Customer retention is ultimately driven by value. Even the best segmentation, targeting, positioning, creative messaging, or promotion with flawless execution will fall flat in the absence of value.
Therefore, in developing a plan to maintain and upgrade a customer base, it is necessary to build on a solid foundation. Only then will the plan lead to greater customer retention and overall organizational success.
To succeed, customer retention must be a top-down, companywide initiative. Truly committing to customer retention is hard work because it affects virtually every aspect of your organization, but the payback in sustainable growth and profitability makes the effort worthwhile.
The path to customer retention involves six key steps:
1. Ask
Ask your customers what they want and what they like and dislike. Include customer surveys on your mobile channel, website, at the point of sale, and in package inserts. You'll likely get "extreme" feedback from customers who love you or hate you. Customers who are mildly satisfied are not as motivated to speak their minds.
But ask only if you're prepared to deal with the responses. Turning a deaf ear to a problem is the kiss of death.
Please remember that customers expect you to take action when they complain, especially if you initiated the dialogue. Use feedback from your surveys to make improvements to your product or service. Customers love it when you listen to them!
2. Evaluate
Evaluate your customer data to find out who your best customers are. That may sound obvious, but the devil is in the details. There may be trends that you've overlooked.
And keep an eye on profitability, not just transactions. In the credit-card industry, for example, deep spenders who pay off their balance each month usually are not as profitable as moderate spenders who carry a balance.
When you know who your best customers are, you can tailor your marketing programs to keep those customers and encourage them to spend more with you.
3. Stimulate
If you have sold your customers a service and they're not using it, get them to activate (e.g., online bill pay, long-distance service, and credit and debit cards).
At the start of a new relationship, there's that warm and fuzzy feeling when new customers sign on. You got them to say yes. Four months later, you're wondering why those customers don't love you. Is it something you did?
No. It's something you didn't do: You sold to them and moved on. You assumed that they would fend for themselves and figure out all the great things about doing business with you.
The first few days and weeks of a new business relationship are critical. Shower them with your kindness. Send direct mail and email reminders. Thank them for their business. Do everything you can to make the "honeymoon" phase of your relationship special.
In the long run, if they're not using your product or service, they're likely to bail when a better deal comes along.
4. Reward
Reward your customers with meaningful perks for doing business with you. It seems like everyone has a loyalty program these days. Customers are getting weary of "me too" programs that don't offer substantial value.
Instead of always giving customers what they expect, give them the unexpected. For example, a midsize accounting firm rewarded some of its best customers with a box of Haigh's chocolates for their business. It was an unexpected, tasty little perk that came out of the blue.
Results? Those customers had above-average retention rates the following year. Sometimes the little things can mean a lot.
5. Aggregate
Try to get all the customer's eggs in your basket. In other words, cross-sell other products and services. Doing so is much easier when you already have a relationship with the customer. Offer customers one-stop shopping, consolidated billing, free postage, and other benefits for giving you more of their business.
Everyone's busy, and consumers are looking for service providers that can make their lives easier. It's what they want, so why not give it to them?
6. Take action
A great product and great customer service are the foundation for customer retention. And positive word-of-mouth is by far the best marketing tool in your arsenal. But you can't control when that happens, so you need a marketing plan to keep the customers you want.
Don't just hope your customers love you—be proactive. Put your plan in writing, and make it stick. Follow through and take action. Use direct mail, email, newsletters, and other marketing tools to make your best customers feel special.
Treat your best customers with respect, and they'll reward you with loyalty beyond your wildest dreams. Send them targeted messages. Give them special incentives. Keep in mind that it's easier to cultivate your current customer relationships—not to mention less expensive—than it is to begin new ones.
The role of customer retention in the overall organizational strategy is one of protecting and managing the primary source of resources. It is also one of defending and enhancing market position, and of optimizing resources and opportunity.
That is why although seemingly a purely tactical approach, customer retention also belongs in the realm of strategic market planning and is a required strength of any successful organization.
It costs about five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to keep a current customer. That's why it pays to pay attention to your best customers. In the end, they'll buy more, stick with you longer, and tell their friends how great it is doing business with your company. Isn't that what we all want?
by Chintan Bharwada
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Implementing the latest marketing initiatives
Shopper marketing has traditionally been about developing a marketing relationship with consumers in the store. It involves the strategy and tactics that are employed within the framework of a retail environment in order to attain a specific business objective, not the least of which is driving top-line revenue for brands.
Shopper marketing is now evolving at a very quick pace and is becoming much more involved in what is called "the digitally fueled path to purchase".
Brand marketers and retail clients should view the digital path to purchase as a three-step process:
In deriving shopper insights, develop an engagement strategy that is contextually relevant to the actual shopper. It’s not just purely about putting a product on the shelf and offering a coupon or some form of a discount anymore. Shopper marketing is much more about the process of connecting with shoppers when, where and how they would like to engage. Most often, it’s through a digitally oriented methodology.
There are some standard elements in the shopping experience—pre-shopping, while shopping and post-shopping. Those factors focus on the “when” and the “where” aspects but the “how” is becoming increasingly more important. It’s being driven more by individual product categories. For example, how shoppers engage with a commodity like paper towels is significantly different than how they would engage with a durable good or entertainment-based item. The path to purchase varies across categories.
The next generation of shopper marketing is no longer defined by traditional brick-and-mortar stores or ecommerce for that matter. Consumers don’t really have to search for information in the pre-shopping phase. They can have it delivered to them wherever they are and on their own terms based on their predisposition toward different types of communication and technology.
Moving forward, we should see more two-way dialogues taking place between brands and shoppers. We see more preferential treatment for brand loyalists, influencers and those who are actively engaged with brands. Brands will reward loyalty in a more impactful way as it relates to digitally fueled shopper marketing.
Physical retail stores are still important but more and more, we see that how retailers and brands interact with someone digitally, on their terms and through the device by which they want to interact, is becoming much more important. We’re becoming more channel-agnostic and contextually relevant.
Marketers need to understand shopper segmentation based upon purchasing behavior, while also focusing on consumers’ digital lives. They must create digital shopper segmentation models in order to arrive at contextually relevant and holistic shopper marketing opportunities.
Marketers should evaluate the strategic needs of the brand, particularly at the pre-shopping phase. We see that shopping is taking place constantly. The lines are blurring between the pre-, in-store and post-shopping phases. It all counts as shopping, even as you’re consuming and using a product. These lines are blurring, particularly as the path to purchase is more digitally influenced. We should try to understand how a shopper behaves along the entire continuum.
There’s an insight-driven digital component for almost all engagement marketing programs that includes metrics and measurement from an ROI perspective. It’s really important to understand not only the future needs for the brand’s growth, but also the needs of the shopper segments as they evolve and change over time. For example, conduct a research into understanding younger consumers, diverse ethnicities and baby boomers in order to better understand their digital lives.
For more information on how to digitally fuel your business, please contact MODI$club.
Shopper marketing is now evolving at a very quick pace and is becoming much more involved in what is called "the digitally fueled path to purchase".
Brand marketers and retail clients should view the digital path to purchase as a three-step process:
- understanding the brand, its positioning, target and overarching essence.
- create an engagement strategy.
- activate across relevant touch points.
In deriving shopper insights, develop an engagement strategy that is contextually relevant to the actual shopper. It’s not just purely about putting a product on the shelf and offering a coupon or some form of a discount anymore. Shopper marketing is much more about the process of connecting with shoppers when, where and how they would like to engage. Most often, it’s through a digitally oriented methodology.
There are some standard elements in the shopping experience—pre-shopping, while shopping and post-shopping. Those factors focus on the “when” and the “where” aspects but the “how” is becoming increasingly more important. It’s being driven more by individual product categories. For example, how shoppers engage with a commodity like paper towels is significantly different than how they would engage with a durable good or entertainment-based item. The path to purchase varies across categories.
The next generation of shopper marketing is no longer defined by traditional brick-and-mortar stores or ecommerce for that matter. Consumers don’t really have to search for information in the pre-shopping phase. They can have it delivered to them wherever they are and on their own terms based on their predisposition toward different types of communication and technology.
Moving forward, we should see more two-way dialogues taking place between brands and shoppers. We see more preferential treatment for brand loyalists, influencers and those who are actively engaged with brands. Brands will reward loyalty in a more impactful way as it relates to digitally fueled shopper marketing.
Physical retail stores are still important but more and more, we see that how retailers and brands interact with someone digitally, on their terms and through the device by which they want to interact, is becoming much more important. We’re becoming more channel-agnostic and contextually relevant.
Marketers need to understand shopper segmentation based upon purchasing behavior, while also focusing on consumers’ digital lives. They must create digital shopper segmentation models in order to arrive at contextually relevant and holistic shopper marketing opportunities.
Marketers should evaluate the strategic needs of the brand, particularly at the pre-shopping phase. We see that shopping is taking place constantly. The lines are blurring between the pre-, in-store and post-shopping phases. It all counts as shopping, even as you’re consuming and using a product. These lines are blurring, particularly as the path to purchase is more digitally influenced. We should try to understand how a shopper behaves along the entire continuum.
There’s an insight-driven digital component for almost all engagement marketing programs that includes metrics and measurement from an ROI perspective. It’s really important to understand not only the future needs for the brand’s growth, but also the needs of the shopper segments as they evolve and change over time. For example, conduct a research into understanding younger consumers, diverse ethnicities and baby boomers in order to better understand their digital lives.
For more information on how to digitally fuel your business, please contact MODI$club.
Monday, November 1, 2010
How to Avoid Advertising $1 Billion Mistake
The advertising industry is undergoing a massive shift in how its dollars are spent. Money is moving from the offline world to the online and wireless world at a rate of roughly $3 to $5 billion a year.
However, in that rapid shift of spend, a major mistake has been made. Almost all marketers are guilty of it, and it is costing them more than $1 billion a year as time goes on.
Most advertising networks and websites that are delivering ads have a very simple goal: launch a campaign based on the advertiser's requirements and improve the campaign over time based on where they find success.
The goal of the delivery team (or optimization engine if a technology is being used) is to improve the marketer's metrics by employing tactics such as geotargeting, demographic targeting, time of day, frequency capping, etc.
Ideally, a campaign starts with a certain baseline that improves over time as the network, site, or demand-side platform (DSP) optimizes the campaign.
If a campaign is being measured to an action—let's say a purchase—a network can analyze results, see where it is best achieving success, and improve the campaign metrics and return on investment over time.
If a campaign is being measured to clicks, then over time the click-through rate (CTR), or number of times an ad is clicked per impression, should increase.
Although most campaigns are looking to drive conversion goals, many still use the click and CTR as their primary metrics, because those metrics traditionally have been used to measure success and because they're easy to measure.
There are no extra tags to install, and there is no work to do to confirm the tags are operational. The CTR is easily calculable and comes directly from the ad server, so it doesn't take any additional work to access it. Optimization routines (often spreadsheets) are largely set up natively to handle the CTR as the metric to optimize to, which makes it easy to "flip a switch" to get to the proper goal.
However, the click's days are numbered. There is an increasing awareness of some "cracks" in the click's validity, and recent studies by comScore, Microsoft, and others have effectively invalidated the click as an important measure for display advertising.
Bizo's recent study of hundreds of B2B advertising campaigns that ran from January through June of 2010 revealed some interesting findings.
Among campaigns that were being measured and optimized to actions (conversions, downloads, etc.), the CTR was approximately 10% lower than that of campaigns that were being optimized to clicks. In short, campaigns with actions as their goals drive 10% fewer clicks.
The data also shows that of the top 25 inventory sources based on CTR, only six of them fall in the top 25 from a conversion-rate perspective. That means that sites that have great CTRs typically do not offer great conversion rates. Thus, using CTR as a meaningful metric on publisher sites is just as big a mistake as doing so on ad networks, as it would lead a campaign astray almost 80% of the time.
Considering that the goal of any advertising investment is to drive a prospect to a conversion action (e.g., purchase, engagement, a user filling out a form, etc.), the fact that the click-through rate is lower when optimizing to the end action has a profound and clear implication: Optimizing to the click harms a campaign's success.
If you value the online display advertising industry at $10 billion, and we assume that most networks and sites are optimizing to the click today, we estimate that the value lost to the industry is well over $1 billion and growing rapidly as the industry expands.
In fact, the Google Content network (the display adjunct to search) actually forces marketers to make the same giant mistake because they are paying by click and Google is optimizing the delivery of ads to maximize the number of clicks (and revenues for Google).
Unfortunately, the ad exchanges are no better. Considering the ease with which the click is measured, the DSPs are primarily doing the same thing today: measuring to the wrong metric and, in doing so, harming advertisers from reaching the goal they're seeking: an educated consumer who buys from them.
The notion that a user would click on a display ad is just as erroneous as thinking a user watching a TV ad for Lexus would pick up the phone and order a Lexus while viewing the ad. Users viewing the ad are not looking to click on something.
As an advertiser, your goal shouldn't always be to drive a click. In many cases, you're looking to educate and ultimately drive an action at some point down the road. So the click can be a highly misleading metric if it's not the right people who are clicking.
In fact, most ads today get 1 click for every 1,000 views, and, on average, more than 40% of those "bounce" from the landing page (i.e., leave as soon as they arrive), suggesting that many of those banner clicks are user mistakes.
To recap: Unless the measurement, and thus optimization, is based on the action, you will often optimize away from success.
So what's an advertiser to do? All advertisers need to start thinking about how to measure beyond the click to drive success in their advertising campaigns.
Here is a quick four-step plan to display-advertising success:
For more information on SMS marketing or tools that will provide clear conversion metrics, please contact us.
Source: Marketing Profs
However, in that rapid shift of spend, a major mistake has been made. Almost all marketers are guilty of it, and it is costing them more than $1 billion a year as time goes on.
Most advertising networks and websites that are delivering ads have a very simple goal: launch a campaign based on the advertiser's requirements and improve the campaign over time based on where they find success.
The goal of the delivery team (or optimization engine if a technology is being used) is to improve the marketer's metrics by employing tactics such as geotargeting, demographic targeting, time of day, frequency capping, etc.
Ideally, a campaign starts with a certain baseline that improves over time as the network, site, or demand-side platform (DSP) optimizes the campaign.
If a campaign is being measured to an action—let's say a purchase—a network can analyze results, see where it is best achieving success, and improve the campaign metrics and return on investment over time.
If a campaign is being measured to clicks, then over time the click-through rate (CTR), or number of times an ad is clicked per impression, should increase.
Although most campaigns are looking to drive conversion goals, many still use the click and CTR as their primary metrics, because those metrics traditionally have been used to measure success and because they're easy to measure.
There are no extra tags to install, and there is no work to do to confirm the tags are operational. The CTR is easily calculable and comes directly from the ad server, so it doesn't take any additional work to access it. Optimization routines (often spreadsheets) are largely set up natively to handle the CTR as the metric to optimize to, which makes it easy to "flip a switch" to get to the proper goal.
However, the click's days are numbered. There is an increasing awareness of some "cracks" in the click's validity, and recent studies by comScore, Microsoft, and others have effectively invalidated the click as an important measure for display advertising.
Bizo's recent study of hundreds of B2B advertising campaigns that ran from January through June of 2010 revealed some interesting findings.
Among campaigns that were being measured and optimized to actions (conversions, downloads, etc.), the CTR was approximately 10% lower than that of campaigns that were being optimized to clicks. In short, campaigns with actions as their goals drive 10% fewer clicks.
The data also shows that of the top 25 inventory sources based on CTR, only six of them fall in the top 25 from a conversion-rate perspective. That means that sites that have great CTRs typically do not offer great conversion rates. Thus, using CTR as a meaningful metric on publisher sites is just as big a mistake as doing so on ad networks, as it would lead a campaign astray almost 80% of the time.
Considering that the goal of any advertising investment is to drive a prospect to a conversion action (e.g., purchase, engagement, a user filling out a form, etc.), the fact that the click-through rate is lower when optimizing to the end action has a profound and clear implication: Optimizing to the click harms a campaign's success.
If you value the online display advertising industry at $10 billion, and we assume that most networks and sites are optimizing to the click today, we estimate that the value lost to the industry is well over $1 billion and growing rapidly as the industry expands.
In fact, the Google Content network (the display adjunct to search) actually forces marketers to make the same giant mistake because they are paying by click and Google is optimizing the delivery of ads to maximize the number of clicks (and revenues for Google).
Unfortunately, the ad exchanges are no better. Considering the ease with which the click is measured, the DSPs are primarily doing the same thing today: measuring to the wrong metric and, in doing so, harming advertisers from reaching the goal they're seeking: an educated consumer who buys from them.
The notion that a user would click on a display ad is just as erroneous as thinking a user watching a TV ad for Lexus would pick up the phone and order a Lexus while viewing the ad. Users viewing the ad are not looking to click on something.
As an advertiser, your goal shouldn't always be to drive a click. In many cases, you're looking to educate and ultimately drive an action at some point down the road. So the click can be a highly misleading metric if it's not the right people who are clicking.
In fact, most ads today get 1 click for every 1,000 views, and, on average, more than 40% of those "bounce" from the landing page (i.e., leave as soon as they arrive), suggesting that many of those banner clicks are user mistakes.
To recap: Unless the measurement, and thus optimization, is based on the action, you will often optimize away from success.
So what's an advertiser to do? All advertisers need to start thinking about how to measure beyond the click to drive success in their advertising campaigns.
Here is a quick four-step plan to display-advertising success:
- Admit that the click is the wrong metric and you need to change how campaigns are being measured.
- Figure out the right action that you need to measure to for success. Is it a purchase? Download? Text-in? Form submission? Engagement? All of the above?
Ultimately, what key actions are clear indicators that your prospects are progressing toward your goals? - Optimize your campaigns using tools that will give you clear metrics on where those conversions are coming from.
For more information on SMS marketing or tools that will provide clear conversion metrics, please contact us.
Source: Marketing Profs
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Gaining Consumer Trust Online and Offline
Marketers must leverage trust, not just popularity
Trust and credibility are the gold standards by which relationships are measured. This is true of personal relationships as well as connections between people and brands.
The rise of social media has reinforced the importance of trust. Successful and enduring social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn are built on a foundation of trust and transparency. But social media has also distorted the notion of trust and put an emphasis on the size of a person’s network and connections.
“Marketers seeking to maximize their reach should focus on the quality of social network connections rather than their sheer size.” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst.
According to Invoke Solutions, quantitative measures such as the volume of content and participation, the length of time people have been fans or followers, or the raw number of followers or fans mattered far less in inspiring trust than the openness of the dialogue, the quality of the comments, and the responsiveness of the sponsor or author.
And Vision Critical found that among US consumers overall as well as daily social network users, friends and family were trusted for product recommendations far more than brand-originated content or people consumers did not know.
And marketers around the world agree that popularity does not equal influence on social media sites.
“The level of influence over one’s friends, followers or fans is the real key, and influence does not necessarily correlate to the size of the network,” said Verna.
In addition, there is a feedback loop between online and offline word-of-mouth, and marketers must understand the connections and differences between the channels.
For more information on how to build trustworthy connections with your audiences, visit our SMS portal or contact us.
Source: eMarketer
Trust and credibility are the gold standards by which relationships are measured. This is true of personal relationships as well as connections between people and brands.
The rise of social media has reinforced the importance of trust. Successful and enduring social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn are built on a foundation of trust and transparency. But social media has also distorted the notion of trust and put an emphasis on the size of a person’s network and connections.
“Marketers seeking to maximize their reach should focus on the quality of social network connections rather than their sheer size.” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst.
According to Invoke Solutions, quantitative measures such as the volume of content and participation, the length of time people have been fans or followers, or the raw number of followers or fans mattered far less in inspiring trust than the openness of the dialogue, the quality of the comments, and the responsiveness of the sponsor or author.
And Vision Critical found that among US consumers overall as well as daily social network users, friends and family were trusted for product recommendations far more than brand-originated content or people consumers did not know.
And marketers around the world agree that popularity does not equal influence on social media sites.
“The level of influence over one’s friends, followers or fans is the real key, and influence does not necessarily correlate to the size of the network,” said Verna.
In addition, there is a feedback loop between online and offline word-of-mouth, and marketers must understand the connections and differences between the channels.
For more information on how to build trustworthy connections with your audiences, visit our SMS portal or contact us.
Source: eMarketer
Thursday, October 14, 2010
MODI$club is helping save the planet one text at a time
MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MODI$club is helping save the planet one text at a time
CALGARY, AB, October 12, 2010 – Waste Reduction Week taking place from October 18-24 acts as an annual reminder to reduce, reuse and recycle. With ever increasing awareness of the environment and pressure upon organizations to demonstrate social responsibility, more and more people are gravitating to products and services that subscribe to the green philosophy. One such product that is growing in popularity is MODI$club. The website offers mass SMS (texting) technology as a greener method of business communications and marketing.
SMS marketing has the lowest carbon footprint of all types of mass advertising. Environmental benefits include the reduction of paper usage, elimination of toxic printing ink, omission of gasoline usage in the distribution of printed materials, and so on. The opportunities to reduce cost and reduce waste through this communication tool represent incredible ROI for marketers and recovery for our environment.
“In this ever-more socially conscious and digitally focused world, mobile marketing can’t be beat for its ecological benefits and speed of communication,” says Kean Tan, co-founder of MODI$club. “With the widespread adoption of text messaging, to leave SMS marketing and its benefits unattended, will cost many organizations their future.”
MODI$club is a “freemium” website that businesses and organizations can use at no-cost. It is an easy tool that can be used to target and engage audience beyond traditional media - a new mix to conventional marketing and communication campaigns. It caters to any business, regardless of size or industry. MODI$club is currently being used by many industries, including retailers, restaurants, expos/tradeshows, golf courses, distress centres, health and body companies, charities and non-profits. Some of the more familiar brands are Habitat for Humanity, SwizzleSticks SalonSpa, Yamaha Music School, Chianti Italian Restaurant, Honens International Piano Competition, Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo and Calgary Mens Expo.
Canadians sent a total of 4.2 billion text messages in March 2010 and 538 million text messages were sent to mobile campaigns. Clearly organizations need to start investing in SMS marketing to appeal to the technology savvy and social conscious audience. Mobile giving, an innovative mobile donation campaign and AMBER alerts campaigns are just some of the latest activities in which Canadian cell phone customers are now participating. Also, more and more Canadians are embracing SMS marketing since the industry established a strict anti-SPAM regulation.
SMS marketing makes sense in this day and age, and MODI$club is here to offer the tools for businesses and organizations to make an impact in many ways. Not only does SMS marketing make a positive impact on the environment, it is also changing the way we save time and money. For more information, visit www.modisclub.com.
ABOUT MODI$club
MODI$club is a product of a full service marketing, design and technology company that started in 2000 called nexusV. It helps brands find a place within the wireless (mobile), online (web) and offline (print) environments where they can connect and engage with customers.
Other services provided include:
- 30 -
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Kean Tan
MODI$club
403 209 5988
keantan@modisclub.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MODI$club is helping save the planet one text at a time
CALGARY, AB, October 12, 2010 – Waste Reduction Week taking place from October 18-24 acts as an annual reminder to reduce, reuse and recycle. With ever increasing awareness of the environment and pressure upon organizations to demonstrate social responsibility, more and more people are gravitating to products and services that subscribe to the green philosophy. One such product that is growing in popularity is MODI$club. The website offers mass SMS (texting) technology as a greener method of business communications and marketing.
SMS marketing has the lowest carbon footprint of all types of mass advertising. Environmental benefits include the reduction of paper usage, elimination of toxic printing ink, omission of gasoline usage in the distribution of printed materials, and so on. The opportunities to reduce cost and reduce waste through this communication tool represent incredible ROI for marketers and recovery for our environment.
“In this ever-more socially conscious and digitally focused world, mobile marketing can’t be beat for its ecological benefits and speed of communication,” says Kean Tan, co-founder of MODI$club. “With the widespread adoption of text messaging, to leave SMS marketing and its benefits unattended, will cost many organizations their future.”
MODI$club is a “freemium” website that businesses and organizations can use at no-cost. It is an easy tool that can be used to target and engage audience beyond traditional media - a new mix to conventional marketing and communication campaigns. It caters to any business, regardless of size or industry. MODI$club is currently being used by many industries, including retailers, restaurants, expos/tradeshows, golf courses, distress centres, health and body companies, charities and non-profits. Some of the more familiar brands are Habitat for Humanity, SwizzleSticks SalonSpa, Yamaha Music School, Chianti Italian Restaurant, Honens International Piano Competition, Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo and Calgary Mens Expo.
Canadians sent a total of 4.2 billion text messages in March 2010 and 538 million text messages were sent to mobile campaigns. Clearly organizations need to start investing in SMS marketing to appeal to the technology savvy and social conscious audience. Mobile giving, an innovative mobile donation campaign and AMBER alerts campaigns are just some of the latest activities in which Canadian cell phone customers are now participating. Also, more and more Canadians are embracing SMS marketing since the industry established a strict anti-SPAM regulation.
SMS marketing makes sense in this day and age, and MODI$club is here to offer the tools for businesses and organizations to make an impact in many ways. Not only does SMS marketing make a positive impact on the environment, it is also changing the way we save time and money. For more information, visit www.modisclub.com.
ABOUT MODI$club
MODI$club is a product of a full service marketing, design and technology company that started in 2000 called nexusV. It helps brands find a place within the wireless (mobile), online (web) and offline (print) environments where they can connect and engage with customers.
Other services provided include:
- Brand strategy, logo and stationery design, print publications and other graphic design services;
- Website design and development, content management system (CMS), email management system, timesheet management system, custom web application development, web hosting and more;
- Traditional (print and radio) and internet marketing (SEO).
- 30 -
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Kean Tan
MODI$club
403 209 5988
keantan@modisclub.com
Friday, October 8, 2010
Case History of Mobile Marketing
Obama for President 2008: “Celling of the President”
After three election cycles in which the Internet was expected to play a significant role in the campaign process but ultimately was a marginal factor, 2008 was the breakthrough year. In particular, the role of mobile communications in the Barack Obama campaign has prompted some to describe it as the “Celling of the President.”
The Pew Internet Project found that a record-breaking 46% of Americans used the Internet, cell phone text messaging or e-mail to obtain information about the campaign. In some categories Internet usage was triple the levels of the 2004 campaigns. For example, about 6% of Americans made political contributions online, compared to 2% who did so in 2004.
Mobile communications played a major role in the efforts, particularly in the tech- heavy activities of the Obama campaign. Text messaging was a fundamental component of the plan, used on an opt-in basis. This established relationships with supporters, especially young voters. For example, the Obama campaign blasted text messages at key moments of their campaign, notably the announcement of Joe Biden as the vice presidential running mate. An estimated 2.9 million people received that text message early on the Saturday morning (August 23, 2008) just before the Democratic National Convention began. The Obama campaign has not officially released the number of supporters who signed up to receive mobile text messages and other online communications.
For the mobile campaign, the Obama team set up a dedicated mobile Web site: http://obamamobile.mobi. Supporters who logged in to the campaign’s primary Web site, with an M (for mobile) prefix—http://m.barackobama.com—were automatically redirected to the .mobi site. The mobile site invited visitors to “Get involved: Sign up for mobile alerts”—basically to register to the short code 62262 (the keypad numbers corresponding to the letters O, B, A, M, A). This opt-in procedure enabled the campaign to identify its contacts.
From the Obama mobile server, supporters could download ringtones, wallpapers and campaign videos. Users could also get candidate information—such as campaign stops and schedules, as well as news reports and social networking opportunities (e.g. the link to “ask a friend to join”). Most significantly, the mobile site—like other Obama online components—permitted individuals to make financial contributions. The mobile site also enabled supporters to request white papers and other documents, which were automatically sent via e-mail to their desktop or portable devices.
In addition to the text alert for the Biden selection, the Obama campaign dispatched messages before local appearances, prior to the debates, as well as on the eve of primary and general Election Days. There was also a “thank you” message after the November 4 victory.
Supporters who signed up for the service paid an average of 10 cents per message, although that figure varies widely. It is assumed that many in the young, tech-savvy Obama cadre subscribe to their wireless carriers’ “bulk text messaging” packages. Casual and occasional users pay about 20 cents per message.
Each text message blast generated a cost for both sides (the Obama transmission and the individual reception), whether it was a per-use fee or a click on the bulk bundled subscription fee). One analysis of the Biden message blast concluded that the total expense for that event could have ranged from about $1.2 million to $1.8 million, depending on the fees for each individual message (in the range of 3 cents to 10 cents per message). If there were 5 million participants, the range rises to $1.95 million to $3 million.
One objective of a political campaign is to build a contact list of supporters, contributors, volunteer workers and other citizens. The Obama campaign gathered e-mail addresses, phone numbers and other data about supporters, securing relationships that can be used in future political efforts by Obama and other political allies.
Strategically, the use of SMS—and online messages as well—represented an integrated marketing plan. Among its attributes: it bypassed traditional media as a way to communicate with and energize a large and widely dispersed audience. The interactive features enabled financial contributions and viral social media connections, which the Obama campaign exploited.
The Obama campaign’s activities have been widely hailed as a prototype for the digital era. Advertising Age declared Obama as the “Marketer of the Year,” citing the digital campaign and especially its mobile marketing component. In the polling of marketing industry executives, the Obama campaign (36.1%) scored ahead of familiar brands such as Apple (27.3%), Nike (9.4%), online shoe seller Zappos (14.1%) and Coors Brewery (8.7%). The John McCain campaign (4.5%) was far behind.
The McCain campaign also used mobile marketing, but far less aggressively. It was difficult to find the SMS sign-up information on the primary McCain campaign Web site, www.JohnMcCain.com. There appeared to be few efforts to dispatch text messages consistently during the campaign. One significant promotion for the McCain SMS capability came during the Republican Party’s convention: an SMS appeal to donate funds to the American Red Cross for victims of the hurricanes that were hitting the southern U.S. during that period. (The Obama campaign also urged $5 text donations to the Red Cross during that period.)
To read more about how to setup your own SMS campaign, visit MODI$club.
Source: Simba Information
After three election cycles in which the Internet was expected to play a significant role in the campaign process but ultimately was a marginal factor, 2008 was the breakthrough year. In particular, the role of mobile communications in the Barack Obama campaign has prompted some to describe it as the “Celling of the President.”
The Pew Internet Project found that a record-breaking 46% of Americans used the Internet, cell phone text messaging or e-mail to obtain information about the campaign. In some categories Internet usage was triple the levels of the 2004 campaigns. For example, about 6% of Americans made political contributions online, compared to 2% who did so in 2004.
Mobile communications played a major role in the efforts, particularly in the tech- heavy activities of the Obama campaign. Text messaging was a fundamental component of the plan, used on an opt-in basis. This established relationships with supporters, especially young voters. For example, the Obama campaign blasted text messages at key moments of their campaign, notably the announcement of Joe Biden as the vice presidential running mate. An estimated 2.9 million people received that text message early on the Saturday morning (August 23, 2008) just before the Democratic National Convention began. The Obama campaign has not officially released the number of supporters who signed up to receive mobile text messages and other online communications.
For the mobile campaign, the Obama team set up a dedicated mobile Web site: http://obamamobile.mobi. Supporters who logged in to the campaign’s primary Web site, with an M (for mobile) prefix—http://m.barackobama.com—were automatically redirected to the .mobi site. The mobile site invited visitors to “Get involved: Sign up for mobile alerts”—basically to register to the short code 62262 (the keypad numbers corresponding to the letters O, B, A, M, A). This opt-in procedure enabled the campaign to identify its contacts.
From the Obama mobile server, supporters could download ringtones, wallpapers and campaign videos. Users could also get candidate information—such as campaign stops and schedules, as well as news reports and social networking opportunities (e.g. the link to “ask a friend to join”). Most significantly, the mobile site—like other Obama online components—permitted individuals to make financial contributions. The mobile site also enabled supporters to request white papers and other documents, which were automatically sent via e-mail to their desktop or portable devices.
In addition to the text alert for the Biden selection, the Obama campaign dispatched messages before local appearances, prior to the debates, as well as on the eve of primary and general Election Days. There was also a “thank you” message after the November 4 victory.
Supporters who signed up for the service paid an average of 10 cents per message, although that figure varies widely. It is assumed that many in the young, tech-savvy Obama cadre subscribe to their wireless carriers’ “bulk text messaging” packages. Casual and occasional users pay about 20 cents per message.
Each text message blast generated a cost for both sides (the Obama transmission and the individual reception), whether it was a per-use fee or a click on the bulk bundled subscription fee). One analysis of the Biden message blast concluded that the total expense for that event could have ranged from about $1.2 million to $1.8 million, depending on the fees for each individual message (in the range of 3 cents to 10 cents per message). If there were 5 million participants, the range rises to $1.95 million to $3 million.
One objective of a political campaign is to build a contact list of supporters, contributors, volunteer workers and other citizens. The Obama campaign gathered e-mail addresses, phone numbers and other data about supporters, securing relationships that can be used in future political efforts by Obama and other political allies.
Strategically, the use of SMS—and online messages as well—represented an integrated marketing plan. Among its attributes: it bypassed traditional media as a way to communicate with and energize a large and widely dispersed audience. The interactive features enabled financial contributions and viral social media connections, which the Obama campaign exploited.
The Obama campaign’s activities have been widely hailed as a prototype for the digital era. Advertising Age declared Obama as the “Marketer of the Year,” citing the digital campaign and especially its mobile marketing component. In the polling of marketing industry executives, the Obama campaign (36.1%) scored ahead of familiar brands such as Apple (27.3%), Nike (9.4%), online shoe seller Zappos (14.1%) and Coors Brewery (8.7%). The John McCain campaign (4.5%) was far behind.
The McCain campaign also used mobile marketing, but far less aggressively. It was difficult to find the SMS sign-up information on the primary McCain campaign Web site, www.JohnMcCain.com. There appeared to be few efforts to dispatch text messages consistently during the campaign. One significant promotion for the McCain SMS capability came during the Republican Party’s convention: an SMS appeal to donate funds to the American Red Cross for victims of the hurricanes that were hitting the southern U.S. during that period. (The Obama campaign also urged $5 text donations to the Red Cross during that period.)
To read more about how to setup your own SMS campaign, visit MODI$club.
Source: Simba Information
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Five Fatal Communication Errors–and How to Avoid Them
Below are the five most common errors that businesses commit in using mobile platforms for their marketing communications, along with ways to solve the problems that result (or to avoid those problems altogether).
Error 1: Failing to consider the audience first
Jumping on the latest, greatest communication bandwagon without first asking, "Who is my audience and is [insert new media platform here] the best way to reach them?" is the leading cause of ineffective marketing communications. That certain media lacks an entry barrier (i.e., it's easy and cheap) magnifies the problem; even marketers who should know better are led astray.
Without understanding your audience's needs, expectations, and preferences, you can make only guesses about how best to reach them.
Solutions: Sometimes, profiling your target audience based on knowledge that exists inside your company can be enough to determine whether a particular communication path is worth pursuing. Audiences can also be interviewed, surveyed, or polled to determine their communication preferences. But the most effective strategy will be a combination of solutions, including those provided below.
Error 2: Assigning ownership of messages
Companies will often make individuals owners of important key messages. Thus, numerous people throughout the company are given incentive to do whatever they can to "get their message out," and they will tend to measure their results in terms of volume. The result is a great deal of noise for those on the receiving end of these dispersed communications, because no one has an incentive to make the needs and preferences of the target audience a primary concern.
Solution: Assign ownership of audiences, not messages. For example, "business partners" may be one target audience with whom your business needs to communicate. "Attendees of event X" may be another. Assign an individual or department to own each audience for your company; it's then the owner's job to represent the needs of the audience and to ensure that the messages delivered to the audience match what the audience really needs. This approach also helps to reduce noise because one entity has complete visibility into the messages that audience is receiving.
Error 3: Offering too much or too little choice
Offering audiences too much choice for communicating with them creates noise. For example, if they receive the same information via Twitter, LinkedIn, emails, online groups, and your newsletter, at some point they will tune out and potentially miss important new information.
Offering too little choice is just as problematic. For example, many organizers now use Facebook to advertise events and contests to the exclusion of traditional websites and advertising. However, the assumption that "everybody" is on Facebook—or that everyone who is on Facebook and needs the information will receive it—is flawed.
Solutions: Choose the best mix of communication vehicles for your audience and purpose. Enable audiences to filter your information and messages by topic. Enable opt-in communication and allow audiences to choose their preferred format to receive information (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly email; SMS; social media group or fan page). Above all, provide a single place that audiences can go to get all available information on one topic and use certain media (eg. SMS) to highlight or direct them to the information.
Error 4: Failing to consolidate messages and information
A key problem with relying on quick-and-dirty methods to disseminate information (e.g., Tweets, Facebook, and LinkedIn updates) is that no one ever gets the complete picture at once—if ever at all.
You also lose control of the message through "re-tweeting" and status sharing, so it's important to have a method in place that allows you to own the whole picture even while the message is being disseminated by others.
Solutions: Assigning ownership of audiences (No. 2 above) can eliminate this problem. Here's another strategy:
First consider how many messages the audience really needs about the topic, and how often they need to receive updates.
Next, follow the advice in No. 3 above.
Then, for each topic or event, provide a single place where audiences can go to get all the information they need. These days, this is most likely to be a Web page—but it may also be a toll-free number or a physical location like an information kiosk.
Finally, in every message you send out on the topic, tell people where they can go to get complete information.
Error 5: Falling prey to "easy" and "cheap"
The primary problem with easy and cheap is that it's easy and cheap. With no premium or barrier to entry, user-driven communication vehicles like Twitter and Facebook arrive on the market already commoditized. By becoming distracted by easy-access commodities, companies erode the value of tried-and true foundations of communication.
Examples of how this can happen include:
Creating too much noise for truly important messages to be effectively heard.
Inadvertently training your audiences to ignore messages from you because there are too many messages of low value.
Succumbing to 11th-hour communication (because it's so easy to do) rather than planning out well-timed information delivery.
Solution: Consider new communication channels (eg. SMS mobile) within the context of the bigger picture: your business and marketing goals, your audience's needs and preferences, your marketing communications mix. The marcoms mix should always be open for tweaking, but make changes only after you have a solid business case for it. Once the need for change is determined, take the time to map out your audiences, the messages they need, and the best channels of delivery for each audience-message combination.
An Aside: My Favorites
Two marketing communication vehicles are my tried-and-true favorites. Here's how I like to fit them into an overall marcoms mix:
SMS alerts/updates. Ideal for consolidating information into one location. Summarize important information and provide links to Web pages where complete information can be found. Stick to a reliable distribution schedule that people can come to expect and appreciate as part of their daily or weekly routine.
Dedicated Web pages. Ideal for collecting all the information and answers to frequently asked questions about single topic. Easy to link to when communicating updates on the topic and easy for others to link to when forwarding or recommending the topic to friends. It may be a traditional HTML page, a blog entry, or a LinkedIn or Facebook Group page. Just remember that not everyone can access applications like LinkedIn. Your audience should never feel forced to sign up for third-party applications to get the information they want from you.
Partial Source: MarketingProfs
Error 1: Failing to consider the audience first
Jumping on the latest, greatest communication bandwagon without first asking, "Who is my audience and is [insert new media platform here] the best way to reach them?" is the leading cause of ineffective marketing communications. That certain media lacks an entry barrier (i.e., it's easy and cheap) magnifies the problem; even marketers who should know better are led astray.
Without understanding your audience's needs, expectations, and preferences, you can make only guesses about how best to reach them.
Solutions: Sometimes, profiling your target audience based on knowledge that exists inside your company can be enough to determine whether a particular communication path is worth pursuing. Audiences can also be interviewed, surveyed, or polled to determine their communication preferences. But the most effective strategy will be a combination of solutions, including those provided below.
Error 2: Assigning ownership of messages
Companies will often make individuals owners of important key messages. Thus, numerous people throughout the company are given incentive to do whatever they can to "get their message out," and they will tend to measure their results in terms of volume. The result is a great deal of noise for those on the receiving end of these dispersed communications, because no one has an incentive to make the needs and preferences of the target audience a primary concern.
Solution: Assign ownership of audiences, not messages. For example, "business partners" may be one target audience with whom your business needs to communicate. "Attendees of event X" may be another. Assign an individual or department to own each audience for your company; it's then the owner's job to represent the needs of the audience and to ensure that the messages delivered to the audience match what the audience really needs. This approach also helps to reduce noise because one entity has complete visibility into the messages that audience is receiving.
Error 3: Offering too much or too little choice
Offering audiences too much choice for communicating with them creates noise. For example, if they receive the same information via Twitter, LinkedIn, emails, online groups, and your newsletter, at some point they will tune out and potentially miss important new information.
Offering too little choice is just as problematic. For example, many organizers now use Facebook to advertise events and contests to the exclusion of traditional websites and advertising. However, the assumption that "everybody" is on Facebook—or that everyone who is on Facebook and needs the information will receive it—is flawed.
Solutions: Choose the best mix of communication vehicles for your audience and purpose. Enable audiences to filter your information and messages by topic. Enable opt-in communication and allow audiences to choose their preferred format to receive information (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly email; SMS; social media group or fan page). Above all, provide a single place that audiences can go to get all available information on one topic and use certain media (eg. SMS) to highlight or direct them to the information.
Error 4: Failing to consolidate messages and information
A key problem with relying on quick-and-dirty methods to disseminate information (e.g., Tweets, Facebook, and LinkedIn updates) is that no one ever gets the complete picture at once—if ever at all.
You also lose control of the message through "re-tweeting" and status sharing, so it's important to have a method in place that allows you to own the whole picture even while the message is being disseminated by others.
Solutions: Assigning ownership of audiences (No. 2 above) can eliminate this problem. Here's another strategy:
First consider how many messages the audience really needs about the topic, and how often they need to receive updates.
Next, follow the advice in No. 3 above.
Then, for each topic or event, provide a single place where audiences can go to get all the information they need. These days, this is most likely to be a Web page—but it may also be a toll-free number or a physical location like an information kiosk.
Finally, in every message you send out on the topic, tell people where they can go to get complete information.
Error 5: Falling prey to "easy" and "cheap"
The primary problem with easy and cheap is that it's easy and cheap. With no premium or barrier to entry, user-driven communication vehicles like Twitter and Facebook arrive on the market already commoditized. By becoming distracted by easy-access commodities, companies erode the value of tried-and true foundations of communication.
Examples of how this can happen include:
Creating too much noise for truly important messages to be effectively heard.
Inadvertently training your audiences to ignore messages from you because there are too many messages of low value.
Succumbing to 11th-hour communication (because it's so easy to do) rather than planning out well-timed information delivery.
Solution: Consider new communication channels (eg. SMS mobile) within the context of the bigger picture: your business and marketing goals, your audience's needs and preferences, your marketing communications mix. The marcoms mix should always be open for tweaking, but make changes only after you have a solid business case for it. Once the need for change is determined, take the time to map out your audiences, the messages they need, and the best channels of delivery for each audience-message combination.
An Aside: My Favorites
Two marketing communication vehicles are my tried-and-true favorites. Here's how I like to fit them into an overall marcoms mix:
SMS alerts/updates. Ideal for consolidating information into one location. Summarize important information and provide links to Web pages where complete information can be found. Stick to a reliable distribution schedule that people can come to expect and appreciate as part of their daily or weekly routine.
Dedicated Web pages. Ideal for collecting all the information and answers to frequently asked questions about single topic. Easy to link to when communicating updates on the topic and easy for others to link to when forwarding or recommending the topic to friends. It may be a traditional HTML page, a blog entry, or a LinkedIn or Facebook Group page. Just remember that not everyone can access applications like LinkedIn. Your audience should never feel forced to sign up for third-party applications to get the information they want from you.
Partial Source: MarketingProfs
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