Marketing News has a fresh take on all aspects of
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promotion. The magazine looks at the issues driving marketing, including
strategy, innovation, best practices, branding, technology and
globalization. Marketing News also covers the industry’s basics, the core concepts around which winning programs are built. And Marketing News tells
these stories through case studies and conversations with marketing’s
thought leaders. AMA members and subscribers find relevant and timely
content in every issue.
News Byte: SAP and SAS Strike Up Strategic Sorority
Enterprise business software provider SAP AG and Big Data
analytics company SAS unveiled today a strategic partnership through
which the two companies will create a unified product roadmap that
combines the SAP HANA platform and SAS analytics.
The SAP HANA platform allows in-memory analytics and business applications to work closely together; the intent is to allow enterprise customers to use real-time analytics that also dive deeply into the data (for most business applications, there's a trade-off between speed and depth). The new partnership enables SAS' analytics algorithms to run on top of the SAP platform and vice versa, essentially giving businesses that use either SAS or SAP data environments a wider pool of applications to choose from.
In a press release, SAS further anticipated that collaboration between the two vendors will streamline data transfers between SAP and SAS environments and improve data parallelism—meaning the combined processing powers of SAP and SAS data analytics will enable “new Big Data solutions that could not previously be delivered.”
The initial stage of the partnership will be a co-sell pilot program that will run through 2014, in which selected clients using both SAS and SAP technologies will determine how SAS applications perform on the SAP HANA platform. Key verticals listed in the release include financial services, telecommunications, retail, consumer products, and manufacturing.
5 Direct Marketing Mistakes and how to Avoid Them
Long gone are the days of mass mailing cheesy, generic postcards—or so we hope. The modern marketer
uses direct marketing as an enticement to spark interest and get a
response. It's definitely an effective tool, but starting a campaign
with a bland, general mailing can be costly and annoying to customers.
Here are five common mistakes and ways you can avoid them:
1) Going too broad
Not properly segmenting your audience is like throwing darts while wearing a blindfold. It hurts your brand when customers receive irrelevant promotional materials.
Instead: Identify and target your ideal customers by delivering your marketing message using the right channels at the right time. For example, if you want to capture the Gen Y market, find them on Facebook, but if you're after the older, more tech-savvy male audience then go to Google+. If you're doing email marketing, make sure your list is clean with updated information and stay away from mass mailing. Rely on your in-house list as those are the people who opted-in and have already shown an interest in your company. Better yet, allow customers to pick their preferred method of correspondence whether it's by phone, email, postal mail, or social media.
2) Including content or creative of poor quality
Attention spans are dwindling and, as advertisers, we only really have a few seconds to make a lasting impression. So when you have a design or copy that is confusing, isn't engaging, or doesn't solve a problem, consumers are likely to turn away even before they get to your offer.
Instead: When developing your copy, consider highlighting benefits over features, use trending words, and ask relevant questions. Grab attention by eliciting an emotional response such as fear, greed, and love. Note: People like immediate gratification. Take special care when writing subject lines and headlines; approximately 80% of people will read a headline, but only 20% will read the rest.
3) Using a weak call to action
If you try to be all things to all people, you only end up being nothing to everybody. Every customer needs a nudge once in a while to remind them exactly what you want them to do next.
Instead: Invest in split-testing to see what works. A good call to action (CTA) stands out and is designed to convince visitors to take immediate action. The difference between one small word can make a big difference. Vague CTAs like “Buy Now” and “Click Here” are not as effective as citing the details of what a customer can expect like "Buy This eBook Now" or “Click Here For My Free Trial.”
4) Not streamlining email and social media into one integrated campaign
Connectivity matters more than ever today in this multi-device world and delivering an inconsistent brand experience is a major turnoff to consumers.
Instead: Increase customer engagement and expand your reach by being in all the places your consumers are. If you send an email, enable social media sharing. Incorporate testimonials that you receive from followers or put teasers in your status updates and expand on the details in your emails. Use Facebook not necessarily to acquire new customers but to keep your brand top-of-mind with your existing ones and enable repeat business. The person who sends out your emails should be the same person that manages your social media.
5) Forgetting to follow up
This should be a no-brainer, but it's astonishing how many salespeople forget to follow up with a prospect or even check in with someone who has recently purchased a product/service of theirs. Don't sit there waiting and expect that they will call.
Instead: When you make a sale it shouldn't be the end of your marketing effort. A follow-up allows you to show appreciation. If you didn't get the sale, it'll help you understand what went wrong. Make following up part of your business. Miss this opportunity and you could miss out on a lifetime of recurring income and referrals.
Keep in mind that direct marketing doesn't always guarantee a sale, so treat it more like a stepping stone. If done strategically, you'll have intrigued customers enough so they will take the next step in the buying cycle or open a new channel of communication with you.
Data That Makes the Case for Marketing Investment
Every day marketers must demonstrate the value of their work in
support of business objectives. To prove the value of our technology and
talent investments, we look at transactions/conversions,
attribution across channels, and lifetime value of audience segments.
Those metrics are driven by marketing data and are often hard to
benchmark or demonstrate clearly. To wit: How many thousands of
companies still rely on last-click attribution, with full caveat on its
limitations?
Access to marketing data is an imperative. As the stewards of consumer data for their organizations, marketers must demonstrate data's value to their own organizations to ensure that they have enough corporate will, leadership, and budget to protect it and use it responsibly.
Marketers instinctively know the value of marketing data—it's the fuel that drives relevancy, engagement, response, and ultimately, revenue. However, it's hard to find the hard, cold facts around what exactly that data is doing for our industry and the economy. New research from the Data-Driven Marketing Institute, a think tank of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), entitled “The Value of Data: Consequences for Insight, Innovation and Efficiency in the U.S. Economy” outlines the scope and flow of data through our Data-Driven Marketing Economy (DDME).
The strength of the DDME helps make marketing more efficient, the authors found. Individual-level consumer data helps marketers optimize expenditure on interactive and direct response marketing, both offline and on. It also reduces inefficiency and increases effectiveness in matching producers and customers. In addition, the DDME improves the accountability of marketing investments.
Consider the impact of marketing data in:
- Amplifying knowledge of current customers
- Accelerating the intelligence used in rapid product/service development
- Responding to customer inquiries and needs in (near) real-time
- Rapidly adapting messaging and offers to reflect shifts in consumer sentiment and activity
- Assessing the need for customized printed production
- Measuring the value of each media spend
In our increasingly pressured policy environment, where Congress, state legislators, and regulators want to restrict marketers' use of data for marketing purposes, regulation restricting the responsible use of data would impact innovation, small businesses, jobs, and economic growth, and hence, harm the U.S. Economy, according to the study.
rahul singh 1
pgdm 1 st year
News Byte: SAP and SAS Strike Up Strategic Sorority
News Byte: SAP and SAS Strike Up Strategic Sorority
The SAP HANA platform allows in-memory analytics and business applications to work closely together; the intent is to allow enterprise customers to use real-time analytics that also dive deeply into the data (for most business applications, there's a trade-off between speed and depth). The new partnership enables SAS' analytics algorithms to run on top of the SAP platform and vice versa, essentially giving businesses that use either SAS or SAP data environments a wider pool of applications to choose from.
In a press release, SAS further anticipated that collaboration between the two vendors will streamline data transfers between SAP and SAS environments and improve data parallelism—meaning the combined processing powers of SAP and SAS data analytics will enable “new Big Data solutions that could not previously be delivered.”
The initial stage of the partnership will be a co-sell pilot program that will run through 2014, in which selected clients using both SAS and SAP technologies will determine how SAS applications perform on the SAP HANA platform. Key verticals listed in the release include financial services, telecommunications, retail, consumer products, and manufacturing.
5 Direct Marketing Mistakes and how to Avoid Them
5 Direct Marketing Mistakes and how to Avoid Them
Here are five common mistakes and ways you can avoid them:
1) Going too broad
Not properly segmenting your audience is like throwing darts while wearing a blindfold. It hurts your brand when customers receive irrelevant promotional materials.
Instead: Identify and target your ideal customers by delivering your marketing message using the right channels at the right time. For example, if you want to capture the Gen Y market, find them on Facebook, but if you're after the older, more tech-savvy male audience then go to Google+. If you're doing email marketing, make sure your list is clean with updated information and stay away from mass mailing. Rely on your in-house list as those are the people who opted-in and have already shown an interest in your company. Better yet, allow customers to pick their preferred method of correspondence whether it's by phone, email, postal mail, or social media.
2) Including content or creative of poor quality
Attention spans are dwindling and, as advertisers, we only really have a few seconds to make a lasting impression. So when you have a design or copy that is confusing, isn't engaging, or doesn't solve a problem, consumers are likely to turn away even before they get to your offer.
Instead: When developing your copy, consider highlighting benefits over features, use trending words, and ask relevant questions. Grab attention by eliciting an emotional response such as fear, greed, and love. Note: People like immediate gratification. Take special care when writing subject lines and headlines; approximately 80% of people will read a headline, but only 20% will read the rest.
3) Using a weak call to action
If you try to be all things to all people, you only end up being nothing to everybody. Every customer needs a nudge once in a while to remind them exactly what you want them to do next.
Instead: Invest in split-testing to see what works. A good call to action (CTA) stands out and is designed to convince visitors to take immediate action. The difference between one small word can make a big difference. Vague CTAs like “Buy Now” and “Click Here” are not as effective as citing the details of what a customer can expect like "Buy This eBook Now" or “Click Here For My Free Trial.”
4) Not streamlining email and social media into one integrated campaign
Connectivity matters more than ever today in this multi-device world and delivering an inconsistent brand experience is a major turnoff to consumers.
Instead: Increase customer engagement and expand your reach by being in all the places your consumers are. If you send an email, enable social media sharing. Incorporate testimonials that you receive from followers or put teasers in your status updates and expand on the details in your emails. Use Facebook not necessarily to acquire new customers but to keep your brand top-of-mind with your existing ones and enable repeat business. The person who sends out your emails should be the same person that manages your social media.
5) Forgetting to follow up
This should be a no-brainer, but it's astonishing how many salespeople forget to follow up with a prospect or even check in with someone who has recently purchased a product/service of theirs. Don't sit there waiting and expect that they will call.
Instead: When you make a sale it shouldn't be the end of your marketing effort. A follow-up allows you to show appreciation. If you didn't get the sale, it'll help you understand what went wrong. Make following up part of your business. Miss this opportunity and you could miss out on a lifetime of recurring income and referrals.
Keep in mind that direct marketing doesn't always guarantee a sale, so treat it more like a stepping stone. If done strategically, you'll have intrigued customers enough so they will take the next step in the buying cycle or open a new channel of communication with you.
Data That Makes the Case for Marketing Investment
Data That Makes the Case for Marketing Investment
Access to marketing data is an imperative. As the stewards of consumer data for their organizations, marketers must demonstrate data's value to their own organizations to ensure that they have enough corporate will, leadership, and budget to protect it and use it responsibly.
Marketers instinctively know the value of marketing data—it's the fuel that drives relevancy, engagement, response, and ultimately, revenue. However, it's hard to find the hard, cold facts around what exactly that data is doing for our industry and the economy. New research from the Data-Driven Marketing Institute, a think tank of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), entitled “The Value of Data: Consequences for Insight, Innovation and Efficiency in the U.S. Economy” outlines the scope and flow of data through our Data-Driven Marketing Economy (DDME).
The strength of the DDME helps make marketing more efficient, the authors found. Individual-level consumer data helps marketers optimize expenditure on interactive and direct response marketing, both offline and on. It also reduces inefficiency and increases effectiveness in matching producers and customers. In addition, the DDME improves the accountability of marketing investments.
- The DDME added $156 billion in revenue to the U.S. economy and fueled more than 675,000 jobs in 2012 alone. The authors believe that this represents about half of all measured media advertising expenditures and direct marketing expenditures in the U.S. in 2012 ($298 billion).
- The real value of data is in its exchange: 70% of the DDME's value depends on the ability of firms to exchange data across the DDME. This includes traditional practices to append public or behavioral data, as well as new practices like digital onboarding, which matches digital visitors and buyers with offline profiles.
Consider the impact of marketing data in:
- Amplifying knowledge of current customers
- Accelerating the intelligence used in rapid product/service development
- Responding to customer inquiries and needs in (near) real-time
- Rapidly adapting messaging and offers to reflect shifts in consumer sentiment and activity
- Assessing the need for customized printed production
- Measuring the value of each media spend
In our increasingly pressured policy environment, where Congress, state legislators, and regulators want to restrict marketers' use of data for marketing purposes, regulation restricting the responsible use of data would impact innovation, small businesses, jobs, and economic growth, and hence, harm the U.S. Economy, according to the study.
rahul singh 1
pgdm 1 st year
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