CMOs are making gut instinct decisions.  Should you?

In 2012, the Columbia Business School conducted a study and learned that 28% of CMOs admitted to making decisions mainly based on gut instinct.  That’s a big number.  And with leaders that have a lot on the line, we have to wonder why they take these chances?  The answer is that in a fast-paced competitive environment—where new businesses enter our space every day—we all have to innovate.  And sometimes that means taking chances.  A slight movement in the needle can impact our bottom line today, but we need to make bigger leaps to stay ahead of our competition in the future.

Understand the potential impact—upside and downside.

So how do you get insights to change your game?  Test. Test. Test.  But do it in a controlled environment, considering limiting business risk and balancing high-return opportunities, where you can clearly measure results.  And always make sure you wait until all the results are in—response, conversion and average sales price—before you make a call.

Recently, we developed a comprehensive direct mail testing strategy to generate leads and sales for a luxury travel client.  One component of this strategy was testing the direct mail format.  Our hypothesis was that for their high-end customer segment, an envelope package would perform better than a self-mailer package.  So we tested it, and upon review of the response results, we discovered that the envelope package did indeed outperform the self-mailer by 85%.  This was great news because by opening up the top of the funnel we received more leads and assumed that we would see similar conversion rates for both formats that would translate into a big upside in sales.  However, what we learned was that the envelope package had a lower conversion rate than the self-mailer and in the end the cost-per-sale between the two was very similar.

If first you don’t succeed… Test. Test. And test again.

Although we didn’t see the upside that we were looking for in these test results, we continued with the ongoing testing plan and improved conversion rates so that this package has now become the winning control package.

Lesson learned?  Wait until all the results are in before making a decision.  Be sure to leverage ALL the data analytics before rolling out a new package or pulling the plug on a test.  You can, and should, use your gut to help you come up with strategic testing ideas, but always use data to help you evaluate the risk and opportunity and inform your decision-making in your go-forward strategies.  Data—it will connect you to a greater ROI.

Have you ever been just convinced about a certain outcome… and the data told a different story?  Tell us about it—let’s learn together!

* Dice image courtesy of CreativeCommons.org

The post Business Decision Making—Use Data or Gut Instinct? appeared first on Anderson Direct Marketing : Blog.

Thanks to innovation, competition, consumer demand and regulatory pressures, today’s products and services are becoming more complex in their quest to make life easier.

That’s the good news.  Now the bad news for marketers:  people reach information overload quickly, have limited attention spans, and really don’t like to read.  (This reporter’s opinion.)

So how can writers and designers do justice to these products, increase response rates and “tell the story” without losing the audience in a welter of words?  (Ah, there’s the rub.)

Here are some ideas:

• Start with clear, compelling selling propositions. Do the brainwork first.  It’s key to forging more effective marketing copy and a more compelling story overall.
• Employ a repetitive messaging hierarchy. Know your customers’ “hot buttons” and your product’s most important selling points.  Give them top billing—everywhere.
• Design it right. Good art directors know how to use layout, balance, unity, emphasis, rhythm and pacing to draw the viewer through the story.  Don’t get in their way.
• Let the story breathe. Use headlines and subheadings to deliver essential messaging.  Stick to short, highly focused sentences.  Insert blank lines to break up paragraphs.  Give readers’ eyes a break with white space.
• Say “to heck” with text altogether. Instead of copy, consider video, pictures, illustrations, infographics—even audio clips—to help the reader “discover” what you’re selling.
• Use proven performers. Tap the power of call-outs, bulleted or numbered lists, Johnson Box copy and the all-important P.S., along with visual “violators” such as strikethroughs, bursts and the like.
• Break it up. Some service offerings are so broad they can’t be explained in one sitting.  So spread your sales message across multiple components or touch points.  And know when to refer readers elsewhere for details.

In those fleeting seconds when you’ve grabbed someone’s attention, crisp copy and smart design are crucial to selling today’s feature-packed products and service-rich companies—even something as simple as cat food.

As for all those offending words you’ve banished, may I suggest a suspended sentence?

The post Winning the War of Words: Effective Direct Marketing Creative appeared first on Anderson Direct Marketing : Blog.

Session Title: Using Emerging Technologies to Reach Your Audience

Session Description: 
In an increasingly fragmented landscape, how do you navigate through all of the new technology and keep your message from getting lost in a sea of communication? This discussion focuses on ways to utilize emerging technologies and devices to not only reach your target, but to also engage and excite them, focusing on practices in digital and social media through an integrated multi-device approach.

Panel:
Thomas Fellger, Iconmobile
Maani Safa, SOMO Global
Glenn Stansbury, Hipcricket
Aaron Smith, Team Detroit (moderator)

Below are my notes from the training session where I’ve summarized the speakers’ responses. I welcome you to use the Comments section below to share your feedback about their responses.

Question: What things do you do to help think about what’s next?
• Maani Safa: His background is working with the big 4 auto makers on their next technology ideas.
• Thomas Fellger: He stated that he focuses on the product side and digital enhancements at Iconmobile.
• Glenn Stansbury: He researches what technology is doing for different people and groups plus what’s relevant for the end user.

Topic: State of emerging devices
• Stansbury: He spoke about engaging through QR codes and SMS CTA (call to action), providing different content and solutions, how to capture relevant information on users for target marketing
• Safa: He provided an augmented reality demonstration with Bacardi & Coke and showed how to logo recognition to trigger music and special effects (see video below)

Topic: Hyper-connected digital world
• Safa: He envisions technology that changes based on what the user wants it to do. Responsive design is becoming archaic, while behavioral design is the future to provide a more personal user experience.
• Fellger: He spoke about connecting not by interfaces but rather by gestures and behaviors. He discussed that everyone now wants Google Glass, but in the future interfaces will be in the places you are going, so you don’t need to carry them. Regarding the future of hyper-connected websites, there will be more technology when people enter a website based on information they’ve already provided or that was captured.
• Stansbury: His vision of the hyper-connected world depends upon each individual’s decision about when they want to let go of control to let technology drive their decisions. Presently, we drive technology and still make most of our own decisions while using technology, but he continues his clients down the path of collecting data and providing decision information for the users so that future technology can help make decisions for them.

Demo: Maani Safa demonstrates next generation video ads
• Currently, video doesn’t offer any interactivity. When you watch a video on YouTube, there’s no customization within the video while it’s playing.
• Next-generation videos will allow personalization based on options selected by the viewer (see Ford video below.)

Topic: New devices for personal data inputs
• Fellger: Cutting-edge now is the Nike device for your wrist. This is a cool device but interactivity between devices doesn’t exist yet, so the consumer will eventually be disappointed.
• Stansbury: When new technology comes out, we have to have more interactivity with social and other devices.
• Safa: The current GUI (Graphical User Interface) will become NUI (Natural User Interface.) Developers will get rid of the old interface, and create next-generation interfaces, like the unique interface for the app called PATH.

Topic: Connected communities – moving from static to dynamic
• Safa : He believes that an augmented reality strategy for advertising, using your geo-location and known interests, will also allow advertisers to provide a personalized ad based on what you like and want.
• Fellger: With the amount of data collected and potential uses of it, he stressed that we still need to work with a lot of rules and syntax to control personal safety and set limits on decisions that technology can make.

Topic: Mobile devices

• Safa: He states that although your phone is smart and other appliances are currently dumb, that will change. His examples included a pill box that will remind you to take or reorder medication plus a washer and dryer that will know when it’s about to break down and then will send you an alert.
• Fellger: Jokingly, he fears when his coffee machine will unfriend him on social media.

Topic: Future happening now and examples of how we’re using it
• Smith: His example was about using Microsoft gadgets plus open-source programming for micro-controllers to create a “manufacturer sandbox.”
• Fellger: The future is the M2M market (Machine-to-Machine), where each device has an IP address. Communication carriers recognize this trend and are becoming more involved. In fact, China announced they want to own this market of embedding technology into products. There will be more screens in products and more content displayed.
• Safa: One future technology will be when your refrigerator learns your behavior and monitors your food, it will order replacements. As marketers, we can learn what individuals like from the behavioral data collected and use it appropriately to help the consumer.
• Fellger: In his experience at an agency, brands are good to work with but their IT departments are not ready. IT has to be involved with R&D from the beginning.
• Safa: His evidence that the future is happening now comes from the fact that 40 billion apps have been downloaded since inception, and 20 billion of those apps were downloaded in the last year. To prepare for the future, we need to look at how we market and how users actually use the apps.
• Stansbury: In his opinion, control is still a major issue and how much you want to give up to technology and marketers.
• Fellger: Another concern with how we’re using new technology is the security issues. He warns his clients to enter this world slowly and learn as you go. He recommends that marketers watch and learn how users adapt to the technology, and then make decisions accordingly.
• Safa: When it comes to using future technology, all individuals will make decisions about what technology to bring into their lives.
• Fellger: As a company, you need programmers to see how far you can manipulate and hack into these new devices to truly learn what you can do with them.

Topic: Q&A – Random questions from the audience
• Safa: In response to a question about how to start using augmented reality, Maani replied that as a mobile company, it’s about telling a story. Using augmented reality in advertising is about moving past the concept stage into the utility stage to tell the story of the product.
• Feller: When asked about challenges with developing futuristic solutions for clients, he stated that the challenge is the investment in research and who owns what in the process. Many times a large client challenges his team about what CAN be done, then expects them to create innovative solutions.
• Stansbury: A question was asked about what his company was working on, and then he responded that they’re doing a lot of work around creating pilots and sample products, then finding a client to take the risks and invest in trying them.
• Safa: He was asked about how they create solutions.  He said it’s all about “Proof of Concepting”. For example, Red Bull asked for a revolutionary wristband for events; a wristband that collects data and changes colors as the user achieves goals or makes purchases. To create it, they first had to try it in a small room, then a big room, then pilot the product at an event.

Summary: My point of view from the session

As an advertising agency strategist, I was excited to learn about the futuristic solutions that we can provide for our clients. Capturing data, whether on a website or device, is critical to delivering a personalized experience and helping consumers with their decision making. The augmented reality demonstrations generated many ideas for me on how we can use direct mail and print pieces as a “trigger image” to start a video or augmented layer of animation on the user’s device (phone or tablet). We’re already experimenting with the augmented reality application from Aurasma and look forward to implementing this new Interactive Marketing Service in our clients’ future campaigns.

The post SXSW Recap: Using Emerging Technologies to Reach Your Audience appeared first on Anderson Direct Marketing : Blog.

Not with the writer or the designer. Not with a brainstorm or a concept, an image or a message. When it comes to driving response, great creative starts with a good creative brief. And a good creative brief starts with the customer or prospect.

Get inside their heads.

Most every brief includes a description of the product or service, the company and the offer. But good direct marketing isn’t about what you know—it’s about who you know. To engage and motivate our prospects, we need to know about them. What makes them mad? Happy? Proud? Afraid? It’s emotion that drives response, after all. (Reason is important, too—it justifies the emotional decision.)

Say, for example, that we’re marketing term life insurance. To sell it effectively, we have to touch on the emotion of fear. But what are our prospects afraid of?

• A young father is afraid of leaving his growing family without a secure future.
• A middle-aged couple is afraid of losing the home and treasures they’ve worked so hard for.
• An older woman is afraid of leaving bills unpaid and being a burden to the loved ones she leaves behind.

The more we know about the people we’re talking to, the better we can tap into the emotions that drive them—and drive higher response.

Take a walk in their shoes.

Other factors that influence our prospects can also help inform creative.

If you sell jellybeans, and your prospect sees daily ads for half-price jellybeans from your competitor, you probably won’t do well promoting your price. By knowing the competitive environment, creative can focus on your advantages, such as your freshness or variety of flavors.

If you’re promoting dental services to young professionals, you might think that price is most important. Until you realize that they work 10 hours a day—and that weekend hours are even more compelling. To offer the right solution, we need to understand their challenges.

Some of this may seem obvious or intuitive. And some of it is. But it’s not always included in the information you provide for your agency or creative team. That leaves us to make assumptions, or to spend precious time searching for knowledge that you already have.

So share. The more you can tell us about your customers and prospects, the more effective your marketing will be. (And don’t even worry about keeping it brief.)

The post Direct Marketing Creative Briefs: It’s Who You Know That Counts appeared first on Anderson Direct Marketing : Blog.

So where do these people live and what is most important to them?

When developing your marketing strategies and tactics, it’s important to have a deep understanding of your target audience and then develop your product(s), brand, messaging, offers, etc. to resonate with the individuals who are currently or will become your best customers.  HNWI’s are a key target audience for industries such as Financial Services, Travel, Non Profit and Real Estate.  What other industries do you find targeting HNWI’s?

* World Wealth Report 2012 from Capgemini & RBC Wealth Management

The post Marketing to High Net Worth Individuals appeared first on Anderson Direct Marketing : Blog.

ADM invested in the training sessions at SXSW Interactive to continue to provide exceptional digital marketing solutions for our clients’ marketing mix of print, mail, and digital. We look forward to sharing much of the information we learned in future blog posts. For more information about our Interactive marketing services, we welcome you to contact us for more information or to discuss your project.

RELATED LINKS:

• SXSW Recap: Using Emerging Technologies to Reach Your Audience

The post SXSW Interactive Conference Provides Insights for ADM appeared first on Anderson Direct Marketing : Blog.

1. Going Hollywood. The popularity of embedding video links in emails has been a trend for a while. But, with the advent of HTML 5 we will finally see the seamless integration of videos actually inside of emails. Get those cameras ready—your audience is waiting.

2. Getting mobile. Smartphone and tablet adoption is still on the rise and expected to continue. It is imperative that your emails be mobile friendly. Your audience is plugged in everywhere they go and you need to be everywhere they are.

3. Growing social connections. The growth of social media usage and regularity of use continues to trend upward. So, if you want to increase followers, fans, and repins, feature links of your social media channels in your emails. You’ll increase your click-through rates and your fan base.

The post Top Three Email Marketing Trends in 2013 appeared first on Anderson Direct Marketing : Blog.

The winners are:

Sabrina Delgado

Melissa Benner

Veronica Gonzalez

Margaret Gurgol

Cathy Welmas

Christine Rodriguez

McKay Colovich

Hillary Schuler-Jones

We hope you enjoy your $20 Visa gift cards. You should expect to receive them in the mail in approximately 1-2 weeks. If you would like your gift card sent to an address other than your work address, please email marketing@andersondm.com and let us know!

Thank you for participating and we hope you continue to follow our blog. Furthermore, if there are any topics that you would like to see on our blog, please let us know!

The post ADM’s Presidents’ Day Blog Scavenger Hunt Winners! appeared first on Anderson Direct Marketing : Blog.

So, how do you go about making this magical transformation?

It’s a bit of a mental exercise, one where you step out of the role of seller and try standing in your prospects’ shoes. With each solicitation, buyers subconsciously ask themselves questions like, Will this make my life easier/better? How does it compare to the competition? and Is it a good value?

A list of impersonal features won’t answer those questions—at least not in a persuasive manner that could prompt an inquiry or purchase. But a well-crafted presentation of benefits just might.

Here’s a fun example:

Have gum, will travel.

Let’s say your company makes chewing gum. Here are some of the typical features your product team might use to describe it:

• Comes in a 3” x .5” pack
• A pack contains 10 sticks
• Pack price: $1
• Peppermint flavor
• Sugar-free

Your advertising or marketing agency takes this list and tries to get into the head of the consumer. As they chew on both the product and some ideas on how these features could benefit your audience, they come up with the following:

This exercise is guaranteed to work for any product or service out there. Just remember to don your customer hat and ask yourself, What would help convince me to consider this item or service?

With a little creative thinking and a healthy dose of consumer perspective, you too can turn yawn-generating features into ROI-popping benefits.

The post Presto Change-o! How to Turn a List of Features into Brilliant Benefits appeared first on Anderson Direct Marketing : Blog.

What is an RSS reader?

“Reading blogs is like Christmas shopping.” Photo By: YBIA

First, what is an RSS reader? RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (also called Rich Site Summary), otherwise explained as a very basic method to publish stories as a news feed. An RSS reader is a software application that pulls or reads stories from individual RSS feeds and consolidates them into a centralized feed. It’s a tremendous time saver if you want to follow multiple news sources and blogs.

How does an RSS reader work?

So now you’re probably wondering how an RSS reader works. Most blogs and news sources create an RSS feed of their stories using a custom URL, such as http://blog.andersondm.com/feed for our blog.  An RSS reader allows you to type a website’s RSS feed URL into their app, name the source of that link, then setup how often it pulls the feed for new stories.  Most RSS readers simplify the process by letting you search for a website; then it will find the RSS feed’s URL for you, suggest a name, and provide a default synchronization schedule.  It can be as easy as buying gift cards as Christmas presents!

What are some examples of RSS readers?

Here are five popular RSS readers for Apple iOS, Android, and web-based solutions:

1. GOOGLE READER (Android, Web)

2. PULSE (iOS, Android, Web)

3. FLIPBOARD (iOS, Android)

4. ZITE (iOS, Android, Windows Phone)

5. FEEDLY (iOS, Android, Web-Chrome)

After installing your favorite RSS reader, I encourage you to add our feed URL (http://blog.andersondm.com/feed) to receive informative tips from our direct marketing blog based on our team’s diverse knowledge about marketing services.

What are the technical concerns with an RSS reader?

I must share two warnings about RSS readers before you start adding all of your news feeds.  First, if you configure your RSS reader to pull updates every 15 minutes, it will drain your battery.  Therefore, I recommend configuring the synchronization setting for 4 hours, then you can also manually synchronize when you’re using the app.  My second piece of advice is to check your settings for how many articles are pulled from each news feed to prevent heavy memory usage.  Some RSS readers allow you to customize the number of stories (my recommendation is 40) or the age of the stories (my recommendation is “last 3 days”).

Which is easier: Reading blogs or Christmas shopping?

With your new RSS reader connecting you to your favorite blogs and news sources, reading blogs just became easier than Christmas shopping. And if you downloaded a free app from the list that I provided, it’s cheaper than any deal you’ll find on Black Friday or Cyber Monday!

What are your recommendations for using RSS readers?  I welcome you to leave comments on the blog to share your favorite apps and news feeds.

The post 5 RSS Readers to Follow Your Favorite Blogs appeared first on Anderson Direct Marketing : Blog.