Manhattan Marketing Maven

Opting Out of Catalogs

Some percent of the 19 billion catalogs mailed arrive in mailboxes where they are unwelcome and unloved. A website called Catalog Choice offers an opt-out option by offering a method for consumers to alert catalogers to take them off the list.

The website offers a 1-2-3 register, select and notify sequence of free activities. It warns consumers that it might take 10 weeks or more to get off the lists and offers to provide follow-up advocacy for those not satisfied. The site also offers catalogers a free merchant account.

In an opt-in/opt-out world this sounds normal. The DMA is on red alert, according to BusinessWeek because such a move allegedly threatens the future of cataloging and direct marketing. More likely it threatens the Direct Marketing Association who purports to have its own "do not mail list" called the Mail Preference Service and wants to be simultaneously the industry advocate and watchdog.

Sounds like a tempest in a teapot is Kevin Hillstrom's conclusion. The veteran catalog data wonk argues that more opt outs means less wasted postage, fewer annoyed prospects and more satisfied customers. His impeccable logic is based on the understanding that printing and postage, though commodities, continue to increase in price and that people who get unwanted catalogs suck up scarce resources and never buy anyway. So the savvy green approach is to encourage anyone offering an opt-out mechanism.

I'm with Kevin. No downside to another opt-out mechanism. No apparent downside to potential conflict with DMA. No downside for merchants or the direct marketing industry to reducing unwanted mail.

Herschell Gordon Lewis Schlockmeister Turned Copymaster

Herschell Gordon Lewis, the self proclaimed direct marketing curmudgeon-at-large pushes my buttons. 

Also a former Pittsburgher with multiple careers, he is simultaneously the most entertaining and the most annoying person I regularly read. I guess I'm not alone since Direct Magazine published two pieces from him in the current October 2007 issue coinciding with the upcoming DMA meetings in Chicago.

The Fort Lauderdale-based Mr. Lewis, who has had a parallel career as a splatter/horror film director uses all three of his names as if to distinguish himself from some other Herschell Gordon Lewis -- either a Lex Luthor-like villain tormenting writers everywhere or a Talmudic scholar addicted to wontons -- has an unusual and uncanny take on the connection between people, words and ads.

Looking down at you sternly in his half-glasses over his interlaced praying hands in his publicity picture you know you are headed toward the Principal's office. Herschell is the ultimate questioner and skeptic. Consider his take on ads "created" by " an idiotic cousin of the that troglodytic character on the insurance commercials" that we can't figure out.

"Logic and salesmanship vanish from the 'creative mix' when self-absorbed cleverness supplants connection with potential responders." 

Dedicated to using words and images to connect with customers and and provoke action, Lewis argues that "success stems from being regarded as flourishing salespeople"  which, from his perch " is what we do. We sell or we deservedly perish."  In that context he offers a stream of guidance emphasizing clarity, the imperative tense, directing the consumer and using linguistic nuances and subtle language choices to reduce or overcome consumer's natural defenses and to connect with common experiences.

He understands that Americans have common idioms, common experiences and common ways to process information. What else would you expect from the man who virtually invented the splatter film, experimented with hybrid nudie-horror films and brought us "BloodFest2: All You Can Eat" in 2002? Underlying his stream of advice and course corrections is the idea that marketers must understand and use this commonality to connect with customers and prospects. It's always about the customer. It's never about the creative person. And they must do with wit, subtlety and deftness since our customers aren't as dumb as we think they are. It's no wonder he titled his latest book, Hot Appeals or Burnt Offerings.

Part William Safire, part David Ogilvy, part high school English teacher and part MAD Magazine copywriter, Mr. Lewis, who has written 30 books including my favorite " Asinine Advertising,"  knows how we think, what we get (and don't get) and how to get us to click, call or to fill in the blanks. Its a good thing I don't have to pay royalties on every idea I've "borrowed" from him over the years.

Someday I'll meet him. Hopefully I won't say anything too stupid. Some other day, I'll be able to afford to hire him to consult on my copy. Till then I'll read him and let him push my buttons. 

 

   

List Buying Made Not-So-Easy

MarketingSherpa published a great little list buying guide on the same day that B2B reports a growing share for direct marketing. What neither tell you is that List Brokers   are down a quart on customer service, responsiveness and expertise especially if you're a smallish buyer.

Effective list buying isn't easy to start with. There are no uniform methods for list compilation, search or storage. Getting an apples-to-apples comparison is tough. Every broker (think: Walter Karl, DM2, infoUSA, Worldata and others) does every component task differently. Sending the same e-mail message to 3 or 4 lists requires repeating the same effort 3 or 4 times to do what ought to be a simple and transferable thing. But it hardly ever is.

Consolidation of corporate ownership has not led to consolidation of lists. It's not uncommon for you to have to deal with two brokers at the same company to buy postal and e-mail lists from the same source. And combining theses lists or adding additional filtering data to make your campaign smarter brings you into an entirely new arena of complexity and confusion.

Many of the people you'll deal with, unless you are a huge mailer with a dedicated rep, are clueless. They have no feel for the lists, even less intuition to help you target a campaign or evaluate choices and they are at the bottom rung in their organizational food chains so they will confound you with last minute issues, problems and details that often they don't even know about or can't explain.

And did I mention that they never call you back or take 36 hours to reply to e-mails?

Imagine being able to ignore or stall eager buyers with cash in hand without any consequence to your business? List brokering must be a a goldmine in this renaissance of direct marketing. But list buying is more challenging and difficult than it has to be.

Why White Papers?

White papers are to B2B lead generation what cleavage is to hookers -- the lure that prompts conversation and a closer look.

White papers purport to be neutral, educational material disseminated by vendors in the public interest. But everyone knows that white papers, named after official communiques among the British Empire set,  are either thinly disguised propaganda for a particular approach, viewpoint, formulation or product set or a paint-by-numbers rhetorical exercise authored by an academic with the loose commercial sensibility of the aforementioned hookers. And yet white papers seem to be the preferred tool for B2B lead generation campaigns. In fact TechTarget and CNET have built huge businesses delivering these documents to suspecting prospects. 

Jim Logan argues in his blog that white papers are inferior to case studies in the sales process and he's  right since most shoppers want to understand what their peers are thinking and what they actually did. Hard facts trump fluff every time. Though that doesn't seem to affect the constant demand to create faux content which is then swapped for basic contact information. What's amazing is that this game is played out millions of times everyday. It gets me wondering about how closely anyone is actually watching the lead generation game, how much wiggle room for inefficiency must be built into the process and how much of what passes for marketing campaigns is driven by tradition and/or inertia.

Consider the counterintuitive logic train.

1. Everyone knows white papers lack significant content. They have very little true information value.

2. They are solicited very early in the process usually by junior people, who have little say in defining specs or identifying vendors for RFIs.

3. Their real value to those offering them is to signal vendors that a prospect has begun to shop. I can't determine the real value to those collecting them.

4. White paper recipients do not turn into genuine leads in great numbers. They are great for filling a pipeline but wash out in great numbers quickly.

So why do B2B marketers keep doing this shadow marketing ballet day-after-day and year-after-year?

Because its understandable, easy, predicable, manageable,expected and it kind of works. Exactly the same reasons that the world's second oldest profession continues to flourish. 

Why The Tchochkie Always Wins

This is the perfect time of the year to explain why the tchochkie –the premium item or personal give-away always beats the professional or informational offer in direct marketing campaigns.

The secret lies deep in human nature; we are wired to hunt or gather stuff. And we can’t pass up something for nothing.

If you politely survey us we’ll tell you that we would never go out of our way to get or even be remotely influenced by a cap, t-shirt, polo, thumb drive, stress ball, Frisbee  or cool pen. But given the choice between a warmed over white paper, a PowerPoint deck, a webinar or a case study the swag is a no-brainer.

If you doubt me go to any trade show and watch  high-paid executives in expensive suits kill each other to collect three dollar t-shirts or yet another baseball cap. Better yet look around your doctor’s office. In most cases people are motivated to get and possess the object; its value or utility is hardly considered. Something about the offer of a freebie fires synapses in our limbic brains and we leap into a life-or-death struggle to acquire the shiny object.

In a recent B2B campaign, we made the unvarnished subject line offer “ Take a Survey. Get a Gift.” In every test cell, e-mail opens and survey completions were twice that of the more subtle and professional appeal, “Your opinion is needed.”

The offer of a gift seems to be even more motivating if recipient can choose his or her prize. In a recent campaign Loyaltyworks used its world-class premium catalog as a reward for survey takers. Each survey responder got enough points to choose from among 11,000 items. With a lure like this, it wasn’t too surprising that purchased lists performed like house lists.

But frankly the tchochkie also works better because it creates an unspoken but clear obligation between the marketer and the recipient. Again a throwback to ancient inter-personal practice. The message transmitted telepathically is ; “I gave you something cool for nothing, now you owe me a conversation.”

Don't Doubt Direct Mail

The strength of direct mail in the digital age astounds everybody. This ancient technology grew 8.5 percent in 2006 even after a 5 percent hike in postal rates.

It’s among the fastest growing media categories and is expected to grow again by 7.5 percent next year reaching $64 billion according to Universal McCann’s ad spending guru Robert Coen. Why are so many brands embracing this medium?

Let me count the ways:

1. It is direct. You can target using multiple variables and zero-in on most likely buyers. You can buy lists of those most likely to respond and those who have purchased the product, or similar and related products, previous ones. Targeting can be by geography, demography, psychology, sympathy, affinity or sensibility and/or by demonstrated purchase behavior.
2. It is infinitely measurable. Everything about it can be measured; the audience, the open rate, the purchase rate and the impact of different creative executions. There is a well defined canon of “best practices: you can leverage.
3. It is expected. People don’t fear it and many actually like it. Hundreds of millions have opted-in. It is a predictable and desired daily experience for many.
4. It is a broad creative pallet. From “white mail” in number ten envelopes that look like old fashioned formal business letters to self-mailers or dimensional pieces that unfold, pop-up, sing, calculate things there are many ways to create branded curiosity and affirmative brand experiences. Cleaver mailers have limitless look, feel, tone and action options to work with. Video, audio and digital content mails without spoilage.
5. It is testable. You can mail small parallel quantities and learn what works and what doesn’t quickly. Many credible testing methodologies have already been developed and proven.
6. It is combinable. You can mix and match direct mail with e-mail, telemarketing, catalogs, print, broadcast, outdoor or online advertising and on-pack or point-of-sale promotions to dial up awareness and increase open and conversion rates.
7. It is fast. If you know what you’re doing; you can get a fully developed campaign out the door in 15 business days.
8. It is cheap. You can mail a printed postcard in bulk for less than 40 cents per unit and participate in a cooperative mailing program for even less.
9. It is easy to produce. From word processing through sophisticated letter shopping there are many options for creating direct mail.
10. It generally gets through. The USPS is extremely reliable. Human SPAM filters are idiosyncratic and much more generous, lenient and forgiving that their electronic counterparts.

It's Not About You

The object of every marketing communication is to prompt action. The action can be to remember a name, a price or a point of view. The action can be to call or click or clip. But if there’s no action, you’re dead.

The only way to do this is to focus entirely on who needs to act and what will motivate them. Everything else is a waste of time and money.

Yet the vast majority of messages are egocentric. They are all about the company, the products and the features. They are usually filled with either chest-beating or me-too claims that satisfy sellers’ needs and expectations and turn off buyers. The result – huge investments in ads, direct mail, e-mail and online campaigns that make marketers happy but never pay off or pay out.

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last 5 years, you know that power and control in the world of media and messaging has changed. Buyers control the time, place, device and messages they want to see or hear. They control what gets in and what gets filtered out. And they are a ruthless bunch.

To increase the likelihood that your message will get some attention, consider these basic creative rules

Make everything about the target audience. Understand who they are and what they care about. Present the benefits to them early and in language they understand and respond to. Tell them what they win by doing business with you.

Keep it short. Attention spans are short. Everyone is multi-tasking. You’ve got 15-20 seconds to get attention. Don’t squander it. Say the most important benefit first. Then say it again in a punchy way.

Focus exclusively on the intended action. You’ve got 15 seconds to get someone to do something. Everything you do has to drive to that action. Anything that doesn’t encourage taking that action has to go. If they don’t take the action, you’re out of the game so you must be a merciless editor. Eliminate anything that could distract a reader, viewer or listener from the intended goal.

Make it easy to take the action. Make the button, the coupon or the link big, easy to see in a bold color. Separate it with white space. Put it high up on the page. Drive the eye to the goal line. Limit the choices to do anything other than take the required action. Customers expect easy, fast, intuitive choices. Give them what they want. Show them what you want them to do.

Be Real. Familiar, savvy, realistic language beats corporate-speak. Colorful language beats plain vanilla. Customers aren’t navel-gazing the way marketers and managers are. They aren’t worried about every implication, nuance and liability. They are barely there and barely paying attention. So you have to grab them quickly and convey your meaning plainly in terms they immediately can understand, process and act on.

Making the Perfect Offer

The decision to make personal versus professional offers is a constant conundrum. The tchachkie versus the White Paper is to marketing what the Lady and the Tiger are to game theory. And when you are seeking to reach C level executives and decision-makers add a dose of anxiety to this dilemma.

Most of the decisions that lead to offers are made on the basis of personal experience or supposition. There is no collected database of the millions of tests done over the years. And for every marketer that would rely on the intense, immutable qualities of greed there is another marketer who truly believes that "an educated consumer is your best customer."

Anyone who has ever watched a CEO clad in a $2000 suit dash across a crowded room and elbow his way through a crowd to grab a free t-shirt will attest to the perpetual pulling power of personal goodies. And yet for many companies the notion of passing out toys, wearables or electronics is unseemly or contrary to their self image. Surely no respectable firm wants to be seen as a font of promotional items when they could be perceived as a font of faux wisdom.

Into this fray comes Jerame Thurik, Director of Market Development at Concur Software. Faced with the need to develop leads among CFOs, Jerame tested a white paper against a laptop light, a jelly keyboard, fancy clocks, world calculators, thumb drives and USB hubs.

Guess what happened?

His highest cost per lead was the white paper. The swag performed uniformly better than the IP, though certain items (clocks and calulators) were duds and others like the USB hub drew a great 5% response. It seems that perceived utility rather than perceived unit value drives uptake. The promotion items pulled so well that they more than paid off the costs they added to the campaigns.

On his way to premium heaven, Jerame also learned a few other useful things, as reported in Marketing Sherpa:

1. Senior players will indeed trade survey answers (no more than 10) for a prize.

2. You can eliminate the possibility of everyone on Internet seeking out your freebies by using a passcode; which can be limited for one-time use by those on your list. It requires a bit of technology but is oh so worth it. And the passcode deters only a very small number of your targeted players – 3-4% in the Concur campaigns.

3. As you winnow and qualify the list you can escalate the offers to compel more involved behavior. If you get a thumb drive for taking the survey, you get an iPod for taking a live meeting with a sales rep. This really works though it often challenges the skill of the rep to focus the meeting when confronted with a qualified and greedy prospect. Yet often in this situation guilt acts a governor or channelor of wanton desire.

4. You can deliver offers to C level people using e-mail because it is ubiquitous and broadly accepted in corporate circles. You have to fulfill the offer in time to satiate your prospect and reward his or her behavior. And you still have to avoid tripping the SPAM filters with your copy, but even C level executives expect to receive offers by e-mail.

So what does Jerame teach us? To make the perfect offer rely on human nature.

Rethinking Information Offers

Marketers have used information as an offer and as a conversation starter since the beginning. But in an age of information overload this tactic sorely needs to be rethought.

There are mountains of information, data and opinions available for every industry and every segment in newsletters, e-zines, search engines, trade magazines, professional organizations, news wires and vendor websites. Anyone who is marginally interested can find whatever they want in two clicks. There is no real need to aggregate this information in one place because there is no reason to believe prospects will seek it out in one place.

Recently we have evaluated attempts by several clients to collect information and present an information portal as a “service” to their industry and use information as a lead generation lure. The data showed that in spite of significant outbound marketing and significant investments of resources to assemble information, very little traffic found its way to these sites, very few of those who showed up actually read or used the information and hardly anyone came back frequently for updates.

Similarly when we evaluated a range of newsletters, reports and white papers available from clients and from third-party publishers, we found that a great majority of the content was warmed over or gussied up sales collateral, pseudo studies written by moonlighting academics or repetitive compilations of factoids and conventional wisdom culled from speeches or PowerPoint decks; none of which would demonstrate subject matter expertise or convince anyone to begin a meaningful conversation.

If you are going to use information as a lead generation offer it has to meet several criteria to truly engage a prospective customer.

1. It has to tell them something they don’t already know. If it is something new or different – all the better.
2. It should have a distinct perspective and point of view. Billions of bytes of blandness are already available. Take a position on a topic under debate. Don’t be afraid to mix it up a little but don’t BS your way through.
3. Personality counts. Neutral, vanilla corporate-speak is ubiquitous. It is routinely ignored, filtered out and unheard. People buy ideas from other people. Put it across the way you would in-person. Give prospects an insight into the personality of your company.
4. Be precise. Everyone really wants to know what is really going on; how you are doing the same task they need to do and how they stack up against the competition. Survey data, benchmarks, realistic practical advice, hard data on timing, costs and staff requirements go a long way to establish credibility and to provide enough true value to begin a meaningful interaction and exchange.

  Bottom line – if the information doesn’t resonate with and make a difference to the end user, it won’t have any value as an offer.

Its All About the List ... Stupid!

Plantronics makes telephone headsets. For all I know they make the best telephone headsets on the planet.

What I do know is that they are sending me a series of expensive dimensional direct mail pieces filled with expensive premiums and I am in no position to buy or influence the purchase of their products. They are wasting beaucoup bucks on a phantom prospect. So far I've pocketed the goodies and not responded. Perhaps at some point they'll come looking for me -- or not.

It's a classic direct marketing mistake. Plantronics put their money into high end printing, dye cuts, great premiuims, shrink-wrapping and postage. Its an impressive effort. The pieces are well executed. They generate interest and excitement when they arrive. And each one gets opened and carefully examined. But its great form without business function.

They should have put their money into buying a better list or into telemarketing and/or modeling the one they bought. They should have known that I'm a schelper not a decision-maker before they spent the big bucks to reach out to me.

It will be interesting to see what happens. In a sense what they do next will give me greater insight into the go-to-market strategy of Plantronics. In some ways I'll learn more about them from this campaign than they'll learn about me. I wonder how it will shake out?

In some companies the marketers earn their points just by getting a campaign out the door. In this case, I'm on the third touch of a highly produced campaign which probably required the coordination of many moving parts. Getting a sequence of mailings like this one out is no mean feat.

In other companies, they judge marketers on the number and quality of responses they generate. Somebody who actually runs a call center or who actually needs this stuff probably did respond. With luck, the response rate will hit the industry norm and/or the agency's forecast. So my silence can be comfortably written off as being within the standard margin of error. Mailing me is just part of the cost of doing business in a 2% response world.

In hard core companies, marketers live or die on the number of qualified leads they create that turn into genuine sales opportunities and on measurable ROI that can be traced to marketing spending. Here too, I'm probably invisible because some of the responders probably will mix it up with Plantronics' sales guys. And in the end some will buy. And while I represent avoidable waste, when they divide the costs into the new revenue generated, I'll probably get lost in the shuffle.

But just imagine how much more Plantronics might sell if they hadn't wasted time on me and 10-20% of the other names on the list just like me.