Nine Really Simple Segmentation Strategies

Segmentation can be as important as any other component of message development. While most segmentation requires some preference data there are others that can be leveraged if you’re just starting out or have limited information/ time:

1 - The Random A:B Split – Just divide the list, alter something and fire… see which message performs better.

2 - Tuesday/ Thursday Segment – Take the item above a little further; randomly split a fraction of the list and send on a particular day. Take the better performing message and deploy to the remainder of the list (and remember, it’s just a name, you don’t have to use Tuesday or multiple days…)

These strategies need some additional data, enhance your sign-up process to include preferences – this data forms the foundation for a lot of the personalization that is possible:

3 - Message Type – Divide based on those who want HTML, text or rich text messages; include a link to the other types, just so the recipient can see the available options.

4 - Timing – Release by time zone or, if possible, ask your user what time they would like to receive your alerts (morning, afternoon etc.)

5 - Source code Segmentation – Your recipients didn’t just appear, they signed up through an inquiry, purchase, directly from your website. They could have found you as the result of a search, perhaps a contest entry, partnership or append so leverage that information.

Alternatively, you could bypass the whole personal preferences and just base it on the recipient’s actions – and not just the buyer/ non-buyer segments.

6 - Operational Segmentation – Target people following the order process or an incomplete transaction; the same applies to your non-responders or inactive list.

7 - Transactional Segmentation – Your typical opens, clicks or responses can all be leveraged. Watch for multiples, repeated clicks on a certain section/ item can tell you a lot about a person… and help you generate future offers.

8 - First Responders – By tracking overall counts, you’ll quickly identify the first responders; acknowledge them and put them into their own group to receive advanced notice of your communiqués.

9 - Your Dead File - These are the non responders. Get creative, get aggressive, try things out on them. Things can only get better.

These suggestions don’t contemplate the added potential gained from survey data… so keep dividing your list and make the messages as personalized as possible.

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What the heck were they thinking?

We’ve all been there, you get an email from a company but are not exactly sure why. I’m not talking about some funky segmentation or broad-brush promotional email – I mean an obvious what-were-they-thinking?

In a quest to increase their interaction with consumers some brands have been relentlessly pushing two types of campaigns.

The first one is a random, 'what the heck were they thinking.' Imagine getting an email with an offer that is absolutely not connected to anything you have ever done with that brand. In fact, it is so random that it makes you wonder if they even bothered to look at your past transactions or purchases.

The second type of campaign that is a little worse is the one where you think they are on to something, but the landing page is where they fool you. So many businesses are trying to get you to engage with them on social media. They put out interesting messages requesting you to follow them or join them on their social media sites. The problem is that when you click through to the social media site - there is absolutely no connection to where your interests may be.

I just had one of those with a well-know online retailer; I’m on their list but my recent purchase had nothing to do with any email I’d received – in fact it was opposite my purchase history. I got the standard transactional messages, an email receipt and then a few days later a shipping notice with the tracking information. All positive things, except littered among these valuable updates were promotions for items in the new category as well as items in past purchase categories. It was almost like the volume was turned up because I had bought something; my receipt frequency had gone from three emails a month to getting six in a week.

I’m of the opinion that the purchase should be a flag to not mail your traditional promotional campaigns. As a buyer, I’m only interested in my order and the associated details (confirmations, shipping notices are all fine.) After receipt, I’ll likely be receptive to an invitation for a survey/ review but other than that I simply want what I ordered… it’s almost too late to show other items or offers.

What is worse is that one of my financial institutions targets me with seasonal campaigns on getting a mortgage with them. They personalize the offer for my account. The issue I have with this campaign is that I closed this particular account with the FI more than three years ago. Yet, every few months, someone wakes up and tries to sell me something that I really can't have.

As a business, you build up trust and segment to personalize effectively. Do it well, and you can engage. If you confuse the consumer, you loose them forever.

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You Have to Segment Your List!

Digital marketing is an effective way to control costs costs and measure ROI. One of the easiest ways to start making your campaigns stand out is to segment your list. The more effective your segmentation, the more you can focus. With better focus, you can drive better results.

Segmentation is truly an art; if you’re not careful you could simply be slicing and dicing your list without even realizing it. Don’t get me wrong, random splits play their part, but for effective segmentation you really need to incorporate elements of relevance to the recipient.

For starters you need to target prospects and customers differently, the same formula should be applied to those who are engaged and those who are not responsive. But to really reach the next level, you have to learn to get personal.

Well segmented campaigns have to meet the needs of the recipient, incorporate their preferences, continuously seek their survey responses, follow their behaviors by watching how the consumer responds, and then make an effort at responding to those needs.

Ultimately your recipient is no different than any of us – we spend only a few seconds looking at marketing messages (if we open them.) We check our personal email after work, while the TV is on or we take a quick glace while multi-tasking at work. We’re distracted, we’re fickle and we want to know that you are paying attention to us. Think about your inbox, are there messages that truly spoke to you? Was it because it struck a chord of relevance?

Ask yourself these questions and think about what you would like to see when you’re creating your campaigns and applying effective segmentation to your list.

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Once Again: Killing a Brand in 12 Steps

1. Protect your brand from change like a religious zealot. Your marketing mojo has worked for 100 years, and by golly it'll work for another 100. Convince yourself that all good change is evolutionary; that anything progressing faster than a terodactyl is downright dangerous.

2. Democracy rules. Vote on everything, especially creative work. And vote often. Phil in accounting. Lisa in customer service. Your mom. And, of course, legal. Your marketing will be stripped of anything that could possibly make it work, but an ass covered is an ass saved.

3. Believe your sacred brand lives in a vacuum where it is immune to cultural, technological and demographic changes. Like Women's Suffrage and the Internet, they're all fads anyway.

4. Worry about losing your job. That fear will protect you from taking any action that could positively move your business forward, while you may get lucky and ride the flat growth line into retirement.

5. Wear Teflon by Armani. Let the little guys take the fall. Make your subordinates more afraid of losing their job than you are of losing yours. After all, it's your job to cultivate talent internally.
6. Talk a good game. Drop buzzwords. Maybe Tweet once or twice. Reference articles about social media and forward them to higher ups. Everyone will know you're on top of this new fangled stuff, but don't do anything about it.

7. Congratulate yourself for being at the top of your industry without wondering if your industry will be there in 5 years.

8. Ignore criticism or even the hint of negative karma. Consumers are idiots or difficult cases. Research lies. And your agency's job is to suck up and take orders.

9. Never benchmark or evaluate your program against other industries much less competitors. Those guys are clueless and their ideas have no relevance to an aged and revered brand like yours.

10. Consumers are idiots (see No. 8). Listening to what they think or feel about your brand, or how it could better meet their needs is just stupid. What could possibly come from it? New product ideas. More share. Why bother? Your brand had this nailed 100 years ago.

11. Not listening to your peers. Yes, just because you tweet doesn't make you an expert on Twitter.

12. Not staying open. Check your channels to see that you are open at all times.

Many thanks to Susan @ Ideopia!

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Seven Reasons to Start Social Networking Now

Many organizations are still trying to figure out the right approach to social networking before they venture in. Many more are 'half-way in' and do a 'not so good' job in consumer engagement. Here are seven reasons why you should get in.

1 - You have to reduce costs. As marketers we pay for brand impressions. Many of our brand impressions cannot be measured effectively - social media can be measured & if you start leveraging your social media interactions to engage your consumers, you can reduce the spend on other channels.

2 - You have to learn to listen. People are talking about your brand and they are talking about what they need. You need to listen to their feedback and their conversations so you can improve your product or service. Most importantly, you need to leverage your listening into starting a dialogue with your consumers.

3 - You have to focus on customer service. Your customer service representatives can answer important consumer questions on online channels. When they do this, the viral nature of social media gets the word out - plus, the consumer is able to find answers. You can an added bonus when your consumers start answering questions on your behalf regarding your product or service.

4 - You have to establish credibility. You are the expert on your brand & you need to make sure that you are able to lead discussions & answer questions effectively. Your consumer will recognize you on social media channels and will appreciate your commitment to sharing your expertise.

5 - You have to spread the word. If you offer up a good forum, great tips, or something that is valuable - your consumers will share it with their friends. Your goal should be to listen, educate, & offer up an easy way for the consumer to share it with their friends.

6 - You have to drive revenue. Many business can measure the exact impact of their online sales. A few leaders are actually using social media to drive sales across channel. These companies are actually measuring the impact of social media in real sales.

7 - You need it to compete. Your consumers are already on social media. Your prospects are on social media. Your competitors are on social media. Perhaps you are already on social media as well, you just need to be more aggressive in how you approach your consumers.

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Five Ways to Stay in Touch with your Consumer

Customers & prospects continue to disengage from our messages. This eventually leads to them switching brands & forgetting about the value our business might bring to them. The bottom line is that over the course of an 18 month cycle many businesses tend to loose touch with more than 50% of their list. Here are some tips to keep in touch with those you serve.

1 - Get their correct contact information: Don't rush them when you are asking them for their contact information. Don't rush your field based employees when this information is being solicited. Double check if the information is correct & try to message them in real time to confirm.

2 - Get more than their email id: Ask them for their mobile number, their address, & even hook up on social media channels during the process. Some businesses even ask for a secondary email id, just in case the first one bounces.

3 - Give them a compelling reason to stay in touch: Tell them the business benefit and articulate it clearly. Use intrigue or incentive to get them to start paying attention & then make sure that your messaging is truly compelling. Surprisingly, user generated content and not 'your' merchandise is what drives the most interaction in communiqués.

4 - Track your bounces: Spend money on a good ESP (email service provider) and track the origin of your bounces. Many ESP's do a pitiful job in tracking the origin of bounces and many keep retargeting bounced addresses. This creates two significant problems - first, your deliverability is adversely affected & second, you don't know that you are not getting through to 'bounced' addresses.

5 - Personalize as much as possible: You personalize based on preferences. Next, you personalize based on responses. You make it even better when you personalize based on user interaction. Personalization is almost perfected when you encourage dialogue amongst users on your social media channels. Personalization is perfected when you listen to what is being said across channels.

The right contact information, alternative ways to stay in touch, keeping your address book clean, aspiration, & relevant personalization go a long way in helping you stay in touch with your consumer.

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Five Ways to Measure Success for Any Social Media Program

Many have invested heavily in social media, many more are still trying to figure things out. Even the companies that are playing in the social media space are still not completely sure on how they can measure the success of their efforts. Businesses typically cite the following reasons to get involved:

'It is a way to engage our consumers.'

'That is where our consumers are.'

' Everybody else is doing it!'

While these are all good reasons and quite true, you should seek a way to measure success so you can make your engagement more effective, gain the trust of your consumers, & outdo 'everybody else.'

Here are five key principles to apply -

1 - You use social media to increase your outreach. Pick a few channels and stay focused to drive 'growth' metrics. Perhaps you are looking to find more people or raise awareness. List what you want to do and then measure that metric month over month.

2 - You use social media to let your consumer know more about your organization. That way if the consumer is in the market for a particular product or service you want to make sure that they are aware of what your organization has to offer.

3 - You use social media to go viral. If you speak tactfully and offer value on your social media channels your consumer will share what you offer with others. Keep thinking of ways to engage your consumers in a dialogue - answer their question, solicit their opinion, & make it easy for them to share.

4 - You use social media to cut costs. There are dozens of things you can do to begin cutting costs from your traditional marketing channels through judicious application of social media. This is an absolute requirement to drive social media success.

5 - You use social media to drive revenue. It is easier to measure your success in the digital world and the impact of social media can be measured easily. Pick a few programs and then use social media to try and sell those programs within your organization.

You have to save money, and drive revenue to continue any marketing program. Social media is no exception. If you are perplexed on specifics (make money & save money) - I have put together a number of specific ideas that span a number of organizations including retailers & financial institutions.

Remember, if you save 'real money' & make 'real money,' you will be 'really successful.'

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How to Measure the Maturity of Your Email Marketing Program

Your email marketing program drives your digital marketing strategy. It can be used effectively to drive true consumer engagement across channels.

The challenge is that many business leaders think that email is a cheap way to communicate and a way to drive a quick buck. So they spend less and beat it to death to drive what they think are 'maximum' results.



There are truly five stages of email 'maturity' (if I may)within organizations.


Stage 1, it is Cheap


Stage 2, it is Quick


Stage 3, it can be Tracked


Stage 4, it can be Personalized


Stage 5, it can speak across channels, Multi-channel


1 – Cheaper than paper – your company does email because direct mail costs are higher and email helps subsidize those costs.


2 – Quick way to communicate – it is a very fast way to get your campaigns out of your door into the prospects inbox.


3 – Track effectiveness of campaigns – you are concerned about measuring success of your other channel campaigns, so you are interested in seeing what is really working effectively.


4 – Personalize your messaging – you want to track what people are doing, place them in segments, and personalize each message uniquely (or strive to) towards recipients.


5 – Ability to leverage information across channels – you are using email as a means to build preference repositories and create a two way dialogue with recipients across channel.


Assign yourself a number for each one of the bullets above – most marketers have moved from two to three and some are beginning to reach stage four. There are very few companies that are in stage five.



Usually, the higher your number; the higher the level of your 'email maturity.'

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Effective Marketing is an Interactive Conversation

If an organization knew what you wanted, and they stayed in touch with you - you would do business with them. The key here is to listen to what the consumer says and stay in touch with them with relevance.

Effective marketing has always been an interactive exercise: message, call to action, response. What has changed is the method of interaction – online becoming dramatically significant.

Here are seven key things to consider as you build up your social media strategy. Go for a conversation in the short term & it will drive effective results for you both in the short term & long term.

1 - Blogs – Create a blog with the goal of making it easy to put up pictures and text that will both engage people and get you the advantages of natural search.

2 - Twitter – Leverage twitter for announcements, best practices, & customer service. Best of all use it to merge both online and mobile.

3 - Online Personas – These give you an opportunity to connect with the recipient where they like to hang out – Linked In & Facebook are two examples of personas.

4 - Community – This is a hangout for members where they can find answers to questions, and be able to ask questions to experts.

5 - Pictures & Video – The power of image works really well – people can see things for themselves. With technology being relatively cheaper it is easier to post FAQ’s as images for people to understand better.

6 - Email – This is the connection channel. Powered with all the other channels this gives you the ability to communicate with the customer effectively.

7 - Traditional Marketing - Don't forget to leverage your traditional marketing channels into the marketing mix. If you do that you run the risk of creating another silo and not taking advantage of assets that already exist.

Your key to engagement lies in listening, learning, & then responding.

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How to create an inner circle of advisors?

An insiders club is a group of people that care about your brand. They tell you what is right, guide you when you are wrong, and stand up to support your brand. Woodstock Soapstone Company lists their insiders on their web site – these people are brand ambassadors who provide great testimonials. Intuit has created an insiders club that helps promote their community by answering questions.

Why bother?

A retailer redesigned their web site. They hired an agency who recruited potential consumers. The new site was phenomenal, it was built by feedback, focus groups, A/B testing, & eyeball tracking. They paid the agency $1.5 Million! A similar sized retailer reached out to their inner circle and solicited their feedback. People were grouped into three categories – those who provided feedback for free, those who provided feedback for a whopping discount, and those who were given a gift card to spend in a certain amount of time. This retailer spent less than $20,000. The first retailer took six months to redesign their site, the second retailer took less than half that time.

Having an inner circle is vital. They are your go to group of people. It takes a little time, some effort, and honest diligence to create an insiders club.

Here is how you do it –

1. List a ‘tell us what you think’ on every message that you send out. Not just email but across all channels. Ask people to rank your product, rank your service, and leave them a text box for comments. Use this information to update consumer preferences, and be sure that you follow up with the consumer as soon as they respond. Thank them for their answer, be genuine, and try to engage them with an email from you or a real person.

2. Offer more than what they have ordered. Rather than just sending them a thank you email for a transaction, ask them if they would like a sample from you. Now reach out to them after a reasonable amount of time and solicit their feedback on the sample sent. Add those that respond to your insiders club.

3. Use intrigue to connect. ‘How much does a family of four spend on drinks if they eat out a restaurant once a week throughout a year?’ This can lead to a calculator that is then used to help the individual come up with saving possibilities. ‘How much do you spend on gas in one year? What if you saved just 5 cents a gallon? What if we can find you a location that gives you cheaper gas?’ A question like this could lead to a site where you can find the best deals on gas. You could run a caption contest on your social media sites as well.

An intrigued consumer is an engaged consumer. The important thing in all these scenarios is to connect with the respondent with a follow up message from a real person. Next, segment them into a special list, and stay in touch with them over time. Reward them with previews, sneak peeks, and exclusive discounts (if you can). Set a goal of ‘x’ number of responses per campaign and do this across channel.

A Credit Union with a member base of 200K has about 13,000 insiders. A travel company has a list of over 2 Million, and an insiders club of 60,000 names. A retailer has over 50,000 go to insiders who give them counsel. The key is that they did it one insider at a time.

Many set up real time insider clubs on social media sites like Facebook & Twitter. These people are a valuable group of followers. Just keep in mind that when you communicate with them on social media sites you are in their space and that they are not in yours.

Intrigue, engage, & thank each person who responds and watch your insider list grow! It is your ticket to success in 2010.

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A few good reasons to listen to your consumer...

If you knew what was on your consumers mind, you could serve them better. The best way to know is to ask, listen, & then engage in a dialogue based on relevance. You should leverage every interaction to have this dialogue - interaction may come through all your channels, especially through social media & email.

Listening is simple - you need to observe and survey often. Here are some good reasons why you should survey.

I) To Build Goodwill – We’ve all been on that call that never ends – the one-way conversation that’s kinda pointless. Online marketers send 50 to 300 email messages to their list over the course of a year, add the 3000 - 10,000 tweets, Facebook status updates, etc. and you realize that your recipient is peppered by a little too much information. Why not do step up and ask them for honest feedback - show that you care.

II) You have to know more – Your recipients are your litmus test, you need to check with them to see if you’re on target. Ask them what they like about your program, but avoid asking them what they don't like – instead, have them rank elements of your program. From this you can deduce the areas for improvement; use their feedback to improve as well as segment and offer better service.

III) You have to show off – The recipient may only know a little bit about your company or your brand, you should remind them about all that’s available to them as a recipient. Do this subtly by asking the consumer to rank which of your available products/ services interest them. If they’ve purchased, ask for direct testimonials and ways you could serve them better. This is what you use to populate your social media channels - real user generated content.

IV) You have to grab their Attention – Applying survey feedback not only shows that you’re listening but it helps inspire others to respond to future surveys. By incorporating survey feedback and crediting it to the respondents (even anonymously) is a powerful motivator; it shows empathy and strengthens your bond with recipients. The inclusion is also a great attention grabber, allowing you to reiterate the core benefits of your program – plus you can help reengage those who may have disengaged.

V) Build an Inner Circle – I’ve talked previously about the creation of a first responders club, it’s really simple to assemble. Start by putting survey responders in a special segment, acknowledge their inclusion and treat them well – doing so will increase the odds that they will provide future feedback, strengthen their opinion of your offering and possibly promote your brand to others.

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How to Grow Your Social Outreach?

Many companies now include their social media sites as part of their marketing messages. Consumers are requested to pay attention to social media channels. Most companies also try to offer some sort of incentive to get people to pay attention to their social media sites. They even include links to social media sites within their email campaigns with the standard tag line that asks that you join them on their available social media channels.

Yes, there is an obscure button that lists all the social media sites that the business has a presence on. The expectation is that the consumer will find the link, and go join each of the social sites. This rarely drives results.

A few organizations do a slightly better job in engaging their recipients. Their message lists specific social media sites, has graphics, and requests you to join each one. They may ask you to 'Become our Fan on Facebook' or 'Follow us on Twitter' or 'Read our Blogs.'

A rare few do an incredible job! They coax people to join the social media sites. They do not give money or gifts. The power of intrigue & a little more effort works very effectively.

Remember, social media is about consumer engagement and it is about joining conversations. You should encourage consumer feedback, & interaction. Then all you have to do is encourage your consumer to visit your social sites to seek this user generated content.

Try saying this -

1. Join us on Facebook to see the latest pictures from our 'special event.'

2. Follow us on Twitter, and we will send you the 'information.'

3. Offer part of the story in the message and encourage people to find the rest of the story on your Blog.

Think about specific reasons why one should come to your social media sites. List those reasons down, and try to leverage them into your conversations with recipient.

Many organizations still block their 'workers' from social media sites. Instead you should mentor them on the use of social media and train them to engage the customer / prospect in a cross channel dialogue. You have call centers and stores that are training their employees to direct people to social media sites. They list the question and the answer on the blog, they tweet about it, and even offer solutions on Facebook.

Social Media is here to stay. It is a way to engage through effective listening. You have to learn to grow your database of contacts and plan out how you communicate with those that you connect with. Engagement has to become part of your natural conversation.

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Build relationships, don't survey once a year!

One of my FI's (Financial Institutions) just sent me their annual survey. A whole year for them to find out how upset I am with them. Interestingly, the survey was sent via direct mail with lots of inserts. One of the key inserts was the FI telling me about their social media sites. Why couldn't they just have a conversation with me on the social media site to find out how I feel about their products, their service, & their innovation (or lack off).

They have asked me the same set of questions from a year ago - and I really don't think much has changed. Did they even listen to what I said or for that matter what others are telling them too.

Be careful how you ask questions of your recipients, your tone is particularly important because if you imply that you are soliciting opinion to change things, you must be prepared to do so. Here are some potential pitfalls and ways to avoid them. Simply said here are a few ideas that are a better way to ask questions.

You could be asked to do things that you are simply not prepared to incorporate, for example if you ask the consumer if they want more or fewer messages their likely answer is going to be less. Circumvent by telling them you send x-number messages each month, and you’d like to know how many of those messages they read. This accomplishes two things, first you are telling the consumer that you have an important message and secondly you’re asking them to pay attention to at least some of them.

You could also get varying opinions about what would be best for your email communiqués; each may be a great suggestion but you may not have the resources to come up with that many versions of creative. A better way would be to ask people about the types of things they would like to see in your emails, then attempt to feature as many of these items in future campaigns.

Never forget the importance the text box plays in a survey, make sure it is prominently placed and that you are inviting the recipient to share colloquial feedback with you. Many people love to chat about themselves and their interests; the text box is an open invitation that allows you to gather feedback and segment. What is even better is to incorporate this feedback into your social media channels. Encourage the recipient to share this with their friends, or ask them if you could share it with the rest of your recipients.

Share your survey with a small group just before you deploy, include your team, others in your company and try to get an end-user’s perspective (i.e. first responders club.) Incorporate their feedback before you make the survey available to all recipients.

Remember, your survey should be conversational; never forget they are two-way communiqués and that a good marketing program is all about Creating Interactive Conversations. And please, do leverage your social media sites to engage people in a conversation. Direct mail is not the best way to do a survey!

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How to stay in touch with your consumer?

You have to stay in touch with your consumers & there are three ways to do that. First - you can ask them about their interaction, second - you can track their interaction to watch what they are doing, third - you can test out different types of messages to them.

Surveys are supposed to provide organizations with information about the needs of their customers and prospects, the hope is that this information can be leveraged into actionable information and make the recipient’s experience more meaningful.

Yet so many surveys are full of flaws and as a result the responses are less valuable than expected. One of the biggest mistakes made is the military-style opening – the request for name, rank and serial number right out of the gate. We’ve seen many surveys that start off by asking the user to identify themselves, the survey then progresses to a series of multiple choice questions and ends with the text box for opinions.

Think about the last time you responded to a survey, did your answers skew from the start to the end? Typically, we lose interest and start half-reading the questions and answers. Most respondents start off the survey by giving aspirational answers but as time progresses they tune out and may contradict previous answers or completely abandon your survey. In either case, the end results aren’t helpful and can be a waste of time for all parties.

A better way to engage the user is to ask them to share their opinion through a text box, keep questions interesting, engaging and try to solicit true views – do this by offering creative response options or by keeping the question types variable. These strategies will help you hold the respondent’s attention and will ultimately yield more truthful responses. Collect your demographic information at then end when the respondent is on auto-pilot and more comfortable with providing the information.

Finally, try and leverage the responses in future communications – email, social media, & print. Acknowledge that the update/ change is a result of survey respondent, you’ll bank extra points with all recipients.

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15 Things You Should Be Doing for Social Media Success

Here are a few things to consider to drive social media success.

1 - Know what is available so you 'know social.' There are good new things coming out often, you need to stay in touch. More importantly track all the updates on popular existing social media channels.

2 - Find out where your 'birds flock.' Track where your consumers hang out so you know where to find them. The best way to do so is to ask!

3 - Listen to your consumers, your front lines, & your peers to learn. Keep the feedback channel open and always keep listening.

4 - Put people behind your brand. Help them out with a strategy and then guide them along. Real people can have real conversations.

5 - Promote your social media channels. Let people know where to find you and what they can find on your channels.

6 - Draw out plays for the short term, measure your interactive success, & adjust to become better. Do this for four quarters & you can win the game.

7 - Elephants can't surf! & monkeys don't fly airplanes. Use good images to get a dialogue going but less Photoshop means more reality & a more likely conversation.

8 - Set a schedule and try to follow it consistently. Don't let your conversations fade away & sporadic conversations are just as bad.

9 - Join conversations to build relationships. Don't lead conversations all the time, instead listen to your consumers & let them lead the way.

10 - Solicit comments from your consumers. Encourage participation by asking questions & listening.

11 - Drive people to your other channels. Don't just keep them on social media, let them know about your other sides. The web & other direct channels play a role in engaging the consumer.

12 - Promote your expertise. Answer questions authoritatively & become to the 'go to site' for people seeking answers.

13 - Have fun, don't forget this is entertainment, education, & 'selling.' Actually, intelligent selling.

14 - Your goal is engagement over simply closing the deal. While it is great to get the deal, you need to engage the consumer to help engage your consumers 'friends.'

15 - Use social media to build up your brand - highlight your accomplishments, your commitment, your service, your products, your service, & even your sense of 'real' community.

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How to Provide Better Brand Experiences

Consumers know they are being watched. They know you can track their interactions on both online and direct channels. They don't mind that you know them better, they simply have higher expectations from you. They expect you to use the information you collect to serve them better. Here are some insightful tips for organizations.

The consumer wants your brand to explain things to them. They are looking at you to provide answers to both simple & complicated things. They don't want to be sold, they wan't to be served. They will come to your brand to find the information. If your brand can provide this information to the consumer - they will keep coming back.

The consumer wants you recognize them quickly, & do this across channel. They don't want to be asked mundane questions like 'paper or plastic,' or 'language at an ATM.' They expect you to remember more than their name. They want you to keep track of their preferences & most importantly let your channels have easy access to all the preference information.

The consumer wants you to allow them to initiate transactions on one channel and complete them on another channel. That to them is true convenience. They hate having to start from scratch over and over. From basic inquiries, to filling out forms - they expect your business to remember what they said so that the consumer doesn't have to repeat themselves. Next, they expect you to leverage this information to serve them better.

Travel consumers seek destination information like places to visit, what to pack, visa information. Merchants need to be able to guide the consumer with their purchases - like what to wear for a beach wedding or what is the perfect gift for a 14 year old, etc. Financial institutions are no longer expected to answer balance inquiry questions - they can take the lead by helping the consumer with calculators so the consumer can make effective decisions.

Consumers can access your brand across channel - email, web, store / branch, self service, direct, & mobile. They also know how to 'find' information on social media channels. Organizations need to synchronize cross channel information to better serve the consumer in order to have relevant conversations with them.

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A Dozen Winning Subject Lines!

Here are a dozen winning subject lines. They speak to consumers by initiating a dialogue. Try to apply them to your own business.

1) Thank You, Here’s $10 – This is a simple and effective way to show gratitude and value exchange. Just don't forget to put an expiration date on the offer.

2) Weekend in Tuscany – This was from a cataloger selling gift baskets; they used one of the gift basket names. This was a slightly different subject line to spark inspiration and get people to pay attention in a sea of general messages.

3) Double Takes – This was from an apparel retailer and highlighted mix and match items to help recipients realize their closet’s potential. It was also a slightly better offer than their traditional, making recipients look twice.

4) Don't Forget! – Use this to reinforce your most important offers, send as early as possible on your last day to give recipients adequate time to react but use sparingly or it looses its effect.

5) Save, Spend, Splurge – I liked the variety and imagery conveyed in this subject line, the sender offered a mix of useful items, nice to have items and even made me think of buying myself something.

6) Lock in Your Holiday Savings – I received this email from a cataloger, intrigued I opened to learn that I could lock in my savings coupon for the next 30 days. There was a sense of mystery in this email because I had to go to a landing page to find the percentage savings and the amount of time I had to redeem.

7) Pick the Plan to suit Your Needs – Everyone likes to be in control and make their own choices – be sure to balance this one, offering too many choices will lead to indecision, procrastination and increases the odds that they will forget about your offer.

8) Add $50 to Your Account – Offer your recipients a cash incentive to open an account or sign up for bill payment, put the credit directly into their account. A subject line like this grabs their attention and makes them read your offer; strengthen it by up-selling on the landing page.

The next four are even better if they are done right after each other.

9) Thank you for ordering (product/ service) - Be specific and thank the customer for the order they’ve placed, remind them about the advantages of the product/ service and your company.

10) How to use (product/ service) - This is an excellent way to stay top of mind post purchase; it also conveys to the customer that you’re the expert looking to enhance the value of what they’ve selected.

11) We want your Feedback - This is an opportunity to collect information, show your involvement and open the door to an established dialogue.

12) We recommend… -Using the feedback collected, personalize future offers – a complementary product, service or suggestions based on what other (like consumers) selected.

You can join a group of marketers in a two day discussion around best practices. More information can be found at Panel of Peers. Hope you can join your peers.

Good luck, and effective marketing.

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What is Proper Social Etiquette?

The consumer experiences your brand through multiple channels. They experience it when they visit your branch or store, your ATM's or kiosks, when they speak to your people, & even when they click around on your site. How you speak, what you say, & how you respond go a long way in building your brand. Social media is no different, your online presence helps you define your brand and how people can experience your organization.

Consistency, effective messaging, easy to 'find information,' no surprises, & welcoming is what most consumers expect from your brand & site. All of this also applies for social media plus add 'entertainment.' Social media is dynamic - it is a back and forth dialogue. Your consumer speaks to you - don't forget, you have people in charge of execution of your social media channels and you need to help your people in how they interact on social media.

A key factor that you need to be cognizant off is that the consumer will most likely initiate the conversation with you. You really have no control over what they say or how they frame the question. So you have to be careful in how you answer and how much of the question you repeat (or rephrase) as you try and elucidate your response. How you respond to this first leading question is not only the pathway towards your dialogue, it is what the world will find archived for your brand. So be careful what you say, what you say will stay there forever and unlike Vegas it is there for everyone to find.

Many companies have put together a social media policy, but this policy leaves a lot to be desired. You still have no guidelines for what your brand ambassadors are saying (even though they may be using their personal profiles to talk.)

Take a look at these tweets - some are from people representing brands, the others are from people whom you can associate (very easily) with brands (just google their tweets, then google their id, & voila - you know who they work for).

• oh yes, please do bully me. That will most definitely help you get what you want. #ornot
  
• I really can not think straight. I'm worse off than a goldfish. I need to get tested, this is bad .
  
• too bad the xanax REALLY wants me to close my eyes.
  
• O....M....G.... 7 Kahlua Mudslides last night = REALLY bad headache this morning!
  
• I want to come visit on 7/20 for a conference. Can you think of a reason I need to go to the NY office so I can justify? ;)
  
• Turns out the ten thousand welts on my arms, legs and face aren't just a bunch of mosquito bites.

Bottom line - this type of dialogue is not good and should not be allowed. You should define the hierarchy necessary for releasing important information and the best way to keep a dialogue going. This should be part of your policy.

Established policies cover everything from responding to user feedback, monitoring the conversation and co-branding posts that can be added alongside their own. Policies also include how to respond to feedback – ranging from simply monitoring to individually contacting those making negative comments.

Things like promptness, responsiveness, & tone - they all play a major role. Defining and adhering to a policy is really your social etiquette.

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