The power of email to personally engage a recipient in your brand, and to continue the communication while learning more and more about the recipient and strengthening the relationship, is undisputed.

The permission based channel has continually delivered extraordinary ROI in the past, and new sophisticated approaches to the channel promise a very bright future. A well planned, well executed email program can directly drive sales, increase brand loyalty, and strengthen customer relationships. A poorly planned and executed campaign can result in significant brand damage.

Most businesses have realised the the importance of the channel and are running an email program, if you’re not doing it, or not doing it effectively, at best you are leaving money on the table, at worst you could be damaging your brand.

Many business find themselves in 2008 with inadequate resources assigned to the channel. It may be that the marketing department is running the program as adjunct activity without its own line item in the budget and no real resource allocation besides a software subscription. Emails are being written, designed and sent out to the list, open and click-through rates are being glanced at then the marketing department calls it a day on email and gets back to work on other elements of the marcom mix. 

In today’s environment of swamped inboxes, spam filters and high customer expectation, for a businesses is to see a high ROI and protect their brand, they need to invest more resources in a program that earns trust and provides real value to the customer. Earning trust and delivering value in 2008 requires a more sophisticated and strategic approach now that the novelty has worn off. An investment in this now will pay big dividends as emerging mobile platforms drive increasing importance in direct online marketing.

Below are 5 key topics for consideration to increase the performance of your email program.

Relevancy, Segmentation, Relevancy 

It is all about relevancy now. How well do you know your contacts, are you ensuring that you are only sending them relevant content. Technology is making it easier to profile list members based on information they provide and a continually building behavioral profile. Dynamic segmentation, dynamic content and trigger based campaigns have become technically eaiser, but careful planning and analysis is the key to relevancy. Successful email campaigns will talk directly to each recipient with relevant and value adding content.

Put email at the core of your marketing campaign channel mix

Email is a great channel to use at the core of your campaign. Indirect channels can find prospects and ignite interest, and then hand them over to power of direct, personalised email to further drive engagement, build rapport and provide support throughout the purchasing cycle. Most smart campaigns, even using traditional media will integrate a response device, email can then follow-up and build the relationship.

Test, test, test

Continuous testing is one of the easiest, yet commonly ignored strategies to improve the success of your email program. A/B split testing can quickly guide you towards which subject line, offer, copy and design your segments respond best to. Low open rates; test different subject line approaches. Low click through rates; test different content, call to action and offers.  Keep testing, keep refining, keep improving. Continual testing and refinement over time should be reflected in improving ROI metrics.

List maintenance

List maintenance is critical. Poor list management not only dilutes your success metrics, but can also harm your email reputation leading to increasing deliverability issues. Proper bounce management cannot be overstated. Close attention also needs to be payed to inactive list members. If they fail to respond to a reactivation campaign, it’s best to clean them off the list. Allowing and encouraging your lists members to keep their own details up to date through an online profile and preference centre is a convenient way to have the members contribute to list maintenance. Why not let your users keep your list up to date for you? 
 

Campaign Planning

Planning is the key to success. An effective communications campaign rarely involves a single email, and cross selling strategies may bridge two otherwise separate email campaigns. Typically a campaign might consist of time triggered emails, online response triggered emails, offline action triggered emails, and product or service life-cycle triggered emails. In addition, user actions in one campaign might make them ideal candidates for another (cross-sell) campaign. With mounting complexity, careful planning is critical to efficency and effectiveness. This planning must review all the various pathways a user might follow through a campaign and the possible bridges between different campaigns or offers. Frequency and relevancy must be analysed through every possible step of the communications campaign. Modern EDM platforms like Cannonball make planning and executing multi-email campaigns, as well as bridging different campaigns a much easier task.

Blogs or Web Logs are online diaries published on the web and often subscribed to through RSS. The audience can often participate in a Blog by publishing comments. Enterprises of all types from law firms to software developers are using Blogs as a conversation channel with their clients and customers. The enterprise blog is generally seen as a value add channel to engage and inform the customer, position the enterprise’s level of expertise, reinforce brand messages and collect customer feedback.

Wikis are systems that facilitate collaborative publishing of articles. One of the most well known Wikis is Wikipedia. Wikis are gaining wide spread use as the core of a corporate intranet, facilitating a highly collaborative space for employees to share knowledge and achieve greater collective productivity than through traditional intranet communication.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a web based feed or channel of content. RSS readers allow people to subscribe to channels that may contain news articles, blogs, podcasts, links and other forms of information. Enterprises can use RSS feeds to distribute content to customers as well as internally to employees.

Podcasts are audio or video files often belonging to a series produced by a particular author. They are often distributed using RSS feeds and are commonly consumed in applications like iTunes or transfered to portable devices. Podcasts allow enterprises to deliver messages in a highly engaging and value adding manner, and in a format that can be consumed away from the PC.

Widgets are small applications which bring web services and content out of the browser and onto the desktop. Widgets allow enterprises to deliver relevant services to a client in a highly controlled and branded environment. By offering a relevant and useful widget, a company may be able to foster consistent, frequent interaction between a customer and their brand.

Social Networks are systems that allow users to create profiles and share those profiles with others, potentially developing links with others based on interests, knowledge, skills and common links. Common social networking services include Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Enterprises are exploring both leveraging existing social networking platforms such as Facebook, as well as implementing social networking tools into their own systems both internally and externally.

March 12, 2008: the sydney hilton was awash with hype of social networking and in particular the rapid rise of the facebook phenomenon. it probably had something to do with the opening keynote presented by mike murphy (vp, media sales, facebook).

Indeed there was something about the middle aged, suited, industry veteran executive which dissolved perceptions of a web 2.0 social fad driven by casually dressed college kid rat bags. Is it time to sit up and take serious notice?

One thing has become very clear – as a brand advertiser or relationship marketer you need to keep your eye on this space. That’s not to say that this is the killer app yet, or that every marketer should be jumping in, but Facebook type networks are rapidly becoming fertile ground for engaging and influential BtoC and even BtoB communications. From marketing and brand advertising campaigns, to cost effective and efficient market research, innovative use of social network applications may change the landscape of online communications.

In-fact we may be currently witnessing the beginning of a major shift in the driving force behind electronic networks. For years the killer application that has got people online has been email. Although not without it’s problems, email continues to be the foundational glue holding together online communications and has been proven to be a very successful direct and relationship marketing channel. This highly measurable channel is flexible, personalised and easily understood by marketers. The question is, are social networking type applications starting to replace email as the internets killer communications application. Are people going to be logging into Facebook more often than their email?

Indeed if this shift is occurring, this is a new space, with new rules requiring innovation to penetrate the social filters and leverage each individuals association with your brand. New strategies, a rethinking of customer engagement, new measurement models and handing over some brand management control are the order of the day. We need to think beyond direct marketing and banner advertisements to truly tap into the power of social networks. I don’t think the true marketing success lies in the banner ads and sponsored groups currently offered as official Facebook advertising packages – further innovation is required.

So while social networking sites have provided an additional online channel for consideration in the marcomms mix, it remains to be seen if the hype continues to see them develop into the dominant killer communication application from a brand and relationship marketing perspective. A ubiquitous network, offering brands easy to use tools to get social online is certainly appealing, but don’t underestimate the considerable time, resources and shift in strategy required to successfully take advantage of it.

Sydney joins Paris, San Francisco, Miami, Singapore, Chicago, London, Beijing, New York and Shanghai as a host city to bring together leading edge digital marketers to discuss industry best practice and future directions of digital at a 2 day conference.

Social networking, brand dialogs, online business models and metrics are some of the key themes to be discussed this year at the Hilton in Sydney on March 12-13.

The Enso Consultancy team will be soaking it all up and using the forum to discuss digital strategies and directions with both industry peers and attending clients.

We encourage anyone involved in digital communication to attend what should be an insightful 2 days.

Click Here to Register

We look forward to seeing you and saying hi at Ad-Tech.

Many marketers are asking about web 2.0. what is web 2.0, and as a brand marketer, what do i need to know? is web 2.0 forcing us to rethink marketing and possibly see the onset of marketing 2.0?

Web 2.0, a term coined by Tim O’Reilly in 2004, refers to the resurgence of the web with new business and social models and increasing relevance and importance following the dot com crash of 2001. Web 2.0 is often used to loosely define a set of online technologies and methodologies that are forging a new level of interaction between online publishers and online consumers. In fact, the movement is starting to blur the line between these two previously very distinct groups.

Popular websites built on Web 2.0 methodologies include the likes of YouTube, Digg and Facebook which are driven by user contributed content, however the same methodologies are showing exceptional promise as Brand Marketing and Communication tools for a broad range of enterprises.

Business Embraces Web 2.0 – Competitive Advantage or Survival Necessity
A McKinsey Global Survey: How business are using Web 2.0 conducted in January 2007, showed widespread business interest and implementation of Web 2.0 technologies across a variety of industries. Technologies enabling automation and networking were of particular interest to businesses in the near term. The results point toward increasing investments in Web 2.0 technologies in the coming years with a high level of satisfaction from early adopters.

While the respondents to the survey were optimistic about the business benefits of Web 2.0 (with many already realising considerable value), it is perhaps a little early to accurately measure any competitive advantage gained by adopting Web 2.0 tools. Certainly customers have responded to increased quality of communication and participation, and early adopters of Web 2.0 tools for the consolidation and optimization of internal knowledge and communication may see long term competitive advantage through improved internal processes. However, the adoption of the tools are happening so quickly that it may no longer even be a game of long term competitive advantage, but rather one of keeping up with the Joneses as these new approaches to business become quickly commoditised.

Easier Implementation
Web 2.0 tools are often characterised as being relatively simple and inexpensive to set-up and trial, and can often bypass the implementation barriers of traditional IT projects. In fact, according to the McKinsey survey, many successful projects start as grassroots efforts from within the organisation rather than topdown management mandates. This is allowing different departments within an organisation, such as Marketing and HR, to trial the tools and experiment with aligning them with their objectives without the usual resistance of traditional business decision processes. The value and business case can often be quickly demonstrated without huge investments in new IT infrastructure.

New Business and Brand Strategies
Wikis, blogs, podcasts and RSS have all been demonstrated as technologies that can bring immediate value to an organisation by enhancing communication. Web 2.0 is all about conversations, collaboration, openness and transparency. Before a business jumps into Web 2.0 they need to make sure their brand and communication strategy is prepared for it. Following are four considerations when forming your Web 2.0 strategy:

1. Define a commitment to communication, especially listening and responding. Some Web 2.0 initiatives can take significant time to gain traction, and an ongoing commitment to communication is necessary for success. Abandoned blogs and unused internal wikis can do more harm than good, so make sure you have the resources in place to facilitate ongoing communication. Once a customer begins to participate in the communication you need to demonstrate rapid comprehension and response.
2. Be prepared to hand over some brand control. Your brand is already in the hands of the people, but Web 2.0 can amplify the voice of a single customer to a global audience. Passionate consumers will play with your brand and publish this online using Web 2.0 technologies. Brand messages need to be strong and relevant and aim to leverage the global voice of customers to reinforce positive messages.
3. Offer customers significant value and then extract value from the customer. Your Web 2.0 offering should offer the customer significant value, but also aim to tap the collective value of customers to further enhance the value of your offering back to them. Consumer contributed content is a example of the customer adding to the value of your offering. Web 2.0 can allow the customer to become involved in the design, testing and marketing of products and services.
4. Approach Web 2.0 from the perspective of top level business challenges rather than the enabling technology level. Although these tools are demonstrating themselves to be invaluable in increasing customer engagement, grow revenues and lower costs, they need to be approached appropriately to achieve the desired impact.

Examples – Financial Services
The Financial Services industry was a reasonably early adopter of digital marketing and advertising using online banner display advertisements and direct relationship marketing email campaigns. Having recently attended the Sydney Ad:Tech conference session titled “Web 2.0 for Financial Services” I thought it would be good to have a brief look at couple of examples of experimentation within the industry.

NAB – Yes the big Australian banks are still relying on traditional television based brand building with at least 2 of the big 4 currently running significant (and expensive) TV campaigns. However as the golden age of advertising continues to diminish with fragmenting media consumption, Web 2.0 tactics are being employed. This fun example demonstrates how engaging content can leverage existing Web 2.0 platforms like YouTube as a powerful brand builder:

RaboBank – RaboPlus has launched an executive blog in Australia

ING Asia Pacific – ING also has a popular blog

Financial Social Networking – Wesabe is an interesting Web 2.0 that provides tools and taps collective user data to assist members to manage their finances more efficiently.

Scotiabank – Scotiabank produces a series of podcasts called The Money Clip

ING Direct – ING Direct has also used YouTube: to drive traffic to their online campaign

UMB - American Finance Company UMB ran a campaign making use of user contributed content

Internal Communications – A number of financial services organisations (Including Clients of Enso Consultancy) are successfully using Wikis, Blogs and Web 2.0 Intranet systems as a way to stimulate but not fully control organisation wide conversations and sharing of knowledge. Web 2.0 facilitated Collective Intelligence is the next logical progression – but that is a topic for another post.

These views are tainted by painful memories of large corporate website projects involving significant IT infrastructure, back office integration and endless over-crowded, over-involved meetings. Long lead times, ridiculously big budgets and an army of project participants would surely render the online channel as a monster that shouldn’t be revisited until the day the company website look and functionality has passed it used by date.

How times have changed. The new web, powered by broadband and Web 2.0 technologies, is a lean, quick and nimble medium no longer reserved for big IT based projects. It is emerging as an ideal platform for marketers and business developers to rapidly deliver smaller, more engaging customer experiences tied to specific campaigns, products or ideas.

These experiences can be brand centered, fully controlled by the marketing team (with the assistance of an agency) and are relatively quick and inexpensive to develop. Unlike a complex corporate website, these experiences are usually product, service or campaign specific, and thus offer uncluttered and focused communications. They are often referred to as satellite sites or mini-sites and are effective as either an add-on-to or even the central component of almost any campaign.

Trying the medium, measuring response rates, adjusting and re-measuring is the key to success. Because satellite sites are somewhat isolated, you can work directly with an agency to rapidly develop and deploy them without the constraints of internal IT, information architecture issues and expensive systems integration. Satellite sites generally have 3 objectives:

1. Promote a specific message, product or offer
2. Provide a space where customers can engage with your brand
3. Collect customer data or refer a sale

Recent examples of these satellite sites include the Mercedes Benz C-Class promotion and the Pepsi Australia Rock Paper Scissors campaign. Both of these web experiences are engaging and simple. The sites are both built with Adobe Flash technology and are uncluttered and visually rich.

The barriers to entry for including online in the marcomm mix have been dramatically lowered. A great idea, engaging content and a digital savvy agency can get your campaign online with minimum fuss and lead time. Now I’m certainly not condoning last minute attempts to go online, (careful planning always reaps better results) but spreading the word that the new web allows you to achieve a lot more for a lot less – a perfect medium to enhance your smaller, targeted campaigns.

Sitting at Brisbane Airport waiting to board a delayed flight to Sydney, I pulled out my laptop to ‘pen’ a few self-entertaining thoughts about branding, determined not to theorise about the ubiquitous and all too commonly mentioned (in branding articles) brown, fizzy beverages.

Distracted by some incoming emails, I had barely launched my word processor (brand name withheld) when my delayed aircraft landed and began to dispel Brisbane bound travelers. I peeked up over my aluminum bezeled screen to observe the parade of arrivals enthusiastically lead by a wee young tike of 3 years or fewer existence.

As he approached my vantage point, he shrilly broke out into an unexpected and confident proclamation of “Coca-Cola!”. That was it… four piercingly loud syllables – the very four syllables I was determined not to think about. My mind started racing… was this kid old enough to be talking, had a corporation hijacked his first words, what had triggered such an outburst? I scanned the environment for a trigger, a glimpse of the familiar ribbon, was there a sign, a vending machine, a can or bottle in someone’s hand? No not that I could see.

There was however a large red rounded column that the infant was advancing on – was this enough to trigger such a strong brand association in such a young child? Wow, what an impression!

Let’s push aside the ethics of brand influence on children – that’s another article, what is a brand and what does it mean to the average business? Brand is an anti-commodity, it attaches values, associations and differentiation to otherwise interchangeable products or services. What is the major difference between Coca-Cola and RC Cola? Brand helps us make sense of choice – whether it’s what we know, what we trust or what we identify with.

It’s all about impressions and choice. Early farmers used smoldering irons to leave ownership impressions on the rumps of their livestock, a practice known as branding. The farmer’s reputation for producing quality livestock eventually became associated with the identity marking and would ultimately influence choice in the marketplace. Without the assistance of an agency, livestock farmers invested in their own brand equity (reputation) and brand identity (livestock brand).

Every business needs a brand, in fact, for most business their brand is their most valuable asset and should be a core consideration of every business decision. In today’s world of overwhelming choice, brand is a matter of survival. Exactly what is Coca-Cola’s core business? Is it manufacturing fizzy drinks, or is it managing a brand? Can one exist without the other. It surprises me how many business do not understand the economic fundamentals of branding.

So exactly what is a brand? Many people consider it to be something created by marketing teams, advertising agencies and designers. While these are important assisting elements in building and maintaining a brand’s value, a brand is much more than that. Marty Neumeier nails down exactly what a brand is in his spectacularly concise book The Brand Gap – “A brand is a persons gut feeling about an organisation”.

This is where businesses often struggle with branding. A person’s gut feeling is certainly something intangible, yet a successful brand must be managed like a tangible asset. Consider brand as an equity investment, something that at any given time has an assessable value. That value is not necessarily measured by brand recognition or mind-share, but more tangibly by revenue and profits or market-share. This equity investment needs to be strategically managed in order to grow the brand value, or at least maintain the dividends it produces. Strategic brand management consists of ongoing investments in the equity, with wrong investment moves potentially eroding value. Some investments will deliver short term spikes in equity value, while others will contribute to solid long term growth. An ad-hoc marketing campaign for example might deliver a short term gain, while a strategic approach to improving customer service and communication, and reflecting these values in the corporate identity system and supporting them with ongoing marketing initiatives will likely contribute to long term growth in brand equity.

My key point is that branding is more than a name, logo or advertising campaign designed by an agency and then forgotten about. It is an asset that is inseparable from business process, and brand management should be integrated throughout an organizations business activities. Different oragisations will benefit from different approaches to growing brand equity. For professional service firms, a corporate identity system and style guide are less important contributers to brand equity than relationship management and reputation control, where as for a consumer brand, exposure, advertising and a strong brand promise are often positive investments. A brand strategy that is carefully aligned with business goals and integrated throughout an organisation (rather than confined to the marketing team) gives you the best possible chance of controlling the intangible emotions of customers and measuring that with tangible revenue.

While the value of the Coca-Cola brand appears to be on the decline (currently valued at around US$50 billion) it is still a staggering amount of equity that is essentially attributable to people’s gut feelings about the product, and a result of over 100 years of brand management. I wonder what sort of equity model could put a figure on the component of Coca-cola’s brand value contributed by the kid at Brisbane airport?