MarketingExperiments Blog: Research-driven optimization, testing, and marketing ideas

“We believe that people buy from people, that people don’t buy from companies, from stores, or from websites; people buy from people. Marketing is not about programs; it is about relationships.” If you have not taken our training courses before, that is Article One of The MarketingExperiments’ Creed and a central tenet of Transparent Marketing.

But, you say, I am a multi-national conglomerate (or perhaps small business that depersonalizes marketing like a multi-national conglomerate), how can I possibly communicate like a person?

On our free June 9th web clinic – One-to-One Marketing at Four Levels: Strategic ways every marketer can enter into an online conversation with customers – we’ll explore this topic and give you actionable advice to communicate with (instead of “marketing to”) your prospects. In the meantime, here is a look at how your peers are engaging in one-to-one (aka 1:1) marketing…

Find and tap into deep relationships

One of the biggest disappoints of early Web implementations has been the lack of effective consideration of one-to-one strategies within all aspects of digital marketing – email being a singular exception.

In a nutshell, what 1:1 means for our clients is to be relevant each time they engage with a consumer on their website, in their media buys, and increasingly in social outreach using transmedia, Facebook et al.

What that means in real terms has been the ability to apply 1:1 strategies that have worked so well in email, etc to display.

For example, an electronics retailer was able to see that it had a relationship with 40% of its users and segmented these dynamically. The retailer learned that 63% of its response was coming from 11% of users – the ones they have a deep relationship with (basic 1:1).

By segmenting based on behavior, the retailer also found a high affinity to specific products which helped with more relevant merchandizing and seasonal planning. It was able to do this at no more cost than it paid for ad serving. It was then able to translate this to media planning and buying and include relationship in determining media effectiveness.

We are just at the start of this process and 1:1 will only really get going when:

1. We remove ambiguity around privacy – consumers want relevance and choice with companies they have relationships with but do not want to be stalked
2. We manage data efficiently – this is critical so we don’t exponentially increase cost and negate value
3. We get past this generational thing – many “digital marketers” have not been schooled in the value of 1:1 techniques or are overly invested in product substitutes such as re-targeting when 1:1 is about re-marketing. Maybe it takes a few grey hairs to know the difference. Thankfully my colleagues have plenty of them (I’ll pay for that comment later).

– Martin Smith, Chief Technology Officer of TruEffect

Personalized communication based on prospect type

Our company is setting up a relationship marketing process for a business coach to generate qualified leads. We are creating a custom HTML-coded Web form consisting of a series of qualifying questions. Specific email content will be created.

Response data is housed in a database. Based on the answers, each prospect will be automatically funneled into one of several tracks and receive a series of timed, customized and personalized emails specific to the “prospect type” defined by the responses on the Web form.

The objective is to create customized and personalized email communication relevant to the individual’s needs – thereby driving increased conversion rates.

– Eric Mohr, Principle at EBM Direct Marketing Services

Use social media (with extreme caution)

One way to be incredibly relevant and relational is to reference personal information from someone’s social profiles – a favorite movie, for example. I DO NOT recommend this for most brands or entities. You don’t want to scare anyone. Also, it can take a TON of time – so again, it’s not for everyone.

It DOES work well if the audience wants to feel a personal connection with you. Say you are a musician (as I was) and you get a positive comment on MySpace, Facebook, etc. from an obvious influencer. It’s not hard to glance at their profile and find something you have in common with them and then relate to that. It can create a real evangelist if done right.

This could potentially work for politicians, company figureheads, or local business owners – as long as it is done in a friendly, non-Big Brother way. This is just one way to close the gap between

“that organization” and a “real person.”

– Kennedy Pittman, Radically Epic Uber Strategic Visionary at Square Hat Media

Related Resources

One-to-One Marketing at Four Levels: Strategic ways every marketer can enter into an online conversation with customers

One-to-one Marketing: The true promise of Dynamic Offer-Content Customization

Transparent Marketing: How to earn the trust of a skeptical consumer

Photo attribution: bensonkua

Internet Marketing Strategy

It’s the time of year when I’m preparing the annual sojourn to Salt Lake City to gather with my fellow digital marketers at the Omniture Summit, and it makes me a bit nostalgic. No, not because I grew up in Utah, or because I miss the cold mountain air (as a former Montana-resident-turned-Florida resident, nothing could be further from my mind), but for my navy days. Years ago, when I was just out of high school, I joined the navy and the first boat I served on was USS SALT LAKE CITY (SSN-716). It’s tough to make a visit to SLC without thinking about these days.

I remember being a scrawny high school kid, band geek, 97 lbs, and hearing over and over that I would never make it through boot camp. By the time I got there, I actually started to believe it myself. But, nine weeks later, I had finished all the trials, gained 25 lbs, and was marching with the rest of my class in the pass-in-review ceremony. I had done it, and (to borrow a popular phrase from that year) thought I was the king of the world.

What does being in boot camp have to do with online marketing?

Well, let me say that when you first get to boot camp, your mind does wander to thoughts of quitting and getting back home to a comfortable life where all you really had to worry about was next Friday’s math test. However, you can’t just quit when you get to boot camp; no, they make you persevere. And by the time it’s done, you’re very glad you stuck through the tough times and accomplished something remarkable.

I think that my experience at boot camp can be a lot like the experience we marketers go through when starting to test online, except it’s MUCH easier to quit testing than it is boot camp. There is a large temptation to think that it will just be too much work – first figuring out what to test, designing alternative creative, selecting a testing tool, getting your boss to sign off, then moving mountains to get the IT work prioritized. It’s easy for a marketer to just stick to the status quo and quit the fight before it’s even begun.

Why the mountains are worth moving

I’m not going to deny that testing, like boot camp, has challenges we must persevere through and overcome. But just like boot camp, testing also has significant rewards that we might miss out on if we are jumping ship in fear. Rewards like the incredible feeling of accomplishment when you actually get that first test done, and one of your treatments won! Rewards like knowing you’ve discovered how to stop the leaks in your funnel and contribute directly to your company’s bottom line.

At MarketingExperiments we’re lucky because we get to feel this all the time with our research partners. We get to see our partners grow and establish the culture of testing in their own organizations, which really breathes new life into the old marketing routine that many of us know all too well – “Hey guys, St. Patrick’s day is coming up, let’s trot out all our old shamrock creative and talk about finding a pot of savings at the end of the rainbow.” You won’t ever have that conversation again.

So my message to you is this: don’t give up

The good news is that if a 97lb band geek can experience the reward of surviving boot camp, then there is much hope for the marketer out there starting to online test. You can survive; you can make it.  Just hang in there, don’t give up, and know that the rewards will far outweigh the struggles.

If you are like me and are going to be at the Omniture Summit this year (currently sold-out), consider spending a day with the MarketingExperiments team learning how to optimize your online marketing campaigns. We will be teaching our Landing Page Optimization Workshop during the Omniture University training day in Salt Lake City this year. I’ll be there with the MarketingExperiments team helping your fellow peers learn how they can apply a decade of marketing discoveries to their own campaigns.

Photo provided by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78428166@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

Analytics & Testing, Internet Marketing News, Internet Marketing Strategy