OBSESSED WITH RESULTS

In the last year I have been helping to launch our performance marketing division and I have put together a list of criteria I use in order to select the top vendors to launch my campaigns.  My job is to guarantee that my client will get qualified leads and will continue to recognize the importance and value in lead generation campaigns.

In addition to the selection criteria I also take into account how quickly a vendor can build the campaign, flexibility, and reputation. Here are the questions I ask the list of potential vendors before I launch a campaign:

• If you have your own proprietary co-registration path – How many offers do you run at any one time? Do you provide exclusivity for certain categories?
• If you have your own “house” email lists, how often are they updated and cleaned? Do you specialize in any verticals or particular demographics? Do you have third party emailers that you work with?
• Do you own or use incentivized sites or paths?
• Do you provide lead validation? If so, is it through a third party or a proprietary system?
• Do you have your own sites as well as distribution partners?
• How many unique visitors do you reach and what kind of targeting you can do? (Geo-targeting, age, demographic and etc.)
• Do you offer scrub rates?
• How do you rate your lead quality compared to competitors? Can you provide open rates and CTRs?

I have learned vendors will offer value added services along with leads at no additional charge. The key is keeping your client happy by providing quality leads and your vendors need to be accountable in helping you accomplish that goal.

With Consumer confidence dropping in the USA and said consumer busily trying to get out and stay out of debt, people who sell things are having their challenges. When current customers have closed their wallets, “new business” becomes the mantra of the day. In fact, EMarketer, quoting a new study from CSO Insights states that “more than 91% of companies worldwide reported increasing new customer acquisition was one of their top strategic marketing objectives for 2010.”

New business acquisition requires a lead generation strategy. The latest tactics have included traditional and online media, with the most successful being email, followed by live events and then webinars. With two out of the three being online campaigns, it is surprising the report found that 51% of the respondents said that their efforts online this year were below expectations. Truth is that this number is better than the 68% in 2009 who felt their efforts were lacking, but disappointing still the same. Many feel that their online programs are in need of improvement.

The number one cause for disappointment and the biggest lesson learned was that those who had good tracking in place did much better than those without. “As more lead generation efforts shift to the Internet, tools to help develop, execute, and track campaign effectiveness will become a ‘must have’ rather than a ‘nice to have,’” said the report.

Tracking issues aside, with email being the number one method to garner leads, moving forward, how do we factor in the steady decline of “open rates” around the world? MailerMailer’s “Email Marketing Metrics Report” shows email open rates steadily declining from 14% in 2007 to just 11.2 % at the end of 2009. Looking at the industries whose open rates suffered the most we see entertainment, banking, medicine and general marketing messages. The winners were classified as agriculture, religion, transportation and those from large businesses.

The report concluded that cluttered in boxes and the growing use of mobile devices might be to blame. If true, then the ability to track results in order to make on the fly changes in messaging to get those emails opened becomes crucial.

But, getting your emails opened is just the first step. Enticing people to read and then click thru to your web site is quite another. The MailerMailer report showed click thru rates on opened emails have also been on the decline with a drop from 2.6% to 1.6% in 2009 alone.

It is not surprising then that in this mediocre economy religious and retail emails have some of the highest click thru rates. In fact, Experian Cheetah Mail reports that though nonprofit emails get opened more, catalogers get clicked on the most. One of the conclusions we can maybe draw then, is that today’s consumer is looking for ways to help others and perhaps find some bargains for themselves.

It is not surprising then that Coupons.com reports that this year they and their affiliates have already distributed more than $1 Billion dollars worth of coupons! They attribute much of the growth to more brands offering digital coupons along with consumers’ broader use of printable coupons. But let’s face it – people are printing coupons because they have to! Searches on Google for “printable coupons” are up 67% from last year and according to Harris Interactive 8 out of 10 current US coupon clippers say they will continue even when good times return.

Putting it all together, if you want new business – try emailing some coupons, tie them in perhaps with some charity or good cause and then track, track and track those redeemers and their conversions.

Source: Marketers Put More Lead Gen Budgets Online JULY 27, 2010 http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007833, CSO Insight’s “2010 Lead Generation Optimization Key Trends Analysis”

Why Email Metrics are in Decline, July 26, 2010 http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007831

Digital coupon clipping surged in the first half of the year July 27, 2010http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/07/27/digital-coupon-clipping-surged-first-half-year

So, you have an advertising budget for your product and have done all the research to figure out where to run your advertisements, how to disburse between Search, Display, etc.  Now how do you make these ads convert?

The Advertisement:

1. Text and Tone:  Create a strong CALL TO ACTION (this is the #1 most important detail).
   1. Use strong call to action phrases and words.  Examples include:
      1. i.      Free “ex. Get your free copy by clicking here…”
      2. ii.      __% off  “ex. Get 25% off your online purchase…”
      3. iii.      Make the offer time sensitive…”for a limited time only…”
      4. iv.      List cost – example – only $19.99 in bolded text and eye catching color.
      5. v.      New, Premium, etc.
      6. Graphics:
         1. Use graphics that catch the users eye.  Keep in mind that your advertisement is competing for the user’s eye.  If it is text heavy and not appealing to the eye it will be overlooked.
         2. Make sure ads load quickly.
         3. Keep the ad simple to read (i.e. average sized text), no shaky banners (most sites will not accept these and you may not want to be responsible for an epileptic seizure…seriously they become annoying more than anything else and don’t convert into a true sale.)
         4. Adding the touch of human faces to an advertisement also helps the user ‘connect’ with the offer on a personal level.  Remember – many people out there on the web are visual and the competition is fierce to capture their attention and lead them into action.

The Sales Process:

1. You have a click…now what?
   1. The same practice should be applied to your landing page and purchase process as it is to your advertisement.  The key points to focus on are:
      1. i.      Reiterating your offer.  The landing page content/offer should match the advertisement.  If it doesn’t, your messaging will not be clear and the user may think he/she  has landed on the wrong site or that the offer was bogus.
      2. ii.      Strong CALL TO ACTION! Keep that call to action in every step.  What does the user need to do?  Keep it simple, snappy and easy to do.
      3. iii.      Keep the collection of data fields above the fold of each page.  This reduces drop-off rates.  The easier you can make a process for a user the more likely they are to complete the process and not drop off.
      4. iv.      Short transaction process (shorten the amount of pages a user needs to go through in order to hit that oh so important ‘submit‘ button.
      5. v.      Provide a safe transaction zone for the consumer. (i.e. secured shopping).  If you intend to use any  user information for future promotions you need to be up front and let them opt in to this.  Transparency gains trust and hopefully this consumer will not be a one-time shopper but become a loyal customer, fan on Facebook, etc.

Andrea Cravitz
Client Account Manager
Ionic Media

I recently ran into a situation where another company staked a claim: We increased total sales by 600%! And this type of claim is not unique – I may actually venture to say that it’s the most common type of spin out there today.

Increasing your daily conversions from 1 to 6 is a 600% increase after all. But most people are looking for bigger, greasier pieces of the pie.

The savvy marketer is always on the lookout for said claims because we know that it really depends on the scale of the campaign. Whenever confronted with this type of scenario ask for the hard data. Would you prefer to grow your smallest channel from 1 to 6 sales/week, resulting in 600% growth, or your largest channel by a mere 10%, from 10,000 to 11,000 sales/day? Go one step further and assign an actually revenue variable to that, and it turns into something even more tangible (like that cute little sailboat you’ve had your eye on).

So next time your marketing manager tells you about xx% growth, don’t be afraid to ask to peak around the curtain and get the hard data. It’s all relative in the end.

Dee Dee Paeseler
Client Account Manager
Ionic Media