Six Serving Men Blog

At the recent DMA North email masterclass series I was asked to discuss retention email activity and speculate upon the key drivers that enable success. 

The presentation title : Card playing monkeys tried to summarise the common trap email marketers should avoid ; Making their email subscribers do all the thinking and take on the responsibility for navigating the emails sent  and establishing the relevance of the communications.    

The famous New Yorker cartoon from 1993 highlights the great anonymity of the web

 

But given the lack of relevant personalisation the question has to asked  whether email marketers

• Care that you are a dog ?

• Take the time to establish you are a dog (if infact you are) or determine what type ?

• Treat you like a dog if you are one ? 

So why Card playing Monkeys ?

Success in emails relies upon providing recipients with information to enable them to make a series of choices i.e. notice, open, read, click .... in the same way that you do in a game of 21 or pontoon - stick, twist or bust.  

In 1974 The Harvard Business Review published a paper from Onken & Wass that provided insight into time management and in particular not taking on other peoples problems (Monkeys). Follow here for more info!  



However given the range and depth of data available (particularly for customers rather than just email subscribers) how often do email marketers ignore the data that have and provide one size fits all emails, or use static info e.g. name to "personalise" a generic message.  
 

They effectively pass the monkey to their busy consumers, who have no time or inclination to feed the monkey for them. 
  
Companies that don't fall to this trap measure and monitor not only campaign response but also the value the database holds and develop a segmentation strategy based upon enhancing this equity. 

Technology has enabled all companies to develop email programs but tbe succesful requires time and effort to be invested into the activity. After all if you pay peanuts - you get monkeys!!!

I read a great blog post on the Econsultancy website talking about "What is the secret to a successful website?"
It highlighted the benefit for any site of having a Vision of the objectives and a Roadmap of/for development.

Makes a lot of sense but in practice a large number of websites appear to be "Orphans" i.e. set up and ignored rather than managed and refined based upon a set of "SMART" (Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic & Time Bound) Objectives.

Free web analytics packages such as Google's and Yahoo Analytics have enabled the reporting and distibution of a multitude of management reports enabling reporting on range of metrics. However it appears that many of these reports are produced but then are never read or actioned upon. One of the main reasons behind this is that many companies start the journey from the wrong point and do not appreciate the journey is an ongoing activity that requires effort and time.
 
Listed below are three steps that will hopefully stop you falling into this trap?

1. Start and keep the end objective in mind. 
There is a start, middle and end to any web visit - Visitors find you, they interact and then they leave. Unless the site is driving revenue from advertising  the success of the visit from the website owners view and the effectiveness of the site  will be based upon the goals set e.g. purchase made, contact information provided etc. 


Whilst not unimportant measures regarding traffic source & content will show the efficiency of the site in helping anonymous visitors navigate and omplete the website goals. Don't be embarrassed to write down what the website owners' objectives are! This will then enable you to determine functionality that will support your visitors to complete that task. For example I still see examples where the objecti is to provide visitors with a means of contacting a company but have home pages with no phone or email address!

2. It requires some work when it comes out the box !
Installing the code on the web is a simple job and (with some technical knowledge / help) you can be up and running quickly. However if all you do is install the initial one size fits all capability you will get lots data but limited insight !

Out of the box the dashbord will look good but can only provide "efficiency" information i.e. where people come from, how long they spend etc but not do they do what you would like them to.

To make the tools effective requires goals to be set or events to be coded. Without this its a bit like watching a football match but only knowing the statistics of which team has had more possession or the most corners.

3. Make it a habit !
Once the analytics package is installed data will be collected. However the data must be translated into actionable information. As with any habit people/companies will go through the 4 stages of becoming proficient in the same way as learning to drive a car (say) i.e. from 1st driving lesson in box 1, to aware but unable without support during driving lessons, through early post test driving to "just driving" in the 4th box  


To introduce & embed this culture of Do, Review, Refine with regard to making any website smarter requires management to move forwards through the stages   

So where are you on the journey ?
This is possibly best assessed by asking the following questions
1. Do you have analytics tracking on your websites - No ? Stage 1
2. Do you have tracking but don't see/read the information - Yes ? Stage 2
3. Do you look at and make enhancements based upon the information occasionally - Yes ? Stage 2-3
4. Do you have a regular formal website review process based upon the information produced that drives action i.e. changes to the website navigation, content etc - Yes ? Stage 3 - 4

Once you have done that ask the question where are your competitors ?

Having recently read the Forrester Wave Cross Channel Report I was reminded of a list of eight truths (Gartner) that marketers and service suppliers could benefit from acknowledging.
 

The Forrester report by Suresh Vittal @sureshvittal does provide a good overview of the state of the market with regard to service providers. In particular the "plumbing diagram" provides a good canvas for marketers to overlay their current capabilities and help identify weaknesses in their ability to provide a seamless customer service to their customers and prospects 
  


However the truths of technology related marketing are that you will never

1. Have perfect customer data
2. Analyse all your customer data 
3. Control every customer interaction.
4. Be content with your in-house marketing expertise
5. Be content with your in house IT expertise
6. Achieve the vision of one to one marketing
7. Have a centralised Marketing dashboard
8. Be immune from legislation.

This should not stop companies striving to improve how they do things and particularly with constantly evolving technology requires the discipline to reguarly evaluate what they do and why. The Econsultancy 2010 customer enagement report highlighted that 64% (249 responders) didn't even know how many touchpoints they have with their customers!

Rather than act as deterent to action the 8 truths should help determine the ongoing decision process upon how to best allocate resources to what is important - how to achive your bsuiness objectives. Otherwise (To paraphase) "If you don't know where you are now or where you are going any road will take you there".

In the late 1980's Jan Carlzon published "Moments of Truth" one of the defining management books of the late 20th century. It details the transformation his pholosophy to customer service made to the profitability of the Swedish Airline SAS.   

In it he highlighted the importance of "Moments of truth" - The times when their customer came into contact with SAS employeees. "SAS is not a collection of material assets but the quality of contact between an individual customer and the SAS employees who serve the customer directly"

On the assumption that each their 10 million customer came into contact with five SAS employees fr aproximatly 15 seconds at a time it created 50 million "Moments of Truth" The moments when SAS had to prove to their customewrs taht SAS are the best alternative.

In the book there is no mention of the internet, websites, social media, iphones etc. but as we move towards 2010 the principles discussed have even greater resonance or should have !

Continuing the Airline Analogy further, two recent examples of how companies have not covered themselves in glory are highlighted by United & American Airlines.

Frustrated with the (lack of) client service following the mishandling of one of their guitar's at Chicago airport between flights the band "Sons of Maxwell" promised the last person to finally say no to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that they would write and produce a series of songs about the experience with United Airlines and make videos to be viewed online by anyone in the world.


6 million views later this mishandled moment of truth has come back to and continues to haunt United. 

Big business and Social Media rubbing up against each other are highlighted further by American Airlines who recently fired a blogger who responded to a comment relating to the poor usabilty of the AA website. "A Clueless company flailing" headlines resulted and exposed weaknesses in the silos in the company

As the communication channels open to and preferred by customers grows the number and importance of moments of truth grows - if not handled properly it's no longer just one customer lost.        

In the last month two significant Digital birthdays have occured with The internet itself and Google reaching 40 and 10 years old respectively.



Google celebrated (and marketed themselves) with an excellent collage of their fantastic growth over the last decade 

 

So as Google enters those traumatic teenage years it will be interesting to see how they develop - what's next and if the internet copes with any mid Life crisis!

2010 will no doubt see a continued growth in advertising expenditure targeted at the Internet as companies continue to invest in Digital channels   
  
Source - Ofcom's Sixth annual Communications Market report   

A recent e-consultancy report into website conversion rates highlights the potential missed opportunities that companies are ignoring by using their web capability solely as a static brochure. This is particularly relevant given the survey participants are drawn from a more digitally aware population. 


Moving forward the clear commercial advantage for companies who start treating their website and associated digital assets as a Sales person rather than as a Receptionist!  But this means applying the same disciplines.

Social Media continues to challenge Financial Analysts and Business Owners alike. As the use of social media develops and evolves there is much debate to understand the time, effort and money they should invest and the business results they should expect.   

Stephen Baker in his Business Week article - Is Twitter worth $1 Billion highlights the conundrum of placing a financial valuation on the business whilst the commercial model continues to remain unclear.

Meanwhile business owners and managers are trying to establish how to capitalise upon the increasing range of technologies.

However in the rush to "join in" it appears that many businesses are falling into the trap of Ready Fire Aim. 
Working on the basis that "Strategy without action is futile, and action without strategy is fatal", the key question that need addressing are 

• What do you want to achieve, before determining the tools to implement it.
• How do you measure, monitor and manage your activity ongoing.  

A precursor to strategic objectives is understanding your market and social media can povide an insight into a subset of your existing & propective customers. But how important is that subset ?   

An interesting tool is the  Forrester's Social Technographics® that classifies consumers into six overlapping levels of participation in Social Media - Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives - Further info click here
 
It provides a simple high level snapshot that won't povide all the answers, but will help identify some of the questions to address 



Let us know what you think or to contact us to discuss how your business should / could benefit from Social

The increasing awareness of tools such as Google analytics and website optimiser have made people focus upon the importance doing something they have done subconciously for years – Experiential learning.

From an early age we have all learned from our experiences i.e. doing something expecting a certain outcome, reviewing what actually happened and then refining our thinking and ideas. This Do-Review-Refine (or Kolb’s learning cycle) process is in built.

However how many companies actually embed or institutionalise this process in their ongoing business development activities. The web has thrown up lots of information but to (mis)quote Albert Einstein ”not everything that can be counted counts”. 

The British Army’s Special Air Service (SAS) have an approach that

1. You should always learn from your mistakes
2. It’s quicker, cheaper and easier to learn from other peoples

Even organisations such as the British Standards Institute in PAS 124 recognise the need that your digital presence should be in a continuous state of beta – But in order to profit from this companies need to be aware of what they are trying to achieve, what they are achieving and then reacting to benefit from their learnings.

Without putting in the regular disciplines of validating experience against expectations many companies are not benefiting from Learning from their mistakes – The definition of madness is doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result!

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As the economic downturn continues, 2009 will lead to a more companies focussing on how they recruit and retain their customers. 

The 2008 Christmas retail figures highlight the increased dependence consumers place upon the internet and it’s importance in any companies marketing communication mix. Whilst the internet and the digital space have provided companies with a wealth of data and enhanced capability to communicate directly with their prospective market has this capability been reflected in the experience of consumers ?

For example email marketing has evolved over the past few years and whilst companies have adopted it have they really embraced and using it effectively

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) National Benchmarking report 2007 proposed the value of £9.11 for each (permission) email address – http://econsultancy.com/blog/2148-9-11-the-value-of-an-email-address 

In 2008 monitoring the promotional emails from 24 UK businesses across a range of companies recieved in 2008 has highlighted a range of email practice. Some companies adopting an ad-hoc send now and then whatever the outcome, with others believing the shout load and often to ensure submission approach 

Despite not opening 105 emails from them over 2008 one company is optimistic if they believe the 106th is going to be the clincher ! Is this a case of “never mind the quality Feel the width” and begs the question has relevance actually evolved beyond just a buzz phrase.

At number 5 in recent Revolution article http://www.brandrepublic.com/Revolution/News/872526/12-things-need-know-2009/ the value of £20 per email was put forward – 2009 being the year of Retention!

On the basis of an email list of 25,000, are organisations really managing this £1/2 million Asset effectively ?

Without recognising, valueing and treating their data as an asset rather than a list companies will continue to spray and pray. The companies who Recognise, Understand and most importantly develop their email equity are the ones who will suceed in the Customer Crunch.

Sometimes holding a mirror up to your organsation helps to identify where you are on the spectrum and most importantly what you can do about it. http://www.6sm.co.uk/why_companies_use_us