Selling Seats and Engaging Fans: Lessons for all of us!

The National Sports Forum kicks off this week in Louisville, KY. Sports marketers will gather to discuss best practices in fan engagement. This year is going to give sports marketers a lot to ponder with the need to correctly integrate social media into their brands.

I would like to offer this classic – on how to build up your fan base through some very fundamental principals. These principals apply to marketers across industry.

Once upon a time there was an email marketing manager for a regional hockey team; the team was a start-up in an area not very familiar with the sport so ticket sales were low. They managed to sell 4K of their 12K seats in season tickets, another 2K would typically sell on their own and their sales team was able to move an additional 1K through corporate sales/ event nights. This left them with 5K empty seats.

Disappointed with the empty seats, the owners tasked him with boosting ticket sales – the email manager tried everything, promoting to his email list (approximately 7K names), working closely with the advertising group for television, print and bill board ads. He tried PR initiatives and even dressed up in a sandwich board to hand out tickets. Nothing really worked.

So one afternoon, while stuffing envelopes, he decided to promote a contest. He put out an email to his entire list (7K names). Asking recipients to print out the email and bring to the game, those who did would receive a puck to chuck into the goal in between periods. From his list only 700 opened, 200 brought in the email as instructed and had their chance to chuck-a-puck. There were five winners, who received merchandise, free tickets or photos with the players.

After the contest, the announcer told everyone where to sign-up for the next game and their chance to play. By the next week he had 1,400 new subscribers, the email went out and had 3,600 opens – 2K people printed to play at the next game (he still had five winners). By the third game he had even more subscribers, an open rate above 60% and a huge conversion. Response was so overwhelming that he pressed further by giving the non-winners an opportunity to fill out an online preference survey with the chance to win box seats for the next game.

So the moral of this story is that a little interaction goes a long way. This one contest helped the manager 1) grow his list; 2) get more “cheeks in seats” and 3) actually CONNECT with customers (he collected personalized information that could be leveraged for future campaigns.)

You could do the same, think of ways to solicit interaction, it could revitalize your email campaigns, reduce direct mail cost and give you access to the personal information you need to attract advertisers… you may even unload some of those expensive “Jack Nicholson” seats.

Today, this marketer has gone totally ‘digital.’ He advertises his games on social media channels, puts out targeted offers to people via email with dynamic content, engages his fans via SMS at the game, and even Tweets before, after, and during the game.

He has learned to integrate digital media into his channels, he has also learned not to make the mistake of banking on a celebrity to promote his brand (Shaq jumpted the Phoenix Suns, and Lebron James quit the Cleveland Cavaliers). Social media is about fan engagement, and done correctly – your fans are your assets.

You can join the NSF Group on Linkedin.

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How to Continue the Conversation with Your Consumer

Relationships are based on trust, understanding and relevant two-way dialogue. Think of your last big purchase, be it a home or car or flat-screen television, odds are you researched it online, called a couple sources, test drove or looked around.


Regardless of the item, the path had to be somewhat similar – realize need (or want), research, express interest and then purchase. The same holds true with eMarketing, we know that a click is an indicator of interest.

That single click provides a world of insight; you now know what the recipient wants. Enhance their experience by taking them to a customized landing page that furthers your dialogue, consider the following when constructing

• Divide and Conquer – You either know the "clicker's" preferences or you don't, use what you have and remember at a minimum you have two segments to market further.

• Past Performance – Leverage the information that you have, the number of opens, past clicks, previous purchases etc. (this goes hand-in-hand with the previous point).

• Get Creative – Think about the actual design of the landing page, if you have the capacity serve up dynamic content to create true one to one marketing!

• Never Surrender – This is the critical step, most eMarketers use the landing page strategy for special occasions. This is a decent strategy, but should be incorporated based on product, offer or event and not time of year in your email calendar.

See what you can do to incorporate landing pages into your marketing mix, but remember to make them personalized, informative (not overwhelming) and do it more than once.


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Five Simple Tips to Enhance Deliverability

Here are a few simple things that you should be doing to make sure that your emails have a better chance of getting through to the consumer.

1) Monitoring – make sure you focus on your email collection process, are there checks in place to eliminate miss-keying (double opt-in), and include an automatic confirmation so that bounces don’t pollute your core list. 



2) Hygiene – Clean your list regularly, honor unsubscribe and SPAM feedback promptly, be sure to check your blacklists, monitor bounce rules and use a dedicated IP address to send your emails as blocking is usually based on the sending IP address.



3) Test – Make sure your content passes SPAM filter assessment; there are tools that verify your content and provide a score based on the message, allowing you to adjust your message as necessary.

4) Be Open - On your site, list what the recipient can do if they feel that they received an unsolicited email from you - give them contact information and a simpler opt out other than clicking on 'this is spam.'

5) Training - Next, educate your front line on how they go about capturing the email id - a proper script will go a long way in getting people to pay attention to your campaigns.

The one thing you can do to improve deliverability is to keep your list clean – remove your bounces expeditiously.

Your battle for credibility against spam is going to continue - keep checking up on what you can do to outsmart the bad guys and make sure you continue to build relationships with your recipients.

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How to Fix Your Dead File (aka Reviving Your List)

This one is a classic, it works every time and so many marketers can continue to drive engagement and 'revive' their lists by tweaking their approach.

A multi-channel cataloger offered its house-file an incentive to come shop – web, call center, or store. Buyers were given a 10 - 15% off coupon, non-buyers were offered a little more. Everybody won something, a few won a lot, a handful really made out. You had to tell them a little bit about yourself, and of course, all offers were e-mailed to you.

Here are the sequence of events that created the interaction.

You got a direct mail piece at that provided you with an access code with a timed incentive to respond. You went online – input your offer code & were e-mailed a confirmation link.

This confirmation link asked you to provide preferences – seven basic questions & a big thank you with a coupon you could redeem immediately.

The impact this had was phenomenal. Pre ‘list revival’ the catalogers e-mail list was 20% of the house-file, they averaged less than 5% open rates, with an even more dismal click-through.

Post ‘list revival’ the cataloger had more than doubled the e-mail list. Also their open rates quadrupled & click through’s improved.

The result of all of this was better segmentation, targeted messaging, & a boost in overall sales. More importantly, a random survey of more than 1000 new customers revealed that they felt they were part of the ‘club.’ The offers they had received were exactly what they wanted!

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Five Simple Secrets to Engagement

I reached out to many of my email-marketing friends asking them about their strategy for success in 2011. I have taken their feedback and put their suggestions forth for you.

1) Leverage Social Media – Email is a push channel that should be used to coax the recipient back to your site, give them something special when they get there a YouTube video, Flickr photos, a cool Twitter entry or interesting blog post. In addition to the natural search benefits, these channels will help you create a foundation of communication opportunities. Just be careful not to force any of these channels, work them into your mix naturally.

2) Ask powerful Questions – Create conversation zones with your recipients, from the time they sign up to key interaction opportunities. Ask them what they think about your products/ services, but more importantly, be sure to act on the feedback.

3) Stay Current – Your audience deserves timely, relevant and concise information. Use the information from the conversation zones to produce the right message, for the recipient – purchasing a queen sized comforter from Overstock.com results in targeted queen size sheets etc. They send it on time and make sure it corresponds to recent purchases.

4) Make the Communiqué Interactive – The goal of your email is to engage the recipient, challenge them by throwing in a single-question survey or trivia point. Let the response be on a subsequent landing page where you can ask for their feedback to leverage in your next campaigns.

5) Training – Brief your team on the important email metrics; in many companies, email is a mainstream program driving revenue. The important thing is to make your company (top to bottom) understands what is possible and why email is so important.

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Four Case Studies to Grow Your Email List

You have to focus on growing your list. Remember you will keep churning names off your list, so to continue to build your program - list growth should be a primary digital tactic. Here are four case studies from different organizations that you could apply to your own programs.

Credit Union Example

A credit union I work with came up with a unique way to engage local youth during the summer, they told their members (in credit union lingo customers = members) to give their kids a special summer writing project. To participate, they had to submit an essay describing what they would do with $250K as the mayor of the city, charged with creating summer youth programs.

Parents submitted the essays and included the child’s age, education goals, etc. as part of the entry form. All this information was maintained in a database that allowed the CU to market education, insurance and car loan products to the member’s for their kids. All members were asked to judge – so everyone was involved.

Banking Example

Another financial institution I work with sent an email campaign with the subject lines (split testing) What if you won the Lottery? and What if you won a Million Bucks? The campaign was used to launch a dream giveaway – recipients were asked to tell what they would do with the winnings.

Obviously the email got attention; there were many click-throughs to the landing page designed to capture the responder’s lifestyle choices/ products – things they could buy or do if they had a million dollars. The landing page also included a calculator, to help the customer learn how much they would have to save to reach their financial goal(s.) They tried to make the interactivity as real as possible – asking for more and more detail from the customer and showing them the steps to attain their financial goals. All information fed the bank’s marketing database and used today to create personalized marketing programs for each customer.

In both of these examples, the CU and Bank made connections with their customers – they created conversations and fueled their marketing efforts for years to come.

The Registry

Many big department stores have bridal registries, it’s a very simple concept – couples come in, register and select items they’d like to receive. This one store allowed couples to announce their wedding via email and give those recipients the option to congratulate the couple via personalized email messages and browse through their registry.

After the wedding, the newly married couple received an email offering an exclusive three-day sale. Simply bring in your list – items you didn't receive from your registry may qualify for their discount (couples often receive cash.) All purchase information was recorded for future marketing – maybe their china is being discontinued, a lamp they liked is now on sale etc. Their marketing possibilities were endless and all offers were completed targeted.

The Contest

Not everyone is in the wedding business, but you can collect preferences other ways. In early 2000, I was consulting for a home décor company; they sold window treatments, carpets and other home furnishings. They had a lot of traffic at their website – it seemed that people loved to browse through their site. As a result, we tried something unique, offering a $5,000 shopping spree. To win, you had to write about your home and tell how you would spend the money.

They awarded a grand prize and gave discounts to everyone else for the items on their wish lists. Most importantly, they were able to personalize offers to their prospects and customers going forward, resulting in higher opens and clicks.

In Conclusion

If I was to list five critical factors for your success, email list growth is going to be a key item. Also, don't forget to leverage other engagement touchpoints like mobile, self-service, social media, and direct marketing to add to your email list. You have to keep fine tuning your approaches to list growth as you to continue to grow your base, engage your base, and create interactive conversations with those you serve.

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How to Reduce Anxiety During the Sign-up Process...

You have numerous opportunities to engage your consumer to provide you with additional information. This could be during the sign up process, after a transaction, or even an out of the blue survey.

If you can reduce the anxiety associated with a question you are more likely to get an honest or better response the same applies when we survey customers and prospects. The problem doesn't lie with the information collected; it’s the approach. To improve the quality of your responses you need to make the recipient comfortable, make the interaction conversational.

Think of the last time you entered a contest, you were asked to provide your name and answer some personal questions – what was your comfort level in this age of identity theft? How honest were you with your answers?

Eliminate the anxiety by beginning your surveys with a brief description of why you need the information. For your Q&A, begin with some multiple choice or yes or no questions. After three questions, reduce the respondent’s anxiety by asking for anecdotal feedback (in a text box) – something to express their feelings. After they have done this continue with your survey (more multiple choice and yes or no). At the end of the survey ask them for their email ID and contact information.

I’ve found more positive responses, more completed surveys and more primary email IDs when the demographic and contact info was at the end of the questionnaire. Traditional, military style questionnaires don’t perform as well.

Asking for the contact information first tends to result in three issues:

1) The reader’s guard goes up and so they provide you with a secondary (or false) email ID.

2) The user assumes a persona, so the questions get answered with information that is not necessarily true.

3) The user feels like they can come back to your questions later so they skip the information.

Your goal is to create an interactive conversation – to do this you have to earn their trust & only then will they open up to you.

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How to Convert your Paper Catalog into a Digital Interaction Tool

So many catalogers keep putting out paper communiqués to their direct marketing list without any direct references back to their interactive programs. While there is an occasional reference to ‘sign up for email,’ or ‘join them on Facebook,’ there is nothing that really drives the consumer to come online.

I worked with a specialty catalogue on an issue that offered more than 50 ideas to spruce up your yard (even though we are in the middle of winter.) The catalog was divided into five different sections, each led with a lifestyle-based photo followed by product pictures. The copy detailed highlights, great tips and testimonials. We even quizzed you and had an answer on the next page.

The lifestyle photo, product pictures, tips, and testimonials were all provided by our subscribers. The expert opinions, and detailed highlights were provided by our product champions.

We showed off our digital assets (email, mobile, & social media) on page two and we had references in the catalogue back to the website encouraging the reader to go find more online – further encouraging sign-up. The entire catalog was peppered with references to additional tips and more detail online. We were also very prudent to mix it up between different social media channels.

Our intent to drive people to different social outlets was two-fold. First, we wanted to make sure that we covered different sites. Second, we wanted to track what pictures, videos, or copy actually drove people to the site.

Here are some other tips.

Devote a special online only section for your consumers asking them to sign into your community. This should be commercial-free but include the behind-the-scenes tracking so you can see where people visit – that way you can include those items in email, mobile, & social media campaigns.

Other things that worked were the incorporation of quizzes – we had quizzes in print, and on our community. You should keep these updated as it brings people back.

Offer a video or photo tie. Ask users to send how they’ve personalized your product, where it’s installed… some may be entertaining. This also helps inspire your copy, focus on the lifestyle aspect and encourage people to read more online.

Finally, figure out how to tie your channels (regardless of the number), make sure they reinforce each other. My favorite travel club does an awesome job of pushing me to their email newsletter through direct mail pieces.

If you are with a financial institution and looking for a way to get your paper subscribers to pay attention to digital – send me a note.

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Some Really Good Reasons to Sign Up For Digital Engagement Programs

One of the exercises I have incorporated into every presentation or workshop I conduct is to ask the attendees as to why I should sign up for their digital engagement program.

Not just a ‘Join us on Facebook,’ or ‘Follow us on Twitter,’ but as I described yesterday – something interesting and intriguing that will want the consumer to join the program.

Here are some of the top submissions; feel free to borrow – but make sure you personalize and involve your team, it’s the only way to give the reasons life:

From two B2B Suppliers:

– Learn about useful products relative to your industry

– Learn how our products can save time and money

– New product announcements

– Industry news and events

– Keep current on upcoming events

From an Apparel Company:

– Exclusive promotions

– Sneak previews to collections

– Fashion advice

From Different Online Sites:

– Do you know the seven ways to tie a scarf?

– Do tomatoes really grow upside down?

– What are the seven most common tax mistakes?

From a Specialty Foods Company:

– Our messages include offers & useful content – all towards feeding your passion

– Tested, proven recipes to add to your collection

– Quick links to new products, ideas and articles

From a Software Company:

– Industry news, updates and regulations

– Case studies and whitepapers

– Product updates and new services value

From a B2C Cataloger:

– Be the first to see new products before they appear in the catalog

– Read the stories behind our products and artisans and to see the economical impact on the regions we buy from

The financial intuitions took a slightly different approach; here are suggestions from three different groups:

– Go Green, Get Green – sign up for our digital programs to get your information faster, save the environment and earn cash incentives.

– Tips and tricks on our Facebook page to stretch your money

– Secure messaging in the privacy of your home

– Personalized to your preferences

Again, feel free to use these for your sign-up process; just consider a couple additional points:

1) Validate the reasons often – clarify and to adapt to changing market requirements

2) Use the points to educate your teams – front-line employees for certain

3) Tailor to you, after all the reasons are as unique to you as your program

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Why Should I Sign Up For Your Digital Engagement Program?

Social media, email, & mobile channels are key drivers of many digital interactive marketing programs. And while every business is looking to grow their digital assets by attracting the right type of consumer (B2B or B2C) into their fold, just having a sign to join isn’t going to be very effective. You need to lure your consumer in.

Consumers can be lured in through intrigue, incentives, necessity, value, or aspiration. What are seven most common tax mistakes? Sign up now and we will send you a $10 coupon! Just give us your contact information and we will let you know whenever the item / service is available. These are examples of some who have enjoyed digital asset acquisition success.

You could quiz your consumer to create intrigue. An opportunity to win or a discount coupon or the opportunity to skip the line could be a good incentive. The consumer needing (necessity) something from you may drive them to sign up. You may offer a better deal (value) to those signed up for your digital alerts. Some have even created ideal states or offered the consumer a calculator or a path towards the ideal state – aspiration is also an interesting way to get people engaged.

So as a first step, think about each of these categories and try to draft conversational scripts to connect with your consumer. Your next step is to state these as succinctly as possible. The best way to do this is to get your team to assist you with this exercise – your team could include your employees, your current customers, & your peers in the industry. Get them to give you their input as it beats you coming up with all the ideas yourself (plus it will be a lot more natural coming from others).

Next think about how each one of these could be used across different channels. Do they make sense on your web site, on the kiosk, at an ATM, on Facebook, for mobile, for email, and your other direct marketing programs. Tweak the words to make sure that you are consistent and clear.

Now make sure that all the sign ups are captured correctly, hopefully in the same preference database. It would be extremely effective if this data is available to all your other channels so they can recognize the consumer and speak to them correctly.

Your final step is to make sure that you communicate in near real time whenever the consumer signs up for any of your programs. You start by acknowledging them, sending them the information they requested, and then trying to continue a conversation.

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Nine Ways to Identify Twidiots and Social Nincompoops (TSN’s)

You see the signs – there are some that excel at social media, there are many that are sincerely trying to learn, and yet there are a number of so called ‘seasoned professionals’ who are on a quest for ‘self socialization.’

So what is ‘self socialization?’ It is combination of self-promotion, self-adulation, and even a lot of self-talk.

Here are some tell tale signs to identify twidiots or social nincompoops –

1 – They get personal for business – The TSN’s mix their personal social messages into what they do at work. A tweet about a press release is quickly followed by a call for a tequila shot. Another tweet about a tradeshow is followed by what the kids are eating for lunch that day.

2 – It’s Yap, Yap, Yap – A closer look at their social activity shows repetitive announcements. They simply keep repeating the great deals, outstanding offers, coupled with links to even more. It is the same thing over and over.

3 – Do they really listen? – Every now and then a consumer may ask a question or make a comment. Rather than engaging in a dialogue, our TSN’s switch to their barrage of ‘yap yap yap’ turning social media into Hyde Park.

4 – Free, Free, Free – While the consumer appreciates getting deals, their interpretation of social media is all about giving things away to gain followers and make friends.

5 – They want your ‘feedback’ – TSN’s ask you for your feedback as they realize the value of user-generated content. What they don’t do is follow up with those who provide the feedback wasting a really effective opportunity to create community.

6 – I’m @ - In an effort to tell the world about their presence TSN’s keep telling their followers about their location. Sadly, these updates are way too frequent. If that is the only form of engagement, do you think the consumer really cares?

7 – Y’all come now – A local bank tweeted about a special event at one of their branches – three really nice tweets. Unfortunately, when you called the bank about the event the branch had no idea about it.

8 – Size matters – TSN’s boast about the size of their following. They also measure success in terms of number of messages or updates put out by them. You cannot measure engagement by the size of your list!

9 – They are incestuous – TSN’s tend to be proud of them following each other. Rather than measuring engagement with their consumers they count all the other TSN’s they follow to showcase the far reaching effects of their social communiqués.

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Cops & Robbers: How We Helped Bust a Cross Channel Heist!

I met Hope on Friday January 7th at 8.30 am in Providence, RI – we were working on a presentation that pulled together converged channel best practices. At 9.37 am, Hope got an email alert on her smart phone, ‘Your order is ready for pickup!’ It was from a large multi-channel retailer. She was surprised, as she wasn’t expecting anything so she turned on her computer to look at the details.

A tablet computer worth $400 was ready for pickup in a store in Dublin, VA (700 miles away). The email provided order details and even listed a ‘Regina H’ as the person who was going to pick up the tablet. This was startling, but Hope stayed calm and we sprung into action. Hope called up her credit card provider and I called up the store.

Poor Hope, even though she is the one without the accent, she struggled with the automated phone system in an attempt to get to the right department. She kept repeating the words ‘Fraud’ & ‘Representative’ while I was put on hold by the store in VA as they were paging the manager on duty.

The store manager was phenomenal, he heard what I said and quickly summoned his electronics person to alert them about the possible fraud. I could hear him ask his sales rep to ‘tactfully delay’ the person coming to pick up the merchandise as much as possible. He then returned to the phone to tell me that he really couldn’t do much without a ‘case number’ from a police report. He gave me a number to call and I proceeded to call the police department while Hope was still trying speak to the right department at the credit card company.

I started my conversation with a very helpful Deputy ‘C’ who asked me to describe the situation, as he proceeded to fill out the police report. I provided Hope’s full name, her address, her phone number, date of birth, height, weight, hair color, and even eye color! I was stumped as to why the person filing the complaint had to provide so much information.

Fortunately, by the time we got to the end of the form, Hope was done speaking to the credit card company who had cancelled her card but told her that they would have to still work on giving her credit for the order as it had already been processed. For her to get the credit, Hope would have to provide the credit card company the case number and attest that she didn’t order or pick up the product.

Hope finally called the big retailers store and provided them with the case number. The store confirmed that they were now empowered to block the transaction and officially call the deputies to apprehend the perpetrator (Regina H). Hope inquired about how she could freeze her ‘dot com’ account with the retailer. The store manager was very courteous and helpful but he insisted that the store had no way to reach their ‘dot com’ department.

So Hope got back on the phone to try and sort out the situation with the ‘dot com’ group. After many futile attempts with their automated voice activated system Hope finally got through to a person in sales who helped her reach customer service. Hope had to explain everything that happened yet again, but was promised prompt follow up.

Still Hoping For Answers

It has been a week and Hope is still waiting to hear back on a number of fronts. Good news first. They arrested the primary perpetrator, apparently the cops had been trying to catch this gang who has used stolen credit cards and hacked accounts to buy and sell expensive electronics. It was our diligence and urgency that helped the police show up in the store on time to catch the gang’s leader.

Hope’s credit card was cancelled, and a new one was issued. The store has even offered her a free cup of coffee. The big retailers store continues to empathize with Hope that their ‘dot com’ group is very hard to reach.

Here’s more bad news. Hope still has no idea as to how her account with the big retailer was hacked into. She is also not sure how her credit card (which wasn’t used in a while) was compromised. She had used the same credit card with the big name retailer before but was promised that her credit card information would not be stored. Hope has also received a call from an investigative agency in Virginia telling her she might be subpoenaed to testify in person. She is unsure about how she is going to go or who is going to pay her expenses. The ‘dot com’ has still to return her call and she is still struggling with many questions and no answers. She is concerned that the crooks know her name, her address, and many other personal details.

The Irony

Hope’s online activity on her credit card companies site and the big retailers site has resulted in her getting a number of targeted banner ads on both sites. These ads continue to add insult to injury as both companies ‘people departments’ have yet to respond. Hope even received an email from the big retailer trying to up-sell her on accessories for the product she did not purchase. The big retailer is already seeking her feedback on the purchase on their Facebook page. She is being asked to write a review. The biggest irony is something I mentioned in the beginning of the article – we were working on some case studies of converged channel best practices!

I Hope She Gets ‘em!

Hope is planning to leverage Facebook to get the attention of both her credit card company and the big retailer. Both run elaborate social media sites that are all about positive buzz and great service. Sadly Hope has been on the other end of this service. She can’t get through to people and continues to struggle with answers. Hopefully, they will listen and respond on the social media site.

Isn't 2011 About Trust and Security?

Yes, 2011 is the year of trust and security. Consumers like Hope prefer the convenience of converged channel shopping and are willing to provide businesses with their personal information. However, there is an expectation that businesses will protect the information and that the channels will come together to serve her with convenience. Businesses need to make sure that their channels are coordinated, that their channels are aware, and that their channels are responsive. Here is the article on what consumers expect from businesses in 2011.

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How to involve your customers in your business...

The best way to enhance your marketing endeavors is to endear yourself to your consumers; do this by connecting and involving them in your communiqués.

Keep asking them for their feedback and at times use a direct approach by requesting their input. You could offer them a discount, loyalty points, or even appeal to their emotions.

A very good approach is to start by thanking people for their input – so a subject line like, ‘A special thank you for all your input in 2010.’ You could then continue by offering the consumer a discount coupon, but to get the coupon, you have to take the survey.

You start by acknowledging that you are working diligently to implement some of the previous suggestions you received and then ask for more input in 2011.

Your questions then should be very simple:

• Would you buy the product / service?

• How many or how much would you buy?

• How long would you be willing to wait (if you had to order it – this helps your merchandising folks)?

• Do you currently buy this product / service from someone else?

• If you did buy the product – how much did you spend, when did you last purchase and how long did you have to wait?

• Give them an opportunity to tell you more – give them a text box and let them respond in that text box. Also, if your customer wants you to contact them or has an issue – don’t miss the opportunity to follow up.

If you start with simple, direct questions to engage your readers – they are very likely to respond. Leverage this feedback to do three things –

first, segment this group into a special ‘responders’ group;

second, try to use their feedback to improve your product or service or offers;

third, go back to this group with personalized offers based on their preferences.

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How to build a loyalty program...

As consumers we can appreciate the extra attention, or shorter lines, or the loyalty points that add up. Businesses too, would really like to keep the consumer from going elsewhere and would like to leverage previous transactions to provide better service.

Maybe your business is ready for a loyalty marketing program – here’s a checklist to start things off, even if you don't have a big budget:

1) Survey – Ask them what is important, what they like and dislike; ask them what you can do to improve things and what will make them come back. Ask them how they would like to be rewarded. Use this online survey to convey the importance of the channel and set the precedent of how you’ll be communicating with them.

2) Reward them with Points – If they complete a transaction, verify information, send feedback or make a purchase, give them some recognition. These points add up and result in a snowball effect, making your customers pay more attention.

3) Send Updates – Include their points balance and remind them of the point hierarchy… you're only X points away from the next level. Keep thanking them for the business – on your website, via email, through your call center or in-store representatives.

4) Help them with Redemption – Whether it’s a percentage off, merchandise or upgrades make the process easy, make the customer feel their points are worth something.

5) Give the Intangibles – Have a special line for loyal/ elite customers, send thank you cards from the owner... mix it up across channels, this shows the customer that they are part of the family.

Loyalty marketing is true one-to-one interaction – you know everything about the customer, which are arguably easier than attracting new prospects through mass media advertising.

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2011 is the year of ???

On January 1, 2011 I posted an article on some must do’s for 2011 – These were the key Must Do’s!

• You must grow your list
• You must know more
• You must interact across all channels
• You must sizzle
• You must make it to the party
• You must join them on Facebook
• You must be Real

You can read the entire article here.

Digital engagement has made some tremendous strides over the past decade. We went from the Wild West, to branding, to personalized service, to a complete focus on the consumer.

The last five years have seen an interesting evolution in email marketing and consumer engagement. Many marketers started firming up their email marketing in 2006 with an emphasis on trying to connect with the consumer through defined best practices.

The year 2007 was the year of being cool – the consumer loved emails that arrived in the in-box, they loved good content, and were more apt to share the emails through F2F. Yes, in addition to trust, gimmicks did work and the cooler your program the more likely you could engage with your recipients.

The year 2008 saw the emergence of converged channel and the consumer ranked multi-channel effectiveness based on good service. 2008 was the year of good service.

2009 saw consumers mature and expect more from businesses. They expected the business to keep things interesting and relevant. The consumer in 2009 expected to be engaged; 2009 was the year of engagement.

2010 saw the consumer in control where the consumer realized that they were in power and could purchase or transact wherever they wanted to. It was up to the business to recognize them, remember their previous transaction, and serve them quickly. 2010 was the year of preferences and businesses that were able to implement preferences effectively took the lead.

2011 is interestingly poised. The consumer will be pursued by many – their needs will be anticipated, businesses will be at their homes via social media, they will be tracked through mobile, and email marketing will continue to be dynamic & personalized.

The consumer will interact by opening up, clicking, conversing on social media, and even transacting. They will share information about themselves directly and indirectly – but what they expect from businesses is for the personal information to be protected.

2011 is anticipated to be the year of TRUST. The consumer will expect more, and the consumer will also expect the business to protect the information. Businesses that can demonstrate trust, and convenience will continue to be successful.

So remember to assure the consumer that their data is safe, make sure that their data is indeed safe, and leverage this data to enhance your relationship.

On Friday, January 16, 2011, I will be publishing an article of how a colleague of mine detected a fraudulent purchase in real time; contacted the credit card company, store, and cops to cancel the order; but was yet left bewildered by the amount of steps it took for the store to even realize that they had compromised her data.

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The Web's Seven Key Channels for 2011

As we bring on 2011, we are going to see continued innovation and expansion on the web but with all that is emerging it is prudent to focus in on the following:

First and foremost it is going to be your website as this stands for you and is the key medium that helps you communicate with your consumer base. This is your gateway to the consumer and should have all the correct information, it should offer a conduit to everything else that you offer, and it should be updated (and checked) often.

Second, you need to think about ‘hanging out’ with your consumers. To do this you need to create community pages or environments where your users can join discussions, ask questions, and help you build up your user-generated content. The important thing here is to keep this as a user / customer only group.

Third, you need to have as social media engagement strategy to allow you to attract new consumers, turn your existing consumers into brand advocates, and continue to drive dialogue with your followers (and those you follow) across channel. This is externally focused.

Fourth, you need to focus on Google. They are the leading search engine and an extremely dominant one. The world of Google offers a lot of functionality that allows people to find what they need. You need to understand the offering, be present on the key sub-channels, and learn to engage your consumer. Don’t forget the other search engines, just put a little more emphasis on Google.

Fifth, mobile web will be big with the increase in smart phones and the urgent need of consumers to interact in real time. Also, the mobile consumer is quicker to engage on social media channels.

Sixth, treat Facebook as a channel – you need to think of this as a store or branch front and learn to drive engagement with your consumers on Facebook. It is a destination channel and needs its own emphasis.

Seventh, you will see a big push towards coordinated messaging – the consumer will expect you to remember what they do on your channels / watch and use that information to carry on a conversation that makes sense.

One key thing to remember is to capture consumer preferences in each of these channels and leverage these preferences as you continue your conversation with your consumer.

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Does your consumer get their email on their mobile device?

Do you know how many of your recipients are viewing emails on a mobile device?

Is that message for mobile or email?

This number continues to increase, and your ability to engage the consumer on the mobile device is going to determine their continued (or lack of) interest in your solicitation.

If your message is mobile friendly, it will intrigue the consumer enough to either respond via the mobile device or go back to the message in their in-box.

Here are a few things that you should definitely be doing:

1 – Track the recipients that are opening your messages on mobile devices. You should take the time to segment them into a special group.

2 – Track the mobile browsers to see if it is worth creating special content for those particular browsers. Less is better on mobile with a clear call to action.

3 – Survey recipients to determine their message type preferences (HTML or text/ mobile friendly)

4 - Use multi-part (HTML and text) as your lowest common denominator, this could cover you until you are able to survey recipients

5 - Consider restating your main offer or subject line as the first line of the email’s body (before the “If you can’t see this click here.”) By doing this, your recipients will get the gist of your message without needing to see the associated image.

6 – Think hard about your subject lines. If you can get to the point quickly, you can do a better job engaging your consumer.

7 – Try to engage your consumer on social media. Consumers are more likely to engage on social media via their smart phones and don’t mind visiting your social site.

Ask them for their mobile number to build up your preference database. If you do not already have a mobile marketing program, you need to consider putting it in place and keeping it integrated with your email program.

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When a free lunch can be a bad idea!

A retailer ran into a snafu with the law due to a group of overzealous employees. Assigned the task of growing their email lists, the employees of a few stores decided to approach local restaurants and offer the manager one of their gift certificates in exchange for the email addresses in their “Win a Free Lunch” fishbowl.

The managers were thrilled and happy to share the list. There was a nice boost in terms of emails collected but the recipients never asked for the solicitation, so there were a lot of complaints, un-subscribes and it took quite a bit of good will to remedy the situation once everything was sorted out.

Perhaps a better approach would have been to approach the restaurant with a co-branded fishbowl. The concept is the same, but the offer includes the opportunity to win lunch from the restaurant and a gift card from your business.

Put together the associated collateral; subscribe page, Facebook page, and a co-branded welcome message to reinforce the benefits of the program. Also, both parties should do their best to promote the free giveaway.

Three recommendations here – first, make sure that all your ‘touch-points’ are adequately trained; second, when you do notify the winner, do so digitally; third, stay CAN-SPAM (and good etiquette) compliant!

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Engage, Optimize, & Serve to Drive Profitable Transactions

The consumer has multiple channels to interact with you - your physical location, self service device (ATM or Kiosk), email, call center, printed catalogs or statements, mobile devices and all things internet.

Each of these channels offer multiple opportunities for the consumer to touch you, but as a company it’s not as easy to connect with them – you need their information, their habits and preferences to quickly leverage into a targeted message.

This empowerment shift means that a simple message isn’t going to cut it any more, to compete, Marketers need to concentrate on three areas:

1) Consumer Engagement – Social networks, mobile technology (and the emerging confluence of these channels) is putting the consumer in charge. Customers now have the ability to quickly find offers, eliminate vendors and learn more than some of your reps before even venturing out of their homes. Creating/ sponsoring social media outlets is a great way to accept User Generated Content and invite consumers to your site… not doing this may result in it being created for you.

2) Cross-Channel Offer Optimization – The consumer is expecting to be recognized, not only for who they are but as an interested party who wants you to guide them through their interactions. Engage them in a dialogue so they can continue to collect their preferences; optimize the time and offer by creating a conversation – don’t throw everything over to them, send three to five distinct offer components to test responses and facilitate conversation.

3) Educate All Your Touch-Points – Your people, and even your touch-points are often THE impression for your company; keeping your team informed is the best chance you have to be prepared for the inquiries from customers/ prospects. Send your team the offers, emails and associated details to make sure your employee is the expert in the conversation. You have to enable your touch-points to recognize the consumer.

The key here is to drive revenue through engagement. Think about three things - first, engage the consumer via social channels; second, know their preferences to create ideal offers; third, train your channels to recognize the consumer and serve them effectively.

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