5 Can’t-Do-Without Tips to Start One-to-One Marketing

As a 11-year veteran of marketing, I don’t quite go all the way back to the stone ages of marketing when print reigned supreme, but can vividly recall my marketing colleagues and I constantly zeroed in on direct mail response rates, and the resulting activity, as the ultimate measure of success. Granted, we were working in a sort of old school industry (private aviation, of all things) as far as marketing goes, in which no company seemed to want to take a leap into doing marketing differently than their competition. But growing up as a marketer in this environment, and looking back on that time, I wish I could slap some sense into myself and my colleagues.

Unfortunately, too many marketers fall into the same habits that marketers 10 years ago did. Taking the easy route of marrying up a mailing list to a static, one-dimensional direct mail piece. Just take a look at your mail when you get home from work tonight. We call it “junk mail” because it’s not personalized or relevant to us or our interests. We toss it out without giving it 2 seconds of our attention because it’s as plain as day that it was sent by a company who is not as interested in identifying our interests or pain points as they are in dumping their mass marketing list onto a postcard and hoping for a few random responses.

If I come across over-passionate, it’s because so much of the mass marketing we receive should be eliminated, and the sender could experience far greater response, if they try one-to-one marketing. Simply put, one-to-one marketing is all about personalizing your marketing communications, whether it be in digital or print. At the basic level, you can use the recipient’s first name in the copy on your direct mail piece, for example. At a more creative and impactful level, you can design their name or company name into an image used on the piece… like in the image in this blog post.

Here are 5 Can’t-Do-Without Tips for One-to-One Marketing:

1. Stop sending mass email by starting to use your recipients’ first name (or first and last, depending on the nature of your relationship) in all of your outbound marketing.
2. Speak with a marketing company like Prime, who has the technology and experience of using variable data printing and imaging, which enables you to personalize any material (digital and web), like the image to the right. With a mail list and a creative strategy, amazing things can take place!
3. Seek out more information, beyond names and addresses, that distinguish each of your contacts and prospective customers. That data will allow you to make your messages more relevant and create higher response rates. If you are a car dealership, for example, and you know who test drove that shiny new red truck, you should use the image of a red truck in your marketing to them.
4. Use personalized URLs (pURLs) when you want greater response rates to surveys, event registrations, and sales campaigns. Research has proven that if one’s name is in the URL, there is a better chance that they will open the link and respond. But be sure that you are offering something of value for their time; don’t just collect information and abandon them!
5. Turn your campaigns into programs. Your one-to-one marketing should not consist of just one piece on one occasion. Make it a program that offers a different message, but always of value and relevancy, across a long period of time. You want to build relationships that turn into customers and partnerships. One-and-done will only cause your recipients to forget you.

I hope these tips help! I’d love your comments and questions.

P.S. Test Drive personalizing domains and landing pages here! http://trypersonalizedmarketing.com

How to Set Up Webinars to Boost Lead Generation and Brand Reputation

Do you want your company to be known as a key thought-leader and expert in your industry? Are you willing to try some new methods to improve your lead generation efforts, to gain more qualified prospects? If your answers to both questions are “Yes” (as they should be), webinars are a proven tool you can use to achieve these goals.

Pick a few topics or issues that are key in your industry, that meet these criteria:
1. Current hot-button issues or challenges that your customers face
2. General appeal or applicable to a wide audience
3. Easy to explain and present (ideally, non-technical)
4. Can use real-world examples that your product or service can solve

Read up on webinar platforms, such as from Webex or GoToWebinar. For a small investment in one of these services, you can schedule free or paid audio/video sessions with people interested in the topics you present. Has your email list become stagnate? There’s a good chance you can revitalize that list by offering an educational session about a topic in your industry, or common questions or concerns that people face when evaluating the products and services you sell. Only at the end of the webinar should you mention how to get in touch with you to learn more about your company.

For instance, a financial service company may want to offer a series of webinars on mortgage issues. Or, a web agency could present some how-to’s on selecting the right web design or SEO company. By inviting people to attend your webinars, you show that you care about more than getting their business, and in doing so they will think of you when they are ready to buy because you have shown that you are a leader in your field. Being an educator puts you ahead of the pack of those who just sell, sell, and sell.

To start, create a Powerpoint presentation on the topic you want to present in your webinar. Don’t try to fit in too much. A succinct presentation, though it may cover a small portion of what you really want to present, will go over much better than one that is overloaded with information that will bury your audience. Next, decide who in your company will present the webinar. This should be someone who is well-spoken and can answer questions with authority. Or, find an expert on the topic outside of your company.

Once you have signed up with your webinar provider, schedule the webinar and send an invitation to your lists. Plaster the webinar details in every social network, direct mail, or any other channel you have at your disposal. Ultimately, you not only want to re-invigorate your existing list but gain NEW people who may be future customers. Finally, once you host your webinar, be sure to record it in a file that people can download at a later time. You may even choose to offer it as a free download. Depending on your industry, it may make more sense for you to offer both the live webinar and the recording for a reasonable price. Gauge the interest of the topic and price it accordingly.

CMOs: Are Your Marketing Firms Marketing Themselves Well?

According to a 2010 survey, conducted by Aprimo and the Argyle Executive Forum, 27% of chief marketing officers said that the lack of marketing channel integration was the “most broken” area in marketing. 39% of CMOs report difficulties in correlating marketing activities to revenues. With all of the tools available to marketers today, and a vast sea of marketing service providers (MSPs) available to guide them, why are the rates of CMOs struggling for answers still so high?

The answer, arguably, is that there are too many options, too many voices, professing that their solution is unlike all others and, therefore, what Mr. or Ms. Marketer needs. How is any corporate marketer supposed to shop around and select the right answers to their critical marketing issues, when there are so many agencies, consultants, and so-called experts vying for their attention?

Go back to the basics. What are your end goals? What are the problems you are trying to solve?

Usually, success in marketing comes down to measurement. How to measure your marketing activities to 1) know that what you are doing is effective, and 2) to refine and evolve your activities so that you don’t repeat flaws.

This leads us back to the CMOs that reported a lack of marketing channel integration. Find a marketing service provider that does marketing well for their own company. A marketing firm that does not handle their self-marketing in a way that you would want your marketing supported is not the right firm for you. Are they able to integrate web and print, to measure the results, to handle the data and produce qualified leads for themselves? These marketing providers are out there (hint: PRIME!); you just have to hunt through the weeds, maybe ask others who seem happy with their marketing firms for recommendations.

And, to the CMOs who have a difficult time correlating marketing activities to revenues, I’d say that no matter what marketing you do, you need to know how much it affects your wallet. Do you know how much a sales lead is worth to you? If yes, then you can tie that back to how many leads you generated from a campaign, then amount spent on the overall campaign. But, if you don’t know your sales lead worth or cannot track leads with your existing marketing technology, find a marketing provider that can help you measure and tie revenue to your marketing.

Selecting the Right Marketing Service Provider for Your Business

As we launch our new blog for PRIME, a leading integrated marketing service provider, I tossed around some topics to kick things off with a bang. While there are many interesting discussions going on in our industry of cross-media marketing, there are far more intriguing and relevant topics in the B2B marketing arena, and we think you’ll enjoy coming back to this blog if we engage you with content that matters most you.

One particular issue discussed frequently among marketing service providers (MSP) is the high quantity of providers who try to be everything to their customers. It’s such a common mistake, and almost always an unconscious one. They don’t want to turn down your business, and as a symptom of that they will take on anything you ask of them. While this is admirable, you may be working with an MSP that is not quite the best option for you.

MSPs that are willing to work outside their core strengths to get your business, or ones that do not even really know their strengths, are so anxious for business that they profess to have the skills you need, and the results typically are not up to par with your expectations.

A better approach is to work with marketing service providers that can clearly define their core strengths. Maybe they are really strong in integrating print and web marketing, but not so skilled in event marketing. Choosing the right MSP to be your partner in conducting a successful marketing campaign is very similar to selecting other professional services for your business. Asking for references, case studies, real-life examples of similar projects they’ve run, metrics to prove the success, and even an in-person meeting will put you at ease in knowing you have hired the right marketing company for you.

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