Websites need to reinforce brand benefits

As I prepare to moderate two days of the Conversion Conference next Monday and Tuesday, I am reflecting on the blog comments and what people hope to get out of the conference.  For me, I have had several occasions this year to review web sites and still find that most small firms and some big ones, don't put what their company does and what the benefits are in clear language on the site.

Call it your benefits statement, key selling strategy, tag line or what you will, but it has to be on the home page of your web site.  Whether its service, selection or other benefits, let people know why they should buy from you.  New visitors need to know it and so do returning customers.

I like the Conversion Conference Website:  the Tag line is there and says it is all about the conversion and then there is another sentence restating that the benefit of attendance is to improve online marketing effectiveness.  By the way there is also a great call to action, 'Register Now.'

Sounds like a great two days and all part of a data drive business week in Chicago including the E-Metrics conference.  Want to join me here?  Say in YOUR blog why you should attend and if it is compelling, you can attending for $750! So ....join me on a speaker companion pass at Conversion Conference next week; Just send a blog post saying why you should go, pay $750! http://bit.ly/NgFwtN

Multichannel Attribution

I love this graphic from Joel Book, ExactTarget's Education Chief because it illustrates how the topic of multi-channel attribution often seems to me like the search for the Holy Grail (the Last Cup of Christ).  The result can be elusive. Given the proliferation of channels, the complexity of the issue, cross-firm differences in resource allocation and other aspects of implementation, is there likely to be a broad-based answer to the questions of how to 1) attribute marketing results to marketing actions and 2) develop marketing programs that maximize spending? 

The four ways that I see academics are addressing and can further address these issues are as follows:

• By investigating an industry:  In the Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, Schultz, Block and Ramn have studied consumer media usage in three product categories, computers, automobiles and fast-food restaurants. (Schultz, et. al. 2009). In these studies as in other marketing studies elsewhere, we often see that where the marketer is spending their dollars (mass advertising) and where the customer is spending their time (social media) do not match.
•  By examining a company:   Recently in  the Journal of Marketing (May 2012), Avery, Steenburgh, Deighton and Caravella investigated data from a high-end retailer to see if introducing a retail store in specific areas would affect catalogue and online sales.
• By analyzing the customer:  Venkatasen and Kumar (2005) and Venkatasen, Kumar and Ravishanker (2007)  have developed a number of models from the point of view of the customer to explain and predict the adoption of multiple channels and discuss financial implications. 
• By analyzing multiple firms (strategy):  Neil Morgan in a recent issue of JAMS (2012) outlined a conceptual framework to link all the different elements of marketing strategy and business performance, including implementation, which is often overlooked in research but critical in practice.

Although these efforts are great first steps toward answering marketing attribution questions, none of them really provide guidance as to how to attribute the results of marketing spending on brand advertising, social media, search etc. to performance.  The type of research conducted to date is a good start, but usually does not focus on the complexities facing the marketer today in a generalizable way and certainly does not look at cross-firm differences and performance.  So we as academics have an opportunity not only to apply rigor to these issues but to work on topics of real relevance to marketers today.

And the question of how to measure performance in this context is interesting also.  Should we look at ROI, or event CLV, as practitioners do, in hard numbers way?  Wouldn’t customer equity ala Rust and Lemon and Zeithaml (2004) be more appropriate or at least a metric that should be evaluated in conjunction with other measures (Stahl, Heitman, Lehmann and Neslin 2012).

"The Latest Wave" Internet Conference a Success

Approximately 130 marketing professionals participated in "The Latest Wave" in Internet Marketing at NIU's Naperville Center on April 19. Included in the group were about thirty students from the Interactive Marketing Program, most of whom will be graduating in several weeks with our certificate in Interactive Marketing or another specialization that prepares them for a career in search, data analytics, social, etc. Check out our interactive marketing program and see how you can benefit by hiring students and interns.

The Opening Plenary Session featured keynote speaker Ron Jacobs, President, Jacobs & Clevenger and Co-Author of Successful Direct Marketing Methods. Ron shared his insights on measurement and the merging of digital and Interacitve. Ron claimed that marketers are drowning in data and that in fact:

• 1 in 3 marketers make decisions without critical information
• 1 in 2 marketers don't  have the information they need to perform their job
• Knowledge workers spend 19 hours each week searching for information

Ron went on to talk about the benefits and weaknesses of Key Performance indicators and how to measure some of the newer media channels such as social and mobile.

The conference had a special track on social media and a general track with a B2B emphasis and topics such as search, analytics and mobile. We featured speakers from Dell, CDW, Walgreens and other leading Interactive Marketing practitioners. The conference web site is here for more information on The Latest Wave in Internet Marketing 2012.  Check out what happened by monitoring the Twitter feed at #niuinetconf.  There are some good comments and questions on that feed.

Over lunch, there were networking tables set up on various topics and facilitated by our board members. The picture above shows our students taking advantage of the networking opportunity provided by topics such as how to make the transition from school to work during the first year or how to successfully navigate through agency life.

Also over lunch, attendees could choose from a variety of hands-on workshops demonstrating the basics in Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and HTML. The best part is that these sessions were taught mostly by our current students, Jenny Yam, Tyler Miller and David Delaplane. Everyone seemed to get something out of the event and it was a successful day. I am sorry for those who could not attend.

Top Research Priorities in Interactive Marketing?

I recently became Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for Research in Interactive Marketing. Our mission is, according to the web site, " to address substantive issues in interactive, relationship, electronic, direct and multi-channel marketing and marketing management. With its origins in the discipline and practice of direct marketing, the journal aims to publish progressive, innovative and rigorous scholarly research for marketing academics and practitioners."

I recently created a word cloud of the topics covered in the last two years and wonder if we are hitting the mark? I see little research in search optimization, email marketing, multi-channel management, video marketing, b2b lead generation, online branding or other issues relating to that are of relevance to marketers according to my discussion with practitioners and other analyses that I have done of leading issues in Interactive Marketing by analyzing email subject lines. Notably absent are the measurement issues which seem to plague all marketers.

Help me develop the best journal possible by providing insight to the issues in practice that you would like to see researched in a rigorous manner by marketing academics. Provide comments to the blog or email me at zahay@niu.edu. Thanks in advance for your help.

Andrea Mulbrandt's IM Career

Andrea (Andi) Mulbrandt recently wrote me about her experiences in IM. "My first job out of college was selling radio advertisement. I learned a lot in three months at the radio station. I wasn't happy selling just radio to clients. I was always an advocate of an integrated marketing plan that pulled from all types of medias. I was limited in radio to truly advise my clients accurately. I met Kim, the Imagin8 Maketing sales rep, while I was at the station.

Kim approached me in October about an assistant position at a rapidly growing marketing firm. I was thrilled once I found out more information on Imagin8 Marketing. Imagin8 Marketing was created to help companies, organizations and even individuals to help promote themselves by using integrated marketing strategies such as blogging, email marketing, networking, reputation management, social sharing as well as traditional medias. The firm also specializes in website design and SEO. My position was to be an assistant and social media coordinator... It quickly turned into office manager, project coordinator, social media coordinator, and much much more. Imagin8 Marketing has grown rapidly since I started in October of 2011.

Jim Tome, the owner, had been running this firm in his basement since 2008. He was very comfortable with his small, one man business. He brought Kim on as a his first partner. Kim was so great at bringing in business, that they quickly needed more staff. Which led to me being hired. In less than a month after I started, we had an office space in downtown Sycamore and four more employees. We hired two designers, a blogger writer and a programmer.

Imagin8 Marketing is continuing to grow rapidly. We are expanding into all types of industries; medical, home builders, flooring, collegiate sports, etc.

Now, you asked me for my job title; each employee/partner of Imagin8 Marketing has a unique title. This is just another avenue to demonstrate our creativity. The owner, Jim Tome is "The Man Behind the Curtain." The sales rep, Kim Lamansky is the "Social Butterfly." The designers, Meagan Schoenrock is the "Creative Pantoner" and Laura Smoltich is the "Design Hipster." The blog writer, Joeye Davidson is the "Ghost Writer." My official job title is "Trusty Sidekick."

This is a very busy and exciting time for us at Imagin8 Marketing. We have our ribbon cutting tomorrow and open house next week! I appreciate your help in finding quality interns."

Social Media from the Trenches

We are using a lot more social media marketing to promote our Internet Marketing Conference this year on April 19 at NIU Naperville. Social media helped us get the word out last year but this year we have subscribed to Hootsuite and are able to sent the same information out to multiple locations, including all the groups I am a member of in linked in (without posting to each separately and are able to schedule posts in advance).

We have created a fan page in Facebook for our IM program and created an event under that page an also have a Linkedin event and a separate Twitter account for the event. Heather Baker, Contract Recruiter, and my grad assistant Alex Eddy have been helping us out, with guidance from board member Jen Brady, President and CEO of Fred and Associates.

We are also using direct communications and have 23 registered from an initial email sent out from me personally to past attendees and board members, so we are well on our way to our goal of 100 attendees. (Twenty six of our students will attend also as guests of our program to enhance their personal learning).

One person from social media (Linkedin) has said they will register and one firm from Facebook said they were interested in sponsoring. So while for an event like this there is no substitute for a personal, direct appeal I expect a lot of interest from social media. We are expecting that our partners econsultancy.com, PMA, CIMA, the BMA and CADM will also promote on social media.

We are using our own internal social media network, Vivastream, to promote interaction among the conference speakers and attendees.

We are just getting started. I tend to look at social media as a bit more like advertising and PR than direct marketing, so the consequences cannot always be measured. I will keep monitoring and keep you updated.

CAC Group presents "Segmentology" in Database Class

Brad Rukstales, the CEO and President of CAC Group, spoke about his success in building databases and creating effective segmentation schemes for Morton's steakhouse. He gave valuable insight into how companies are using databases to engage their customers across channels to create meaningful customer experiences. He emphasized the importance of data analytics in marketing and the number of jobs there will be in the area. Conincidentally we are working on developing a data analytics track for the interactive marketing program.

I found the segmentology overview on the CAC web site a useful way to discuss marketing segmentation and show its value. The company takes lifestage, demographics and other information and compiles it in a proprietary database. Coupling that information with proprietary in-house data allowed Morton's steakhouse to identify its best customers and market to them accordingly. The group helps other customers in the same way.

Thanks, Brad for taking the time to visit us.

Direct marketing for database marketers

Interactive Marketing Definition

As I prepare to take over as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, I invite all interested in the field to look at the wikipedia definition which we posted several years ago and to make any appropriate edits. We based the definition on the work of John Deighton that interactive marketing is really a conversation. With so many community and collaboration based tools out there now and the rise of social media, it seems appropriate to take another look at the definition below. Marketers are not the only ones creating conversations now, are they?

•1) the ability to address an individual

•2) the ability to gather and remember a response of an individual

•3) the ability to address that individual once more in a way that takes into account his or her unique response (Marketing=conversation)

»Deighton, 1996

Database Marketing at NIU

Accoriding to a recent ebook, the U.S. Educational system is failing in terms of the demand for skilled workers and there is predicted to be a 1.5 million shortfall in terms of the number of workers that can anlayze data and make effective decisions. Here at NIU we are working to bridge that gap and help our students be productive in the workforce.

As the semester ends I want to say how proud I am of each student in database marketing class at NIU this year. The students stepped up to the plate and learned a great deal in terms of how to prepare data for analysis and various statistical modelling techniques. Their final project was to find patterns in real-life company data and build a valid model around that data. They used regression, logistic regression, clustering and other techniques. More importantly, they learned how to recognize what technique to use and in what context. Whether they become modelers or not, and most won't, they have a rich understanding of how these techniques are used in the workplace and I have a real sense of pride in their accomplishments. Anyone looking for undergraduates to train in this area can look to our Interactive Program.