact Target on Johnston and Murphy. Johnston and Murphy is an upscale shoe retailer, primarily men's shoes, with three fullfillment channels, store, catalog and internet (I am assuming that they also have a dial-in call center for fulfillment but it was not mentioned). J&M contacts its customers via direct mail and email, in-store promotions and its web site. It did not seem that the company used brand advertising. I would think that the economics of its business is such that direct communication is more cost effective.

The company has 700,000 customers on its database and knows who they are and can contact them directly so direct and interactive marketing make sense. J&M started by segmenting its current business into eight key buying segments with different characteristics. By capturing 60% of customer email addresses at point of purchase it can then use purchase data to determine which segment a customer belongs in and tailor offers to them. All interaction is captured in the customer database; the company uses match back on address, phone number, email, etc. to put all possible information in one place. Three emails are sent to new customers within 40 days and current customers also get a three email cycle, offer, discount 1, discount 2. "Lost" customers are those who have not ordered in two years and they also receive email treatment.

The program has been successful for J&M. The email program is set up and then adjusted every six months or so so the communiation is automated. Data collected from transactions is modelled to determine the best combination of communications to elicit the maximum response. Students in class presentations talked about other retailers doing the same type of marketing effort by building a database, capturing transactions, segmenting and targeting. Student also reinforced the research mentioned in class that multichannel shoppers are typically more profitable shoppers.

This webinar is a good transition to the next two sections of our class. Email and Direct Mail are channels that are 'push' channels and are acquisition oriented. We use military language like 'target' and 'capture' to describe our efforts and the marketer is still somewhat in control. As we began to disucss last night, with the internet as a channel, control shifts to the consumer and we will hear more about that next week with our discussions on internet and social media. Next week we will also learn more about data analytics, which will aid understanding of the modelling efforts J&Q mentioned.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Multichannel Marketing Class May 20th: Multiple and Electronic Media

There were a number of alternative ways that Newport News could use to obtain information about customers who had recieved a catalog but then not put in a key code when they entered their order or those who had just come in through the internet. We discussed asking a brief survey after the order (making sure that the survey did not increase shopping card abandonment) as well as using a 'matchback' process. Matchback involves sending purchase transaction history and catalog mailing data to a company that can essentially do a mail/merge and identify orders that came from those who had recently received a catalog; the firm sends the file back flagging potential matches and Newport News could use this file then to calculate ROI on its catalog mailings.

We had a presentation from Mike Malley from Con Agra on the multichannel media launch that was used to introduce the new Healthy Choice shelf stable meals. We could see the integration between the internet and more traditional media such as PR, Advertising and in-store promotion. Mike talked about using an email blast to loyal, opt-in healthy choice users, which was a good tie-in with out discussions on email marketing. We discussed that the CAN-SPAM act requires a valid reply to address, an opt-out provision, a street address and that the subject line be clearly labelled as promotional. Companies like Exact Target make it easy to be CAN-SPAM compliant. We evaluated some email offers to see if they were CAN-SPAM compliant and also evaluated the offer and the design based on the principles we had learned the prior evening.

We also talked about other electronic media channels, such as television and radio, which still have a place in today's media mix. Radio listeners don't switch channels as much but it is hard to use radio for direct response because people are often driving and can't always write down a number or dial the phone. Television advertising reinforces the brand message and Direct TV is a less expensive way of eliciting response, and is trackable and measurable, which we direct and interactive marketers really like. Health and fitness and products to make people look good are good targets for infomercials. Telphone is interesting because it can be both a media or promotional channel as well as a response channel. Inbound calling and B2B outbound are currently popular uses of the telephone by marketers because of the restrictions of the Do-Not-Call legislation.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Multichannel Marketing Class May 19: Direct Mail and Print

This class on direct mail offers is always one of my favorites to teach. It is intriguing to go over different direct mail offers and see why and how they were constructed the way they were. An offer should always ask for a specific action, have a specific deadline and tell me what I am going to get if I respond by that deadline. As direct marketers we are direct RESPONSE markters. We use a database to identify and track our customers, communicate with them in a way that asks for a specific action and we measure the results so we can expand the communications program if it is successful. We looked at two direct mailers that I had received, one from Travellers insurance which made an offer to lower my costs for auto insurance. We thought the package was reasonable (it had a letter with an offer restated several times, a P.S., a lift slip and a response card) but maybe not personalized enough because it did not express how much I could personally save. Our guest Cyndi Greenglass from Diamond Marketing Solutions reinforced that we use "you" language in persuasive communication because it does involve the readers and get them closer to taking the desired action. The mailing from Mazda was attractive but the offer was buried and we were given a choice, which can be a death knell for offers. People start thinking and then they stop buying. Both our guests talked about the importance of mathematics in modelling. Michelle from Abbott Labs demonstrated how Abbott isolates the results of various media through response modelling. Cyndi Greenglass from Diamond talked about testing principles for direct mailings, including establishing a control and testing one variable at a time to improve on the results of the control. She gave an example from Pitney Bowes where they kept testing to try to improve the control package. I asked students at the end to think about the problem in the Newport News case in the text. With 40% of orders coming from the web, Newport News was having a hard time isolating the effects of their marketing because they could not use the 'keycodes' associated with catalogues to track response. What should Newport News do to handle this problem?

Multichannel Marketing Class May 18 Intro

The first night we covered what it means to be a direct versus interactive marketer and all the different channels that marketers are faced with managing today. We made the distinction between a media channel and a fulfillment or distribution channel. There are many media channels today and some of them are quite new, such as social media, facebook, linkedin, twitter, etc. One trend is that consumers are in charge and want to define the brand, such as the web site created by consumers that revolves around Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Who knew consumers were so passionate about the brands they use? Marketers are dealing with how to integrate these new media channels into their plans. At the same time it is becoming more difficult to isolate the effects of one media channel veruss another on purchase behavior. Online influenced retail sales are growing rapidly and consumers will go online to hear more about informaion they have received in print or in a radio or TV commercial. Our guest speaker Michelle Blechman from Abbott Labs said how difficult it is to isolate the effects of various media in the pharmeceutical industry and that top executives have to be educated; even if the highest ROI is from the web, eliminating TV advertising won't necessarily increase ROI because without the TV spend, the brand awareness dips and people stop going to the web. Michelle really stressed the importance of integrated marketing communications. She also reinforced what I said about the pressure on marketers to measure and report ROI and justify their existence. I was recently interviewed on social media usage in marketing. Here is a link to that article.
http://www.cob.niu.edu/highlights/NIU_CHI_0509.pdf

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Experienced Online Job Seekers are Available!

We have a great group of graduating seniors this year, versed in Search Engine and Email Marketing, Web Site Design and knowlegeable about trends in Social Media. These talented students learn Exact Target as an email marketing tool, are currently running live Google Adwords Campaigns, understand SPSS and how to analyze web traffic, are running a wiki and blogging daily. How many marketers with multiple years of experience have the same skill set that we are teaching in our courses here at Northern Illinois University? So how come we see employers asking for several years of experience in this area when we look at job descriptions? I would challenge employers that few marketers today have as much real world experience in interactive and new media as the graduates from our Interactive Marketing Area of Study. If you do get a resume from one of our graduates, at least take a few minutes to interview them and find out the skils and the talents that they do have. In the last recession, companies cut back in hiring new grads and then were surprised several years later that people with three to five years of experience were not available. I know that times are tough, but the companies who take a chance on a new grad with updated skills will not only invest in their future but reap current benefits. We have grads that have taken jobs in SEO, for example, and are able to contribute on day one. Check us out at http://www.interactivemarketing.niu.edu!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Exploding networks

We are really started to exploit the power of networks for connections, learning, staying in contact. I wonder how much the down economy has contributed to this activity? I notice that Twitter is now in the top three of social networks, up from twenty-three just a few short months ago. It seems when times are tough people band together, particularly to find jobs or new sales opportunities. We will be creating a group on linkedin for our grads in the interactive program to touch base with folks in the greater Chicago Community. The guest speakers in my classes keep emphasizing the power of networking, as well as knowing your strengths and being able to describe the value you can add to a company in a thirty second/sixty second format. I always tell students to follow their passion; we had good news that a former student found a job working in radio, where it turns out they are using a lot of interactive applications so that customers interaface with the station online through a loyalty program which increases the amount of time spent listening (http://www.enticent.com/.) I encouraged this student to follow his passion and that if he wanted to work in radio he should go for it. It is better to be passionate about something when you have to go to work everyday. There is a new group on linkedin for job seekers and Melissa Giovagnoli invites job seekers to share the following: 1)your top three strengths, 2) your top four values, 3) the type of position you are looking for 4) the types of companies or a list of the top three companies you are looking to get into and 5) connections with two companies you have relationships with. http://www.networldingblog.com/ is the link to this blog.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Recent Symposium Highlights Job Search Advice for Undergrads

I attended on Friday the Okner Symposium with my students which is an update on direct and interactive marketing and also hints on the job search. Dr. Zahay has been trying to work with the students so that they know how to find a job in a tough market and it was great to see that the speakers reinterated a lot of this advice. The most important thing, whether the market for new grads is up or down, is to find out what you are interested in and can be passionate about and go for it. Make sure that you can talk about yourself in a 30 second or 60 second promotional if someone asks you what you are all about. Make statements in the promotional and on job interviews benefits-oriented. In other words, show the company what you can do for them. In this kind of market, you need to be aggressive, so start creating a list of companies for whom you would like to work. Join networking groups and try to find out who you know is at these companies. Get a contact first and call and then ask if you can send a resume. Students today rely too much online but the good jobs are not even hitting the online boards because there are so many applicants. If you are persistent and have something to contribute, as well as good underlying skills in math, writing, and presentations, you will find a job.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Google Online Marketing Challenge

My students and I are starting the Google Adwords online marketing challenge next week. We will spend a month preparing and then three weeks running our campaign. We will compete internationally and hope to come up withe the winning team. First prize is a trip to California for the team and the professor! SEO continues to be an important part of the marketing mix and I am thrilled that my students will have hands on experience in the area. We are looking for small companies that have not previously used PAID search (as opposed to natural or organic search). The project is to optimize a paid search campaign for the company using a $200 budget from Google. Wish us luck!